About Linda
Meeting Waldorf Education 1987 changed my focus and direction.
I became a widow in 1986 and wanted something more for my two children than public school. Growing up Catholic and knowing of parochial schools and the existence of Montessori schools, I searched for something else. Why a special education for my children? I think it was an intuition toward the growth and development of my family which included the holistic approach. An education that met youth and adults with the heart, soul, social and physical needs of the human being.
I felt the calling to teach and finished two years of training at the Waldorf teacher’s college in Fair Oaks, CA. From there I took a class of students from first through 8th grade at the Seattle Waldorf School. Those eight years brought my passion for middle school students to the for-front.
In 1997, I met Tamara Slayton while searching for an Anthroposophical approach to puberty and adolescence. This new found passion had everything to do with my lack of education in my own life and building courage out the inspiration from Tamara. Between 1996 and 2010 I worked with schools, communities, parents and youth in the classroom, in workshops, seminars and through my published curricula in support of this transformative time in every human beings life. ( See Collaborative Education, Publications, Products.)
The collegial relationship that I had with Tamara exposed me to the five main themes Tamara investigated and ‘preached ‘about. Her first love came about with he own personal development with regard to her relationship with her female body and gaining personal empowerment to bring women’s issues into the light. The female body is closely related to the earth and the heavens thus Nature is also our mother. Out of motherhood came a desire for an intentional sustainable community which served the needs and joys of the community through all ages and all of life’s transitions. She was an ardent festival and ceremony promoter part of the cultural life that nourished community. Encouraging each of us to find the spiritual meaning in celebrations and festivals connected to nature and the heavens and those supporting the important transitions in people’s lives. Her empathy for and education of youth and their mentors empowered to all. The multilevel human experience of death and dying and the afterlife also occupied Tamara’s research and interest.
Tamara and I have very similar personal stories and I feel a deep kinship with those themes which motivated and nurtured Tamara. I was exuberantly entrenched with puberty, adolescence and rites of passage between 1990 and 2010. I raised four teens in a blended family and taught middle school. I retired from classroom teaching so that I may pursue full time a new direction and continue writing. See (Life Celebrations.)
