Creativity, community, and critical thinking are strong threads running through Hannah Sarvasy’s life. They were nurtured at Walden, and although completely intertwined, each dominates in one of three central activities in Hannah’s adult life: art, the Conservation Corp, and field linguistics. Running through it all is Hannah’s love of adventure.

I had the opportunity to interview Hannah, who graduated from Walden in 1993, just before she headed off to Australia to earn her PhD through the International Institute of Tropical Studies, a program of James Cook University in Cairns. Her work will be writing the grammar of a previously undescribed language. Hannah’s academic career evinces her capacity for critical thinking. Beginning during her college years at Harvard, where she studied folklore and field linguistics, Hannah has intermittently been in the field studying and documenting languages: Berber in Morocco and the Netherlands, the Ethiopian church language Ge’ez in the Netherlands (through a Fulbright scholarship), and more recently the dying languages of Kim and Bom in Sierra Leone. You can watch a New York Times video about Hannah’s work with Tucker Childs in Sierra Leone.

Hannah is grateful for the learning style fostered at Walden, which resulted in irreverent feelings about grades and external evaluation; on the other hand, a self-directed learning style is active and creative. When she found that no one at Harvard specialized in Berber, she had the confidence and skills to go off to Morocco to discover, teach herself, and complete her project on Berber.

Small community life appeals to Hannah. She has found that life in the Conservation Corps leading and mentoring young adults. Hannah began leading trail work sessions in Oregon and the Northwest after college. Among the goals of the work are building a strong work ethic through strenuous work, confidence through pushing limits without breaking, and self-sufficiency in community. She takes pleasure in the small communities the teams form, pulling together to do hard work and live with each other—idiosyncrasies, irritations, and all. Hannah also finds small community life in other cultures in the small villages she lives in while studying languages, where she appreciates the absence of existential angst and loneliness. For several years Hannah has alternated time spent documenting languages and working in the Conservation Corps, becoming part of the communities she finds through both endeavors.

Hannah has always enjoyed writing and art, from early childhood on, particularly drawing, which has led her into the land of cartooning and graphic novels. She cartooned for the Harvard Crimson and self-published the novella Dear Brother about a Moroccan in Holland (where there is a large Berber expatriate community). She has also created graphic primers for the Kim and Bom languages. You can see her work, also including murals and illustrations, on her website. Her graphic short story “The Building Permit” received a Finalist Award in the Narrative Magazine 2010 30 and Below contest and can be read online. Hannah’s creative artwork punctuates her work in linguistics and the Conservation Corps.

Hannah has fond memories of Walden and feels strongly that her experiences at Walden shaped who she is today. Hannah’s family was committed to Walden partially because her paternal grandmother was founder Ida Wilcher’s cousin. From a very young age, Hannah was driven to learn and finish things quickly. She feels that this drive either could have become unhealthy or could have been stifled at another school. She particularly remembers being given individualized work to do and open-ended projects in the Upper Group, crafted so students could apply themselves according to their abilities. Hannah said that she kind of skipped a grade, but because of the mixed-age classes and the strong student community, she had friends in the group above and the transition was seamless. Hannah felt challenged at Walden and didn’t feel like she stood out from the rest of her classmates.

Hannah remembers feeling confident as a young girl at Walden. Her group in the Upper Group was full of energy and they felt like they ruled the world. They would gather in the music room for lunch and create fantasy worlds and gossip. She remembers making femo earrings to sell at the Spring Fair and starting a small business doing games at children’s parties. All these years later she definitely feels that creativity was nurtured at Walden.

I was amazed to learn how many different interests Hannah pursues with passion, depth, and continuity. Talking to Hannah confirmed my feeling that Walden students develop a rich and dynamic approach to learning and living, and carry the Walden legacies of creativity, community, and critical thinking into the world with them. They leave Walden with the confidence to question, integrate, and innovate—all skills which mature as they do and take them in many fascinating and significant directions.

It’s always interesting to know more about our donors and what makes them choose to support Walden. Jeremy LaTrasse (dad of Aldi in the Upper Group and Rei in the Middle Group) has been an enthusiastic supporter of Walden since Aldi joined the Lower Group in 2005. Jeremy has volunteered extensively on the Fundraising Committee, the Construction Crew, and in countless other ways. Two years ago he gave Walden a $10,000 challenge grant, followed by a $50,000 challenge last spring. In September, he made an unprecedented stock donation valued around $1.6M to help us realize our long-term goal of rebuilding our campus for the future. Development Coordinator Sarah Cheney had a chance to sit down with Jeremy to find out about his philosophy on philanthropy and why he wanted to make sure both of his children could come to Walden.

