I have found a fascinating woman. Her name is Lore Rasmussen. I found out about her by chance. I was looking up about Cuisenaire Rods and happened upon a Mathematics scheme called Miquon Math. This was a mathematics scheme which was based on Cuisenaire Rods and which Lore Rasmussen worked with children in a small private school called Miquon in Philadelphia Pa.
I decided that I would look up Lore Rassmussen and discovered that she was born in Germany but had to leave because of the rise of Nazism. She found herself in the U.S.A. and somehow managed to convince Columbia University to let her become a student. Later she went to Illinois where she was to meet her husband Ronald, a sociology Professor. They were to be married for 68 years.
Lore and Ron eventually moved to Tallegeda Alabama where they worked in a local Blacks only college.
At a later date they were goibg to have a meal with a friend, a black man and found themselves arrested by the police and put into prison..their crime, sedition.. for having the audacity to eat with a black man in a blacks only restaurant!
Lore worked with her black students along with a number of other German Jewish escapees from Nazism. Their story was later covered in a fascinating book and documentary called "From Swastika to Jim Crow" and there is a an exhibition about this fascinating and little known period of U.S. history at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City until the end of this year.
Lore left her job at Miquon school following an incident in Alabama where two of her black friends were killed by racists. She started working with local state schools in downtown Philadelphia and started the U.S.'s first teachers centre.
Her Miquon Maths scheme became the basis of much of her later work and is still regarded highly by the homeschool movement in the U.S.A.
I found out a lot about hedr life from the fascinating memorial site that was created by her family. The address is:
Look it up... it's a fscinating story... not least is the story of her early life in Germany. A truly amazing humanitarian.
