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Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Wm. Keith Bookwalter, Who Was Daniel Jordan?: A Tribute, bahai-library.com.
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WHO WAS DR. DANIEL C. JORDAN?
A TRIBUTE
By Wm. Keith Bookwalter
October 14, 1992
(Updated: 3/22/2004; 12/25/2020; 10/12/2023)
On the eve of the 10th anniversary of the passing of Professor Daniel C. Jordan I feel moved
and personally obligated to write a few words to honor the life of this unique man, this precious
soul.1 For those of us who knew him personally he was something special for each one of us. The
following inadequate, yet heart-felt tribute will, I hope, expand your understanding and
appreciation of his multi-faceted life. For those who know little about Dr. Jordan, it is my sincere
wish that this paper will serve as an introduction to his work and purposes which you can explore
further through his extensive writings (both published and unpublished) and through the various
audio and video recordings of his presentations.2 It is also my longing desire that this brief sketch
will stimulate someone to take up the task of writing a biography of Dan Jordan’s life in order to
better preserve his memory and to inspire the lives of succeeding generations of educators and
spiritual-minded people all over the world.
The information presented here contains both fact and personal opinion drawn from various
sources listed in the endnotes. Readers are invited to send to this author3 any comments,
corrections, additional information, personal memories, photos, etc.; anything which could serve
a future biographer.
****************************
See also: Harry P. Massoth, A Most Remarkable Man: The Life and Legacy of Daniel C. Jordan:
Musician, Philosopher, Psychologist, Educator (Bloomington, IN: Archway Publishing, 2022); available
as a Kindle book at: https://www.amazon.com/Most-Remarkable-Man-Philosopher-
Psychologist/dp/1665725931 and “Meeting Dan Jordan: A Most Remarkable Bahá’í” by David Langness
at https://bahaiteachings.org/meeting-dan-jordan-a-most-remarkable-bahai/.
Dr. Jordan’s publications, manuscripts, recordings, and personal library are housed in the Stanford
University Libraries, Palo Alto, California. Many of his articles and other Anisa publications, along with
a more extensive bibliography of Anisa documents compiled by this author, can be accessed at:
http://www.edpsycinteractive.org/anisa/. (The sources of the following notes will, also, eventually, be
donated to and housed at Stanford University Libraries.)
kbookwalter@gmail.com
Born June 2, 1932 into a large family in Alliance, Nebraska, Daniel Clyde Jordan was a child
prodigy who at the age of nine was considerably on his own financially, paying, for example, for
his own piano lessons. At the age of 13 he began his musical studies of the organ at the
University of Wyoming from which he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Music when he was
17. During his junior year Dan Jordan became the first American to be awarded a Rhodes
Scholarship for music.4 At Oxford University in England he earned both a Bachelor and Master
of Arts degree in the composition, theory, and history of music; and he began his doctoral studies
in musicology at the same institution. Interrupting his studies, he served in the U.S. Army for
two years from 1956 to 1958.
At this point, in 1958, Daniel Jordan made a critical decision that would change the course of
his life and which will change, I believe, the future course of education. Turning down an offer
to play Beethoven's “Emperor's Concerto” with the Oslo Symphony, which most likely would
have set him on the tour circuit as a concert pianist, Jordan changed his career direction to human
development and began collegiate studies again at the University of Chicago. 5 In 1959 he
completed the course work for his bachelor's degree but did not take the final exams because he
already had two B.A.’s. From 1959 to 1960 he earned a master's degree in human development:
an interdisciplinary course of study which examined the development of the human organism
from conception to death from biological, psychological, sociological, and anthropological
points of view. In 1964 he obtained a Ph.D. in human development with specialization in social
anthropology and psychology. He went on to carry out a post-doctoral sequence in brain
structure and brain chemistry and their relation to memory, emotion, and learning.
In 1965 Dr. Jordan became the Director of the Institute for Research in Human Behavior at
Indiana State University in Terre Haute where his principal project was the Upward Bound
Program for disadvantaged high school students. In 1968 he joined the faculty at the University
of Massachusetts, Amherst as the director of the Center for the Study of Aesthetics in Education,
the director of the Tutorial Program for Minority Students, and the director of the
Comprehensive Study of Compensatory Education in Massachusetts.
It was from 1971 until 1975 that Dr. Jordan, with the invaluable collaboration of his long-time
friend, former doctoral student, and administrative assistant Dr. Donald T. Streets, 6 directed the
“The San Diego Union,” from an article by Jim Okerblom, Section B-2, Column 1, circa October 24,
1982. According to Donald T. Streets, Dan Jordan was awarded his Rhodes Scholarship when he was a
junior at the University of Wyoming. (Donald Streets to Keith Bookwalter, December 24, 2020.
Much of this biographical information was taken from a video recording made some time during 1982 at
National University in which Dr. Gerald Ball introduces Dr. Jordan who speaks about the evolution of the
universe and life systems during this cosmic epoch and their relation to the processes of differentiation
and integration.
According to a telephone conversation of this author with Donald Streets (on 12/22/20), his friendship
with Dan Jordan began in 1957 or 1958 when Dan invited Don to become a member of the Bahá’í
National Youth Committee. Their professional collaboration started in 1968 when Dan invited Don to
Center for the Study of Human Potential at the University of Massachusetts. His principal
endeavor at the Center was the Anisa7 Project in which he guided the conceptualization of a
comprehensive educational system organized around a coherent and integrated philosophical
base. From this organismic philosophy, a theory of human development was deduced from
which were generated sub-ordinate theories of curriculum, pedagogy, administration, and
evaluation. Dr. Jordan also guided the successful fielding8 of the Anisa Model of Education 9 in
Hampden, Maine; Suffield, Connecticut; Fall River, Massachusetts; Kansas City, Missouri; and
in southern Ohio.10
In 1978 Dr. Jordan became the Chairperson of the Department of Education at the California
American University in Escondido, California. In 1979, he established contact with National
University in San Diego, California and, via the timely intervention Dr. Donald T. Streets,11 Dr.
carry out his doctoral studies in education at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. His dissertation,
The Development of Perception, was a significant contribution to the research-base of the theory of
development and to the process curriculum of the Anisa Model. Dr. Streets also made significant
contributions to both the development of the theory of administration and to the management of, what can
be called, the Anisa Project on both the East Coast and West Coast of the United States. His students (the
author included) often paid tribute to his kind encouragement, unwavering support, and sagacious
guidance. The book that he contributed to as one of the chapter authors and edited, Administering Day
Care and Preschool Programs, published by Allyn and Bacon, Inc., in 1982, is a major contribution to
the development of the Anisa Model and its application to the field of early childhood education. Both in
Massachusetts and California, students affectionately termed the Anisa program “The Dan and Don
Show.”
The term “Anisa” has two meanings. It is an ancient word meaning “the tree of life” and “symbolically
represents never-ending growth and fruition in the context of protection and shelter, and signifies the
blending of the useable and fruitful past with a new sense of future (See: “The Anisa Model: A New Basis
for Educational Planning,” D.C. Jordan and D.T. Streets, in Young Children, 1973, June, p. 290). ANISA
is also an acronym that stands for “American National Institutes for Social Advancement,” a non-profit
organization created to promote the Anisa Model of Education.
This fielding process was culminated by the official validation of the Anisa program in Suffield,
Connecticut on October 16, 1976 by the U.S. Office of Education. (Source: letter dated February 1, 1977
to Dr. Daniel Jordan from Roger E. Richards, Dissemination Coordinator, State of Connecticut, State
Department of Education.)
A major source of inspiration and guidance for Dr. Jordan in the creation of the Anisa Model was the
writings of the Bahá’í Faith most of which can be accessed at https://reference.bahai.org/en/.
Most of the above biographical information was taken from Dr. Jordan’s curriculum vitae dated
September 1979.
Dr. Streets related to the author the story of how the Anisa Model moved from the East Coast to the
West Coast. Briefly, needing to strike out on their own due to the lack of funding available at the
University of Massachusetts for continuing the needed research and to hire more salaried staff beyond just
Streets and Jordan, they presented the Anisa Model to several prestigious universities on the East Coast
Jordan joined its faculty and founded the University’s School of Education and became its Dean.
