Staff Spotlight: The Alumni (part 2)

Including the spring and summer, there are 22 Meher Schools staff members who attended the school as children. We asked this special group a few questions, and some of their responses are shared below. This is part 2 of 3. Stay tuned for more responses next week!

What is something that you learned at The Meher Schools that stuck with you?

• Kyle LaMay, elementary aftercare teacher: I learned about kindness toward others and about having a strong work ethic. (Because of fifth grade, I did really well academically in sixth grade and beyond.)

• Warren Wallace, director of admissions: Treat everyone with kindness. Try your best at every single thing you do.

• Ivy Summers, elementary co-principal: The general principles of trying your best, learning/growing by working with other people (rather than competing against them), and having a beautiful and organized environment.

• Amy Weinstein, elementary theater teacher: I learned that what other people think of me doesn't matter as much as what I think of myself.

• Chloe Gilmore, kindergarten teacher: To come at everything you do with love. To consider the importance of love in as many areas of life as possible. It has taken me so far.

• Vince d’Assis, elementary co-principal: Every person has value. Even if you can't see it on the surface, it's there.

• Beatrice Lindemuth, preschool and elementary substitute teacher: The importance of the arts, the value of nature, and how to be respectful and accepting of all people.

• Adrienne Wallace, garden teacher: Be accepting of everyone, no matter what.

What is something from the school that made you who you are today?

• Hannah Anderson, D.R.A.M.A. Camp teacher: My love of animals and art both started at The Meher Schools in the form of nature walks and always being encouraged to draw, and I am now trying to double-major in both at college.

• Catherine Thompson, elementary P.E. teacher: I had a solid core of inner strength from my time at the school. It was buried for a while, but it surfaced when I needed it the most. I have always been able to count on the fact that I am worthy of love and have something to offer to the world, because of my time at the school.

• Vince d’Assis: The messages in the songs stuck with me. I didn't register them consciously until much later in life, but the values we sang about became a part of my being.

• Amy Weinstein: The school always teaches kindness and friendship. Finding friendship in unlikely places and creating bonds with people who you may not usually hang out with is a huge part of what it means to go to The Meher Schools.

• Kyle LaMay: Learning how to be compassionate toward others.

• Anna Parker, preschool teacher: I’m observant and that helps me in my job.

• Chloe Gilmore: The drama program and chorus were huge for me. People probably couldn't see that because I was still so shy, but on the inside I was incredibly proud of the parts I was given and the professionalism with costuming, makeup, and lighting.

• Rohan Iyer, D.R.A.M.A. Camp volunteer: The ideals and morals that I was instilled with, and the memories of the friends and teachers I had there shaped who I was as a person.

Check back next week for more in our third and final installment of the alumni staff interviews.

Staff Spotlight: The Alumni (part 1)

“No way. I NEVER want to be a teacher.” This is how Elementary Co-Principal Vince d’Assis says his elementary self would have responded if someone told him that he’d work at the school in the future. Elementary Co-Principal Ivy Summers would have said, “I wouldn’t believe them!”

Including the spring and summer, there are 22 Meher Schools staff members who attended the school as children. This is unheard of at other preschool and elementary schools, but listening to our alumni staff members talk about the school, it’s not surprising!

Some others said their elementary selves would have responded with just as much shock or skepticism:

• “There’s no way I will have time to work at Meher School, because I’m pretty sure I will be busy training to become an Olympic horseback rider, a ballerina, a fashion designer, or a photojournalist.” Karima Hastings, second grade teacher

• “I thought I'd grow up and be a professional fish tank decorator. Things change, I guess!” Chloe Gilmore, kindergarten teacher

• “No way! I'm going to be a veterinarian.” Rosanna Allen, preschool teacher

• “She would laugh hysterically!” Catherine Thompson, elementary P.E. teacher

• “I would’ve never guessed.” Anna Parker, preschool teacher

• “I'd be a little confused because I was sure I was going to be a doctor or president.” Adrienne Wallace, garden teacher

Others say that their younger selves would not be so surprised, including Rohan Iyer (D.R.A.M.A. Camp volunteer), Hannah Anderson (D.R.A.M.A. Camp teacher), Amy Wienstein (elementary theater teacher), Beatrice Lindemuth (preschool and elementary substitute teacher), and Warren Wallace (director of community engagement and data).