Sarah: What is your philosophy about philanthropy?

Jeremy: I want my philanthropy to be very focused on things that I can tangibly see and contribute to physically. I don’t want to just write a check and have it go across the country. Also, while it’s important to give to disease fighting and home building for people who can’t afford it, the primary goal of my giving is to increase kids education and to broaden their perspectives. Everything I do involves art and kids.

I also wanted to be involved with the community where my kids were. Before Walden I worked about thirty hours per week for the Oakland small schools and primarily donated my time. To feel like I’m part of a community and that I’m giving as much as everyone else is giving is important to me.

S: Some people might hear your response and wonder how you can feel like you need to give as much as everyone else when you just gave the school an unprecedented $1.6M gift?

J: I look at people like Lee McRae and Audrey Goodfriend (two of Walden’s founders) and the teachers at Walden and I know that there are so many people who have worked on Walden for so many years. I’ll only be here for nine or ten years and I view my money as my gift. The questions I want to answer are: How can I ensure the community’s existence? What do I want it to be like when I leave? How can I make it better?

S: Why did you choose Walden for your children?

J: The kids of a friend of ours went to Walden and we knew we weren’t going to send our kids to Oakland public schools. I wanted them to have autonomy and art. We cast about when it was time for Aldi to go to Kindergarten and Walden is the only school that we attended an orientation for. We came to the orientation and it was talking to Jenny Holland (Walden’s Music Teacher at the time) and Cristin Costello (Walden’s Middle Group Teacher and Admissions Coordinator at the time) that convinced us. Cristin did a great job of describing the anarchist/communist roots of the school and Jenny and I got to have a great deep discussion about music and children and evolution and that sold me. Shannon and I decided that we needed to find a way to make it work even though we couldn’t afford full tuition. At that time I had been unemployed for two years and Walden made it work and made sure we could continue to send our kids there.

S: How do you orient toward an anarchistic viewpoint?

J: A lot of people confuse anarchy with discord and violence. The black bandana anarchists, they are nihilists. We are “little l” libertarians. Our values include that personal liberties be intact, the ability to be able to fail, to be able to make mistakes, to not fit into the confines of what’s dictated by a society. This doesn’t mean you get to behave the any way you want to. You need to be thoughtful and considerate or otherwise society will shun you. Inconsiderate behavior leads to isolation. I’m not talking about going around trying to make everyone happy but the reality that the need to consider others is important.

S: In what ways to you see that alive and well at Walden?

J: Immediately I think of the fact that kids aren’t required to wear shoes and that there’s no uniform of any kind. A lot of it is about self-organization; there isn’t some talking head out there telling us what to do and where to go. You can see that in action with the assemblies and the work crews at Walden.

S: You have always found a way to give to Walden generously even when you didn’t have the financial means to give. What do you say to someone who doesn’t feel a sense of responsibility to give or who says they cannot give?

J: I believe that there are people who are not in a situation where they can give right now, however, I think that’s when you have to reprioritize your life. If you can’t give money that’s fine but if you can’t give time there’s a problem. If you have kids or grandkids coming to Walden and you want to be involved in their life, a majority of their waking hours are spent at school. If you don’t have time to spend there then you need to revaluate your life and priorities.

A sense of responsibility is mandatory for any social group. The equation in my mind is that if you are going to participate in the society and you say you want to be part of the community, there is an inherent requirement for action, if you feel like it’s someone else’s responsibility, you aren’t even meeting the baseline requirement for being part of a community.

S: How do you define the level at which you give?

J: My whole thing is to give ‘til it hurts. Give until it impacts my ability to do something fun or that I’ve wanted to do. I always noticed that the people I wanted to be around most in my life were the ones that would drop everything important in their lives to come to the aid of a friend. That’s how I want to be in my life. Here’s a great example: About 15 yeas ago a friend of mine gave a kidney to a complete stranger. I went through an evaluation after that. Would I give my kidney to a complete stranger? The answer is no. That’s superhero behavior. But it made me evaluate how I measure myself.

S: What are your personal goals for Walden/the world that you hope to achieve through your donations?

J: I don’t have a world picture. All I have is a Berkeley/Oakland picture. The Berkeley/Oakland picture is that I want Walden to be accessible to any kid whose family wants them to go there. Throw the doors open and invite people from our community to come. A large part of my big gift is to get the school onto solid ground in terms of its ability to support what the teachers and the community need and want long-term.

S: What is one thing people don’t know about you that you wish they knew?