During this same year he was appointed to a National “blue ribbon” Task Force on Nutrition
Education for Pregnant Women, Lactating Mothers, Infants, Children, and Adolescents which
was jointly sponsored by the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, the U.S. Department
of Agriculture, the White House, the National Institutes of Health, and the National Association
for Nutrition Education.12
At the time of his passing on October 15 or 16, 1982, at the age of 50, Dr. Daniel Jordan was
at the peak of his career. He had established at National University an accredited master's degree
program; a university-based, laboratory school for kindergarten through high school; and was on
the verge of obtaining accreditation for a doctoral program. He had obtained a contract with the
Association for the World University 13 to develop their curriculum and had founded the
International Center for Human Development. 14 All of these programs were based on the
concepts underlying the Anisa Model of Education. 15
with the hope of implementing an Anisa-based school of education. The universities of renown turned a
“deaf ear” to the proposal. Kenneth Blanchard and Paul Hersey invited them to the West Coast to
establish a department of education at their fledgling California American University. However, it proved
to be too small of an operation for the resources needed. National University, the newly founded, fastest-
growing, and most innovative universities in California at the time; was contacted. Interest was expressed
but hesitation followed. Dr. Streets intervened, reminded them that they needed a school of education,
that Dr. Jordan was a Rhodes Scholar and an up and coming figure in the field of education. The proposal
was accepted and the Anisa-based School of Education was then founded.
National University MU Weekly bulletin, December 3, 1979.
According to Douglas McAdam, a student and close associate of Marian Lippitt who was the principal
compiler of the book The Worlds of God: Basic Classifications of Existence as Defined in the Bahá’í
Writings: A Compilation, prepared by The National Reference Library Committee of the National
Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States, 1965-1974 and developer of a new science called Science
of Reality, which is based on this book, Dan Jordan was also a protégé of Marian Lippitt and that they
collaborated closely on the proposal of a curriculum for the world university project referred which,
according this author’s understanding, although independent UNESCO, was an outgrowth of a perceived
need of that organization. See, for example, the monologue “An Integrative Framework for a World
Education Curriculum—Science of Reality” prepared by Marian Lippitt and Daniel Jordan and presented
by Dr. Jordan to the Committee for the World University, Inc., June 1980.
During a visit at the author’s home in Honduras in 1979, Dr. Jordan showed us the physical plant
designs of the International Center for Human Development. One of its purposes was to serve as an
international “think tank” for generating solutions to stubborn, national and world problems. The project
proposal had received a favorable response from the sitting Vice President of the United States at the
time, Walter Mondale (copy of letter on file) who passed the project on to the Department of Health,
Education and Welfare for its consideration. Unfortunately, due to Jordan’s untimely death, the dream
that was perhaps the closest to his heart was never realized.
National University Bulletin, Vol. 12, No. 3, Summer, 1982, pp. 177-205.
This chronology of Daniel Jordan’s professional life needs to be supplemented with other
miscellaneous notes of interest. During his undergraduate studies at the University of Wyoming
he was the recipient of several awards: Phi Sigma Iota Award for highest grade average in
Modern Languages, Phi Mu Alpha Award for work in Music, Phi Kappa Phi and Phi Beta Kappa
Awards for the highest grade average in his graduating class, and the Theodore Presser Award
for Music. His doctoral dissertation, An Experimental Approach to the Jungian Theory of the
Archetypes won Honorable Mention in the Creative Talent Awards sponsored by the American
Institute of Research. (In addition to being an authority on the work of Carl G. Jung16, Dr. Jordan
had a deep understanding and was an outstanding interpreter of the ideas and philosophy of
Alfred North Whitehead. He gave courses, conducted seminars, and lectured extensively on his
work.) During the period 1959-1960 Jordan worked as an orderly on the Psychiatric Ward at the
University of Chicago’s Medical Clinics and in 1975 he obtained a license to practice
psychology. In addition to his extensive and varied consultant work (twenty-two projects are
referred to in the documents on file), he was a guest lecturer at over seventy universities
throughout the U.S. and other countries; and was a speaker or panelist on over two hundred
television and radio programs including popular talk shows over national networks such as The
Dinah Shore Show and The Mike Douglas Show.
In the area of the arts, in addition to being a virtuoso on the piano, Daniel Jordan had
expertise in dance, 17 drawing, music composition, and film production. As part of his doctoral
work he wrote and directed a ballet titled Metamorphosis of the Owls for which he wrote the
musical score and scenario.
In the field of architecture Professor Jordan was an expert on The Pattern Language of
Christopher Alexander, considered by many during the 1970’s and early 80’s to be the foremost
design theorist in North American; an opinion which was more recently confirmed when
Alexander won the 2001 Residential Architect Leadership and Hall of Fame Award.18 In 1979
Dr. Jordan was instrumental in commissioning Christopher Alexander to design an Anisa-based
school at a Bahá’í property near Davison, Michigan. The resultant design plan--Patterns for the
Design of the Louhelen Educational Center 19--was never realized due to a financial crisis caused
by the 1978 revolution in Irán. In 1979 Dan Jordan traveled to Tegucigalpa, Honduras to train
the faculty and administrators of The Mayan School in the Anisa Model and to create design
According Donald T. Streets, Dan Jordan was scheduled to meet with Dr. Jung, be the latter passed
away two weeks before the appointment. (Donald Streets to Keith Bookwalter, December 24, 2020.)
Proposal for Graduate Degree Programs, prepared by the Center for the Study of Human Potential for
Pepperdine University, January 1976, Appendix III, “Faculty and Staff Vitae,” 1.
As accessed on March 22, 2004 at www.patternlanguage.com
Patterns for the Design of the Louhelen Educational Center, Volume V, Submitted to The National
Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States by The Louhelen Educational Center Project
Committee, June 1979.
specifications for their new school plant. 20 Dr. Jordan understood the depth and long-range
prospects of Alexander’s approach to environmental design, especially the great potential it held
for the creation of educational facilities that would support rather than restrain human
development and learning.
Dan Jordan, the husband, father, and family man is a story I am not able to tell. Someday I
hope it will be told by his beloved wife Nancy and his three precious daughters, Melissa, Sarah,
and Charlotte.
His religious life and services were deep and extensive. He served many years as an elected
member of the governing body of the Bahá’í community of the United States. I recall one of our
last conversations during which he mentioned that he would be entering upon his 20th year of
service on this board of directors. He reminisced about all the changes he had seen take place. I
asked him about his management of time and how much of it he dedicated to his religious
activities. He estimated about 40 hours per month. But again, this fascinating aspect of Dan
Jordan’s life will have to be told by those who have better access to the pertinent information. 21
What I am able to offer the readers are a few comments made by some of his students and
colleagues. They are not extensive, yet they serve as flashes of light in the darkness, illuminating
briefly the various facets of one of the Creator’s very special souls as perceived by those who
worked with, loved and admired him.
In the words of Lynn Laing, the news bureau director at the Vista Campus of National
University, “I would say the best way to describe him is to say he was a genius. He also had a
good sense of humor. He laughed often. He was well-liked and respected... especially for his
contributions to this university.”22 To this comment about Dr. Jordan’s genius I would add a
further dimension. He was a genius who was fully conscious of both his Divinely-granted gift
and of his responsibility to serve humankind that such genius entails. On one occasion, while he
was speaking on some subject with his usual superb command of both concepts and pertinent
data, he must have sensed my awe (or seen my jaw drop in wonder), for he stopped and
commented to me, “But I am not even bilingual and YOU are” in an unsuccessful attempt to
reduce my amazement.
My participation in the project I found to be so intriguing that in 1982, as a culminating master’s degree
project at National University, under the tutelage of Professor Jordan, I carried out an in depth study of
Christopher Alexander’s now classic trilogy—A Timeless Way of Building, A Pattern Language, and The
Oregon Experiment—and applied his “language” to the creation of specifications for a new school facility
titled, “Fits, Misfits, and Omits: Patterns for the Design of the New Campus for the International School
of San Pedro Sula, Honduras.”
For more information regarding his services to the Baháí Faith, see:
https://bahaipedia.org/Daniel_Jordan.
The San Diego Union newspaper, article by Jim Okerblom, section B-1, circa October 24, 1982.
The Anisa consultants, Gordon and Irene Hartley,23 attributed Dr. Jordon’s power to attract
and motivate people to his unique combination of genius and deep spirituality—his ability to
“touch people at the very center of their being.” They were also amazed by his knowledge and
expertise in such a wide variety of activities, some of which were of a very practical and
technological nature: cooking, baking, carpentry, mechanics, construction, and others. 24
Dr. Magdalene Carney, a close friend of Dan Jordan, wrote the following memo which I
found appended to her dissertation, “Dan, your ideal of excellence is a constant lure. With
grateful heart and abiding affection for all you have done for me. Mag.” 25
Dr. Pattabi Raman, in his dissertation wrote the following acknowledgement:
Words cannot do full justice to the encouragement and constant guidance I received from
Professor Daniel C. Jordan, Chairman of my Committee. His exemplary dedication to
excellence in providing quality professional direction in all of his undertakings, a virtue
on the wane in academic circles, has been one of the greatest sources of inspiration in this
effort. His indefatigable energy, which met its ultimate test as he tried to read every
sentence of the manuscript, and his constant emotional support during my periods of
fatigue and depression will long be remembered and greatly appreciated. 26
Another doctoral student, Lawrence N. McCullough, expressed his “deep feelings of
indebtedness and gratitude” to “Dr. Daniel C. Jordan for his professional interest and friendship
extending over many years and for the inspiration of his broad vision of possibilities in
education.”27
The late Gordon and Irene Hartley were international Anisa consultants who dedicated their retirement
years to promoting the Anisa Model throughout the world. They implemented the Model in Connecticut,
California, Canada, West Germany, India and Colombia, and in 1992 were invited to Brazil and Bolivia.
