Maja Bentley

Maja Tschernjakow Bentley (Apelman) was born in Vienna in 1922 and moved with her family in 1938 to London as a refugee from National Socialism. She attended the Summerhill School in northern England before moving with her family to New York City (Queens) in 1940.

She was student at Black Mountain College for the summer of 1942. She returned for the winter and spring quarters in 1943 and remained through the 1944 summer session. She married Eric Bentley, a history and drama teacher at Black Mountain. She later completed her B.A. degree at Barnard College.

She was translator with Bentley for Parables for the Theatre and Two Plays by Bertolt Brecht: The Good Woman of Setzuan and The Causasian Chalk Circle (1948). She obtained her M.A. in education at the University of Minnesota while Bentley was teaching there. After her divorce from Bentley, she obtained a second M.A. degree from Bank School College of Education.

She married Martin Apelman, a pianist and woodworker, among other things. They lived in Manhattan where their son Mark was born. She worked and taught at Headstart, New York University and Bank Street College. In 1971 when she divorced, Maja Apelman and her son moved to Boulder, Colorado where she worked at the Mountain View Center for Environmental Education, a teacher’s center founded by MacArthur Fellow David Hawkins and his wife Frances Pockman Hawkins.

She authored Block Building: Some Practical Suggestions for Teachers (1982), Critical Barriers Phenomenon in Elementary School with David Hawkins and Philip Morrison (1985), and Exploring Everyday Math with Julia A. King (1993).

Biography written by Mary Emma Harris for the Black Mountain College Project.

Alternative Names: Maja Tschernjakow, naturalized 8/28/1946, Maja Apelman

Relationships

Husband: BMC faculty, Eric Bentley

Courses Taken

Summer quarter 2nd session 1941-42 (Tschernjakow): Reading in Literature (Kurtz), Ear Training and Keyboard Harmony (Evarts), Piano Lesson (Jalowetz), Advanced French Conversation (de Graaff), Modern European History Tutorial(Bentley), Chorus (Jalowetz)

Winter Quarter 1942-43 (Bentley):Europe 1600-1800 (Bentley), Social Composition of America (Miller), Readings in Spanish Literature (De Graaff), Current Affairs (Bentley), The Opera of Mozart (Jalowetz), The Seeing of Art(Albers). Community Work Program (Wood)

Spring Quarter 1942-43:The Nineteenth Century (Bentley), Comparative Religion (Miller), The Twentieth Century (Bentley), Piano Lessons (Kahl), The Operas of Mozart (Jalowetz), Community Work Program (Woof)

Summer Quarter 1943:Drama Since Ibsen (Dr. Bentley), Piano Lessons (Jalowetz), Drama from Lessing to Ibsen (Erik Bentley), French Conversation (Mrs. Henry Freud), Chorus