Gratitude Gathering 2024

Natural light poured into the room through a soaring glass wall as the Seabury School community, from teachers to parents to family members to staff, gathered to give thanks for school, family, good health and … chicken nuggets.

That’s the beauty of the annual Seabury gratitude gathering. As the microphone passes from one student or family member or teacher to the next, there’s no telling whether to expect a heartfelt response or a quick quip.

The Value of Small Schools

I was born and raised in Oakland, California in an area now known as the Laurel District in a small, one bedroom house. My mother was concerned about both my size (ironic now, probably) and my social ability to navigate Oakland’s public school system. She felt I would be more successful in a smaller environment, so she enrolled me in one of the top private schools in the area (at great monetary sacrifice) called Bentley School, at the time a K - 8 school located on the border of Oakland and Berkeley, partially up the tree covered hills that kept the cool marine air in and the heat out year round. I started Kindergarten having just turned five and quickly grew to love school under the incredible care of Mr. Meadows, my teacher. 

So STEAM, so Seabury

Months before Covid was a blip on the radar, I saw this wonderful short film called, Caine’s Arcade. This kid was such a Seabury kid and I knew that this was a project that our kids would LOVE and could dive deeply into. The kid in the film, Caine, would spend all summer designing, creating, and building arcade games out of cardboard and items he found at his dad’s auto part store. Seabury kids loved the video and were instantly excited to make their own games. We held a very small arcade (it was not yet dubbed the Artcade) in what was then our lunch room. It was a success.

Fast forward a few years, and in our first real in-person year post-pandemic, we came back to the arcade and it was named the “Artcade." It was the second time around for some of these kids, you could see the difference in their designs and presentations. 

Gifted kids & social skills

Adults know that the development of social skills is crucial for children, but many gifted children struggle to feel a sense of belonging at school or get frustrated and feel alone when other kids their age don’t seem to get them. As a former Seabury student said, “There are more people who get me and who I can be myself with in my class of 10 at Seabury than there were in the 90 kids in my grade level at my previous school.” The things gifted kids need to support their social growth can be counterintuitive, leading well-meaning adults to put them in situations that hinder their growth rather than supporting it.

In the article below, Dr. Linda Silverman, founder of the Gifted Development Center and expert in how  gifted children grow and develop, reviews what we know about what they need to develop their social skills and a positive sense of themselves.

Costa Rica!

Each year, Seabury middle schoolers join their teachers on a week-long field excursion that ties into the overarching concepts, ideas and topics explored during the year. They’ve participated in Model United Nations in New York, and gone on a road trip through Washington State. This year, students immersed themselves in an exploration of the global environment –– and their spring journey took them to Costa Rica.

Upon returning, our young travelers were asked to write about some of the most memorable moments of their trip. The amazing wildlife was a recurring theme, but there was also new food, exciting physical adventures and wild weather. Students described observing (and hearing) howler monkeys, juvenile and adult crocodiles, “a huge, maybe even four-foot-long iguana,” and a Jesus Christ lizard that ran right across the surface of the water.

Intense kid? Ours, too

Giftedness is not a matter of degree but of a different quality of experiencing: vivid, absorbing, penetrating, encompassing, complex, commanding – a way of being quiveringly alive.

Michael M. Piechowski

Is your child intense? Seabury specializes in intense kids!!

Recently, I had a conversation with one of our youngest students. It started with the student telling me why they weren’t allowed to use permanent markers at home – something about marks on the dining room table. But then there was a quick pivot, with the child quietly saying, “I wish my brother and I were permanent.” I asked what he meant. He said, through tears, “I don’t want us to DIE!” Whoa! How did we go from permanent markers on dining room tables to existential angst in 30 seconds?

All about science

You haven’t been to a science fair until you’ve been to a Seabury science fair! On science fair day, the entire school buzzes with excitement as every student, from pre-k to eighth great gets the chance to put their scientific explorations on display for the whole student body, teachers, staff, and families.

Students worked on their projects almost entirely at home so many drew heavily on readily available materials, such as kitchen items, food, and pets. As in most independent projects at Seabury, students are encouraged to use their interests as inspiration. There was a project on the reactions between chemical components, one on the DNA of fruit, another on a mouse’s favorite food, and more than one project on rainbows. Some students had a burning question they needed answered and used their experiments as methods to answer those questions. From pre-k to eighth grade, the students’ passions and personalities came shining through in their projects.

Middle schoolers debate

Seabury middle school students have spent a few weeks learning about the United States political system, specifically political parties. This involved a number of smaller projects which culminated in a debate on whether the United States should continue its two-party system, or change to a multi-party system. 

First, they were separated into three groups to look at political parties through different lenses – historical, economical, and global. Each team watched videos, read written research material, and took note. Once they were experts on their focus, they presented to the group so that everyone could look at political parties through these three lenses. This helped students to understand why and how we ended up with a two-party voting system, and some of the other options out there.

Myths about giftedness

Our society is quick to recognize and support athletic or artistic talent. But we have a troubled relationship with intellectual talent. Schools are based on a factory model – assuming all kids of a certain age are ready to learn the same things at the same pace and in the same way. Even in recent years when more attention is paid to inclusion and differentiation, programs are still largely built for those in the middle. The further a child is from the middle, the harder it is for typical programs meet their needs. 

Teacher training programs typically offer little or no training for teachers and administrators in recognizing and meeting the very real needs of gifted students.  And as a result, well-meaning educators can operate based on myths about giftedness that are not only untrue, but can also be damaging. 

Into the woods

Did you know that trees in the Puget Sound region can be used to make maple syrup? Last week Seabury students in grades 1-5 went on a field study to Mount Rainier Institute in Pack Forest where they learned how researchers tap big leaf maple trees to make syrup. Getting out of the classroom to trek into the forest was a new experience for most of the students, certainly as a large group. Students spent the day in teams that mixed 1st through 5th graders, with the 5th graders helping the other students consider the activities using icons of depth and complexity.
The Mount Rainier Institute at Pack Forest is a University of Washington run research center in Eatonville, where researchers are tapping maple trees to explore the viability of creating maple syrup from them.