Free Rosemary: The Hidden Kennedy Daughter by Kate Clifford Larson Page B

these students consisted at the time of pared-down or “slowed-down” instruction and repetitious drilling of lessons in separate classrooms or in a segregated area in mainstream classrooms. Many of these children received little stimulation, lacking the varied curricula their peers experienced. Given this, coupled with low expectations, their futures were bleak. In Philadelphia, Devereux began creating special curricula for individual students. The Philadelphia school system nearly immediately assigned more children to her classroom, recognizing that through her carefully craftedand individualized programs tailored to each child, these students thrived rather than failed.
    Devereux was frustrated, however. She could not pursue further research and engage in more intensive curriculum development under the constraints of a public-school system, in spite of Philadelphia’s adoption of her program. Though her exceptional work with disabled children earned her an appointment as director of special-needs education for Philadelphia’s public schools, she declined the position so that she could start her own school. She wanted the freedom to explore her belief, as David Brind puts it, that “disabilities need not cause feelings of difference and isolation but instead had the power to create strength of character, bringing each child closer instead of farther away from a sense of belonging to the larger humanity to which each child longed to be a part.”With a small amount of money, she started a private school in her parents’ home, developing the foundation for a residential educational and therapeutic program for disabled children.
    Rosemary experienced a rough transition to Devereux that fall, but she finally settled in. In a November 1929 letter, Joe compliments her on improvements in her report card during her early months at Devereux while also gently challenging her: “I am sure that within the next couple of months it will be even better.”In time, according to her teachers, Rosemary “made the necessary social adjustments” to boarding school, showed “excellent social poise,” and was “quite charming at times.”Her course work included drills in spelling and math, grammar, and reading comprehension, as well as more hands-on, developmentally appropriate work in handicrafts, art, music, sewing, and drama.Her struggles to achieve academic success, however, fueled anxiety that manifested itself in “outbursts of impatience.”Rosemary’sproblem, the teachers believed, was rooted in low self-esteem and self-confidence, requiring continual encouragement and positive reinforcement.
    Rosemary could not have felt her foundations were firm that fall of 1929. Her parents had gone off to promote Joe’s latest film,
The Trespasser,
starring Gloria Swanson, in London and Paris, leaving Eddie and Mary Moore to substitute as parents and to settle her into her new home at Devereux.Rose, in addition to providing care and supervision for eighteen-month-old baby Jean (born the winter before), four-year-old Bobby, five-year-old Pat, and the older children, was also, that summer and fall, busy settling the children into a new family home, a large brick mansion Joe had bought in the tony New York City suburb of Bronxville.Rose had never felt comfortable in the rented house in Riverdale, and by 1929 she and Joe knew that the move to New York City would be permanent and that the family of ten plus six staff members needed more space. Joe’s success shorting the market had so enriched him that he was able to purchase the magnificent new Bronxville home just a few months before the stock-market crash in October. The estate was purchased for a then incredible $250,000, and Joe would add tens of thousands of dollars in choice furnishings and decorations.
    Bronxville was in Westchester County, just a few miles northeast of Riverdale. Nestled on six acres of land, the house, at 294 Pondfield Road, boasted modern appliances and systems