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SPRING 2011

INSIDE: MEET THE PRESIDENT OUR PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE ONE ALUMNA’S JOURNEY

THE MAGAZINE OFPACIFIC OAKS COLLEGE& CHILDREN’S SCHOOL

Pacific Oaks is

RisingA Time of Renewal

PACIFICOAKS.EDU 1THE MAGAZINE OF PACIFIC OAKS COLLEGE & CHILDREN’S SCHOOL

3 AROUND THE OAK

& IN THE YARD

Burgess Lecture, Children’s School Spring Event, a new president, and more.

7 PERSPECTIVES

Faculty discuss issues facing American education today.

24 LIVING THE MISSION

An alumna’s journey to success; Carlson family reflects on its multigenerational attachment to the Children’s School.

28 RINGS OF THE OAK

Play as an essential path to early learning: a photo essay.

FEATURESCOVER STORY

DEPARTMENTS

12 PACIFIC OAKS

IS RISINGEmbarking on an era of

renewed energy, unbridled

optimism, and a broadened

vision, Pacific Oaks charts

its path toward the future.

SPRING 2011

14 OUR PASTA Proud and Storied History

20 OUR PRESENTAmerican Education Today

22 OUR FUTUREA Vision for Tomorrow


CO-AUTHOR OF THE National Asso-ciation for the Education of Young Children’s new Anti-Bias Education for Young Children and Ourselves with Professor Emerita Louise Derman-Sparks, Edwards has been on the ECE faculty of Cabrillo College since 1971 and served as department chair for 25 of those years. An award win-ning writer, editor, and consultant, she also has worked as an elementary school teacher and reading specialist; a children’s center director; a teacher

of infants, toddlers, and preschoolers; and a family child care home pro-vider. A recipient of many awards, she served on the national board of NAEYC and numerous committees and commissions.

The evening also included a mayoral proclamation issued by Pasadena mayor Bill Bogaard, and remarks from President Tamara Rozhon; event sponsor Alicia Procello Maddox, executive director of the Avery Dennison Foundation; and Professor Emerita Dr. Betty Jones, who

delivered last year’s lecture on the occasion of her retirement.

The Burgess Lecture was established in 1968 to honor the memory of Pacific Oaks’ first president Evangeline Burgess, who helped establish a vision for the College that emphasized the importance of early childhood education. The inau-gural lecture was given by Milton J.E. Senn, M.D., a prolific author and former director of the Yale Child Study Center, and has remained a much-anticipated event for the College.

SPRING EVENT BOOSTS SCHOLARSHIP FUND

MORE THAN $56,000 WAS RAISED for the Pacific Oaks Children’s

School Scholarship Fund at the annual Spring Event, a Spanish-

themed “Fiesta Sevillana” held March 18 at The Castle Green in Pasadena.

Co-chaired by Kim Apodaca and Sonia Yagura, the event featured a silent

and live auction with items ranging from a trip to Spain to a campout at

Pacific Oaks to artwork created by children in several yards. The children have

extended the spirit of giving by selling notecards printed with their artwork to

raise funds for Japanese earthquake and tsunami victims. “Fiesta Sevillana was a

huge success thanks to the numerous parent volunteers who contributed their

time, talent, and enthusiasm to this special event,” said Director Jane Rosenberg.

“Everyone worked tirelessly on behalf of our scholarship fund.”

JULIE OLSEN EDWARDS

For more than 40 years, the annual Evangeline Burgess

Memorial Lecture Series has provided an opportunity for

distinguished leaders in the field of early childhood education

to address the Pacific Oaks community. This year was no

different. On April 28, Julie Olsen Edwards joined the ranks

of speakers with an address at the Pasadena Convention

Center titled, “New Understandings of Anti-Bias Education

for the 21st Century Child: Addressing the Development of

Competence, Courage, and Compassion.”

Edwards Delivers Burgess Lecture

Around the Oak & In the Yard

Left: Auctioned artwork from Adventure Yard.

Right: Matthew Monahan, Lara Schnitzer, and Jenny Levy.

4 SPRING 2011

VISITORS INCLUDED four students and three faculty from Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas (UPC) in Lima, Peru.

“With our emphasis on understand-ing education and human development

within cultural contexts, the opportu-nity to bring our students and faculty together with their counterparts in other countries is a natural fit,” said Dr. Tamara Rozhon, Pacific Oaks pres-ident. “The visit gave all participants a

chance to view education from varying perspectives.”

The opportunity for the exchange came about as a result of Pacific Oaks’ ties with The Chicago School of Pro-fessional Psychology (TCSPP), which has partnered with UPC to provide reciprocal global exposure for students and faculty. Both TCSPP and PO are affiliates of TCS Education System, a nonprofit organization that provides ongoing support and resources for its member institutions, and is committed to providing international program-ming in the form of student and faculty exchanges, field experiences, academic partnerships, and international com-munity service activities.

Going forward, PO plans to lever-age the UPC partnership and similar relationships to extend its commitment to social justice and diversity to the global arena, and to provide both stu-dents and faculty with opportunities for international travel and cross-cultural service experiences.

Sharing Perspectives Across the GlobePacific Oaks opened its doors to visiting Peruvian students and faculty in February, providing both groups

with a glimpse of higher education in another country, and taking the first step toward an increased

emphasis on internationalization at the College & Children’s School.

Around the Oak & In the Yard

For proof that Pacific Oaks Children’s School has won the hearts of families throughout the San Gabriel

Valley, look no further than the Pasadena Star-News. The newspaper’s 2011 Reader’s Choice Awards,

which honor local organizations and businesses, named the Children’s School the Best Preschool in the

San Gabriel Valley. Executive Director Jane E. Rosenberg accepted the certificate on the school’s behalf.

Academic Dean Linda Clowers discuss-

es American education with visitors.

OUR BLUE RIBBON

PRESCHOOL

PACIFICOAKS.EDU 5

Answering the CallA “Call to Service” issued late last year by U.S. Education Secretary

Arne Duncan has led to a proposed partnership between Pacific Oaks

College and LA’s Best, a nonprofit organization that provides after-school

programming for children throughout Los Angeles.

DUNCAN’S CHARGE—to dramatically expand the number of teachers of color to educate the nation’s increasingly diverse K-12 student population—hit home with the two organizations, both of which are committed to diversity and to providing a bright future for American children. A new partnership has emerged from this shared interest, and plans are under way to provide LA’s Best after-school staff with professional development opportunities that will better prepare them to help children achieve academic success.

LA’s Best provides academic enrich-ment and recreational activities for 28,000

children in 180 Los Angeles elementary schools, primarily in neighborhoods vul-nerable to gangs, drugs and crime, and at schools with the lowest student test scores. The organization is staffed by child care workers and volunteers, many without teaching credentials and with academic backgrounds ranging from high school diplomas to some college work. The goal of the partnership is to provide coursework that leads to a teacher credential and, even-tually, a bachelor’s degree.

In his Call to Service, Duncan under-scored the need to prepare more highly qualified African-American and Latino

teachers as part of the Obama Administra-tion’s vision of improving achievement in low-performing schools. Currently only 7 percent of public school teachers in the United States are minorities, in contrast to one third of the children they teach. In Los Angeles, where 73 percent of public school children are Hispanic, the need for Latino teachers is particularly evident, and it is this shortage that the partnership between PO and LA’s Best wishes to address. The College’s designation as a Hispanic-Serving Institution and its expertise in preparing educators and human development professionals positions it well to provide the needed services.

“We are thrilled to partner with Pacific Oaks on this project, which will prepare teachers who are uniquely qualified to instruct students who are most in need,” said Carla Sanger, LA’s Best president and CEO. “Our goal is to develop a workforce of effective future educators who readily identify with the students they serve.”

PLANS ARE UNDER WAY to launch the new Pacific

Oaks Alumni Association, which will connect alumni,

students, and parents in lifelong relationships with one

another and Pacific Oaks. The Alumni Association will

provide educational, social, and networking opportuni-

ties to retain and strengthen friendships developed at

Pacific Oaks.

