Jacquelyn Seevak Sanders, 58, is director of the Sonia Shankman Orthogenic School, renowned for its treatment of emotionally disturbed children, at the University of Chicago. Born and reared in Boston, she received a bachelor`s degree from Radcliffe, a master`s from the University of Chicago and a doctorate from UCLA. She took over as director of the Orthogenic School when Dr. Bruno Bettelheim retired from that position in 1972. Sanders` new book, ”A Greenhouse for the Mind” (University of Chicago Press, $19.95), describes how the teachers and counselors at the residential school create an environment that enables and encourages children to learn. In a recent conversation with freelance writer Norma Libman, Sanders talked about the events in her life that altered her direction.
A great curiosity, it seems to me, is that when I look back over my life and see what I`ve done and where I`ve come to, it looks almost as though I had a direct course set out. And that`s not the case at all. Never, until I was doing it, did I have an idea of being what I`ve become. I guess that in a way one of the things the women`s movement has done for me is to help me become, instead of the person who`s written about, the person who writes the book.
I have a degree in social relations, but originally I was going to major in math, because I was very good in it. We were poor, so in order to go to college I had to generate the funds for it. So I had to get a scholarship. Since I was so good in math, I felt I had to keep majoring in it in order to keep the scholarship.
At the end of my freshman year in college, I had one of those experiences that change the course of one`s life. A friend and I took a trip to New York City, which included taking psychological testing to see what careers we were suited for. The result of the test, for me, was that while I was indeed good in math, I could also do well in anything else. So I decided that math was too isolating for me and that I`d major in social relations. I`d been wanting to make this switch for a while but I needed to have that kind of security. I think that had I remained in math I would have had an entirely different kind of life.
I graduated from college in 1952 and in those days what you were supposed to do, if you were being very avant-garde, was work for a year or two and then get married. That was the mode. And, really, what was a woman prepared for with a bachelor`s degree? That and a nickel would get you a cup of coffee then.
I decided to get a job as an airline stewardess. What I really wanted was to be a model, but that didn`t fit with my value system. So the next most glamorous job I could think of was an airline stewardess. Remember, this was 1952 and everybody wasn`t flying yet. My brother-in-law kept saying, ”Just don`t take a route over the Rockies.” So in the end I got cold feet. And, in fact, when I came to Chicago to continue my education, I came by train.
About this time I saw that there were research assistantships available at the Laboratory School, the Orthogenic School and the Nursery School at the University of Chicago. I applied to all three and Bruno Bettelheim always answered his mail immediately, so I received a letter from him telling me to read his book (”Love is Not Enough”) and see if this is the way I would like to spend the next few years of my life.
I read his book and I thought, wouldn`t it be terrific to do all these wonderful things with children and be famous in a book. So I applied and ended up coming straight to school here when I graduated college.
I was entranced by the Orthogenic School. I stayed for 13 years and all during that time I was learning everything that Bettleheim did, and gradually taking over. If I could have formalized what was happening, I would have said I was in a management training program. I never thought of it that way. I just thought he was marvelous and I adored him and I watched what he did. I ran the kitchen; I ran the office; I did all those things while always working with the kids.
But I still had this idea in my head of working for a couple of years until I got married. During that 13-year period I got my master`s degree; I had a long engagement that didn`t work out; I started working on my doctorate. And people would say, ”What`s going to happen when Bruno retires?”
He was such a dynamic, charismatic, controversial figure that I never thought of myself as taking his place. I never thought of it because I still had this image of myself as a woman, as his assistant. I did everything that he did. I understood his philosophy. But I never envisioned myself doing his job. He and I would discuss who could take over. Neither one of us ever thought of me, at that time, because I was supposed to be getting married some time and going off, and I would stop working.
I did get married in 1965, and I left. The plan finally happened. My husband lived in California, so I went to California and during that time my focus changed to normal kids. I was working on my doctorate at UCLA. My topic was beginning reading and I wanted to apply what I knew from my work to normal situations. I taught at a junior college for training nursery school teachers. Then, in 1972, everything seemed to come together. Bruno retired and the person who was to take over wasn`t working out and they really didn`t know quite what to do. So they needed someone and Bruno called me and asked me to come back. I knew that my marriage was just not working. And I knew that I could get my doctorate finished by June. It was just timing. My son was 3 1/2 when we moved here, and though it was a terrible disruption for him, it also offered me security for him, too. And the university was really quite relieved.
Stepping into this job was no problem for me. I didn`t think anything of it. I knew that I could run the school. After all, I had done it. When people made comments to me about ”filling his shoes,” it didn`t mean much to me because I had worked with Bettelheim for 13 years. I didn`t have the problem of people saying, ”Bruno did it that way,” because I knew better than anybody else how Bruno had done it.
I never questioned the value of my life or my efforts at the Orthogenic School. Because there you could make life a little better for somebody and that always made it worth it. But as I got older and didn`t have as much energy I got an associate to help me run the school. And I have gradually taken some steps back, which I think is appropriate for my energy level. That allowed me to make some changes in the school.
A consultant I hired said to me that I should exercise my own creativity. But I kept saying, who needs that?
But having someone else recognize that I had ideas of my own helped me to believe this was true. They`re valid ideas, not better or worse or anything, but the ideas of an independent person. So I`m not just keeping somebody else`s place here.
This feeling of wanting to make use of my own ideas came when I was about 50 years old. I think it was another important turning point in my life. I went into analysis at this tender age, which is not usual. It helped me to have a different image of myself, a more realistic acceptance of what I was doing.
It helped me to be able to step back and let my associate take over some of the work. I used to work loads and loads of hours. I would put my son to bed and then I would go back to the school and work until 2 in the morning. Then I`d get up in the morning, send him off to school and go back to work. It would be crazy for me to do that now, but all the time I was doing it I loved it.
I was able to take time out to learn to play tennis. And I took a sabbatical to write the book. At the school I now do executive director kinds of things. Now I have to raise money, which includes negotiating with the state. The state does pay for a lot, but everybody knows there`s not enough money in public funds even to cover the basic needs of regular schools. While we try to get our share of the public funds, they do not pay for this kind of thing. We have substantial private support, but we really need a lot more.
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One of the reasons I wanted to write the book was to clarify the whole issue of discipline because the Orthogenic School is tremendously
misunderstood as far as discipline is concerned. That`s partly because Bruno didn`t write about it. I also want to increase our research component and review the whole issue of autism, an area about which Bruno was really controversial. The book (also) is for people who work with children, particularly difficult children, but I think it also has general appeal.
I would imagine that there are natural stages in a person`s life and that society provides for the transitions. Had I pursued a regular course, I would have been going into grandmotherhood at the age of 50. I believe that if these transitions aren`t provided for by one`s ordinary life circumstances, it probably is a good idea to step back and examine it on your own. Because there certainly are different activities that are appropriate at different ages.
I still think that a person should go with what interests her. And I think it`s a good idea to get the training that goes with the interest. If you follow that, it will come to something.