Gordon Hartley had expertise in the design and arrangement of classroom furniture and didactic materials
in accordance with the specifications of the Anisa Model. Irene Hartley was an Anisa master teacher,
curriculum specialist, and staff developer. Dr. Jordan referred to her as his “model practitioner.” She was
the first teacher to offer to implement his theories in her kindergarten classroom in Suffield, Connecticut
in 1973 and became the first person to be credentialed by the State of Connecticut as an Anisa Curriculum
Specialist.
Based on interview notes of this author.
Margaret Magdalene Carney, The Learning Competence Paradigm of the Anisa Model and the
Preparation of Teachers, Ed.D. diss., University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 1977.
S. Pattabi Raman, Biological Dimensions of the Value Theory of the Anisa Educational Model, EdD
diss., University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 1974, v.
Lawrence N. McCullough, An Organic Approach to Educational Program Development: Model,
Method, and Framework, EdD diss., University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 1978, v.
In the “Acknowledgements” section of his dissertation Walter Leopold stated,
...I wish to acknowledge my indebtedness, gratitude and love for Dr. Daniel C. Jordan,
who by his personal example taught me that a teacher is not only responsible for the
intellectual growth of his students, but must also be a physician of the soul. 28
Dr. George Bondra included the following words of acknowledgement in his doctoral dis
sertation The Anisa Model: A Scientific Paradigm for Education and Its Implications for a
Theory of Evaluation:
I wish to express my deepest thanks to Dr. Daniel C. Jordan, chairman of my dissertation
committee, for his substantial contribution to the growth of knowledge and his devotion
to putting that knowledge into practice as he did in working with me. To experience the
universal in the particular, as I did in each step of this work with Dr. Jordan, is unique
indeed—beyond any explicit verbal thanks. 29
In order to understand the profound and far-reaching effect that Jordan’s work has brought
about and will continue to bring about on the development of education as a new science (and
art), I think that it is worthwhile quoting the following section from Dr. Bondra’s dissertation:
Since scientific models are the creation of an inventive mind, it will be helpful in
understanding the Anisa Model to discuss briefly some of the influences that have shaped
the inventor’s view of reality. Daniel C. Jordan, a Rhodes Scholar, epitomizes C. P.
Snow’s “two cultures.” He has earned three degrees in music. He holds two advanced
degrees from the University of Chicago in an interdisciplinary course of study involving
human development from biological, psychological and anthropological perspectives.
Post-doctoral study involved brain chemistry and its relationship to memory and learning.
These influences contributed to his bridging the two cultures of art and science. He
characterizes Kuhn’s observation about men who have invented new paradigms; they are
either very young or new to the field and not fully committed to the traditional rules
permitting them to be freer to conceive of another set. Professor Jordan became aware of
gaps between theory and practice in education. He believed that education was dominated
more by practice than theory. There was no organized knowledge about human growth
Walter Daniel Leopold, Creativity and Education: Some Theories and Procedures to Enhance the
Development of Creativity Within a Classroom Setting, EdD diss., University of Massachusetts, Amherst,
1972, v.
George Bondra, The Anisa Model: A Scientific Paradigm for Education and Its Implications for a
Theory of Evaluation, EdD. diss., University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 1980, v.
and development that could be optimally used for practice by teachers.
His initial conceptual efforts began over eighteen years ago as Director of the Institute
for Research in Human Behavior at Indiana State University. Initially, Jordan observed
that educators were more concerned with curriculum and not the nature of the child for
whom it was designed. Very early on, therefore, Jordan selected his basic unit of study—
man. Toward that end, he studied man’s best thinking about the nature of man reviewing
all major philosophers from Parmenides to the process philosophers of today.
Over a ten year span, Dr. Jordan, reviewed the most significant philosophic works as
the basis for theory construction. The organismic philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead
generated the best framework for analyzing and synthesizing knowledge about human
growth and development, including the concept of purpose. In order to design a new
educational system that is comprehensive (i.e., to be able to unite every aspect of human
experience) required a philosophy that held promise for a new ideological base.
Whitehead (1969) believed that “philosophy is the endeavour to frame a coherent,
logical, necessary system of general ideas in terms of which every element of our
experience can be interpreted (p21).”30 His process philosophy, which is integrative and
all-inclusive, nevertheless, keeps any system open to new data with no claim that it his
system is final. Whitehead’s system is a synthesis of both Eastern and Western streams of
thought. However, it is not eclectic; the synthesis was seen as providing the basis for an
educational model with cross-cultural implications.
Hartshorne (1950), currently the most outstanding process philosopher, makes the
following observation on Whitehead’s philosophy:
... one may say that the basic principles of our knowledge and experience,
physical, biological, sociological, aesthetic, religious—are in this philosophy
given an intellectual integration such as only a thousand or ten thousand years of
further reflection and inquiry seem likely to exhaust or adequately evaluate. . . (p.
19)31
Jordan, in his review of the major philosophers, therefore, discovered an organizing
principle for a science of education in specific form from the cosmology set forth in
Whitehead (1929) Process and Reality. For Whitehead, the most pervasive characteristic
of the universe is change. Change means process, and process presupposes potentiality.
This for Jordan served as his first principle: the concept of process as the translation of
potentiality into actuality.
Alfred North Whitehead, Process and Reality (New York: The Free Press, 1978), 3.
Charles Hartshorne, Whitehead’s Philosophy: Selected Essays 1935-1970 (Lincoln and London:
University of Nebraska Press, 1972), 19.
As noted in the Introduction (p.1), Jordan viewed science as more than knowledge. A
science of education could not be created until the massive information available about
human growth, development, learning, and behavior could be organized into usable form.
Jordan found such a principle in Whitehead’s concept of the process of creativity; this
provided him with a basis for deriving a set of concepts that could be used to organize
current knowledge about human development. This offered the possibility of translating
our knowledge into a coherent body of theory that could serve as the substantive body of
knowledge for professional educational practices. With such an empirical scientific
footing, educational practices could be evaluated and continuously refined. Analogous to
medical practices, which are based on the biological sciences, education could then make
more accurate predictions, providing, as a consequence, improved accountability.
Jordan and his colleagues, in establishing a coherent body of theory that addressed all
aspects of education (i.e., human development, curriculum, pedagogy, administration,
etc.) attempted to test every newly developed theoretical concept against relevant
empirical studies available from the literature of the biological and behavioral sciences.
Based on this broad philosophical and theoretical foundation, the beginning of a
comprehensive and coherent model of education was generated. 32
How did Jordan describe himself? As a specialist he considered himself to be an authority on
human development.33 But during one of his lectures,34 he used a term which is far more
accurate. He referred to himself as an “integrative generalist.”35 And indeed he was. His
knowledge and expertise were far too vast for anyone to refer to him only as an authority on
human development. He was also a psychologist (cognitive psychology was his area of
specialization36), an educator, philosopher, brain/mind expert, administrator, dean, staff
Bondra, The Anisa Model: A Scientific Paradigm for Education and Its Implications for a Theory of
Evaluation, 120-23.
Based on a diagram created by Dr. Jordan for Irene Hartley outlining the major theorists and
philosophers drawn upon for the Anisa Model.
Based on this author’s lecture notes taken during the summers of 1981 and 1982.
The only similar type of integrative generalist which I can compare Dr. Jordan to is R. Buckminster
Fuller in the applied, physical sciences. As a note of interest, in a letter to the author, Dr. Jordan refers to
an hour-long interview with Buckminster Fuller whom he deeply admired. He stated that the recording of
the interview should be at the University of Massachusetts and that he has a letter from Mr. Fuller in
which he offers to serve as a consultant for the development of the Anisa science curriculum. [A
transcript of this interview is now available at Stanford University Libraries where the R. Buckminster
Fuller Collection is also housed.]
During a personal conversation with this author, Dr. Jordan related that in 1976 the Teacher Training
University of Teheran, Iran, asked the U.S. Department of State to send them an expert in cognitive
psychology. The American Specialist Program, Bureau of Cultural and Educational Affairs first chose
developer, curriculum specialist, school plant design consultant, educational and religious leader,
visionary, theorist, writer, author, pianist, artist, dancer, husband, father, friend and much, much
more. He exerted himself day and night to keep his mind on the cutting edge of new
developments in any and all fields which offered possibilities for increasing the quality of human
life: medicine, science, technology, parapsychology, psychiatry, brain research, social
movements, government, religion, etc. Armed with this knowledge he not only moved the pre-
paradigmatic field of education onto a scientific foundation, but also chose for that foundation
the leading edge paradigm variously described as organismic, holistic, process-oriented,
Whiteheadian—a new cosmology, a unified world view, a philosophy of reality which has
already swept through the hard sciences and is now bringing about radical changes in the human
sciences and the traditional world religions. And beyond being a “man of powerful ideas” Dr.
