Austin EcoSchoolinspired learning

A biography for an endeavor of the heart will always feel insufficient. Specifics are necessary, but intangibles are at least as important. I’m reminded of when I was 19 and asked someone, “What do you do?” The creative but belligerent soul replied, “Do you mean, ‘What do I do for money,’ or, ‘What do I love and makes me an interesting person?’” I’ll try to offer a suitable mashup of facts and the less concrete but just as essential.

My life to this point has revolved around music, theatre, politics, spiritual learning, education, and children (which qualify as “all of the above”). These ventures — adventures, really — share the qualities of being creative, process-oriented, open-ended, and involving life-affirming work with other human beings. Sound like EcoSchool? It did to me.

Some “Just the facts, Ma’am” details: I’ve sung and performed all my life, hold a BA in Drama, and write and direct productions for all ages. My political activism led to appointment to the Parks and Recreation Board by two Austin mayors. I love songwriting and singing with my amazing children whenever I can. I’ve been an educator since my teens, and have homeschooled my four kids from when my 21-year-old was 5 until now, when my youngest is nearly 13. For 11 years, we attended Austin Area Homeschoolers’ Friday Coop, where I taught just about everything. I have served four Unitarian Universalist congregations as Director of Religious Education, and am trained as a grief group facilitator and a prejudice awareness trainer. Currently, I serve a small church as quarter-time Interim Religious Education Consultant, and preach and officiate weddings when opportunity arises (people let me).

I have always loved language. From playing with lyrics as a child to writing angst-ridden poetry as a teen to political advocacy speeches to children’s stories to sermons to curricula to e-mails (which I proofread, true, haha), I thrill to the possibilities of words. It has been an enduring delight to teach language arts to my own children and other homeschool students. The subjects grouped as Social Studies have also been a lifelong fascination, dealing as they do with human experience and interaction. The opportunity to share my passions at Austin EcoSchool, with these amazing students and this remarkable faculty and curriculum, is a spectacular blessing.

The philosophical underpinnings of the school speak to my soul. I believe in the inherent goodness of human beings. I believe people of all ages have a deep yearning to learn and thrive, that we want to connect with each other and be successful in the most important human sense: to be kind, thankful, generous, aware, and happy.

I believe people learn best in an environment of great freedom and radical, loving respect and trust. Freedom doesn’t mean complete behavioral license. I have high expectations of my classes. I bring focus, commitment, and enthusiasm, and have loving dependence on students’ doing the same. Unwritten but central to all my teaching is that every person is sacred, each one beloved … each is like a poem: having, within his or her own limits, infinite possibilities.

Learning with and loving other people is always a leap into the great unknown. Interacting with children, especially, is powerful business, elevating and humbling. They are such rich and remarkable creatures, so hard-working, so vital and purposeful, simple and mysterious. To share their path on this sacred journey is an honor I’m thankful for every day.