Alumni of the College & Children’s School will be

welcome at all Alumni Association-sponsored activi-

ties. Please save the date for one of the first events—

the Pacific Oaks Family and Heritage Reunion on Sat-

urday, September 10—to celebrate the proud heritage

and exciting future of the Pacific Oaks community. The

celebration will bring together alumni, faculty, staff,

friends, and family of the College & Children’s School

for an afternoon of food and fun.

STAY CONNECTEDSAVE T

HE DATE!

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO RECEIVE

information about this and more upcoming news

and events, please send your current email and

mailing address to [email protected].

IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN LEARNING

how you can become involved with the Alumni

Board, contact [email protected], call

626.529.8091, or visit pacificoaks.edu.

pacificoaks.edu

Follow Pacific Oaks College & Children's School on Facebook

NEW WEBSITE

LAUNCHES


Education in America and AbroadIS THE U.S. FALLING BEHIND IN EDUCATION? That depends on who you ask. We gathered Pacific Oaks College

& Children’s School faculty, staff, and alumni to share their opinions on why the United States is behind other countries

and what can be done about it. The conversation included Dr. Aki Ohseki, Department of Teacher Education; Dr.

Tim Sundeen, Department of Human Development; Dr. Olga Winbush, Department of Human Development; Jane

Rosenberg, executive director of the Children’s School; and Kathy Ramirez (M.A. Human Development), adjunct

instructor, Pierce College and 2008 graduate of Pacific Oaks.

VOICES: STATISTICS SHOW THE U.S. IS FALLING

BEHIND OTHER DEVELOPED COUNTRIES IN EDUCA-

TION. DO YOU BELIEVE WE’RE BEHIND?

DR. WINBUSH: I think it depends on whose definition of “behind” it is. When you measure certain aspects of learning, whoever is in power will measure it in terms of their value and norm system, which means a lot of times those outside of their value or norm system are not going to be fitting in the measurement. Having said that, I do think we are in an educational crisis in this country.

We do have issues in learning around math, we do have issues in learning around literacy, we do have issues in learning around sciences and social sciences. But as for this crisis that we are in, it’s also been very systemic. It has built up over years because the United States was famous for not investing in education like other coun-tries. They do invest in education, and so what we see in terms of these quote,

unquote, statistics of student learning between us and other countries is not also taking into account the systemic racism and classism issues that had always impacted the U.S. educational system that may not impact those other countries in the same way.

DR. SUNDEEN: The U.S. hasn’t had to put itself under a lot of pressure to learn, whether you are looking at science or math or language. Most non-U.S. students have robust foreign language learning programs. People learn English much more than the other way around because that’s the way for them to become competitive. When the United States has been an industry leader, unchallenged for a long time, the pressure is off to do well, to necessarily achieve in those areas.

VOICES: WE SEEM TO BE FALLING BEHIND, PARTICU-

LARLY IN MATH AND SCIENCE. THE REALITY IS THAT

WE ARE OUTSOURCING WORK OVERSEAS BECAUSE

WE DON’T HAVE, SUPPOSEDLY, THE PEOPLE WHO

KNOW HOW TO DO IT.

DR. WINBUSH: They say we have to out-source work because we don’t have the minds that can do that. They also know the cultural powers do not, in my estimation, search in places of color or working class to see if the minds are there because from what they say, there’s a limited few there, too.

This idea that we are lagging behind in sciences is also very indicative of what has been systematically stripped away in terms of pedagogy and schools. We’ve gone from a place of progressivism, where children were given pedagogy and curriculum where they could critically think, problem solve, and cre-ate—a good scientist has to be creative—and they have to be allowed to problem solve and do it in a group. We have stripped all of that out of our educational system in the last 15 years to a point now we have a narrow script of literacy and math, and there’s no room for a child’s thought processes.

Perspectives

ROUNDTABLE

8 SPRING 2011

ROSENBERG: I would say it even starts in early childhood. That process of inquiry and of critical thinking is so critical for children, that just having children memorize facts and trying to dispense information and having them repeat it doesn’t mean that any learning has occurred. I think one of the major faults in our educa-tional system is that children are no longer excited about learning. It’s no longer an active process where children are really engaged. I think it kills that spirit of inquiry and that curiosity and that sense of wonderment that’s so important to learning that has to happen in the early years and has to be encouraged throughout a child’s education.

VOICES: SHOULD WE EXTEND THE AMOUNT OF TIME IN

SCHOOL FOR PLAY AND INQUIRY?

ROSENBERG: I think it’s how you’re pri-oritizing the time in school. Children are unfortunately, today, in elementary schools, having very little time for play. Most of the time is preparing for the tests. Schools today are being built without playgrounds, without outdoor environments for children to go out and explore. Children can’t sit at a desk all day doing paper and pencil work and be excited about learning.

RAMIREZ: We’re seeing this major push-down effect in working with young children, birth through 5. I’ve been doing this for 30 years, and it’s getting scarier and scarier for parents. Par-ents don’t know what to do at this point. I think they get locked into what they hear, “My child by kindergarten needs to know this and this and this and this.”

DR. WINBUSH: It’s a fear that parents have, but it’s a fear that has been perpetuated by the media, by systems of power. If your child doesn’t read by the time they’re 3, they’re not going to get into Harvard. A whole lot of money is being made in textbook companies and things like Baby Can Read. It’s very much a class, race, economic system driving our education. We have adopted this idea that testing is the only way to measure how a child learns, and now we want to test 3-year-olds and 4-year-olds.

VOICES: HOW MUCH TESTING SHOULD WE DO?

DR. OHSEKI: Part of the crisis that you talk about has to do with who’s making the decisions about what counts. What counts as knowledge? What counts as success in school? People who are making those decisions are not educators; they are not people who are in the classrooms. They are not seeing a child engage in the inquiry process and have an “aha” moment. They are not the ones who are the teachers who are collaborating together and trying to figure out, “How can we better serve these children? How can we better our teaching prac-tice through reflection, through inquiry circles as adults?” So I think that the people who are making the decisions are making them based on what is happening societally, politically, which, if you look at the history of education, is cyclical. Whatever is happening in the world, in the country, is reflecting.

DR. SUNDEEN: There is a push to academize earlier, and part of the universal preschool

Perspectives

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EK

ID

R. S

UN

DE

EN

“ You can invest more, you can increase the

standards, and you can expose more at an

earlier age. But if you don’t cultivate the desire

to acquire more, if you don’t make it relevant

to kids as they get older, are they going to

really care where Zimbabwe is or what the

Pythagorean Theorem is?”


push is that kids should start getting this stuff earlier. When we look at a lot of these countries that are doing better, probably one of the biggest variables is they spend more time in school. When you talk about science and math literacy, you’re talking about content rather than skills or critical inquiry.

It’s not necessarily having content stuffed into you, but it’s about your willingness to acquire content.

You can invest more, you can increase the standards, and you can expose more at an earlier age. But if you don’t cultivate the desire to acquire more, if you don’t make it relevant to kids as they get older, are they going to really care where Zimbabwe is or what the Pythagorean Theorem is? So, looking at the countries, I have to think that it’s more than just longer school days.

It’s also about the way learning is commu-nicated and who’s held accountable. We don’t have a lot of respect for the job that teachers do in this country.

DR. WINBUSH: We’ve got a system right now, and it doesn’t work because we're put into this corporatized model of education with the idea that this works in a corporation. Workers are going to change. Child development, the way children develop, it’s very holistic. It’s all over the place. What they take in today might not click for them until two years down the line. Then they have, “Oh, yeah. Aha,” and then they act on it. But we are saying, “Well, you’ve got to perform well on this test. Make scores so our school gets funding, it doesn’t get closed, and we go charter.”

VOICES: HOW CAN AN INSTITUTION INNOVATE WITH

LIMITED RESOURCES?

