<Begin Segment 36>

AI: So in your experience, you didn't seem to face too much prejudice or discrimination in your job searches.

CN: Not in the job search. Once I got into this, into working, it was, it was hard for, at least under this one supervisor -- she's still living, you know -- to be promoted. And there was an Afro American woman and I -- we're still good friends -- that after a number of years, we found that we were still at the beginning level. We hadn't... we'd gotten annual increases, but we hadn't gotten any further than that. And we, when we found that out, well, we got, both of us got very angry. And I went in to see the director who didn't think there was anything wrong with that, "After all, you're doing good work and you should be satisfied." So I left and then along comes the call from Ryther Child Center and that, just like moving to Kirkland or Redmond was the best thing that happened when I was in the fifth grade, going to Ryther was the best thing that happened to me as a professional person.

AI: Why was that?

CN: They were not only wonderful, they appreciated good work. I'm patting myself on the back. And also they allowed me, and whoever else wanted to, to try different things to see if it would work and would give us recognition for a job well done. And it was through them that we were, I -- and I talked three other social workers to go in with me, two of them dropped out -- but to develop the very first alternative school program for the Seattle Public Schools. But it was under the auspices of Ryther Child Center and United Way.

AI: And when was that that you developed that the first alternative school?

CN: That was in, we started in nineteen-eighty, eighty... not, what am I saying? 1968.

AI: 1968?

CN: It was October 1 of 1968. And it was a demonstration and development program with the idea that if it would work, then Seattle public schools would take it over. If it didn't work, at least, we could say that we gave it a good try. And so with the D&D fund through United Way, we started this. And it was called the Ryther Central Area schools.

AI: And what was different about this school?

CN: What was different was that we worked with kids who were not dropouts, but who were pushouts -- they were pushed out of school because of their behavior. And so they, when we went to talk to the superintendent of schools as well as the principal at Meany Middle School then and Garfield High School, they said they would send us students. So they sent us their very best -- [laughs] -- and we did get space at the, it used to be called the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church on Twenty-second and East Union. And I don't know what the, what it's called now, but the minister there -- a young man and his young family -- they were wonderful. And they went through a great deal just having us there because these kids were not the very best behaved, and they were getting into all kinds of problems. And also we were their last chance. Between, it was between us and the Department of Institutions for them. So I will say that I learned a tremendous amount from them and hope that they gained something from us, too. That I really did learn a lot.

<End Segment 36> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.