Susie's MLC

I received this fantastic email from an MLC alumna. What a great story! I'd love to have a card signed by the entire student body!

My name is Susie McDevitt.  I attended MLC for six years graduating in 1975. I don't think anyone loves MLC more than I do. Some might love it as much, but no one could love it more. I still have dreams where I'm walking down the halls of MLC. When I was 15 I got mononucleosis and was out of school for 3 weeks.  This 5 foot long butcher paper get well card was signed by everyone in the school. I've kept it for over 40 years.  It has faded, but I still remember how loved I felt and how much love I felt for everyone at the school.  Attending MLC was an extraordinary experience!

Renée's MLC

Renée Barasch sent this wonderful essay to me this morning. A recent graduate of MLC and an incredible artist and musician, Renée's got it all going on. Here's her essay!

Why I love MLC....


My name’s Renée Barasch and I graduated from MLC this past June. Yesterday, I started my first set of Hebrew language classes as a Freshman at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. I moved to Jerusalem in June, and spent the entirety of last month volunteering with Project Harmony English Camp hosted at the Hand in Hand campus here in Jerusalem.
The camp is an integrated Arab­Jewish program, which in Israel is rare. I taught at Project Harmony last summer as well, and the year prior, traveled with a group of MLC students to Israel for the first time.

Lee Gordon, the founder of the Hand in Hand schools, is an MLC parent. He’s a close family friend and my introduction to the middle­east, which today, is a major part in my life. I would not be writing from Israel now, if it hadn’t been for the connection Mr. Gordon nurtured between MLC and Hand­in­Hand. Most importantly though, the reason I know I have thrived in this environment is due to my academic background.

I graduated MLC as valedictorian and a proud twelve­year member of the MLC community. I started at MLC in first grade, an age where I may have been too young to truly recognize what made the school so special, but old enough to feel its significance.

From the beginning, I was encouraged to not only perform to the best of my ability, but to remember that as my own individual, I will always have a unique view of the world. Every history and sex education class I took at school, was presented with a clear note that we as students, should always be reflecting on both how the information is, or isn’t, fact, and why we believe in what we do. This constant cycle of listening and analyzing and self­reflection has become hugely important for my approach to Israel, and how I process political policies and discussion.

During my junior year, I took a US History class with a focus on the development of nuclear weaponry in America and the Vietnam War. Built into the curriculum, were specific dates and times for class seminars and group conversation. As students, we were encouraged to dissect each piece of history learned and to challenge it with our own perspectives. The Vietnam War, especially, was a time of great controversy in the US, and to have guided seminars during class to openly discuss why the war was such, was key to understanding it.

MLC has always supported its students rights to voice their opinions. The school is built around the core idea that students best know how they learn, and should be able to best advocate for themselves. Through community service requirements and class trips beyond the classroom, I was not only encouraged to be independent, but I was provided with numerous opportunities to do so.
Serving as a two­year student representative on the MLC Site Council Committee, I was honored

to be able to work closely with MLC parents and teachers and to collaborate on how best to improve our beloved school. However, over the years the threats against MLC’s program became more and more serious, and as I graduated in June, I feared the damage that change would bring.

There will always need to be a safe space for alternative learning styles; an academic family where students are brought together with an understanding that they are all there to achieve their greatest, and that the academic competition is not between peers, rather, it is within ourselves.

I am not a number on a list, or a score on a test, or a just another face in the crowd. MLC made me confident in simply being Renée.