RAMIREZ: I think we need to have people in places strategically throughout our educational system who are able to look at each individual child and say, “This is what I see in you, and

these are schools that I feel would be great for you.” But that starts at the earliest level as saying, “I can see that you can do this.” This is at 3, at 4, and when they are learning how to walk, when they are learning how to talk, when they are learning how to get along with one another. They are learning to problem-solve on their own and figuring that out and not having somebody scoop them up every single time that they fall down, but letting them work through that process.

DR. OHSEKI: I also think it has to do with whose voices are heard. I think a good teacher is informed by the children, and that’s who informs their practice—children and families with whom they work. Teachers then need to have a space to collaborate. It’s a reciprocal process of co-con-structing knowledge and what it means to learn and what school should be about.

DR. WINBUSH: There was a book I read a while back called Children of the Mill. It looked at a, actually back around the early 1920s, school in Gary, Ind., that had a pro-gressive school system based on Dewey. They talk about innovative approaches of science. It was a new town at the time, and there were issues with the water system and the flies that were hanging around. So the teacher took the kids out to begin to statistically look at how many flies are gathering, what kind of flies, what they do, how many are in this neighborhood, that neighborhood, and that neighborhood. Reading about flies, researching flies, seeing what happens where the flies were congregating, what was also happening to the water system when they were doing that. This was done with third, fourth, and fifth grade kids. Then the kids produced a report which they took to the city council. That’s innovative.

DR. SUNDEEN: We’ve seen a lot of different strategies that try to raise test scores. I think

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tests are useful, and they do reflect something real. I think that a good education that’s nurturing and enriching, as a byproduct, will likely be reflected in testing. It shouldn’t be a way to catch you. We do know one of the issues with No Child Left Behind is accountability. People feel like if schools don’t make the grade, that they are pun-ished with reorganization and upsetting the apple cart. That negative accountability flows down-hill so administrators blame teachers, and then teachers blame the parents. Somehow there has to be a way of recognizing that even students or families or communities that are quote, unquote, disadvantaged actually have something to con-tribute, and that we can somehow accommodate for that in that classroom.

DR. WINBUSH: We need to have a lot of other forms of assessment out there. I think the powers that be are going to have to come to terms with the fact that a lot of these standardized test scores are really tests of socioeconomic class and status.

VOICES: WHAT IS THE FIRST STEP WE SHOULD TAKE TO

START TO CHANGE THE SYSTEM?

ROSENBERG: One thing is to fund education.

DR. WINBUSH: Second, it would be nice to be able to have a dialogue and look at early child-hood process. It would be nice to bring in a lot of early childhood educators to sit down at the table to collaborate and discuss and share with the powers that be about what early childhood education is all about.

DR. SUNDEEN: I don’t think it has to be lim-ited to early childhood. I’m thinking of the

example from the Rio Grande Research Center in Texas. This is a border immigrant commu-nity, very much historically disadvantaged. They have taken this assets-based approach, bringing the kids skills and having them con-tribute to the learning process. I think a part of it is to bring a kind of a small-school orga-nization, these different educational units within the larger school where students can focus seems to make a big difference. They are succeeding by traditional measures, college attainment, how many are going to college, what kind of schools are they going to. Very, very successful.

ROSENBERG: And the same models don’t neces-sarily work in every community.

DR. WINBUSH: You have to have that commu-nity dialogue, you really do.

DR. SUNDEEN: I think in general, smaller schools, which again is harder to achieve with funding—where relationships can be built and maintained—that seems to be really important in terms of students not falling through the cracks but being viewed as individuals.

DR. OHSEKI: There’s a community of deci-sion-makers rather than the decisions being top-down. I think that’s important, too.

RAMIREZ: I think ultimately giving people a voice, so at least they feel like they are able to voice their concerns. Whether it’s the other teachers that are in that dialogue, whether it’s the administrators, the parents, or the children—at least that voice is being heard.

Perspectives

“ Schools today are being built without playgrounds, without outdoor environments

for children to go out and explore. Children can’t sit at a desk all day doing paper

and pencil work and be excited about learning.”

10 SPRING 2011


IN HER NEW BOOK, Respecting Babies: A New Look at Magda Gerber’s RIE Approach, Ruth Anne

Hammond draws on her extensive experience working with infants, toddlers and families to re-examine the Educaring™ philos-ophy that encourages caregivers to understand babies’ communication and to treat them as intelligent beings capable of solving many of their own problems. Hammond has used her work with Resources for Infant Edu-carers (RIE)—which evolved while she studied under long-time Pacific Oaks faculty member Gerber—throughout her career. Her book will be distributed to all 1,700 Early Head Start programs in fall 2011. To support that rollout, Hammond will address the Birth-to-Three Insti-tute in June. Her workshop will be titled “Respecting Babies, Respecting Adults: Educaring Works Both Ways.”

Faith, Theology and Psychoanalysis: The Life and Thought of Harry S. Guntrip, a book by Dr. Trevor

Dobbs traces the influences and struggles that Harry Guntrip, a British psychoanalytic therapist and Congregationalist minister, faced as he sought to establish his profes-

sional place in the ongoing battle between science and religion.

Two faculty were among the present-ers at the 2011 California

Association for the Education of Young Children (CAEYC) annual conference: Dr. Susan Bernheimer collaborated with Dr. Jing Babb on a paper and workshop, “The Many Faces of our Non-Tradi-tional Students: Addressing the Needs of Diverse Populations Entering Early Childhood Edu-cation.” Ruth Anne Hammond

presented a session, “Attachment Caregiving: How RIE’s Approach Leads to Self-Regulation.”

Dr. Bernheimer also presented a workshop and paper, “Inclusion of NonTraditional Students in Institu-tions of Higher Education: A Theoretic Frame,” at the 2010 Reconceptualizing Early Childhood Education Interna-tional Conference in Portland, Ore.

Pacific Oaks College was also well rep-resented at the 2010

National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) Conference: Dr. ReGena

Booze, Dr. Olga Winbush, and Cheryl Greer-Jarman presented on “Developing Appropriate Classroom Pedagogy Based on the Learning Styles Used in African-American Families.”

Dr. ReGena Booze, faculty mem-ber in the Human Development Department, has been named a finalist in the 2nd Annual Jewels of Pasadena Women of Distinc-tion Awards. Sponsored by the Pasadena Star-News and Rose Magazine, the awards—and the gala at which they are announced—spotlight women who have made extraordinary contributions to the Pasadena community.

In addition to her presentation at the NAEYC meeting, Dr.

Winbush conducted a workshop for the

Long Beach Charter Schools, “Magic Circle: Conflict Resolution and Problem-Solving With Children” in August 2010.

A summary of faculty publications,

accomplishments, and research

Laurels

12 SPRING 2011

PACIFIC OAKS IS RISING—heading surely and steadily in a direction that builds on its storied past and positions it at the vanguard of education and human development across the life-span. After an uncertain few years in which faculty, staff and alumni worked to chart the institution’s direction in a rapidly evolving higher education landscape while also preserving the aspirations that had so clearly defined the college for more than six decades, the seesaw has steadied. The small College that established its place as a leader in progressive early childhood education in the 20th century has emerged in the 21st with renewed momentum and an expanded vision for the future.

The philosophy that guided seven Pasadena families in estab-lishing the Pacific Oaks Friends School in 1945 and, 14 years later, in securing regional accreditation for a higher education program that would train early childhood educators remains unchanged. As Quakers and pacifists, these families emerged from World War II with a determination to instill their ideals—equality, peaceful

conflict resolution, and a belief in the intrinsic worth of every human being—into children at the earliest possible ages, sowing the seeds of the adults they would become.

Those principles—never dormant but often struggling to maintain their centricity as Pacific Oaks sought to rethink its path to the future—have now reclaimed their unquestioned status as Pacific Oaks College & Children’s School faces the years ahead with renewed optimism and a bold plan for the future.

“Our formula for the future is simple,” says Dr. Tamara Rozhon who, after serving three months in an interim capacity, was named president of Pacific Oaks College & Children’s School March 1. “We will leverage our remarkable past and restore the good will of our community, revitalize our academic enterprise, professionalize our business practices, improve our student services and—most of all—diversify and expand our program offerings, so that a new generation of children, parents, and students can benefit from a Pacific Oaks education.”