J: That’s a hard one. How would you answer that? What I’m bad at is expressing visually and vocally is how much slack I actually give other people. I make poor choices in words but my number one goal is to learn by making mistakes and that’s my goal for everyone around me. You get lots and lots of chances with me.

Also my heroes are Aldous Huxley, Noam Chomsky, and Terry Gilliam.

Please join us for a rollicking, frolicking good time at our annual Winter Frolic on Saturday, December 3rd at 2:00-5:00 p.m.

Take a pause to enjoy the spirit of the season.
BRING A FRIEND and join us for an afternoon of frolicking fun!

* Gift-making and craft activities for kids of all ages
* Highlights from last year’s performance of Cats
* Entertainment
* Food and drinks will be available for sale

For children 5 and under and their parents
Special activities starting at 2:30 p.m.

Songs, rhymes, finger plays, and fun so our smallest friends
can get an age-appropriate taste of what Walden is all about
– with Russell Wright, Walden drama and movement teacher
and 2011 East Bay Express Best K-12 Teacher, and
Harry Gray, Walden music teacher.

All community members are welcome to this free event
brought to you by the Walden Parents Association.

We are definitely Mad about Walden and plan to whoop it up 1950’s style!

November 19, 2011
7:00–10:00 pm

Walden parents Christa Rybczynski and Lawrence Grown are again hosting at their award-winning store Metro Lighting.

We’ll bring our progressive Walden ethos to the style of the 1950s!

Be sure to get your tickets early to enjoy tasty bites, live music, drinks, and our silent auction. You might even find yourself dancing!

Your participation funds our financial aid program and builds our diverse and textured learning environment. Come party and support our amazing school!

Purchase Tickets

Tickets are available at Walden or online at Brown Paper Tickets.

Purchase now until November 4 for $25 early-bird pricing.

Now–November 4: $25
November 5–14: $30
November 15–19: $40

See you all there for a smashing evening!

Online Auction

You can bid online until Saturday, November 19 at 12 noon. Bidding will continue offline at the Gala. If you cannot attend the Gala, you can set up proxy bids and still be in the mix!

Walden is thrilled to announce that we have received a truly extraordinary gift from Walden parent Jeremy LaTrasse. Jeremy, who was part of Twitter’s original team, has donated Twitter stock to Walden with a current value of approximately $2 million! The purpose of this restricted gift is to help achieve an important long-held goal of the Walden Foundation: to improve our campus by expanding, renovating, and rebuilding it. Thank you, Jeremy!

We know that there will be many questions about this project—how, what, where, when, why? Despite the charm of our beloved fifty-two-year-old campus, many of the buildings are in need of repair. But more than that, we are envisioning Walden for the next fifty years and beyond.

We are engaged in a community-based design process. The Foundation and Collective have already begun to brainstorm ideas for the redevelopment plan. The major improvements include expanded teaching and support spaces, full ADA accessibility, and earthquake safety, with an emphasis on sustainable building materials and systems. Next Walden parents will bring their ideas to our fall parent forum. We expect a lively brainstorming session.

As we begin our design process, we are interested in ideas from all members of our community. Please share them with us. As we change we will remain the same. Walden will continue to place child-centered education at the heart of our plans as we begin this amazing new chapter of our history, ensuring that we put children first each step of the way. It has been our tradition to live within our means and we will continue that tradition with this project.

Time to clean out your drawers and closets to get ready for the new school year. The lovely sweater that’s been sitting at the bottom of the drawer for two years needs to come out of hiding and keep someone else warm this autumn. There is bound to be a yummy something to replace it at Walden’s Annual Back-to-School Clothing Swap on Saturday, September 10, 2011, 1–3 pm. Clean and wearable clothing and accessories for children, women, and men are the currency, plus a suggested donation of $5 per family. Nothing to swap? No problem, come anyway and make a suggested donation of $10 per family. Nibble on tasty treats while volunteers sort the offerings and then swap away. Sponsored by the Walden’s Parent Association, this is a fun event for all ages.

Upper Group teacher Jon Patmore delivered the following speech at the 2011 Walden graduation ceremony on June 15, 2011. It nicely captures key aspects of Walden’s philosophy. -Vicki Edge

This is a jar of paper clips. I’ve got two questions for you about the contents of the jar, and I want to use each of the questions to talk just a little bit about this year’s graduating class and about what we are doing here at Walden.

The first question is a simple one. Please try to think of your answer without saying your guess out loud. How many paper clips are in the jar? Now, on the count of three, I’m going to ask that you all say your answer at the same time. Here we go. One, two, three.