Jordan was also the epitome of the “man of action” who wanted to translate his new schemes of
thought into viable, practical programs for the benefit of all peoples.
Dr. Nancy McCormick Rambusch, one of Dr. Jordan’s doctoral students, founder of the
American Montessori Society and major contributor to the pedagogical practices of the Anisa
Model and trainer of Anisa teachers, makes reference to Dr. Jordan in her doctoral dissertation as
follows:
The impulse behind the development of the ANISA model came from within Daniel
Jordan, its architect. It was in response to the broadest assessment of existing cultural and
moral conditions and existing education options within them, that he developed the
model.
At the present time the world of humanity and the different cultures it
represents are in the midst of the most extensive crises ever known to man. The
ways we have learned to feel, think, and act are no longer functional….
These crises are forcing humanity to seek a new culture, one that is universal
and therefore functional for all men everywhere; one that can create a new race of
men, new social institutions, and new physical environments (Jordan, World
Order, 1970, 5(1), pp. 12-13).
There was no external pressure on Daniel Jordan to develop the ANISA model. He
was impelled by a personal sense of urgency to do this. The public problem which served
as the basis for his action was his perception of the world as being in a state of collapse;
Jerome Bruner, but he had just returned from a consulting assignment. Their second choice was Dr.
Jordan who accepted and carried out the request.
his response was the formulation of an educational model which aspired to create a 'new
race of men [Ibid.].”37
In another section of her dissertation Ms. Rambusch states:
Dan Jordan was in a situation similar to that of Montessori before she left the University
of Rome and struck out on her own to franchise her own educational model. The
university setting represents a free market of inquiry. To work within a university setting
is to invite criticism and evaluation. Dan Jordan was willing to do this, as Maria
Montessori was not. He was the ANISA model; the ANISA model was he, in the sense
that he was its ultimate interpreter as well as proximate “manager.” The model was fully
articulated in its essentials, prior to diffusion and it was fully realized in its essentials in
the person of Daniel Jordan. Dan was the “center” of the center. 38
Ms. Rambusch made, what would turn out to be, a tragic, yet inspiring, parallel between the lives
of Daniel Jordan and Mahatma Gandhi:
It [the Anisa Model] might also be considered, in its educational guise, as a social
movement39 . . . Those drawn to participate in the ANISA model came both because of
the stunning intellectual clarity that informed it and because of the opportunity it offered
them to work with Daniel Jordan, its propagator. A rare person and a genuine innovator,
Jordan can be compared to Gandhi in his effect on those working close to him, as I
perceived the relationship.
Whatever their identity when they met Gandhi.... their pasts have now become
part of his life and his death… men and women forever living in a glorious past
when historical actuality had been quickened to a rare intensity and pace...
[Erickson, 1969, p.61]
Nancy McCormick Rambusch, Intuitive and Intentional Change Agentry, EdD diss., (Amherst:
University of Massachusetts, 1977), 186. (Retrieved in print in 1987 from University Microfilms
International, Xerox University Microfilms No. 77-21,492, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 48106.)
Rambusch, Intuitive and Intentional Change Agentry, 131.
Dr. Rambusch also referred to the impact of Anisa on the “social ecology” of a school:
Complex innovations [in reference to the Anisa Model] which involve not only discrete
administrative and pedagogical strategies but an alteration in the social ecology of the school
must be “lived” to become clear. In a Research, Development, and Diffusion model of change,
such as the ANISA model, not until the model was in the field was it possible to speak of clients
having more than a theoretical understanding of it. (Rambusch, Intuitive and Intentional Change
Agentry 185.)
They felt augmented in his presence beyond personal desert and native capacity...
For the numinous 40 person has the strange power to make the participant feel part
of him and yet also feel augmented in himself.” [Ibid., 1969, p.63].41
And now, looking back over these past ten years, it can be seen that the “augmented participants”
have not failed to carry forward “historical actuality” towards the fulfillment of Daniel Jordan's
dream of a new, universal cultural in which every person’s potential faculties and talents will be
brought forth into the sunlight of honoring the Creator and His creation through service to the
world of humanity. His fellow colleagues, his students, and those who have been attracted to the
elegance of his scheme of thought and his call for a “new way” of educating the future
generations of humankind have taken up his ideas and applied them each in his or her own
sphere of life: in their classrooms; the raising of their children; university research 42; professional
“Numinous,” according to Webster’s New International Dictionary, means “… characteristic of… the
divine force or potency ascribed to objects or beings regarded with awe.”
Ibid., 118.
Regarding Daniel Jordan’s profound influence on this author, upon the completion of my master’s
degree in the Anisa Model of Education at National University, San Diego, in the fall of 1982, Dr. Jordan
extended to me a formal invitation to engage in doctoral studies with him. He gave me a description of a
course of study that he had designed. His untimely passing just a few weeks later, of course, made this
impossible. Nevertheless, I decided to carry on with the pathway he had mapped out. At one point we had
discussed what a study of Alfred North Whitehead’s most significant works would entail along with the
perusal of the most significant commentaries and elaborations of Whiteheadian scholars. It took me
nearly a decade to complete the outline Dr. Jordan had made for me. Then, in 1994, after a great deal of
searching and false starts, I finally found a university (The Union Institute & University in Cincinnati,
Ohio) that made it possible for me to design my own doctoral program (which I based on Dr. Jordan’s
vision of an Anisa-based, doctoral course of study) and to place on my doctoral committee two principle
players in the development of the Model—Dr. George Bondra and Dr. Malcom Evans. In 1998 I
graduated with a Ph.D. in human development with specializations in cognitive development and
education. In my dissertation—The Development of Four Logical Structures in a Sample of Colombian
Children—the dedicatory frontispiece features the words, “To the memory of my beloved mentor, Daniel
C. Jordan, seer of potentialities within, visionary of ideals beyond, encourager of excellence in all.” Then,
over the course of 15 years I trained over 130 teachers from 15 schools in five cities of Colombia in how
to develop the logical, mathematical, and scientific thinking of children. In 2007, based on this same
research, I co-founded the Foundation for Multidimensional Education (which has its headquarters in
Cartagena, Colombia) for the purpose of carrying forward this Piagetian approach to cognitive
development, an approach that was often referred to in Dr. Jordan’s lectures and television presentations.
Just two months before his passing, I met with Dr. Jordan in his university office. It was not the usual
sort of conversation. He spoke of his frequent travels, the risks that such travel entailed, and the
possibility that at any given moment he might not be with us any longer. He wanted us (he mentioned a
few names of his staff members) to carry forward the development of the Model. For the first time since I
associations; their writings; their school systems and communities; their way of thinking, feeling,
and perceiving reality. . . their very way of living and being. No doubt the near future will see a
resurgence of interest in his process-based system of education and the distant future, when the
fruits are in hand, will see Dr. Daniel C. Jordan being given the homage he deserves as one of the
most outstanding and far-sighted leaders the field of education has ever seen.
had met him, he told me that there were definite anomalies in the Model and that his commentary on them
could be found in his notes which he jotted into small notebooks while traveling and which he kept in his
office at home. (After his death, according to Don Streets, the last of these was confiscated by the police
for their investigation of his murder and was never returned.) In 2017, I found three others in the Jordan
Collection at Stanford University Libraries, but they contained no references to anomalies, only
recommendations for the future development and application of the Model. My own work has been an
attempt to identify and correct anomalies in the Model in the light of practice and current research and
developments in education and related fields.
From 1987 to 1993, I collaborated with Irene and Gordon Hartley in the implementation of Anisa
principles as we created the Marymount-Barranquilla Model of Education at the Marymount School in
Barranquilla located on the Caribbean Coast of Colombia. My efforts to carry forward the development of
the Anisa Model, termed the Wholistic Educational System (WES) for practical and legal reasons, were
published in Process Papers, No. 4, December 1999 and as “Chapter 2: WES: A Theory and Framework
for an International Curriculum” in The Internationalization of the Curriculum Studies: Selected
Proceedings from the LSU Conference 2000, edited by Donna Trueit, William E. Doll, Jr., Hongyu
Wang, and William F. Pinar, (New York: Peter Lang Publications, 2003). Another Anisa-inspired project
in which I have engaged is the creation of Life in Dynamic Harmony: a Wholistic Program for Self-
Transformation (paperback book in the offing) which is based on nine principles and utilizes the Native
American Indian Medicine Wheel as an archetypal, graphic organizer for harmonizing thirty-six basic life
processes. Presently, after retiring in 2019 as the principal of a public, K-8, dual immersion, school of
choice in East Palo Alto, California, I am engaged in expanding my university textbook chapter on the
Wholistic Educational System into a book with the same title.