From the earliest days, Pacific Oaks College and

Pacific Oaks Children’s School were institutions

of renown, embracing and leading innovative

practices in education. These pioneering initiatives represent more than a

reminiscence of years gone by. They are the bedrock

of the new Pacific Oaks, rising from a cornerstone

carefully laid by devoted founders and tended by the

generations of believers who followed.

A RESURGENCE OF OPTIMISM

The story of Pacific Oaks College &

Children’s School begins in 1906, when

two sisters open an orphanage in La

Loma House that eventually becomes a teacher’s

college called Broadoaks. As the U.S. government

begins to address critical social issues for mothers

and children through laws that increase financial

assistance and strengthen licensing requirements

for operating child care centers, the school merges

with Whittier College, a Quaker institution,

while continuing to educate aspiring teachers

with a nursery school for hands-on training.

During World War II, a group of Quaker

women turn to each other for support while their

husbands, as conscientious objectors to the war,

serve in work camps. Once reunited and inspired

by their pacifist beliefs and increasing emphasis

on the importance of education, the group

develops a vision of lifelong learning that begins

with children and extends to adulthood, a dream

that moves closer to reality when a property in

Pasadena becomes available.

Sources for the timeline that follows included a Pacific Oaks history written by Peg Witt, news articles, and college catalogs from 1963–75.

“Let’s dare to dream for our children better than we have yet known, and to implement our dream with sound family patterns and meaningful daily life within our school.”

—Molly Morgenroth, founder and first

director of the Children’s School

14 SPRING 2011

OUR PAST:


1945 Seven Quaker families buy Broadoaks School from

Whittier College for $33,000 and found the new Pacific

Oaks Friends School. Rooted in Quaker values of community,

equality, simplicity, and non-violence, the school opens with

10 teachers, 65 children, and the active participation of their

parents. Molly Morgenroth becomes the first director.

1940s/1950s In the post-war era, Morgenroth and her

successor, Evangeline Burgess, who becomes director of the

Children’s School in 1949, define a vision to make early child-

hood education a viable and vital profession.

1951 Recognizing the increasing demand for nursery schools

in Southern California and taking the first step to establish

the College, the Board of Trustees establishes a two-year

program for the preparation of nursery school teachers in

1951 and hires Abigail Eliot to direct the Teacher Education

Program in 1952.

1952 The founders become embroiled in a McCarthyism-

inspired state amendment that requires private schools

to sign an “oath of non-disloyalty” to receive tax-exempt

status. They ultimately sign the oath but protest with a

statement of opposition and file a lawsuit to recover back

taxes in 1956. The amendment is overturned in 1958.

1920s Russian

psychologist Lev

Vygotsky theorizes

that play facilitates

cognitive develop-

ment in children.

1930s/1940s

Several notable

European human

development intel-

lectuals, including

Erik Erikson and

Peter Blos, escape

prosecution by

Nazis and come to

the United States.

1945 World War II

ends.

1946 The National

School Lunch Act

is created.

1952 Voters

approve an

amendment to

the California

constitution that

requires private

schools, churches,

and veterans

groups to sign an

“oath of non-dis-

loyalty” in order to

obtain tax-exempt

status.

Philosopher John

Dewey, whose

theories about

education and

democracy pioneer

progressive educa-

tion e`orts, dies.

PACIFIC OAKS

An Early Commitment to Social Justice

TRUE TO THEIR COMMITMENT to peace and social justice, the founders

break a covenant in place to keep the neighborhood white and Christian, and

hire Taka Nomura, a Japanese American woman who spent two years in an

internment camp and worked in its nursery school, as a founding faculty

member. Although she and her husband had relocated to Illinois, the Nomuras

moved back to California after the war ended. Nomura worked for 19 non-

consecutive years at the Children’s School and wrote an illustrated book, Taka

Tips—Building Blocks for Parents that outlines ways parents can encourage

their children to behave.

Meet Our Founders

EDWIN MORGENROTH earned a master’s degree in psy-

chology from the University of Southern California and

served as vice principal of South Pasadena High School. His wife, MOLLY,

had a master’s degree in education from the University of Wisconsin and

had been the in-service training director for federally funded nursery schools

in Los Angeles during the Depression. She becomes the first director of the

Children’s School.

EDWIN SANDERS had a master’s degree from Haverford College. Sanders had

just been released from a year in prison for his refusal to go to war. Both he and

his wife had been instructors in Oregon’s Pacific College.

CLARENCE (MIKE) YARROW had a doctorate in political science from

Yale. As director of a soon-to-be closed Civilian Public Service Camp for

conscientious objectors, Yarrow had taught at the University of Mississippi

and Allegheny College before the war. His wife, MARGARET, was a teacher

at Pacific Ackworth Friends School.

PHILLIP WELLS was a doctor and graduate of Stanford Medical School, and

his wife, MARGUERITE , was a nurse.

ALICE AND JOHN WAY were also Stanford graduates and teachers at

Pacific Ackworth Friends School.

ROBERT YOUNG, who was the first to learn about the availability of the

Broadoaks campus, was a CPA. He served as a business consultant and auditor for

Pacific Oaks. ASENATH (KENNIE) YOUNG became chair of the Personnel

Committee and member of the Executive Committee.

WILLIAM AND JEAN TAYLOR

U.S.

19

52

19

20

PACIFIC

OAKS IS R

ISING

16 SPRING 2011

1959 After five years of offering classes through UCLA, Pacific Oaks receives

accreditation from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC),

which recognizes its child development bachelor of science degree. Evangeline

Burgess becomes the first president.

1961 The name is changed to Pacific Oaks College & Children’s School

(Founded by Friends).

1963 The Children’s School serves 150 families while the College draws students

from a variety of backgrounds, including college transfers, married women, teachers,

and international students from countries as far away as Japan, Norway, Taiwan,

Korea, England, Australia, Kenya, and India.

1965 In March, the federal government invites Pacific Oaks to conduct training for

Project Head Start over the summer, as one of 200 colleges and universities that

trains 44,000 prospective teachers. The College is also awarded a $101,685

federal anti-poverty grant to establish a Head Start site on campus.

Following the death of Evangeline Burgess, Pacific Oaks founder Edwin C. Morgenroth

becomes the second president.

1965-1972 Pacific Oaks houses Head Start’s Regional Training Office, which coor-

dinates all Head Start training projects in Southern California and the Southwest.

1954 Brown v.

Board of Educa-

tion outlaws school

segregation.

1960s Interest in

adult development,

aging, and devel-

opment across the

life span grows

following longi-

tudinal research

conducted by Uni-

versity of Chicago

professors Bernice

Neugarten and

Robert Havighurst.

1962 The first

federal matching

funds earmarked

for Aid to Families

with Dependent

Children (AFDC)

child care services

are authorized

and linked to adult

work and training

programs.

1964 President

Lyndon B. Johnson

signs the Economic

Opportunity Act,

which establishes

Head Start,

a new federal

program designed

to give low-income

families access to

early childhood

education.

1965 The Ele-

mentary and

Secondary Educa-

tion Act provides

federal funding to

schools while for-

bidding a national

curriculum. 19

65

19

54

President & VisionaryRENOWNED FOR HER LEADERSHIP, Evangeline Burgess

joined Pacific Oaks in 1949 to succeed Molly Morgenroth

as director of the school and defined the scope and vision

for Pacific Oaks. She became president of the College after

it opened in 1959, and even hosted graduation ceremonies

at her home.

Under her leadership, the College added programs

to prepare nursery school teachers. She also initiated

the school’s first research programs and established the

cooperative master’s program with nearby colleges. She

remained president until her death in 1965.

“She was truly at the peak of her professional energy,

excitement and involvement in early child education, participat-

ing in, and influencing the national conversation and agenda

when she died very quickly of ovarian cancer in 1965 at the

age of 52,” says Priscilla Gamb, her daughter. “She lived and

breathed Pacific Oaks.”