We asked our alumni staff members a few other questions too, and some of their responses are shared below. We’ll share more in later blog posts.

What is one special memory you have from your time here as a student?

• Chloe Gilmore: When I was in third grade, there was a boy in my class who I felt would seek me out to say mean things or hurt me. I didn't understand him or his personality, or why we couldn't get along, but I felt negatively toward him, and I bet he felt it. One day my teacher, Ms. (Kim) Leonard, kept us both after school to make chocolate fudge, lots of it. Enough for every single classroom. It took hours. He and I bonded over it, and I'm sure Ms. Leonard slipped in a lot of helpful words while we baked. We passed out all of the fudge together the next day, and I remember feeling like the rivalry was suddenly over and my school life was so much more peaceful. He even wrote about how it impacted him in my fifth grade yearbook.

• Beatrice Lindemuth: I remember how much fun I had during the summer Drama Camp plays. The excitement of waiting backstage!

• Vince d’Assis: One of my classmates ran away from school in fourth grade … They were so concerned for his safety and mental well-being, he got a piece of chocolate when they found him. They saw that he needed support most of all instead of punishment.

They were so concerned for his safety and mental well-being, he got a piece of chocolate when they found him.

• Amy Wienstein: I remember the first day that they put in the play structure … It was the most exciting day for everyone. The line for the monkey bars wrapped around the entire playground, and almost no one could get a turn on the zip line.

• Catherine Thompson: "When my parents were divorcing and I was a mess, Ms. Toni (Hastings) gave five-year-old me a love-knot necklace. She said I could hold it anytime I felt upset or alone. Twenty years later, I gave it to another little girl at the school whose parents were divorcing, with the same explanation."

• Rosanna Allen: Singing with Mr. Z (Paul Zwicker, a former teacher who has returned to sing with the children for many years – and now has a grandson here)!

Stay tuned for more stories from our alumni staff members next week!

Communicating About the “Ripples”

Maria Montessori, the famous Italian educator, called the process of helping a child successfully adjust to a new class and be open to new learning “normalization.” This word, normalization, helps us understand that the process of feeling “normal,” or comfortable in a new environment, isn’t automatic or necessarily easy. Picture yourself starting a new job and how hyperaware you might be of the people around you as you try to learn their expectations and acclimate to a new physical environment and group culture.

White Pony and Meher School teachers pour tremendous energy into this normalization process. They want to tenderly create relationships with students, and also with their parents, caregivers, and family members. Our vision is that that our whole community is learning to work together to create a vibrant web of loving connectivity. One of our school songs, “Learning to Work Together,” expresses the essence and scope of our intentions: “We are building more than a home, we are building a living school. We are building a brand-new world, and our lives are the tools.”

Learning to work together is really the foundation of all we do. As new families come to the school and continuing students move to new classrooms, we want everyone to feel welcome, equally at home, and involved. Toward that end, we might all – parents and teaches – reflect on the energy, commitment, and trust it takes to build relationships.

Since teachers are focused on the child’s well-being and happiness in the classroom, they want to know anything that might cause ripples in that process. Teachers have no way of knowing if a child’s bad mood or acting out is because of lack of sleep or an argument on the way to school. They depend on you, the parent, to give them the information they need to support your child. They will ask questions that help them understand what a child is experiencing.

If parents empathize with the hypersensitivity and effort it takes for teachers to tune into each of their students, they can more easily understand how important it is to share the information that they are traveling, their house is being renovated, or they have out-of-town visitors. Sometimes parents are stressed by an impending event they don’t want to share yet with their children, but teachers benefit from knowing or at least hearing about a possible change.

Teachers want to be empathic with parents too – the pressures of their jobs, the wondering about new patterns in their child’s development. They are committed to hearing parents’ concerns and communicating with them in kind, mutually supportive ways. It we stay awake to the fact that we are all involved in a vibrant learning process together, we can try to consciously make our image of a “living school” an everyday reality.