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
WHO WAS DR. DANIEL C. JORDAN?
A TRIBUTE
By Wm. Keith Bookwalter
October 14, 1992
(Updated: 3/22/2004; 12/25/2020; 10/12/2023)
On the eve of the 10th anniversary of the passing of Professor Daniel C. Jordan I feel moved
and personally obligated to write a few words to honor the life of this unique man, this precious
soul.1 For those of us who knew him personally he was something special for each one of us. The
following inadequate, yet heart-felt tribute will, I hope, expand your understanding and
appreciation of his multi-faceted life. For those who know little about Dr. Jordan, it is my sincere
wish that this paper will serve as an introduction to his work and purposes which you can explore
further through his extensive writings (both published and unpublished) and through the various
audio and video recordings of his presentations.2 It is also my longing desire that this brief sketch
will stimulate someone to take up the task of writing a biography of Dan Jordan’s life in order to
better preserve his memory and to inspire the lives of succeeding generations of educators and
spiritual-minded people all over the world.
The information presented here contains both fact and personal opinion drawn from various
sources listed in the endnotes. Readers are invited to send to this author3 any comments,
corrections, additional information, personal memories, photos, etc.; anything which could serve
a future biographer.
****************************
See also: Harry P. Massoth, A Most Remarkable Man: The Life and Legacy of Daniel C. Jordan:
Musician, Philosopher, Psychologist, Educator (Bloomington, IN: Archway Publishing, 2022); available
as a Kindle book at: https://www.amazon.com/Most-Remarkable-Man-Philosopher-
Psychologist/dp/1665725931 and “Meeting Dan Jordan: A Most Remarkable Bahá’í” by David Langness
at https://bahaiteachings.org/meeting-dan-jordan-a-most-remarkable-bahai/.
Dr. Jordan’s publications, manuscripts, recordings, and personal library are housed in the Stanford
University Libraries, Palo Alto, California. Many of his articles and other Anisa publications, along with
a more extensive bibliography of Anisa documents compiled by this author, can be accessed at:
http://www.edpsycinteractive.org/anisa/. (The sources of the following notes will, also, eventually, be
donated to and housed at Stanford University Libraries.)
kbookwalter@gmail.com
Born June 2, 1932 into a large family in Alliance, Nebraska, Daniel Clyde Jordan was a child
prodigy who at the age of nine was considerably on his own financially, paying, for example, for
his own piano lessons. At the age of 13 he began his musical studies of the organ at the
University of Wyoming from which he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Music when he was
17. During his junior year Dan Jordan became the first American to be awarded a Rhodes
Scholarship for music.4 At Oxford University in England he earned both a Bachelor and Master
of Arts degree in the composition, theory, and history of music; and he began his doctoral studies
in musicology at the same institution. Interrupting his studies, he served in the U.S. Army for
two years from 1956 to 1958.
At this point, in 1958, Daniel Jordan made a critical decision that would change the course of
his life and which will change, I believe, the future course of education. Turning down an offer
to play Beethoven's “Emperor's Concerto” with the Oslo Symphony, which most likely would
have set him on the tour circuit as a concert pianist, Jordan changed his career direction to human
development and began collegiate studies again at the University of Chicago. 5 In 1959 he
completed the course work for his bachelor's degree but did not take the final exams because he
already had two B.A.’s. From 1959 to 1960 he earned a master's degree in human development:
an interdisciplinary course of study which examined the development of the human organism
from conception to death from biological, psychological, sociological, and anthropological
points of view. In 1964 he obtained a Ph.D. in human development with specialization in social
anthropology and psychology. He went on to carry out a post-doctoral sequence in brain
structure and brain chemistry and their relation to memory, emotion, and learning.
In 1965 Dr. Jordan became the Director of the Institute for Research in Human Behavior at
Indiana State University in Terre Haute where his principal project was the Upward Bound
Program for disadvantaged high school students. In 1968 he joined the faculty at the University
of Massachusetts, Amherst as the director of the Center for the Study of Aesthetics in Education,
the director of the Tutorial Program for Minority Students, and the director of the
Comprehensive Study of Compensatory Education in Massachusetts.
It was from 1971 until 1975 that Dr. Jordan, with the invaluable collaboration of his long-time
friend, former doctoral student, and administrative assistant Dr. Donald T. Streets, 6 directed the
“The San Diego Union,” from an article by Jim Okerblom, Section B-2, Column 1, circa October 24,
1982. According to Donald T. Streets, Dan Jordan was awarded his Rhodes Scholarship when he was a
junior at the University of Wyoming. (Donald Streets to Keith Bookwalter, December 24, 2020.
Much of this biographical information was taken from a video recording made some time during 1982 at
National University in which Dr. Gerald Ball introduces Dr. Jordan who speaks about the evolution of the
universe and life systems during this cosmic epoch and their relation to the processes of differentiation
and integration.
According to a telephone conversation of this author with Donald Streets (on 12/22/20), his friendship
with Dan Jordan began in 1957 or 1958 when Dan invited Don to become a member of the Bahá’í
National Youth Committee. Their professional collaboration started in 1968 when Dan invited Don to
Center for the Study of Human Potential at the University of Massachusetts. His principal
endeavor at the Center was the Anisa7 Project in which he guided the conceptualization of a
comprehensive educational system organized around a coherent and integrated philosophical
base. From this organismic philosophy, a theory of human development was deduced from
which were generated sub-ordinate theories of curriculum, pedagogy, administration, and
evaluation. Dr. Jordan also guided the successful fielding8 of the Anisa Model of Education 9 in
Hampden, Maine; Suffield, Connecticut; Fall River, Massachusetts; Kansas City, Missouri; and
in southern Ohio.10
In 1978 Dr. Jordan became the Chairperson of the Department of Education at the California
American University in Escondido, California. In 1979, he established contact with National
University in San Diego, California and, via the timely intervention Dr. Donald T. Streets,11 Dr.
carry out his doctoral studies in education at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. His dissertation,
The Development of Perception, was a significant contribution to the research-base of the theory of
development and to the process curriculum of the Anisa Model. Dr. Streets also made significant
contributions to both the development of the theory of administration and to the management of, what can
be called, the Anisa Project on both the East Coast and West Coast of the United States. His students (the
author included) often paid tribute to his kind encouragement, unwavering support, and sagacious
guidance. The book that he contributed to as one of the chapter authors and edited, Administering Day
Care and Preschool Programs, published by Allyn and Bacon, Inc., in 1982, is a major contribution to
the development of the Anisa Model and its application to the field of early childhood education. Both in
Massachusetts and California, students affectionately termed the Anisa program “The Dan and Don
Show.”
The term “Anisa” has two meanings. It is an ancient word meaning “the tree of life” and “symbolically
represents never-ending growth and fruition in the context of protection and shelter, and signifies the
blending of the useable and fruitful past with a new sense of future (See: “The Anisa Model: A New Basis
for Educational Planning,” D.C. Jordan and D.T. Streets, in Young Children, 1973, June, p. 290). ANISA
is also an acronym that stands for “American National Institutes for Social Advancement,” a non-profit
organization created to promote the Anisa Model of Education.
This fielding process was culminated by the official validation of the Anisa program in Suffield,
Connecticut on October 16, 1976 by the U.S. Office of Education. (Source: letter dated February 1, 1977
to Dr. Daniel Jordan from Roger E. Richards, Dissemination Coordinator, State of Connecticut, State
Department of Education.)
A major source of inspiration and guidance for Dr. Jordan in the creation of the Anisa Model was the
writings of the Bahá’í Faith most of which can be accessed at https://reference.bahai.org/en/.
Most of the above biographical information was taken from Dr. Jordan’s curriculum vitae dated
September 1979.
Dr. Streets related to the author the story of how the Anisa Model moved from the East Coast to the
West Coast. Briefly, needing to strike out on their own due to the lack of funding available at the
University of Massachusetts for continuing the needed research and to hire more salaried staff beyond just
Streets and Jordan, they presented the Anisa Model to several prestigious universities on the East Coast
Jordan joined its faculty and founded the University’s School of Education and became its Dean.
During this same year he was appointed to a National “blue ribbon” Task Force on Nutrition
Education for Pregnant Women, Lactating Mothers, Infants, Children, and Adolescents which
was jointly sponsored by the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, the U.S. Department
of Agriculture, the White House, the National Institutes of Health, and the National Association
for Nutrition Education.12
At the time of his passing on October 15 or 16, 1982, at the age of 50, Dr. Daniel Jordan was
at the peak of his career. He had established at National University an accredited master's degree
program; a university-based, laboratory school for kindergarten through high school; and was on
the verge of obtaining accreditation for a doctoral program. He had obtained a contract with the
Association for the World University 13 to develop their curriculum and had founded the
International Center for Human Development. 14 All of these programs were based on the
concepts underlying the Anisa Model of Education. 15
with the hope of implementing an Anisa-based school of education. The universities of renown turned a
“deaf ear” to the proposal. Kenneth Blanchard and Paul Hersey invited them to the West Coast to
establish a department of education at their fledgling California American University. However, it proved
to be too small of an operation for the resources needed. National University, the newly founded, fastest-
growing, and most innovative universities in California at the time; was contacted. Interest was expressed
but hesitation followed. Dr. Streets intervened, reminded them that they needed a school of education,
that Dr. Jordan was a Rhodes Scholar and an up and coming figure in the field of education. The proposal
was accepted and the Anisa-based School of Education was then founded.