I’ll get to the answer in a couple of minutes. Here’s the amazing thing, though: Studies have shown that, if we were to tally up the guesses of everyone in this room and take the average of those guesses, we would probably get a better guess than any one individual guess. This may sound hard to believe, but consider this: In the beginning of a book he wrote a few years ago, James Surowiecki tells the story of people trying to guess the weight of an ox at a country fair in England in 1906. While none of the 787 guesses named the weight correctly, the average of all of the guesses was 1,097 pounds. The ox, in fact, weighed 1,098 pounds. The guess of the group was more accurate than any single person’s guess.

Surowiecki says that the group can and does outshine the individuals within it over time, provided that three things are in place: independence, diversity of thought, and a system to put the thinking together. In other words, together, as a group, we can be smarter than any single one of us.

You might be thinking, “But Jon, ‘How many paper clips are in a jar?’ is a pretty simple question. Real life is a lot more complicated than that.” However, it turns out that this model can work for problems that are far less straightforward. For example, last August, in the Atacama desert of northern Chile, a cave-in at the San Jose copper and gold mine trapped thirty-three men almost a half mile below ground and three miles from the mine entrance. When the mining company’s rescue efforts seemed to be failing, Chilean President Sebastian Piñera put out an international call for help. The group which came together to work on the problem included three large drilling-rig teams plus representatives from nearly every government ministry in Chile, people from NASA, and people from more than a dozen corporations from around the world. In the end, in October, sixty-nine days after the initial collapse, all thirty-three miners returned to the surface, alive and relatively healthy. The wisdom of a group of independent parties with different ways of looking at things helped generate the solution to a complex, life-and-death problem.

Is the group always smart or right? Obviously not. However, disasters have occurred precisely because people ignored the wisdom of the group or because one or more of the factors I mentioned earlier—independence, diversity of thought, or a way to put the information together—was not in place.

It is worth noting, as Surowiecki and Scott Page both point out, that independence and diversity of thought mean that there will be a certain amount of disagreement. In fact, disagreement is one of the main sources of different solutions. The group’s intelligence drops as soon as everyone starts falling in line and agreeing mindlessly.

Collective intelligence is something the Walden teachers strive for when running the school, and it is something we try to foster in the students. This year’s sixth graders are an amazing group. They are bristling with imagination, enthusiasm, and humor. It has been an honor to have worked with them over time and to have watched them grow as individuals and as a team.

This brings me back to the jar and on to my second question. This one is a little bit more difficult, or at least more complicated, but it’s one you may have heard before. Again, as you think of your response, try to hold on to it quietly for a moment. Now, if you have one of these paper clips, how many uses can you think of for it? I will put my hand in the air to signal that time is up, but, if you would, please think about the question and then turn to a neighbor and share some of your ideas.

Along with holding pieces of paper together, people have come up with a lot of uses. You could use a paper clip as a zipper pull, a hair barrette, to clean your fingernails, as an ornament holder, to unclog an Elmer’s glue bottle, as an emergency cotter pin, an ear ring, a reset tool for certain electronic devices, a nose weight for paper airplanes, a lock picking tool. That’s just the start of the list, of course, and I think I’ve actually put most of those functions to work.

Recently, I read a surprising story about what a Canadian blogger named Kyle MacDonald did with a paper clip. In 2005, he set out to trade one red paper clip for “something bigger, something better.” Using Craigslist to get the word out, he traded the red paper clip for a fish pen. He traded the fish pen for a handmade ceramic drawer pull and the drawer pull for a used camp stove. He continued trading up until, in 2006, on just his 14th trade, he reached his goal. In that final trade, he gave a paid speaking role in a Hollywood movie for a two-story farmhouse on Main Street in Kipling, Saskatchewan. He turned a paper clip into a house.

In any case, guessing the number of paper clips in a jar is a convergent thinking task. You are converging on a single right answer. This is important work, but it is limiting. Generating uses for a paper clip is an example of a divergent thinking task. Sir Ken Robinson, among others, talks about this. Divergent thinking is about seeing lots of possible answers to a question. Says one psychology textbook, “divergent thinking is found among people with personalities which have traits such as nonconformity, curiosity, willingness to take risks, and persistence.” That sounds like a Walden kid to me. Divergent thinking is a vital component of creativity, and creativity, Sir Ken argues, is an absolutely essential skill set for approaching the challenges of the 21st century as well as for nurturing our souls.