Burgess trained at Broadoaks School and received a

B.A. from Redlands University. Following her death, President

Richard Nixon bestowed a posthumous honorary doctorate

from Whittier College in 1965. In 1968, Marianne Wolman

established the annual Evangeline Burgess Memorial Lecture

Series, which remains a tradition at the College.

“The strength of the program lies in certain intrinsic values

chief among which is the development of an understanding

of human relationships. The Friends’ philosophy of worth

of individual personalities pervades the whole School. The

development of a fine sense of self-direction and sensitivity

toward the values in human relationships was evident

in these students.”

–Western Association of

Schools and Colleges, 1959

PACIFIC OAKSU.S.

EVANGELINEBURGESS

P A CP A C I F I C OC O A K SA K S T I M E LM E LM E L N E N E N E N E


19

71

19

681968 The annual Evangeline Burgess Memorial Lecture is established,

and the inaugural lecture, “The Spirit of the Times in Childhood

Education,” is delivered by early childhood expert Milton J.E. Senn of

Yale University.

1969 E. Robert LaCrosse Jr. becomes the third president of Pacific

Oaks after leaving a research position at Harvard Graduate School of

Education.

1970 New B.A. and M.A. degree programs in human development

replace the B.S. in child development degree based on the philosophy

that teachers must understand themselves and the whole life continuum

to more effectively serve children and families.

“The faculty tries to help students gain a sense

of who they are as persons, and a sense of how

they can relate constructively to other peo-

ple. There is concern here for the quality of

human relationships.”

—Mio Polifroni, faculty member

1970s The Children’s School adds a primary school through

third grade and a day care center. Each age group has its own

yard arranged along “Shady Lane” to show the children their

past and future destinations.

“The major appeal of Pacific Oaks is the attempt

it makes to honor children by respecting their con-

cerns, needs, and interests. If the place works, it

works because the same principles which govern

our efforts to serve children govern our efforts to

serve each other.”

—David Burke, parent

1971 Pacific Oaks extends its early childhood development programs

to Seattle. These programs grow until 1992, when Pacific Oaks Northwest

becomes an official branch of the campus.

1967 The Educa-

tion Professions

Development Act

is announced and

provides funding to

help train “persons

who are serving

or preparing to

serve as teachers,

administrators,

or educational

specialists in insti-

tutions of higher

education.”

1968 The Bilingual

Education Act pro-

vides funding for

the development

and implementa-

tion of innovative

bilingual programs.

1970 The Ryan

Bill, which man-

dates the California

Multiple Subject

Teaching Credential,

is signed into law.

Standardized test-

ing is used to

measure school

performance and

scores are reported

to the government

and public.

1971 The Com-

prehensive Child

Development Act

is passed by the

U.S. Congress.

One of the Act’s

co-authors, Marian

Wright Edelman,

founds the Chil-

dren’s Defense

Fund.

PACIFIC OAKS U.S.

PACIFIC

OAKS IS R

ISING

18 SPRING 2011

1973 The College catalog reports new trends in the student body: a

decrease in the age of the average student, and an increase in the number

of male and minority students.

1977 Elizabeth Herrick becomes the fourth president of Pacific Oaks. At the

College, marriage, family, and child counseling classes begin and become a spe-

cialization in the Human Development master’s program in 1980.

1978 Pacific Oaks Teacher Education Program is approved to offer California

teaching credentials for elementary grades. Since then the College has

added credentials in special education, bilingual education, and others.

“There’s nothing more exciting than to see a child

grow. It’s like watching a flower unfold.”

—Marianne Wolman,

faculty member

1982 Extending the reach of its programs, Pacific Oaks Northern California

opens in the San Francisco area and offers human development courses.

1972 California

Governor Ronald

Reagan signs the

“Riles Plan” into

law, which expands

early childhood

education into

public schools.

Brazilian educator

Paulo Freire writes

Pedagogy of the

Oppressed, a

seminal work that

favors the use of

dialogue and open

communication

between students

and teachers as

a way to raise

consciousness

of oppression.

1974 Supreme

Court expands

rights of students

with limited English

skills, ruling that

they should have

equal access to

education.

1975 U.S. Con-

gress enacts the

Education for

all Handicapped

Children Act

(now called the

Individuals with

Disabilities Educa-

tion Act) to ensure

that children with

disabilities have

access to edu-

cation. The first

Child Development

Associate (CDA)

Credential

is awarded. The

credential is a

government-

funded initiative

to improve the

quality of child

care. 19

82

19

72

“I can start digging a hole here and before too long the kids are taking the tools out of my hands. We’ll

find a stone and crack it open so they can see its whole history inside. It’s like I’m leading them in a

discovery. Part of it is just being a kid yourself. When I was a kid I never got answers. But I’ve never

stopped learning and teaching and working.”

—Russell Dawson, former maintenance supervisor

who built many of the structures at the Children’s School

PACIFIC OAKSU.S.

P AP A C I F I CC O A K SA K S T I M EM E L NL NL NL N E


1985 Katherine Gabel becomes the fifth president.

1986 The Research Center opens, supporting early childhood research and

becoming an umbrella for several programs, including The Center for the

Children of Incarcerated Parents, Advancing Careers in Child Development,

and The Partnership Project.

1988 The College establishes a Marriage, Family, and Child Counseling master’s

program after the California State Board of Behavioral Sciences raises the

licensing requirements for the counseling profession.

1989 Professor of Human Development Louise Derman-Sparks and the

A.B.C. Task Force write Anti-Bias Curriculum: Tools for Empowering Young

Children, published by National Association for the Education of Young

Children (republished by Teachers College Press in 1997). The Task Force

includes PO faculty Dr. ReGena Booze and Cheryl Greer-Jarman.

1993 The College launches a satellite campus in Visalia and, during the next

decade, opens several others to broaden educational access.

1995 Pacific Oaks celebrates its 50th Anniversary.

1996 The College launches an online distance learning program with three

classes, drawing students from Vermont to British Columbia to Hong Kong.

1999 Carolyn Denham becomes the sixth president of Pacific Oaks.

2000 The M.A. in Marital and Family Therapy: The Latina/Latino Family

Studies Specialization launches to address the diverse mental health

needs of Hispanic children and families. The Jones/Prescott Institute for

Early Childhood Education opens to foster programs and initiatives that

reflect the most current thinking in early childhood education and pro-

fessional development.

2001 The American Association of Colleges and Universities

recognizes Pacific Oaks College with a Special Commendation for

Distinguished Achievement in Undergraduate Education for its

unique teaching/learning pedagogy.

2009 Responding to several years of declining enrollment and increased

scrutiny by WASC, the board votes to seek a merger with another school.

2009 Cindy Carter becomes the seventh president of Pacific Oaks.

2010 As a means of ensuring its historic focus and to position itself for a

financially viable future, Pacific Oaks College & Children’s School becomes

an affiliate of TCS Education System, an entrepreneurial, not-for-profit

enterprise dedicated to training professionals in applied fields to use their

knowledge and skills to serve the greater good.

2011 Tamara Rozhon becomes the eighth president, ushering in a new era

of growth and renewed commitment to the Pacific Oaks values of inclusion,

social justice, and the unique worth of every human being.

1983 “A Nation

at Risk” is released

by President

Reagan’s National

Commission on

Excellence in

Education,

pointing to

severe under-

performance of

American schools.

1990 In what’s

considered the

nation’s first com-

prehensive child

care legislation,

U.S. Congress

passes The Child

Care and Develop-

ment Block Grant,

which supports

low-income work-

ing families and

enhances child

care quality and

availability.

2001 No Child Left

Behind legislation

increases federal

funding for educa-

tion and ushers in

standards-based

reform.

2008 President

Obama pledges

increased invest-

ment in early

childhood

education but

as of 2011, the

reauthorization

of the Elementary

and Secondary

Education Act

(a.k.a. No Child

Left Behind)

remains pending

and other education

programs such as

the Early Learning

Challenge Fund are

still unfunded. 2

011

19

83

U.S.PACIFIC OAKS

PACIFIC

OAKS IS R

ISING

20 SPRING 2011

Once touted as the best-educated nation in the world, the United States—by many accounts—has slipped into mediocrity. President Obama has called for our

country to regain its footing by 2020, labeling access to high-quality education as the “new civil right.”

