The streets of Harlem were a long way away from the dirt lanes of Ahdieh’s small hometown of Nayriz, Iran, and yet, Harlem was where he found himself in the late 1960s working as an administrator at the innovative Harlem Prep School.
Harlem Prep was a fruit of times that demanded social justice and change.
The post-World War II prosperity, the Kennedy administration, and the powerful civil rights movement provided the momentum for. President Johnson proposed the creation of a Great Society through the active involvement of the Federal government.
One of the largest legislative efforts in American history, the Great Society aimed to alleviate poverty and advance civil rights. The Federal government now took part directly in addressing issues involving civil rights, poverty, education, health, housing, voting rights, pollution, the arts, urban development, occupational safety, consumer protection, and mass transit.
One of the glaring needs in central Harlem was for a college preparatory high school for at-risk youth. Rev. Callender or the Urban League partnered with Manhattanville College, a school run by the Order of the Sacred Heart.
The Vatican II council revolutionized the work of the Catholic Church and all its orders became more involved in the life of the societies. For decades, the students at Manhattanville College had already been serving in neighborhoods in need such as Harlem. Sister McCormack, the president of the college, knew the prominent leaders in Harlem and decided to work with Rev. Callender on developing a college preparatory school in Central Harlem for at-risk youth.
Sister McCormack put the implementation of the project in the capable hands of Sister Ruth Dowd. In June of 1967, Rev. Callender and Sister McCormack signed a memorandum of understanding to found an alternative school to the troubled public school system, the Harlem Prep school.
The school opened in an old armory with forty-nine students—over 200 had applied—and by the end of the year the enrollment topped seventy students. The efforts of that first year bore fruit when all of its students were accepted to colleges. With the help of corporate funding Harlem Prep took up its permanent home in a refurbished supermarket with new furniture donated by the designer Herman Miller.
Harlem Prep inside
Harlem Prep outside
The Board of Harlem Prep found a dynamic leader in Ed Carpenter, a Baha’i from New York who had the ability to inspire others with a vision of improving the lives of young people. He didn’t see the students as ‘dropouts’ but rather as ‘force-outs;’ kids who had been pushed out by the indifference and tedium of the public system. His wife, Ann, worked tirelessly organizing the tedious details of school administration such as schedules, teacher training/supervision, and materials.
Ann Carpenter
Ed Carpenter
Ahdieh heard about the Prep through Ed and Ann who were both Baha’is and whom he admired greatly. His experience as an immigrant trying to eke out a living in hot and crowded kitchens, and his experience of persecution in Iran made him open to trying to understand the struggle of black Americans against racism.
Ahdieh was inspired in his work at the school by distinguished Baha’i educators. Dr. Stanwood Cobb founded the Chevy Chase Country Day School in 1919 and served as president of the Progressive Education Association which emphasized experiential learning, critical thinking, collaboration, social responsibility, and a more personalized form of education.
Stanwood Cobb
Dr. Daniel Jordan developed a wholly new educational model, ANISA, in the 1960s-70s which took a holistic approach to education that sought to transmit knowledge in a cohesive, forward-looking framework grounded in reality and experience.