Realizing How Free We Are

Leni Jacksen is founder and principal of the Children’s Community School in Van Nuys. The school’s progressive education philosophy stresses social studies and culture. Jacksen, 70, and her husband, Eric, live in Los Angeles.

I’m originally from Berlin. And you can imagine how interested I am in what is going on right now. I’m a Jewish immigrant, and I came here in 1938 when I was 18.

All my school life was spent under Hitler, more or less. I was 13 when he came to power and even before that it was pretty bad, lots of anti-Semitism. It was very difficult to be in school. So I left the public school, and I went to a Jewish private school.

What the Jews did in a big city like Berlin, they had their own schools. They also had their own newspaper because they couldn’t work on the newspapers anymore. And they had their own theater, operas and concerts. And so they started a whole Jewish culture within the Nazi culture.

I went back to Germany in 1971, and I was a principal in a very large German-American school called John F. Kennedy school in Berlin. They had 50% German employees and 50% American employees, and since I’m bilingual, I speak German fluently, of course, I was able to get a very good job there.

The life in Berlin was marvelous, actually terrific. But you were completely surrounded by a hostile country, East Germany. I found it difficult. After a year, I couldn’t stand it anymore. I had a two-year contract and I broke the contract because I was very uncomfortable, so I came back here.

I didn’t realize how free we are here. You can’t imagine what it is to go 20 miles and there’s the border, and in all directions you are surrounded and you can’t get through. And that wall is awful. An 8-foot wall with wire on top and machine guns and towers all over the East German side, guards always looking at you with binoculars.

So I know a little bit what life was like. That’s why this is marvelous now. What’s happening now is a miracle. Nobody expected it. That was so fast. I do nothing but listen to the news, morning, noon and night, and it fascinates me.

I feel that the media in this country is really not doing a very good job. They show the picture, they tell you how great it is, but they should give more insight. They don’t even discuss the consequences. And they’re tremendous.

It’s not without reason that the people are saying, “No reunification.” A Frenchman said he loves Germany so much that he wants two of them. This is really what it is. Two Germanys are safe. One Germany is not. I think England and France or Denmark, Belgium, Holland for that matter, I mean these countries who have suffered under Germany, why would they want a big Germany again? So I think you will hear much more. It isn’t over yet.

I don’t think I would ever want to live permanently in any other country. And I’ve been almost everywhere with the exception of Asia. I have family in South America, where I was several times. And of course I have friends all over Europe, and I have friends in Israel.

There is a generosity of spirit here, even the spending of money, the way people go about it, the way people take chances. They gain it and they lose it and they gain it. There is not the terrible stigma attached to failure. If you declare bankruptcy in Germany, you are on the bottom. I mean you just don’t do this.

There is a certain gambling spirit in this country which I love. I started this school 10 years ago on a shoestring, on nothing. And now we have 100 students. In Germany I would have had to wait 10 years before I even started it because of this regulation and that regulation. “Are you sure? Is everything perfect?”

Here you can take chances. If it works it works. If it doesn’t work, well, it doesn’t work. Then you do something else. There is a spirit here that is wonderful. And I think we’ll come through.