Robert Levin – 50th Reunion Essay
Robert Levin
590 Melody Lane
Robert Levin
590 Melody Lane
Highland Park, IL 60035
rob.levin@live.com
Spouse(s): Karen Levin, 41 years
Child(ren): Amelia, 10/6/79, and Andrew, 10/11/81
Grandchild(ren): Jonah, 1/19/14, Liliana (Lily), 1/27/17, Ava, 8/20/18
Education: Yale, BA ’69; Harvard, MA ’72; University of Chicago PhD
Career: Educator for special needs students
College: Calhoun (Hopper)
Recently, a former colleague of mine smugly asked me what I do with myself now that I’ve retired. After regaining my composure, I realized that a better question was what I don’t do. I don’t golf, garden, paint or build furniture. I haven’t started writing a novel yet, nor do I blog, tweet or have a Facebook page. I do spend a lot of time with Karen, my best friend, a prominent cookbook author and my beautiful wife of 41 years. I still work with special kids and young adults. But my primary role in life is to babysit our three fabulous grandkids, Jonah (5), Lily (2) and Ava (9 mos.). We have a blast together.
I spent 40-plus years working with special needs children all over the country from Chapel Hill to inner-city Boston to Beverly Hills to the South Side of Chicago with the last 24 years in Winnetka at New Trier. I also coached football, which was a very welcomed diversion. Sometimes, when you tell a special education kid to jump, he’ll either argue with you or walk away. When you tell a football player to jump, he’ll merely ask, “how high?”
Teaching and learning are lifelong commitments. Yale provided me with the foundation to do both. The instruction and mentoring of Lawrence Kohlberg and Carol Gilligan while at Harvard, the readings of Erikson and Anna Freud as well as the hands-on experience and supervision of Bettelheim at the University of Chicago helped me understand the psychosocial and moral development of children. Like parenting, working with kids is all consuming. To this day, I never stop worrying about our own kids, Amelia and Andrew (Michigan ’01 and ’03—Go Blue!), both highly successful with blossoming families of their own. I continue to reach out for support from my Yale lifeline which includes Korshak, Amoss, JP, David Rosen, Michael Schonbrun, Fred Southwick (’68) and Scott Williams. Perhaps Yale’s greatest gift is the opportunity for enduring friendships. Thanks.
Robert and Karen Levin
If the above is blank, no 50th reunion essay was submitted.
Highland Park, IL 60035
rob.levin@live.com
Spouse(s): Karen Levin, 41 years
Child(ren): Amelia, 10/6/79, and Andrew, 10/11/81
Grandchild(ren): Jonah, 1/19/14, Liliana (Lily), 1/27/17, Ava, 8/20/18
Education: Yale, BA ’69; Harvard, MA ’72; University of Chicago PhD
Career: Educator for special needs students
College: Calhoun (Hopper)
Recently, a former colleague of mine smugly asked me what I do with myself now that I’ve retired. After regaining my composure, I realized that a better question was what I don’t do. I don’t golf, garden, paint or build furniture. I haven’t started writing a novel yet, nor do I blog, tweet or have a Facebook page. I do spend a lot of time with Karen, my best friend, a prominent cookbook author and my beautiful wife of 41 years. I still work with special kids and young adults. But my primary role in life is to babysit our three fabulous grandkids, Jonah (5), Lily (2) and Ava is (9 mos.). We have a blast together.
I spent 40-plus years working with special needs children all over the country from Chapel Hill to inner-city Boston to Beverly Hills to the South Side of Chicago with the last 24 years in Winnetka at New Trier. I also coached football, which was a very welcomed diversion. Sometimes, when you tell a special education kid to jump, he’ll either argue with you or walk away. When you tell a football player to jump, he’ll merely ask, “how high?”
Teaching and learning are lifelong commitments. Yale provided me with the foundation to do both. The instruction and mentoring of Lawrence Kohlberg and Carol Gilligan while at Harvard, the readings of Erikson and Anna Freud as well as the hands-on experience and supervision of Bettelheim at the University of Chicago helped me understand the psychosocial and moral development of children. Like parenting, working with kids is all consuming. To this day, I never stop worrying about our own kids, Amelia and Andrew (Michigan ’01 and ’03—Go Blue!), both highly successful with blossoming families of their own. I continue to reach out for support from my Yale lifeline which includes Korshak, Amoss, JP, David Rosen, Michael Schonbrun, Fred Southwick (’68) and Scott Williams. Perhaps Yale’s greatest gift is the opportunity for enduring friendships. Thanks.
Robert and Karen Levin
If the above is blank, no 50th reunion essay was submitted.