National University MU Weekly bulletin, December 3, 1979.
According to Douglas McAdam, a student and close associate of Marian Lippitt who was the principal
compiler of the book The Worlds of God: Basic Classifications of Existence as Defined in the Bahá’í
Writings: A Compilation, prepared by The National Reference Library Committee of the National
Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States, 1965-1974 and developer of a new science called Science
of Reality, which is based on this book, Dan Jordan was also a protégé of Marian Lippitt and that they
collaborated closely on the proposal of a curriculum for the world university project referred which,
according this author’s understanding, although independent UNESCO, was an outgrowth of a perceived
need of that organization. See, for example, the monologue “An Integrative Framework for a World
Education Curriculum—Science of Reality” prepared by Marian Lippitt and Daniel Jordan and presented
by Dr. Jordan to the Committee for the World University, Inc., June 1980.
During a visit at the author’s home in Honduras in 1979, Dr. Jordan showed us the physical plant
designs of the International Center for Human Development. One of its purposes was to serve as an
international “think tank” for generating solutions to stubborn, national and world problems. The project
proposal had received a favorable response from the sitting Vice President of the United States at the
time, Walter Mondale (copy of letter on file) who passed the project on to the Department of Health,
Education and Welfare for its consideration. Unfortunately, due to Jordan’s untimely death, the dream
that was perhaps the closest to his heart was never realized.
National University Bulletin, Vol. 12, No. 3, Summer, 1982, pp. 177-205.
This chronology of Daniel Jordan’s professional life needs to be supplemented with other
miscellaneous notes of interest. During his undergraduate studies at the University of Wyoming
he was the recipient of several awards: Phi Sigma Iota Award for highest grade average in
Modern Languages, Phi Mu Alpha Award for work in Music, Phi Kappa Phi and Phi Beta Kappa
Awards for the highest grade average in his graduating class, and the Theodore Presser Award
for Music. His doctoral dissertation, An Experimental Approach to the Jungian Theory of the
Archetypes won Honorable Mention in the Creative Talent Awards sponsored by the American
Institute of Research. (In addition to being an authority on the work of Carl G. Jung16, Dr. Jordan
had a deep understanding and was an outstanding interpreter of the ideas and philosophy of
Alfred North Whitehead. He gave courses, conducted seminars, and lectured extensively on his
work.) During the period 1959-1960 Jordan worked as an orderly on the Psychiatric Ward at the
University of Chicago’s Medical Clinics and in 1975 he obtained a license to practice
psychology. In addition to his extensive and varied consultant work (twenty-two projects are
referred to in the documents on file), he was a guest lecturer at over seventy universities
throughout the U.S. and other countries; and was a speaker or panelist on over two hundred
television and radio programs including popular talk shows over national networks such as The
Dinah Shore Show and The Mike Douglas Show.
In the area of the arts, in addition to being a virtuoso on the piano, Daniel Jordan had
expertise in dance, 17 drawing, music composition, and film production. As part of his doctoral
work he wrote and directed a ballet titled Metamorphosis of the Owls for which he wrote the
musical score and scenario.
In the field of architecture Professor Jordan was an expert on The Pattern Language of
Christopher Alexander, considered by many during the 1970’s and early 80’s to be the foremost
design theorist in North American; an opinion which was more recently confirmed when
Alexander won the 2001 Residential Architect Leadership and Hall of Fame Award.18 In 1979
Dr. Jordan was instrumental in commissioning Christopher Alexander to design an Anisa-based
school at a Bahá’í property near Davison, Michigan. The resultant design plan--Patterns for the
Design of the Louhelen Educational Center 19--was never realized due to a financial crisis caused
by the 1978 revolution in Irán. In 1979 Dan Jordan traveled to Tegucigalpa, Honduras to train
the faculty and administrators of The Mayan School in the Anisa Model and to create design
According Donald T. Streets, Dan Jordan was scheduled to meet with Dr. Jung, be the latter passed
away two weeks before the appointment. (Donald Streets to Keith Bookwalter, December 24, 2020.)
Proposal for Graduate Degree Programs, prepared by the Center for the Study of Human Potential for
Pepperdine University, January 1976, Appendix III, “Faculty and Staff Vitae,” 1.
As accessed on March 22, 2004 at www.patternlanguage.com
Patterns for the Design of the Louhelen Educational Center, Volume V, Submitted to The National
Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States by The Louhelen Educational Center Project
Committee, June 1979.
specifications for their new school plant. 20 Dr. Jordan understood the depth and long-range
prospects of Alexander’s approach to environmental design, especially the great potential it held
for the creation of educational facilities that would support rather than restrain human
development and learning.
Dan Jordan, the husband, father, and family man is a story I am not able to tell. Someday I
hope it will be told by his beloved wife Nancy and his three precious daughters, Melissa, Sarah,
and Charlotte.
His religious life and services were deep and extensive. He served many years as an elected
member of the governing body of the Bahá’í community of the United States. I recall one of our
last conversations during which he mentioned that he would be entering upon his 20th year of
service on this board of directors. He reminisced about all the changes he had seen take place. I
asked him about his management of time and how much of it he dedicated to his religious
activities. He estimated about 40 hours per month. But again, this fascinating aspect of Dan
Jordan’s life will have to be told by those who have better access to the pertinent information. 21
What I am able to offer the readers are a few comments made by some of his students and
colleagues. They are not extensive, yet they serve as flashes of light in the darkness, illuminating
briefly the various facets of one of the Creator’s very special souls as perceived by those who
worked with, loved and admired him.
In the words of Lynn Laing, the news bureau director at the Vista Campus of National
University, “I would say the best way to describe him is to say he was a genius. He also had a
good sense of humor. He laughed often. He was well-liked and respected... especially for his
contributions to this university.”22 To this comment about Dr. Jordan’s genius I would add a
further dimension. He was a genius who was fully conscious of both his Divinely-granted gift
and of his responsibility to serve humankind that such genius entails. On one occasion, while he
was speaking on some subject with his usual superb command of both concepts and pertinent
data, he must have sensed my awe (or seen my jaw drop in wonder), for he stopped and
commented to me, “But I am not even bilingual and YOU are” in an unsuccessful attempt to
reduce my amazement.
My participation in the project I found to be so intriguing that in 1982, as a culminating master’s degree
project at National University, under the tutelage of Professor Jordan, I carried out an in depth study of
Christopher Alexander’s now classic trilogy—A Timeless Way of Building, A Pattern Language, and The
Oregon Experiment—and applied his “language” to the creation of specifications for a new school facility
titled, “Fits, Misfits, and Omits: Patterns for the Design of the New Campus for the International School
of San Pedro Sula, Honduras.”
For more information regarding his services to the Baháí Faith, see:
https://bahaipedia.org/Daniel_Jordan.
The San Diego Union newspaper, article by Jim Okerblom, section B-1, circa October 24, 1982.
The Anisa consultants, Gordon and Irene Hartley,23 attributed Dr. Jordon’s power to attract
and motivate people to his unique combination of genius and deep spirituality—his ability to
“touch people at the very center of their being.” They were also amazed by his knowledge and
expertise in such a wide variety of activities, some of which were of a very practical and
technological nature: cooking, baking, carpentry, mechanics, construction, and others. 24
Dr. Magdalene Carney, a close friend of Dan Jordan, wrote the following memo which I
found appended to her dissertation, “Dan, your ideal of excellence is a constant lure. With
grateful heart and abiding affection for all you have done for me. Mag.” 25
Dr. Pattabi Raman, in his dissertation wrote the following acknowledgement:
Words cannot do full justice to the encouragement and constant guidance I received from
Professor Daniel C. Jordan, Chairman of my Committee. His exemplary dedication to
excellence in providing quality professional direction in all of his undertakings, a virtue
on the wane in academic circles, has been one of the greatest sources of inspiration in this
effort. His indefatigable energy, which met its ultimate test as he tried to read every
sentence of the manuscript, and his constant emotional support during my periods of
fatigue and depression will long be remembered and greatly appreciated. 26
Another doctoral student, Lawrence N. McCullough, expressed his “deep feelings of
indebtedness and gratitude” to “Dr. Daniel C. Jordan for his professional interest and friendship
extending over many years and for the inspiration of his broad vision of possibilities in
education.”27
The late Gordon and Irene Hartley were international Anisa consultants who dedicated their retirement
years to promoting the Anisa Model throughout the world. They implemented the Model in Connecticut,
California, Canada, West Germany, India and Colombia, and in 1992 were invited to Brazil and Bolivia.