Despite millions of federal and state dollars spent on closing the achievement gap, the chasm remains. In 2009, the difference in 8th grade reading performance between low-poverty vs. high-poverty schools was 34 points on a 500-point scale. In math, the gap was 38 points.

The path that Pacific Oaks has forged—a route that began in the seminal post-World War II years and now leads resolutely toward its envisioned status as a leading school of education and human development—is best understood when viewed in the context of what is happening in American education today. Many of the issues identified as deterrents to educational excellence in the United States have been integral to the College’s progressive approach.

Preparing Better Teachers. A report issued in November 2010 by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) proposed that the current system of American teacher education be “turned upside down.” Experts serving on the Blue Ribbon Panel on Clinical Preparation and Partnerships for Improved Student Learning specifically recommended making clinical practice a center-piece of the curriculum and interweaving opportunities for

teaching experience with academic content and professional courses. They also underscored the need to attract more diverse cohorts of teacher education students.

Positioning itself as a leader in education, Pacific Oaks will draw upon the expertise of faculty and the growing body of research to train educators—particularly teachers of color—who can significantly improve academic performance and instill a love of learning in all children.

The Importance of Starting Early. Among industrialized nations that make up the G-8, the United States and Canada rank last in the area of early childhood education. Ameri-can 3- and 4-year-olds are, by and large, less likely than their counterparts in France, Italy, Germany and the U.K

U.S. was born in another country or

was born to recent immigrants.

nation’s young children (ages 0-8)

and are projected to be a quarter of all

young children by 2030.

live in a household headed by a single

parent.

-

hold headed by a same-sex couple.

with one or more emotional, behavioral,

or developmental conditions.

in Head Start speak a language other

than English.

poverty.

Sources: U.S. Census, Child Trends Database, Williams

Institute, National Center for Education Statistics,

Early Head Start Information Report.

MEETING THE NEEDS OF DIVERSE LEARNERSWHY A ONE-SIZE-FITS-ALL APPROACH JUST CAN’T WORK

25th in math

17th in science

14th in reading

Where does the U.S. stack up compared with its peer

countries? According the Programme for International

Student Achievement (PISA), which measures the suc-

cess of students in 34 developing countries, American

15-year-olds rank:

OUR PRESENT:


to reap the benefits of a formalized learning program prior to kindergarten. And yet, substantial evidence documents the profound effects—both cumulative and delayed—that such early experiences have on a child’s development and learning. The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) leads the movement toward such universal opportunity, and envisions a time when “all children will have access to a safe and accessible, high-quality childhood education that includes a developmentally appropriate curriculum, knowledgeable and well-trained program staff and edu-cators, and comprehensive services that support their health, nutrition, and social well-being, in an environment that respects and supports diversity.”

Pacific Oaks was established to provide the high-quality early childhood education that is at the heart of the NAEYC vision. Its programs in human development and teacher education have been driven by this goal and, even as it expands its focus across the lifespan, early childhood education will be central to all that Pacific Oaks is and does.

Meeting the Needs of Diverse Learners. The P-12 population filling today’s classrooms defies easy definition or categorization. Students are black, white, Latino, Asian and multiracial; they speak English fluently or not at all; they live in traditional two-parent households, with single parents, same-sex parents, grandparents or foster parents; their families span the socio-economic spectrum; some have disabilities, others don’t. Meeting the needs of these students—in ways that embrace and celebrate their individual differences and prepare them for a lifetime of multicultural interac-tions—is critical to education today. Yet many teachers continue to struggle with this challenge, offering only a superficial approach to non-majority life circumstances, or ignoring them altogether—often because of their own discomfort or lack of training.

Since its founding, Pacific Oaks has placed equality and individual worth at the core of the education it provides. Known for the ground-breaking anti-bias curriculum that emerged from the work of its faculty, it has long set an example of how children should be taught and how teachers should be trained.

France Italy,

Germany kindergarten

Japanese

youchien

United Kingdom

Early Years Unit

United States

Source: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), 2008.

64% of U.S. children are enrolled in preschool programs.

Behind the Numbers

WHY?

Fra

nc

e

Ge

rma

ny

Ita

ly

Jap

an

UK

US

Ca

na

da

Ru

ssi

a

100

%

77

%

97

%

84

%

84

%

64

%

44

%

N/

A

“A world-class education is a

moral imperative—the key to

securing a more equal, fair,

and just society…”

—PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA

Of the seven G-8

countries for which

information is

available, the United

States ranks 6th in the

percentage (64%) of

children ages 3 to 5

enrolled in center-based

education programs.

PACIFIC

OAKS IS R

ISING

22 SPRING 2011

The centerpiece of Pacific Oaks’ steady forward momentum is a set of values that have remained

constant for six decades and a bold vision that is currently being crafted as part of a community wide strategic planning process. Driven by the Board of Trustees, the work has involved individuals from all constituencies—faculty and staff from both the college and children’s school, alumni, parents, students, and trustees—and will result in a proposed set of strategic goals, to be presented to the full board for approval in May 2011. The goals, like the mission and vision they support, are expected to be bold.

At the heart of Dr. Tamara Rozhon’s “formula for the future” is an expansion

of academic offerings, with plans under way for new programs, delivery formats and locations and, more fundamentally, a broadened scope. An institution with a strong history of preparing pro-fessionals to work in early childhood settings, Pacific Oaks will now extend its focus across the lifespan through programs in education, human devel-opment and family studies.

NEW DEGREE PROGRAMS. A B.A. and an M.A. in Early Childhood Education (ECE) have been developed by faculty and are currently awaiting approval from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC). Like the existing B.A. in Human Development, the pro-posed bachelor’s degree will be available

to students who transfer in with 60 or more undergraduate credits. The master’s will carry an emphasis in leadership and administration. The Human Devel-opment programs continue to focus on working with people at all ages and in a variety of settings, and share many of their distinguishing elements—including its use of an anti-bias curriculum and its focus on oppression and advocacy—with the new programs in education.

INVESTMENT IN ACADEMICS. Pro-viding an academic home for the ECE degrees, along with the existing teacher education credentialing programs, is a School of Education. This addition to the infrastructure allows education faculty to focus on developing and

OUR FUTURE:


fine-tuning programs that respond to the challenges facing American education today. A School of Human Development and Family Studies will complete the academic infrastructure, incorporating the Human Development B.A. and M.A. programs, along with the master’s in Marital and Family Therapy.

ONLINE CAMPUS. An Online Campus has been established to provide students with a choice of delivery formats and to respond to the rapidly growing cadre of prospective students whose work and family respon-sibilities preclude their attendance at on-ground classes—and who are seeking a means of completing degrees on their own timetable and in their own homes. Both new early childhood education degrees will be offered in a 100 percent online format as well as a completely on-ground format. While Pacific Oaks has offered online courses in the past, the College’s recent affiliation with TCS Education System will make it possible to expand online offerings quickly and efficiently, to ensure that course quality mirrors that of on-ground classes, and to provide students with the robust technology infrastructure and 24/7 support they need to succeed academically.

NEW STUDENT AID OPPORTUNITIES. Recognizing that the high cost of education can provide an insurmountable obstacle for many

degree-seeking students, Pacific Oaks is exploring ways to increase internally funded financial aid. We will launch new fellowships, scholarships, and assistantships in the fall, including a Children’s School Fellowship.

FACILITIES. To address deferred maintenance realities and to use existing space most effec-tively, a long-range facilities planning process is under way. In the meantime, administrative offices have moved to the Eureka Campus in an effort to position student service offices in close proximity to students. The Westmo-reland Campus continues to house Alumni Relations, Institutional Advancement and the Infant-Toddler program of the Children’s School, and to provide a venue for classes, seminars, and events.

