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Chuckjav
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Username: Chuckjav

Post Number: 496
Registered: 09-2007
Posted on Wednesday, April 09, 2008 - 8:39 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Gaz & Ray....Madame Robinove penned a wonderfully well written article for the May, 1958 edition of The French Review; it is available through the following website:
http://www.jstor.org/pss/38378 1
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Birwood
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Post Number: 83
Registered: 10-2007
Posted on Wednesday, April 09, 2008 - 11:23 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Chuckjav...I read the article on Mrs Robinove.

I struggled thru French I & II with her at MHS, 1965-66, I believe Sussex 9936 was in my class too

She was very patient with some of us who couldn't quite grasp the program, but we managed to learn.

She gave meaning to the term "Professional Educator", just a super lady.
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Chuckjav
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Username: Chuckjav

Post Number: 497
Registered: 09-2007
Posted on Wednesday, April 09, 2008 - 12:56 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

1966 was the end of a grand era at Mackenzie; Eiges, Casemore, Catherman, Robinove and Simpson bid farewell that year.

Difficult to imagine but, when I was a sophomore at MHS in 1973, Mr. Carletti was still on the scene; "A-Rex" first came to Mackenzie during the early 1930s.

Incredible!
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Ray1936
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Username: Ray1936

Post Number: 2975
Registered: 01-2005
Posted on Wednesday, April 09, 2008 - 1:07 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

As I said in the other thread, I struggled through two years of Latin instead with Rebecca Shembeck (a very nice spinster schoolmarm) and one year with Helen Kane, former nun. We called it Sister Kane's Bible Hour. Since I was considering a law career, it seemed like Latin would be helpful. Well, I guess it was, because I grasp Latin word origins yet today, and I can still recite the first paragraph of Caesar's Commentaries on the Gallic Wars in Latin.

But I now feel I missed a great opportunity to have been taught by a wonderful educator by not taking French instead.

The names you bring up have all gone on to their reward. I look 'em up on the Social Security Death Index. Only when they have a very common name are there too many to figure out which is which.

The old fart (like me) who can look back on his High School days with warmth is lucky, indeed.
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Chuckjav
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Username: Chuckjav

Post Number: 498
Registered: 09-2007
Posted on Wednesday, April 09, 2008 - 1:24 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Ray1936....Agree with you 100%; we went to the World's Best High School - something magical about Mackenzie.
(Cooley runs a very close second)
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Gazhekwe
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Username: Gazhekwe

Post Number: 1882
Registered: 08-2007
Posted on Wednesday, April 09, 2008 - 1:50 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Fascinating! I couldn't pull up the entire article, still thinking about signing up with Jstor. A lot of my searches dead end there.

I got curious about Haven Hill Lodge. It was Edsel Ford's log retreat, now Highland Rec Area. The lodge burned to the ground it 1999. By then it was apparently in ruins. It was used as a conference center from 1949 to 1972, and as a Natural Resource Learning Center from 1972 to 1980.

http://www.waymarking.com/waym arks/WM2FNE

http://tinyurl.com/5yooaw
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Ray1936
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Username: Ray1936

Post Number: 2979
Registered: 01-2005
Posted on Wednesday, April 09, 2008 - 4:51 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I didn't know any of that about the Edsel Ford family, Gaz...amazing. My old bass fishing hangout was Pettibone Lake, just southwest of there, and I thought I knew everything about the Highland Township area. Obviously, I didn't.
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9936sussex
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Username: 9936sussex

Post Number: 98
Registered: 10-2007
Posted on Wednesday, April 09, 2008 - 8:14 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Yuppers, Mme. Robinove was probably the best instructor I had a Mack. Learned a lot of French that year (and have forgotten most of it). But, for a while, I could really conjugate a verb!
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Chuckrobin
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Username: Chuckrobin

Post Number: 1
Registered: 04-2008
Posted on Saturday, April 19, 2008 - 5:18 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Hello, everyone. I happened on this site by chance and I'm certainly glad I did. I am Charles Robinove, the son (and only child) of Madame Robinove of Mackenzie High School. She passed away in 1985 in Fairfax, Virginia, where she lived with me and my wife for her last year.I now live in Colorado. I sincerely appreciate the glowing remarks that are being made about her teaching.I would also appreciate and love to have any anecdotes about her teaching or interaction with students. Please post them on this forum or email them to me at robinove1@mindspring.com
Merci a tous et bonne chance!
Chuck Robinove
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Gazhekwe
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Username: Gazhekwe

Post Number: 1964
Registered: 08-2007
Posted on Saturday, April 19, 2008 - 6:16 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Hello, Chuck! I thought your mother was a great teacher. She was really challenging for me, a fourth year student coming in from a different school system. I remember all thirty of us were reading sentences out loud together and I mispronounced Monsieur. I knew better but somehow I just read the whole word out, Mon-si-eur. Yep, she heard me! She said, "Someone said Mon-si-eur, that is not right. It is m'sieur, try it again." Well, I got it right that time. (Blushing all these years later.) I bet you didn't get away with much!