Gordon Hartley had expertise in the design and arrangement of classroom furniture and didactic materials
in accordance with the specifications of the Anisa Model. Irene Hartley was an Anisa master teacher,
curriculum specialist, and staff developer. Dr. Jordan referred to her as his “model practitioner.” She was
the first teacher to offer to implement his theories in her kindergarten classroom in Suffield, Connecticut
in 1973 and became the first person to be credentialed by the State of Connecticut as an Anisa Curriculum
Specialist.
Based on interview notes of this author.
Margaret Magdalene Carney, The Learning Competence Paradigm of the Anisa Model and the
Preparation of Teachers, Ed.D. diss., University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 1977.
S. Pattabi Raman, Biological Dimensions of the Value Theory of the Anisa Educational Model, EdD
diss., University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 1974, v.
Lawrence N. McCullough, An Organic Approach to Educational Program Development: Model,
Method, and Framework, EdD diss., University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 1978, v.
In the “Acknowledgements” section of his dissertation Walter Leopold stated,
...I wish to acknowledge my indebtedness, gratitude and love for Dr. Daniel C. Jordan,
who by his personal example taught me that a teacher is not only responsible for the
intellectual growth of his students, but must also be a physician of the soul. 28
Dr. George Bondra included the following words of acknowledgement in his doctoral dis
sertation The Anisa Model: A Scientific Paradigm for Education and Its Implications for a
Theory of Evaluation:
I wish to express my deepest thanks to Dr. Daniel C. Jordan, chairman of my dissertation
committee, for his substantial contribution to the growth of knowledge and his devotion
to putting that knowledge into practice as he did in working with me. To experience the
universal in the particular, as I did in each step of this work with Dr. Jordan, is unique
indeed—beyond any explicit verbal thanks. 29
In order to understand the profound and far-reaching effect that Jordan’s work has brought
about and will continue to bring about on the development of education as a new science (and
art), I think that it is worthwhile quoting the following section from Dr. Bondra’s dissertation:
Since scientific models are the creation of an inventive mind, it will be helpful in
understanding the Anisa Model to discuss briefly some of the influences that have shaped
the inventor’s view of reality. Daniel C. Jordan, a Rhodes Scholar, epitomizes C. P.
Snow’s “two cultures.” He has earned three degrees in music. He holds two advanced
degrees from the University of Chicago in an interdisciplinary course of study involving
human development from biological, psychological and anthropological perspectives.
Post-doctoral study involved brain chemistry and its relationship to memory and learning.
These influences contributed to his bridging the two cultures of art and science. He
characterizes Kuhn’s observation about men who have invented new paradigms; they are
either very young or new to the field and not fully committed to the traditional rules
permitting them to be freer to conceive of another set. Professor Jordan became aware of
gaps between theory and practice in education. He believed that education was dominated
more by practice than theory. There was no organized knowledge about human growth
Walter Daniel Leopold, Creativity and Education: Some Theories and Procedures to Enhance the
Development of Creativity Within a Classroom Setting, EdD diss., University of Massachusetts, Amherst,
1972, v.
George Bondra, The Anisa Model: A Scientific Paradigm for Education and Its Implications for a
Theory of Evaluation, EdD. diss., University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 1980, v.
and development that could be optimally used for practice by teachers.
His initial conceptual efforts began over eighteen years ago as Director of the Institute
for Research in Human Behavior at Indiana State University. Initially, Jordan observed
that educators were more concerned with curriculum and not the nature of the child for
whom it was designed. Very early on, therefore, Jordan selected his basic unit of study—
man. Toward that end, he studied man’s best thinking about the nature of man reviewing
all major philosophers from Parmenides to the process philosophers of today.
Over a ten year span, Dr. Jordan, reviewed the most significant philosophic works as
the basis for theory construction. The organismic philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead
generated the best framework for analyzing and synthesizing knowledge about human
growth and development, including the concept of purpose. In order to design a new
educational system that is comprehensive (i.e., to be able to unite every aspect of human
experience) required a philosophy that held promise for a new ideological base.
Whitehead (1969) believed that “philosophy is the endeavour to frame a coherent,
logical, necessary system of general ideas in terms of which every element of our
experience can be interpreted (p21).”30 His process philosophy, which is integrative and
all-inclusive, nevertheless, keeps any system open to new data with no claim that it his
system is final. Whitehead’s system is a synthesis of both Eastern and Western streams of
thought. However, it is not eclectic; the synthesis was seen as providing the basis for an
educational model with cross-cultural implications.
Hartshorne (1950), currently the most outstanding process philosopher, makes the
following observation on Whitehead’s philosophy:
... one may say that the basic principles of our knowledge and experience,
physical, biological, sociological, aesthetic, religious—are in this philosophy
given an intellectual integration such as only a thousand or ten thousand years of
further reflection and inquiry seem likely to exhaust or adequately evaluate. . . (p.
19)31
Jordan, in his review of the major philosophers, therefore, discovered an organizing
principle for a science of education in specific form from the cosmology set forth in
Whitehead (1929) Process and Reality. For Whitehead, the most pervasive characteristic
of the universe is change. Change means process, and process presupposes potentiality.
This for Jordan served as his first principle: the concept of process as the translation of
potentiality into actuality.
Alfred North Whitehead, Process and Reality (New York: The Free Press, 1978), 3.
Charles Hartshorne, Whitehead’s Philosophy: Selected Essays 1935-1970 (Lincoln and London:
University of Nebraska Press, 1972), 19.
As noted in the Introduction (p.1), Jordan viewed science as more than knowledge. A
science of education could not be created until the massive information available about
human growth, development, learning, and behavior could be organized into usable form.
Jordan found such a principle in Whitehead’s concept of the process of creativity; this
provided him with a basis for deriving a set of concepts that could be used to organize
current knowledge about human development. This offered the possibility of translating
our knowledge into a coherent body of theory that could serve as the substantive body of
knowledge for professional educational practices. With such an empirical scientific
footing, educational practices could be evaluated and continuously refined. Analogous to
medical practices, which are based on the biological sciences, education could then make
more accurate predictions, providing, as a consequence, improved accountability.
Jordan and his colleagues, in establishing a coherent body of theory that addressed all
aspects of education (i.e., human development, curriculum, pedagogy, administration,
etc.) attempted to test every newly developed theoretical concept against relevant
empirical studies available from the literature of the biological and behavioral sciences.
Based on this broad philosophical and theoretical foundation, the beginning of a
comprehensive and coherent model of education was generated. 32
How did Jordan describe himself? As a specialist he considered himself to be an authority on
human development.33 But during one of his lectures,34 he used a term which is far more
accurate. He referred to himself as an “integrative generalist.”35 And indeed he was. His
knowledge and expertise were far too vast for anyone to refer to him only as an authority on
human development. He was also a psychologist (cognitive psychology was his area of
specialization36), an educator, philosopher, brain/mind expert, administrator, dean, staff
Bondra, The Anisa Model: A Scientific Paradigm for Education and Its Implications for a Theory of
Evaluation, 120-23.
Based on a diagram created by Dr. Jordan for Irene Hartley outlining the major theorists and
philosophers drawn upon for the Anisa Model.
Based on this author’s lecture notes taken during the summers of 1981 and 1982.
The only similar type of integrative generalist which I can compare Dr. Jordan to is R. Buckminster
Fuller in the applied, physical sciences. As a note of interest, in a letter to the author, Dr. Jordan refers to
an hour-long interview with Buckminster Fuller whom he deeply admired. He stated that the recording of
the interview should be at the University of Massachusetts and that he has a letter from Mr. Fuller in
which he offers to serve as a consultant for the development of the Anisa science curriculum. [A
transcript of this interview is now available at Stanford University Libraries where the R. Buckminster
Fuller Collection is also housed.]
During a personal conversation with this author, Dr. Jordan related that in 1976 the Teacher Training
University of Teheran, Iran, asked the U.S. Department of State to send them an expert in cognitive
psychology. The American Specialist Program, Bureau of Cultural and Educational Affairs first chose
developer, curriculum specialist, school plant design consultant, educational and religious leader,
visionary, theorist, writer, author, pianist, artist, dancer, husband, father, friend and much, much
more. He exerted himself day and night to keep his mind on the cutting edge of new
developments in any and all fields which offered possibilities for increasing the quality of human
life: medicine, science, technology, parapsychology, psychiatry, brain research, social
movements, government, religion, etc. Armed with this knowledge he not only moved the pre-
paradigmatic field of education onto a scientific foundation, but also chose for that foundation
the leading edge paradigm variously described as organismic, holistic, process-oriented,
Whiteheadian—a new cosmology, a unified world view, a philosophy of reality which has
already swept through the hard sciences and is now bringing about radical changes in the human
sciences and the traditional world religions. And beyond being a “man of powerful ideas” Dr.
