Read Online Men Still at Work: Professionals Over Sixty and on the Job by Elizabeth F. Fideler - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Elizabeth F. Fideler
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embrace calling for “exuberant daddying,” he was willing to settle for “vibrant father engagement.”
His second suggestion was that the White House sponsor one of its three planned 2010 “Fatherhood Forums” in New Mexico where REEL FATHERS conducted its programs. He pointed out that the state’s demographics foretold future changes in the rest of the country and that New Mexico was chronically one of the bottom three states on almost every measure of social well-being. Allan then led a mobilization of forces in the state to create the New Mexico Alliance for Fathers and Families (NMAFF), which successfully persuaded the White House to cosponsor with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and NMAFF a Fatherhood Forum in August 2010. NMAFF’s comprehensive report to the cosponsors (the only forum to issue a report) secured participation by the White House and USDA in another Fatherhood Forum two years later. New Mexico was the only state to hold a second forum.
Using a combination of film and video, expressive arts projects, and facilitated dialogue, between 2009 and 2012 REEL FATHERS provided thirty-seven programs for New Mexico organizations directly serving fathers. Partners included Head Start centers, public schools, Big Brother/Big Sister, Gear Up, the State Corrections Department, and various parenting, youth development, violence prevention, and family services organizations.
Allan’s background includes a master’s degree in elementary and special education from Columbia University’s Teachers College and ten years of experience teaching special education and regular education classes. He went on to become an elementary school principal, the founding executive director of the National Elementary School Center, an advisor to a US Secretary of Education, an education writer, and a parenting consultant.
Two men had a particularly strong influence on Allan’s career choices and the type of man he is. Allan stayed in touch over the years with both of them until they died. One was a fifth grade teacher who, Allan realized only later, presented a different male role model from other men he knew as a kid; and the other was a psychology professor and the director of the summer camp for emotionally disturbed children where Allan, as a high school senior, had his first job working with children. The director highly praised Allan’s ability to work with severely disturbed kids. “Until I realized the gratification of helping these children and was told I had a ‘special gift,’ I thought I was predetermined to go into my father’s business after college. It was the first time I realized I actually had a choice about my life’s work.”
Between 1976 and 1983 Allan served as principal of the Ethical Culture School in New York City. It is one of the largest co-ed independent elementary schools in the country. His next endeavor was leading a study group of independent school educators, a college dean, and a clinical psychologist with a shared vision of (a) highlighting the importance of the early school years and (b) having professionals with different training work together across traditional professional boundaries. This study group became the National Elementary School Center (NESC), which he directed from 1984 to 1994. NESC promoted the idea that schools serve as a locus of child advocacy because, logically, that’s where the kids are. He also made time for freelance writing on education and parenting as well as serving as a parenting coach.
Allan has written widely in the popular and professional press based on his focus group interviews with children and youth in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland, as well as his 128 face-to-face daddying interviews with fathers, grandfathers, and great-grandfathers. One interview was with his own eighty-seven-year-old father, a highly successful businessman whom Allan admired as one of “the titans” of his childhood, yet a man who
His second suggestion was that the White House sponsor one of its three planned 2010 “Fatherhood Forums” in New Mexico where REEL FATHERS conducted its programs. He pointed out that the state’s demographics foretold future changes in the rest of the country and that New Mexico was chronically one of the bottom three states on almost every measure of social well-being. Allan then led a mobilization of forces in the state to create the New Mexico Alliance for Fathers and Families (NMAFF), which successfully persuaded the White House to cosponsor with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and NMAFF a Fatherhood Forum in August 2010. NMAFF’s comprehensive report to the cosponsors (the only forum to issue a report) secured participation by the White House and USDA in another Fatherhood Forum two years later. New Mexico was the only state to hold a second forum.
Using a combination of film and video, expressive arts projects, and facilitated dialogue, between 2009 and 2012 REEL FATHERS provided thirty-seven programs for New Mexico organizations directly serving fathers. Partners included Head Start centers, public schools, Big Brother/Big Sister, Gear Up, the State Corrections Department, and various parenting, youth development, violence prevention, and family services organizations.
Allan’s background includes a master’s degree in elementary and special education from Columbia University’s Teachers College and ten years of experience teaching special education and regular education classes. He went on to become an elementary school principal, the founding executive director of the National Elementary School Center, an advisor to a US Secretary of Education, an education writer, and a parenting consultant.
Two men had a particularly strong influence on Allan’s career choices and the type of man he is. Allan stayed in touch over the years with both of them until they died. One was a fifth grade teacher who, Allan realized only later, presented a different male role model from other men he knew as a kid; and the other was a psychology professor and the director of the summer camp for emotionally disturbed children where Allan, as a high school senior, had his first job working with children. The director highly praised Allan’s ability to work with severely disturbed kids. “Until I realized the gratification of helping these children and was told I had a ‘special gift,’ I thought I was predetermined to go into my father’s business after college. It was the first time I realized I actually had a choice about my life’s work.”
Between 1976 and 1983 Allan served as principal of the Ethical Culture School in New York City. It is one of the largest co-ed independent elementary schools in the country. His next endeavor was leading a study group of independent school educators, a college dean, and a clinical psychologist with a shared vision of (a) highlighting the importance of the early school years and (b) having professionals with different training work together across traditional professional boundaries. This study group became the National Elementary School Center (NESC), which he directed from 1984 to 1994. NESC promoted the idea that schools serve as a locus of child advocacy because, logically, that’s where the kids are. He also made time for freelance writing on education and parenting as well as serving as a parenting coach.
Allan has written widely in the popular and professional press based on his focus group interviews with children and youth in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland, as well as his 128 face-to-face daddying interviews with fathers, grandfathers, and great-grandfathers. One interview was with his own eighty-seven-year-old father, a highly successful businessman whom Allan admired as one of “the titans” of his childhood, yet a man who
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