48

Around this time in 1977, my friend Anne Sager and I were busily preparing for the opening of The New School.  Months earlier, I was talking with my teacher, Erma Pounds, and she suggested the idea of starting a school.  As a young mother of a three-year-old and newborn, I said yes.  

In the early days we received help and materials from a friend who previously had a school named The New School, so we originally went with that name.  Our first two years were at our family home, and we utilized our garage, family room, and back yard for school activities.  We had 9-10 kids the first two years and operated just a few mornings a week.  During the second year, we hired someone to take my place so I could do my student teaching in a public school kindergarten and complete my teaching degree at ASU.  

After a few years, we decided to change the name of the school.  The name Awakening Seed came to me in a dream, and over the years we’ve evolved into the name.  The Seed has grown organically, gradually expanding our grade levels and into bigger locations.  The students, staff, and events of the early days have blended together in my memory, and sometimes I wonder how we survived.  For years and years we existed on a slim budget, and it was a long time before I actually paid myself.  In time, all of that worked out, and somehow we managed to weather the changes necessary to become the school we are today.  

One of the most significant pieces of Seed history occurred in 1998 when we purchased our current property, then constructed our building and moved in during 1999.  It was a huge step and financial risk, but one we deemed completely necessary.  Interestingly, this October we will make our last payment on the million-dollar-plus loan we committed to at that time.  As our facility and enrollment developed, so did our staff.     

In the last 47 years, the Seed has had many extraordinary teachers and staff.  Many have also been parents, allowing them to work in the same environment where their children were/are also present.  We have numerous staff members who were Seed students themselves, and bring their personal Seed childhood memories to their work. Regardless of the role or time frame in which they have been on the staff, common qualities are curiosity, kindness, commitment to child-centered learning, social justice, and planetary stewardship. We’re all human, still make mistakes, and continue to strive to be better versions of ourselves. 

As we move into this new school year, our 48th year, our focus as a staff is on communications.  We want to be more mindful of how we communicate with each other, with our students, and the parents we serve.  In refining our practices around communications, we add a new version of togetherness to the Seed history.  Ultimately, it will enhance the experience for everyone, offering a program even more aligned with the Seed mission statement:

“Awakening Seed is an innovative, compassionate learning community that inspires global citizens by fostering curiosity, celebrating uniqueness, and promoting social justice.”