Jordan was also the epitome of the “man of action” who wanted to translate his new schemes of
thought into viable, practical programs for the benefit of all peoples.
Dr. Nancy McCormick Rambusch, one of Dr. Jordan’s doctoral students, founder of the
American Montessori Society and major contributor to the pedagogical practices of the Anisa
Model and trainer of Anisa teachers, makes reference to Dr. Jordan in her doctoral dissertation as
follows:
The impulse behind the development of the ANISA model came from within Daniel
Jordan, its architect. It was in response to the broadest assessment of existing cultural and
moral conditions and existing education options within them, that he developed the
model.
At the present time the world of humanity and the different cultures it
represents are in the midst of the most extensive crises ever known to man. The
ways we have learned to feel, think, and act are no longer functional….
These crises are forcing humanity to seek a new culture, one that is universal
and therefore functional for all men everywhere; one that can create a new race of
men, new social institutions, and new physical environments (Jordan, World
Order, 1970, 5(1), pp. 12-13).
There was no external pressure on Daniel Jordan to develop the ANISA model. He
was impelled by a personal sense of urgency to do this. The public problem which served
as the basis for his action was his perception of the world as being in a state of collapse;
Jerome Bruner, but he had just returned from a consulting assignment. Their second choice was Dr.
Jordan who accepted and carried out the request.
his response was the formulation of an educational model which aspired to create a 'new
race of men [Ibid.].”37
In another section of her dissertation Ms. Rambusch states:
Dan Jordan was in a situation similar to that of Montessori before she left the University
of Rome and struck out on her own to franchise her own educational model. The
university setting represents a free market of inquiry. To work within a university setting
is to invite criticism and evaluation. Dan Jordan was willing to do this, as Maria
Montessori was not. He was the ANISA model; the ANISA model was he, in the sense
that he was its ultimate interpreter as well as proximate “manager.” The model was fully
articulated in its essentials, prior to diffusion and it was fully realized in its essentials in
the person of Daniel Jordan. Dan was the “center” of the center. 38
Ms. Rambusch made, what would turn out to be, a tragic, yet inspiring, parallel between the lives
of Daniel Jordan and Mahatma Gandhi:
It [the Anisa Model] might also be considered, in its educational guise, as a social
movement39 . . . Those drawn to participate in the ANISA model came both because of
the stunning intellectual clarity that informed it and because of the opportunity it offered
them to work with Daniel Jordan, its propagator. A rare person and a genuine innovator,
Jordan can be compared to Gandhi in his effect on those working close to him, as I
perceived the relationship.
Whatever their identity when they met Gandhi.... their pasts have now become
part of his life and his death… men and women forever living in a glorious past
when historical actuality had been quickened to a rare intensity and pace...
[Erickson, 1969, p.61]
Nancy McCormick Rambusch, Intuitive and Intentional Change Agentry, EdD diss., (Amherst:
University of Massachusetts, 1977), 186. (Retrieved in print in 1987 from University Microfilms
International, Xerox University Microfilms No. 77-21,492, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 48106.)
Rambusch, Intuitive and Intentional Change Agentry, 131.
Dr. Rambusch also referred to the impact of Anisa on the “social ecology” of a school:
Complex innovations [in reference to the Anisa Model] which involve not only discrete
administrative and pedagogical strategies but an alteration in the social ecology of the school
must be “lived” to become clear. In a Research, Development, and Diffusion model of change,
such as the ANISA model, not until the model was in the field was it possible to speak of clients
having more than a theoretical understanding of it. (Rambusch, Intuitive and Intentional Change
Agentry 185.)
They felt augmented in his presence beyond personal desert and native capacity...
For the numinous 40 person has the strange power to make the participant feel part
of him and yet also feel augmented in himself.” [Ibid., 1969, p.63].41
And now, looking back over these past ten years, it can be seen that the “augmented participants”
have not failed to carry forward “historical actuality” towards the fulfillment of Daniel Jordan's
dream of a new, universal cultural in which every person’s potential faculties and talents will be
brought forth into the sunlight of honoring the Creator and His creation through service to the
world of humanity. His fellow colleagues, his students, and those who have been attracted to the
elegance of his scheme of thought and his call for a “new way” of educating the future
generations of humankind have taken up his ideas and applied them each in his or her own
sphere of life: in their classrooms; the raising of their children; university research 42; professional
“Numinous,” according to Webster’s New International Dictionary, means “… characteristic of… the
divine force or potency ascribed to objects or beings regarded with awe.”
Ibid., 118.
Regarding Daniel Jordan’s profound influence on this author, upon the completion of my master’s
degree in the Anisa Model of Education at National University, San Diego, in the fall of 1982, Dr. Jordan
extended to me a formal invitation to engage in doctoral studies with him. He gave me a description of a
course of study that he had designed. His untimely passing just a few weeks later, of course, made this
impossible. Nevertheless, I decided to carry on with the pathway he had mapped out. At one point we had
discussed what a study of Alfred North Whitehead’s most significant works would entail along with the
perusal of the most significant commentaries and elaborations of Whiteheadian scholars. It took me
nearly a decade to complete the outline Dr. Jordan had made for me. Then, in 1994, after a great deal of
searching and false starts, I finally found a university (The Union Institute & University in Cincinnati,
Ohio) that made it possible for me to design my own doctoral program (which I based on Dr. Jordan’s
vision of an Anisa-based, doctoral course of study) and to place on my doctoral committee two principle
players in the development of the Model—Dr. George Bondra and Dr. Malcom Evans. In 1998 I
graduated with a Ph.D. in human development with specializations in cognitive development and
education. In my dissertation—The Development of Four Logical Structures in a Sample of Colombian
Children—the dedicatory frontispiece features the words, “To the memory of my beloved mentor, Daniel
C. Jordan, seer of potentialities within, visionary of ideals beyond, encourager of excellence in all.” Then,
over the course of 15 years I trained over 130 teachers from 15 schools in five cities of Colombia in how
to develop the logical, mathematical, and scientific thinking of children. In 2007, based on this same
research, I co-founded the Foundation for Multidimensional Education (which has its headquarters in
Cartagena, Colombia) for the purpose of carrying forward this Piagetian approach to cognitive
development, an approach that was often referred to in Dr. Jordan’s lectures and television presentations.
Just two months before his passing, I met with Dr. Jordan in his university office. It was not the usual
sort of conversation. He spoke of his frequent travels, the risks that such travel entailed, and the
possibility that at any given moment he might not be with us any longer. He wanted us (he mentioned a
few names of his staff members) to carry forward the development of the Model. For the first time since I
associations; their writings; their school systems and communities; their way of thinking, feeling,
and perceiving reality. . . their very way of living and being. No doubt the near future will see a
resurgence of interest in his process-based system of education and the distant future, when the
fruits are in hand, will see Dr. Daniel C. Jordan being given the homage he deserves as one of the
most outstanding and far-sighted leaders the field of education has ever seen.
had met him, he told me that there were definite anomalies in the Model and that his commentary on them
could be found in his notes which he jotted into small notebooks while traveling and which he kept in his
office at home. (After his death, according to Don Streets, the last of these was confiscated by the police
for their investigation of his murder and was never returned.) In 2017, I found three others in the Jordan
Collection at Stanford University Libraries, but they contained no references to anomalies, only
recommendations for the future development and application of the Model. My own work has been an
attempt to identify and correct anomalies in the Model in the light of practice and current research and
developments in education and related fields.
From 1987 to 1993, I collaborated with Irene and Gordon Hartley in the implementation of Anisa
principles as we created the Marymount-Barranquilla Model of Education at the Marymount School in
Barranquilla located on the Caribbean Coast of Colombia. My efforts to carry forward the development of
the Anisa Model, termed the Wholistic Educational System (WES) for practical and legal reasons, were
published in Process Papers, No. 4, December 1999 and as “Chapter 2: WES: A Theory and Framework
for an International Curriculum” in The Internationalization of the Curriculum Studies: Selected
Proceedings from the LSU Conference 2000, edited by Donna Trueit, William E. Doll, Jr., Hongyu
Wang, and William F. Pinar, (New York: Peter Lang Publications, 2003). Another Anisa-inspired project
in which I have engaged is the creation of Life in Dynamic Harmony: a Wholistic Program for Self-
Transformation (paperback book in the offing) which is based on nine principles and utilizes the Native
American Indian Medicine Wheel as an archetypal, graphic organizer for harmonizing thirty-six basic life
processes. Presently, after retiring in 2019 as the principal of a public, K-8, dual immersion, school of
choice in East Palo Alto, California, I am engaged in expanding my university textbook chapter on the
Wholistic Educational System into a book with the same title.
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