STUDENT SERVICES. Pacific Oaks’ recent affiliation with TCS Education Sys-tem, a nonprofit educational enterprise dedicated to training professionals in high-level applied fields—allows the col-lege to leverage expertise that is frequently unavailable to small institutions. These resources—in areas such as admissions, reg-istration, financial management, and human resources—offer the potential for increased efficiencies and more streamlined adminis-trative and academic services.

ALUMNI OUTREACH. Alumni represent our most precious resource. They serve as our

ambassadors through their work, through their continued scholarly endeavors, and through their ongoing use of their Pacific Oaks education to make lasting improve-ments in the world around them. Many new initiatives target this critically important con-stituency: an Alumni Association, a Heritage Day Reunion planned for September 2011, and this magazine—Voices, a publication for alumni and friends of Pacific Oaks College & Children’s School.

BRINGING US TOGETHER. We are seeking new ways to revitalize and further strengthen the historic link between the Pacific Oaks College and the Pacific Oaks Children’s School. Two halves of a whole, we share the values of our founders and a past that celebrates the intersection between teaching children and preparing the professionals who work with them and their families. We are exploring new business and academic relationships that will take advantage of our shared experience and our mutual goals.

PARTNERSHIPS. As we fortify the internal connections that give our institutions strength, we also are looking outward—to the local and professional communities, and beyond. Partnerships will propel our steady movement into the future. We will renew linkages that served us well in the past, and identify new ones that enhance our oppor-tunities to impact the world around us.

" Pacific Oaks is known for the impact that it has had on the field of early childhood education through our human development programs. It is time to develop degrees that will specifically prepare graduates with the methodology to teach in ECE classrooms and assume leadership positions in early childhood settings.”

— DR. LINDA CLOWERS, DEAN OF ACADEMIC AFFAIRS

PACIFIC

OAKS IS R

ISING

24 SPRING 2011

Living the Mission

1 | REALIZATION

Koo is teaching pre-school when she realizes the best way to help young children is to “teach the teachers,” and enrolls in the Human Development program at Pacific Oaks. “There are cracks and holes in people’s lives. I want to help them become whole.”

2 | EXPLORATION

She volunteers with Stand Up for Kids, a national organization that helps homeless children, and starts tutoring a 15-year-old boy, showing up to his sessions every week with food and clothes. In one semester, he goes from earning C’s, D’s, and F’s to A’s and B’s. “I decided educa-tion is the gatekeeper. You need to get skills, knowledge, and opportunities to move forward.”

3 | KNOWLEDGE

The experience inspires her thesis, Homeless Youth: Succeeding in School. Among her find-ings: basic necessities and a mentor are critical, and educators should never count out students who seem hopeless. “Educators need to be aware not only of the bright students. There are vast opportunities for those who they think aren’t going to make it.”

4 | ACTION

Koo starts MAPS 4 College, a holistic organization that has already helped more than 3,000 students prepare for college and life through college counseling, financial literacy and communi-cation skills, personal development, and aca-demic preparation. “We provide access and a pipeline for people to improve their lives.”

5 | ACTUALIZATION

MAPS 4 College partners with Baldwin Park, Calif., where just 5 percent of the population has grad-uated from a four-year college, and reaches out to girls in middle school. Koo pursues a Ph.D. in education at Chapman University on the rec-ommendation of thesis adviser Dr. Greg Tanaka. She still keeps in touch with the homeless stu-dent, who graduated from high school and plans to return to college. “I see hope in students who have personal issues and prob-lems and know that with help, they can make it.”

Journey5 Steps to a Transformation

1 . RE

A

LIZ

AT

ION

2

. EX

PL

OR

AT

ION

3. KNOWLEDGE

4

. A

CT

ION

5

. A

CT

UA

LIZ

AT

ION

4.

A

Living the Mission

1 .R

EA

LIZ

AT

IO

UA

LI

LIZ

AT

ION

SARAI KOO M.A., HUMAN DEVELOPMENT (2006)


Family Ties COLLEGE & CHILDREN’S SCHOOL INVOLVE 3 GENERATIONS OF CARLSONS

AS THEY STROLLED down Shady Lane, mem-ories flooded back—of digging into the enormous sand pile that transformed into whatever their hands and minds wanted to make it, of curling up with friends and reading books on an inviting hammock filled with comfortable pillows, of drinking Japanese tea on Multicultural Day, of exploring the wooded Arroyo Seco nearby.

“The memories were hitting us,” Lizzie Carlson Salvati recalls. “At that moment, I thought, ‘this is going to be the greatest thing’ and made the connec-tion between Annie attending the school and my own childhood.”

Now age 11, Annie, her siblings Sam, 9, and Phoebe, 5, and her cousin, George, 4,

who is Katie’s son and enrolled in La Tierra Yard, are not the only children with par-ents who went to the Children’s School. Approximately 15 families a year are second-generation alumni, says Director Jane Rosenberg.

“Every year our families share special memories of their time together,” she says. “The fleeting times go by quickly, but the memories created here last a lifetime. Most parents want their children to share those same treasured remembrances.”

Although Pacific Oaks has undergone some changes since the first generation of Carlsons attended—the Children’s School stopped offering classes through third grade, and began full-day child care and part-time afternoon programs to support the scheduling needs of working parents—the reasons why alumni parents like Lizzie and Katie want their own kids to go to the Children’s School are rooted in the positive experiences they had there. “I love it like you love a person,” Katie says. “I didn’t have to wonder or worry. It adds a special connection between me and my son.”

As a former student and now a parent, Lizzie appreciates how the school fosters creativity and freedom for children to learn in a safe environment. She has seen her three children gain self-confidence, inde-pendence, and the ability to relate well to other children—skills that continue to help them succeed in and out of the classroom as they grow older. “They have a comfort in their own skin,” she says. “They can make choices for themselves and have the confi-dence to do what they want to do.”

Both Lizzie and Katie also developed close, lifelong friendships at the Children’s School, and have seen their children do the same, even after they graduate and attend different schools. “Those friendships are

real,” Lizzie says. “I think kids have chemistry, and when you’re at a place like Pacific Oaks you develop adult-like friendships.” Jane Rosenberg agrees. “At the risk of over senti-mentalizing, I believe that friendships which begin at Pacific Oaks often last forever. This interconnectedness is the heart of our Children’s School,” she says.

Perhaps the biggest reason why the school sees so many multigenerational families is the way it instills a passion for learning in each child. Katie and Lizzie’s mother, Maureen Carlson, was a human development professor at Pacific Oaks College who later served on its board of trustees (see page 26). To Maureen’s surprise, each of her four children wrote on their college applications that they owed their personalities, in part, to their nursery school. “Pacific Oaks Children’s School was a formative influence on my children’s development,” she says.

“It gives a foundation for a love of learning,” confirms Katie, a psychiatrist who works with the homeless in Los Angeles. “I feel that it inspired me and all of my siblings to continue to learn and be active and a voice in our community.”

This is already evident in the second generation of Carlson children. When Lizzie’s daughter, Phoebe, entered kinder-garten this year at a new school, she was the youngest student not only in her class, but in the entire K-12 school. “Pacific Oaks was a huge factor in why I wasn’t worried about her transitioning into a big school,” she says. “She loves school. That’s the big-gest message.”

One day shortly before Annie Salvati was about to start Pacific Oaks Children’s School, her mother, Lizzie, her

aunt, Katie, and her uncles, Bobby and John, all took a walk from their parents’ home in Pasadena to the very

same preschool that they had attended four decades earlier.

Three generations of the Carlson family—Maureen

Carlson, her daughter Lizzie Salvati, and Lizzie's

son Sam—walk down Shady Lane.

THE CARLSONS ARE NOT THE ONLY FAMILY TO RETURN TO

PO GENERATION AFTER GENERATION AND IN A VARIETY OF

CONTEXTS. EMAIL YOUR MULTIGENERATIONAL STORY TO

[email protected].

26 SPRING 2011

An Advocate for Education

Maureen Carlson joined the Pacific Oaks faculty in 1964 with a passion for education that would never waver throughout four decades of involvement with the institution —as a faculty member, as a Children’s School parent, as a trustee, and as a donor.

