Eighty years ago, five mothers, concerned about overcrowding and the lack of competent teachers in public schools immediately after World War II, came together and opened their own parent-run elementary school with just nine students.
They named it Berkwood School, and through decades of trials and tribulations, strikes and setbacks, mergers and expansions, not to mention some half dozen different sites, the independent nonprofit school, now known as Berkwood Hedge, survives to this day.
Throughout its history, the private school has always been at the vanguard of progressive causes. Racially diverse from the very beginning, it was the first school in Berkeley to offer before- and after-school child care. In the 1970s, students rallied against the war in Vietnam, boycotted grapes in support of farmworkers and wrote letters to save the whales. These days restorative justice circles are a mainstay.
Along with topics taught at nearly every school — math, science, reading, art — students also learn Latin, woodworking, performing arts and yoga. They may take lessons in knitting, herbalism, circus arts, coding and cooking. Other weekly activities might include sound baths or roller skating (the school has 100 pairs of skates for the purpose), and every Friday there’s a dance party. The school also employs a staff storyteller who spins epic tales to young students during lunchtime…