I last saw Mme Robinove at a performance of Roman de Fauvel at the DIA. We both really enjoyed the play, about a donkey that has all these adventures. There was a wooden angel that came down from the rafters and on the way back up, BANG, bumped its head. I was with another former student and we both really loved seeing Mme. that evening.
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Ray1936
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Username: Ray1936

Post Number: 3039
Registered: 01-2005
Posted on Saturday, April 19, 2008 - 7:40 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Chuck, your mom is also discussed briefly and favorably under the topic "Rock and Roll High School" in this forum. Check it out.

Unfortunately, I did not take French or have her for a teacher. I suspect I missed something.

Maybe you could share some stories with us, also. Did she teach you French? I suspect you were raised bi-lingually. Did she make many trips to France? How did she like being assigned to Mackenzie HS?

(Message edited by ray1936 on April 19, 2008)
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Chuckjav
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Username: Chuckjav

Post Number: 510
Registered: 09-2007
Posted on Sunday, April 20, 2008 - 7:43 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Chuck, good to meet you; looking forward to reading more of your memories.
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9936sussex
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Username: 9936sussex

Post Number: 110
Registered: 10-2007
Posted on Monday, April 21, 2008 - 4:05 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Chuckrobin: Your mother was a wonderful teacher, a bit intimdating, but terrific. We used to sing "Le Marseille" (sp?) every morning. The year that I had her we were learning how to conjugate verbs in several different tenses, we made these booklets with 20-30 of the most common verbs with all their forms of conjugation. It was a really helpful tool, and I still have it! My daughter used it when she had French in high school!
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9936sussex
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Username: 9936sussex

Post Number: 111
Registered: 10-2007
Posted on Monday, April 21, 2008 - 4:16 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Chuckrobin: I remember that we also read "Cosette et Marius" from "Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. We did a lot of reading, reciting and memorizing from that book. At some point during the year we had to give a 5-10 minute speech (memorized) about Cosette et Marius. I worked really hard in that class, but I know that I EARNED that A!
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Gazhekwe
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Username: Gazhekwe

Post Number: 1966
Registered: 08-2007
Posted on Monday, April 21, 2008 - 4:41 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Oh, YES! Our book was Colomba, about a vendetta to avenge the murder of Colomba's father. Her elder brother, who has been abroad, comes home denouncing the practice of vendetta. He falls for Lydia, whom he met on shipboard, and invites her and her father to visit. Colomba is furious! ... The wrap-up: Orso does his duty, Colomba is shot but reconciles with Orso as she dies, the fair lady Lydia renegs on her threat to leave, and Orso is set on eradicating the custom of the vendetta. I cannot remember what the heck I said about the book but it had to be at least five minutes from memory.
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Chuckrobin
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Username: Chuckrobin

Post Number: 2
Registered: 04-2008
Posted on Tuesday, April 22, 2008 - 1:11 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Thanks for the comments. It is so good to hear from my mother's faithful students.
Chuck Robinove (Cooley, 1949; Wayne Univ, 1953
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Birdie
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Username: Birdie

Post Number: 17
Registered: 04-2007
Posted on Wednesday, April 23, 2008 - 11:12 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

did madame robinove teach anywhere else? my grandmother has always spoken of her beloved french teacher of the same name. she went to northwestern and then took some night classes at wsu. if it is the same teacher, her classes were the highlight of my grandmother's education.
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Microfish7
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Username: Microfish7

Post Number: 2
Registered: 05-2008
Posted on Monday, May 26, 2008 - 12:22 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

LuLu Casemore - I had her as my Biology teacher, as did my mother :-)

Al
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Microfish7
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Username: Microfish7

Post Number: 3
Registered: 05-2008
Posted on Monday, May 26, 2008 - 11:44 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Does anyone remember (this would be 1962) an Irish exchange teacher who taught Latin? She would get mad at us and say: "Oh well, what can you expect from a factory town?" I think I had Madame Robinove for one day, before I switched from French to Latin - she would shake her head whenever she saw me in the hallway :-)

Al (now in Iowa)

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