1967 | ELSPETH BENTON (FR) of Santa Rosa, Calif., published Crucial Time, a mystery set in a Pasadena child care center.

1978 | SUSAN LAKKIS PERRY (M.A. HD) of Los Angeles, writes a blog on creativity forpsychologytoday.com called “Creating in Flow.”

1984 | MARK SMITH (B.A. HD) has worked as a public school elementary teacher for the past 26 years in both California and Hawaii.

1989 | LINDA ANNE HOAG (M.A. HD) of Los Angeles, has worked as a therapist in Counseling Services at the California Institute of the Arts since 1997. She’s also a certified instructor of Constructive Living, and studied nonviolent communication with Marshall Rosenberg last summer.

1995 | LINDA STUPIN ANGEL (M.A. MFT) of Pasadena, Calif., wrote I Should Have Known Better: Seven Steps from Me to We, about her dating experiences after her husband’s death. Learn more at linda-7steps.com.

2000 | EFRAT MAZIN (M.A. MFT) of Visalia, Calif., completed her Psy.D. in clinical psychology with a concentration in forensic psychology from Phillips Graduate Institute in 2005 and is studying for a license. She currently works at Coalinga State Hospital. 2001 | GILA LEHAVI BROWN (M.A. HD, TCred) of Sherman Oaks, Calif., started her own practice as a parent coach after teaching middle school. “I work with parents to help them better understand child behavior so that they can respond and communicate to their kids more effectively and more peacefully,” Gila writes.

2002 | MARY JO BOYD-PRINCE (B.A. HD) of Sierra Madre, Calif., has worked with children and their families since graduating from Pacific Oaks. In 2009, she and her

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News & Notes

Living the Mission

In all these capacities, her motivation for devoting time and money remained the same: a desire, she says, for the College to turn out teachers who could teach in public education and reform it with developmentally appropriate education. “I had education in my bones,” she says. “I had a commitment to public education and Pacific Oaks had a commitment.”

When she first arrived at the College from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty was just beginning, and Pacific Oaks was about to play a role. In 1965, a Head Start site and training program was established on campus, and the College graduated numerous students who went on to work in Head Start programs and public schools.

Carlson taught human devel-opment classes, and later her children, Katie, Lizzie, John, and Bobby all attended the Chil-dren’s School (see page 25). “I was proud of the College’s adher-ence to Quaker values that the founders of Pacific Oaks imple-mented,” Carlson said. “The fact that there was a college and a children’s school dedicated to the teaching of non-violence…there aren’t too many colleges like that. It was a special place to work.”

But when the counterculture reached the campus and Carl-son felt the school had become less academically rigorous, she

decided to leave teaching and go to law school in 1975. Combining her interest in child development and law, Carlson became a court-appointed attorney in the Superior Court of Los Angeles and handled cases around child abuse, family law, and divorce.

Although she no longer taught at the College, Carlson’s involvement with Pacific Oaks only grew. As a professor, she had been the faculty represen-tative on the Board of Trustees. After she stopped teaching in 1976, she served as a board member for 21 years and as board chair for three years.

During her tenure, the College continued to expand programs in Seattle and San Francisco, to open satellite campuses throughout California to increase the accessibility of a Pacific Oaks education, and to grow its research efforts.

Although she no longer serves on the board, her passion for education is evident. Carlson still wants to see the College do more to educate teachers who will teach in public schools. She has remained connected to Pacific Oaks for the past 11 years, as five grandchildren attended the Children’s School, the last of whom, George, is currently there beginning his own educational journey. “It’s in the Children’s School that you see the empha-sis placed on the importance of every child,” she says.


husband welcomed their daugh-ter, Violet, which inspired her to become a certified birth doula. Mary Jo welcomes contact at [email protected].

2004 | Child Development professors ADRIENNE WEBSTER SEEGERS (M.A. HD) of Sonora, Calif., and KATHY SULLIVAN (M.A. HD) announce the opening of the new Child Development and Family Care Services Center at Columbia College in Sonora, Calif.

2005 | ILSA GOVAN (M.A. HD) of Seattle celebrated the two-year anniversary of her business, Cross Cultural Connections, which performs diversity train-ing for schools and organizations using information that she learned at Pacific Oaks.

KELLY SHAVER (M.A. HD) received tenure and the rank of asso-ciate professor at Brevard Community College, where she teaches online, face-to-face, and hybrid courses. “PO has changed my life, and I am so thankful,” she writes. “I truly love what I do.”

2006 | NOEMI ABDESSIAN (M.A. HD) works as a social worker and teaches part time at California State University, Los Angeles. She credits Pacific Oaks College for her success.

SARAI KOO (M.A. HD) started MAPS 4 College, a nonprofit organization that helps students graduate from high school, attend and graduate from college, gain job readiness skills, find a satisfying career, and acquire life-sustaining skills (see Journey, p. 24).

LILLIE PARDO (TCred) of Los Angeles writes that after teaching kindergarten for four years at the Los Feliz Charter School for the Arts, she started teaching kin-dergarten at the Larchmont Charter School West Holly-wood last fall.

MARIA SHUFELDT (M.A. MFT) of Montrose, Calif., is part of a project working to establish multiple community garden sites for Pasadena residents and

educate them on the health, eco-awareness, and social aspects of community gardening. This fits with one of her clinical interests—the therapeutic use of “near nature” and gardening. She welcomes contact at [email protected].

2007 | SHAUN-ADRIAN FLATT CHOFLÁ (M.A. HD) of Sacra-mento, Calif., is an adjunct faculty member and course developer at National Hispanic University/Laureate Educa-tion, where he creates courses in child development and early childhood education. He also teaches in Pacific Oaks’ Human Development/Distance Learn-ing Department.

2008 | AYDEE SALAS (B.A. HD) writes articles about early child-hood for examiner.com.

SOCIAL JUSTICE AT WORK

What happens when a student is excluded from a

table in the cafeteria? What can someone sitting

at that table do to help? As an anti-bullying trainer

with the Safe School Ambassadors program, Tisha

Marina Bernard works with 11- to 18-year-olds

around the country to identify problems like this in

their schools and come up with solutions. “People

don’t look at them as contributors to society so

when you give that power to them in a positive

way, they really step up to the plate,” she says.

Bernard felt a personal responsibility to take on

bullying after discovering how pervasive it is. One

recent study found more than half of high school

students admitted to bullying someone while nearly

half have been bullied themselves. “I have worked with

young people most of my life,” she says. “Bullying is so

out of control. I felt it needed immediate attention.”

As she nears her 50th training with Community

Matters, the organization that runs the program,

Bernard credits her Pacific Oaks education with

truly preparing her for this role. “It has been my

education that has trained me, not just academically,

but in the vocabulary and in the ability to work

with all walks of life. When I’m interacting with a

diverse group of students, and I’m watching myself

peacefully make that happen, I’m seeing what I

learned at Pacific Oaks in action. I’m seeing lives

transformed before my eyes.”

TISHA MARINA BERNARD, M.A. IN HUMAN DEVELOPMENT STUDENT

DEGREE ABBREVIATIONS

HD Human Development

MFT Marital Family Counseling

TCred Teacher Education Credential

FR Friend

Rings of the Oak A HISTORICAL PHOTO ESSAY

Playing to LearnThe toys may have changed, but the philosophy is the same. Play is more than fun; it is the way children absorb

information, understand concepts and relationships, and make sense of the world. At Pacific Oaks Children’s

School, where we provide a healthy jumpstart on a lifetime of learning—and at Pacific Oaks College, where we

prepare early childhood educators for tomorrow—play is, and has always been, integral to our curriculum.

28 SPRING 2011

…that worms don’t like bread or sushi.

…how to make a new friend.

…how to solve problems by myself.

…to tie my shoes.

…how to be kind and use my words.

…that it’s not okay to hide at clean-up time.

…that when my friend is sad to give them a hug.

…that school is no place to worry.

Sound Off

Some of our youngest children share something really

important that they learned at the Children’s School

I learned…

5 Westmoreland Place

Pasadena, CA 91103-3592

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