Inga Dubay

PRELUDE: I discovered MLC in 1968 when two neighbors and I were investigating schools for our children in NW Portland.

(During this time we rented a house in Arlington Heights before we moved to Willamette Heights.) We wanted to explore schools other than Ainsworth, so first went to Couch School. We were told that a “new” school was opening there in September and it sounded intriguing.

ON THE FIRST DAY OF MLC IN SEPTEMBER 1968, Rosie Williams and I showed up expectantly with our children—Jevan, Garth & Taffy Williams and Christopher, Gregory & Jonathan Dubay—for a new adventure in education. After finding the right room for Christopher (age 8), I was just about to leave Gregory & Jonathan (age 5) in Emil Abramovic’s capable hands when he asked me if I could stay awhile. I said, “Yes”—and stayed for 13 years!

In this school without walls and no captive audiences, I was honored to take part in the daily pleasure of education with so many amazing people. I enjoyed offering italic handwriting, calligraphy, silk screen printing, recorder, guitar, round singing and even Norwegian! A memorable thirteen years for me.

I felt like MLC was my school as well. It was certainly a healing place for many of the inadequacies of my “regular” school-system experiences.

A poignant and significant event comes to mind. One day Betty Mayther told me that a student had remarked to her, “You’re so vulnerable!” Wow, what a perceptive person to notice that vulnerability. MLC demonstrated this important life lesson: to be vulnerable is to be open. This was a new spirit of education where a positive outcome is possible together with an awareness of risk taken freely with no guarantee of success—a true experiment—leaving rivalry and competition behind. We all made MLC happen!

POSTLUDE: Some naysayers thought MLC students would never learn “discipline.” However, a philosophy of education on which MLC was based, proposed by A.S. Neill, founder of Summerhill (a school in Suffolk, England), stated that children should be like bees flitting from flower to flower. And so it was! It was the very best way to grow up for all of us!

CODA: Having been given the chance to teach italic handwriting at MLC and create materials, those beginning worksheets later turned into a series of eight books (Getty-Dubay Italic Handwriting Series, K-6 and Instruction Manual) used by public, private, charter, and home schools globally. I am also co-author of Write Now (for adults) and Italic Letters and author of Getty-Dubay Italic Calligraphy: for School & Home.

Christopher is a medical geneticist [now retired] at Providence Cancer Research Center (in spite of being told in 2nd grade at Ainsworth School not to touch anything on the science table). Gregory & Jonathan are professional musicians—Jonathan a violinist in the Oregon Symphony, and Gregory director of the Community Music Center, previously principal cellist in the Honolulu Symphony.

INGA DUBAY told us her story, below, for the 50th Anniversary publication, where it also appears. Inga was everything she recollects she was, and more. She probably taught more different and diverse things at MLC than any teacher ever, and she embraced and was embraced by everyone. As she notes, she was also the mother of three accomplished alumni, Christopher, Gregory, and Jonathan.

In Fall 2025, Inga graced our city with a retrospective exhibition, at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in northwest Portland, of her exquisite works of design, calligraphy, and silkscreen. Many of the works were created during the years when Inga was teaching the same skills to early MLC students—and many of these students came to greet Inga at her gallery talk on October 12!

Announcement for Inga's retrospective exhibition, Fall 2025

Metropolitan Learning Center’s 50 year celebration!

Remembrances (2018) by Inga S. Dubay, aide and teacher, 1968-82

(In November 2025, Inga wrote this lovely addition for her "Third Age" writing group ....)

YES & NO: MLC

This new school, MLC, said YES to some of the most important options a person could dream of ....

YES to Alexander Neill’s philosophy of freedom from adult coercion with community self-governance as practiced in his school Summerhill. The happiness of a child grows from personal freedom. (Thinking about my own childhood, the times I went for long hikes in the woods with friends and a lunch bag were the best ever—as well as looking forward to long summer days.)

The Metropolitan Learning Center also embodied a number of NO options.

NO bells. Bells in schools were designed to get children ready for the factories.

NO desks nailed down to the floor. Actually, there were few, if any, desks to be seen. Tables were used as communal desks. (In my own childhood school I remember desks combined with chairs in front, usually all one size, bolted to the floor in a grid in every classroom.)

NO lines to move in from room to room. The only lines were self-managed for turns to play on the four-square court or to wait outside the computer room to play Hangman. (In my own childhood school I remember lining up to leave the classroom. As I was usually the shortest, I was first in the girls' line. The shortest in the boys' line was often designated as my “boyfriend.”)

NO grades. Students who had dyslexia or other learning disabilities were not discouraged by receiving D or F grades.

NO required classes. The only expectation was to meet first thing in the morning with your Base Station which comprised two kindergartens, two first graders, two second graders, etc., on up to two high school seniors. During base station time, students wrote their journals to record the previous day’s events. The older students helped the younger students with their journal writing.

A large written announcement of the day’s class options was posted in the hallway. Often after lunch, John Angell would walk through the hallways singing a song from the film Paint Your Wagon: “Where am I goin’? I don’t know. Where am I headin’? I ain’t certain. All I know is I am on my way.” A troupe followed him for a field trip in the MLC van to a surprise destination. Longer field trips included the Alvord Desert, Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Hood ascents, the Ashland Shakespeare Festival, and San Francisco, as well as trips to the coast.

NO written excuse needed from a parent for a student’s absence. When students related a reason for an absence, they were believed.

NO captive audiences. If a person lost interest in a class, no need to continue.

NO formal names for adults. First names only. This was also the requirement of the Brazilian educator, Paulo Freire, whose work influenced many colleges, including Reed College. His philosophy of critical pedagogy emphasized empowering students to critically analyze, connect their learning to real-world problems, and become co-creators of knowledge rather than passive recipients.

NO hall passes. After base station, the whole campus was available. Classes in other high schools and colleges were also.

NO grade level requirements. Classes were open to all grade levels.

NO parent-and-teacher-only conferences. Conferences always included parents, the teacher and the student.

MLC was my school as well. As a stutterer, school had been an anxious place for me. I got good grades and after high school made it through eight years of higher education, but having to recite out loud, verbally ask and answer questions as well as speak in front of the class, were terrifying. MLC felt like home. After volunteering every day, I became a paid Learning Assistant and, on occasion, a substitute teacher. Life has a wonderful way of healing us.

Inga Dubay, November 2025