The kids in this group are full of creativity and full of energy. Each of them can bounce ideas around or come up with many answers to a single question. As Russell said the other day, “They are all artists.” Their stories for the class book come to mind as a demonstration of this. They didn’t just write interesting things, either. As anyone who stayed to the end of the Upper Group writing night knows, they wrote a lot. However, this is where the intelligence of the group and the importance of divergent thinking come together. Keeping in mind that these sixth graders are independent and have their own ways of thinking about things, given the platform of a project or a performance, they’re really amazing when they are working as a group. I’m thinking about their sixth grade newspaper, for example, which they named The Fifi Six. The title alone suggests a sort of purposeful randomness, but, behind that goofy invention, they spent hours crafting the articles, features, and layout of the piece. The camping trip skits, the Spanish skits, the Upper Group music night, the animation projects, and, of course, the Upper Group play all demonstrated elements of their creative strengths as individuals and as a group. Of course, the success of the students reflects the effort and love of the parents and grandparents and the greater Walden community.

In closing, I’d like you to think about your answer to the first question. How many paper clips are in the jar? The answer is 2,061. I chose the number to represent the calendar year 50 years from now: Twenty sixty-one. To me, it suggests a future not so far off and yet, in some ways, a time distinctly difficult to imagine. I believe that nurturing collaboration, fostering wise groups, and encouraging creative thought and endeavors, including thinking differently, will help us prepare for and even shape a future full of possibilities.

The graduation speech given by Walden alumna (2005) Grace Mungovan at her Berkeley High School graduation ceremony was published in the Huffington Post on June 6, 2011. Grace’s mother Joanne had this to say, “Thank you to Walden for instilling great values not to mention superb public speaking skill!” Congratulations to Grace and her family and to the whole class of 2005!

The Walden community is abuzz preparing for our upcoming 52nd annual Spring Fair to be held Saturday May 14, 2011, 10 AM – 5 PM. This year’s theme “Walden: Where the World Comes Together,” celebrates the multifaceted diversity of our community.

I can’t wait to sample Dutch or Thai dishes in the luncheon room, then on to the café for some home-baked dessert and tea. When my second wave of hunger comes around, you’ll find me at the barbecue, expertly managed by Armon, trying to chose my next course. With a full tummy I’ll sit and enjoy some live entertainment, provided largely by members of the Walden community—maybe an original rap, an Irish fiddle tune, or an Iranian instrumental. The children’s games are a hoot, especially the wet sponge toss. I’m sure to have to go through the raffle two or three times to take it all in, and the same goes for the arts and crafts room, and of course, I can’t miss our legendary book room and plant sale. Maybe I’ll have my face painted this year. And whether you love it or hate it, the Cake Walk is always a crowd stopper!

I love the fact that this event draws from our entire extended community. It is a delight to see our nonagenarian founder Audrey sporting a beautiful face painting. I always look forward to seeing alumni of all ages—from last year’s graduates to members of Walden’s first class, which started in 1958—and relish the chance to have a chat and catch up with everyone. The Spring Fair is a relaxed family affair that has everyone leaving with a smile…if not with a raffle prize.

Join us and soak up the warm, welcoming, creative, playful, multidimensional community that makes us Walden!

We are excited to announce that Walden parents Jeremy LaTrasse and Shannon Solano have challenged the wider Walden community to raise $50,000, which they will match! They want to see Walden’s diverse community remain so—and grow—by supporting tuition assistance.

Jeremy and Shannon appreciate that Walden gives their children individual opportunities, and teaches them to act as part of a community. They believe that a diverse community is a strong community. Children learn how to navigate differences—including their own—with compassion and humanity by being taught how to do so from an early age within a multilayered and multitextured community.

Walden’s social-emotional learning curriculum helps children learn to voice their feelings and opinions freely and to listen to others well, especially when it is difficult—when they disagree, when they have different experiences or assumptions, or when they are just feeling cranky! Walden children really learn to “use their words.”

Jeremy and Shannon are being supported in their fund-raising efforts by Walden founder Lee McRae, who with others, began Walden as an intentional act of pacifism. They followed Gandhi’s advise, “If we are to reach real peace in this world, we shall have to begin with the children.” Recently Lee reached out to her pacifist friends around the country asking them to support Walden.

As part of their peaceful education, Lee and her cofounders wanted all children to experience the joy of learning, feel self-confident, and develop the capacity for critical thinking. They wanted children to engage in art as an every day experience, not something reserved for artists. Fifty years before experts demonstrated the value of arts in education Walden focused on the arts as the way to teach and reach each student. Jeremy and Shannon see that legacy in their own children. “Our kids get amazing creative training and thus they are led to a love of learning.”

We invite you to join Lee, Jeremy, Shannon, and the Walden community in rising to this amazing challenge. Help us bring another family to Walden who needs financial assistance to attend. You can donate now or mail a check to the Walden Foundation at 2446 McKinley Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94703.