Jessica Robertson
Updated Biography - August 2013
Seven years ago, I became a successful college student (*see previous Bio below). I worked hard, learned to ask questions, opened up my heart and mind to the perspectives of others, and really stepped into life as a responsible adult citizen of the world. I received an excellent scholarship because of that self-authorship (thank you Paula and Ted) and made plans to continue my education. Little did I know that those plans would shortly become rearranged.
I found myself married, graduating from my community college, and with child, all within the same week, respectively. Woah! Halt! Do not pass go! Well, after all the hub-bub settled down, I—the responsible adult citizen of the world (who was going to make a big splash by the way), wife and soon to be mother—had some decisions to make. Actually, it all became rather simple: My family would come first.
The details of motherhood and marriage were eye opening. I won't go into much detail. However, I found myself doing a LOT of inner work. Who was I? Who am I becoming? Who does my family need me to be? What about my hopes and dreams? Like an onion, I found many layers within myself that I had to peel through and inspect to get to those answers. After some time, I am happy to say, my child led the way to my future. When he was 18 months old, I found myself at Sierra Waldorf School, applying for a job as the Director of After School Care. I was hired.
For three years I held that position which included childcare, supervision of adult caregivers, continuing my knowledge of Waldorf on my own time, Chairing the committee for the program, as well as countless substitute days, filling in for teachers who needed a day off. In the third year, I added to my repertoire by stepping into a class assistant position, as well. All the while, I was learning a wealth of knowledge from teachers and children alike. I was being paid for my work, but I was simultaneously receiving a “free” personal education.
Last year, I passed on my work in the After School Care program and stepped into a new position at the school as the Sweet Pea Nursery Assistant Teacher. The pay was significantly less than that of the Directorship, but the vision of stepping fully into the classroom was worth it for me! I began mentoring under the most amazing woman in the whole school, Miss Marnie. (Her name just makes every parent and child's heart melt and knees buckle. She's an angel on earth.) Logistically, this position required me to have Early Childhood Units, as the facility is licensed by the state. So back to school I went to meet those requirements. It was a blissful year. I've just ended my first full year there and look forward to returning this coming school year. I am also going back to school for the third time in my life. I am going to become a Waldorf Teacher. Who knew?
My son. He doesn't know it himself yet, but I know in my heart that he is a blessing who made a miraculous entry into mine and his father's life. He came regardless of his father's vasectomy prior to our marriage. He came and stirred up our lives and made us do a lot of crucial inner work, redefining who we were. We poured our love and kind words and gentle ways (and of course all the unkind words, and remorseful bad parenting ways) into his first five years. It was not easy. Simplicity asks a lot of a person. Now that he is entering his second year in a non-academic, play-at-the-center-of-the-curriculum kindergarten I am available to begin a deeper journey into my own education.
On September 6, 2013 I will embark on a three year training at the Bay Area Center for Waldorf Teacher Training. I will be learning and growing and stretching into new ways of thinking and being with other students interested in what Rudolph Steiner called Social Renewal. I never knew this phrase until five years ago, but in my heart I have always had a knowing that this kind of education exists. It is a High Demand x High Support education. Yes! No other education style has ever felt so enriching, rewarding, and satisfying as this one. I am filled with joy, once again, to be stretching myself in order to become a teacher, to be in service to others, in a way that we may meet our full human potential.
Jessica & Averie
*Previous Biography
My collegiate journey began haphazardly when a woman I hardly knew took me to Columbia College one day back in 2001. I had only recently moved to California from a very small, ghost of an old farming town in northern Indiana. Neither parent had gone to college. I filled out an application, having no idea would become of me. Financial Aid was not an option, as my age left me in the “dependent” status (dad always said, “If you want to go to college, save your nickels and dimes.”) One year later, I was old enough be considered “independent” and eligible for Financial Aid. Needless to say, I enrolled.
Somehow my angels guided me into History 17, with Ted Hamilton. And somehow, my angels didn’t let me in on their little joke…Socratic what?! I quit school after the first paper was assigned. Two years later, with my tail tucked between my legs, I returned and enrolled in Paula Clarke’s Physical Anthropology course. My plan was to redeem myself vicariously through Paula. I was successful! Still, I had, not once, met with Paula in her office. I had noticed the studious girl next to me (endless thank-you’s to Nalatie) had a stash of colorful tabs and a binder that was so organized, that I began to rethink my success altogether. That was the class my “Aha!” moment. Before then, ignorance was truly bliss, and from that moment on, I knew that life would never be the same again.
In 2006, I received The Future Promise Award for my transformative role as a student. I was no longer a “fee paying individual”! I really had never received such recognition for a job well-done. (I remember thinking that it must be what it’s like to become the next contestant on the Price is Right.) I kept my “Promise” and planned on continuing my education. In 2007, I graduated from Columbia College with an Associates of Arts in Liberal Studies with the intention of transferring to Humboldt State University to major in Hydrology with a minor in Watershed Management; however, the same week of graduation, I magically became a wife and a mother. My (now snickering) angels had another plan for me.
After struggling through some rational and emotional barriers, I have decided that my new family is my most important piece of work at this time in my life. I have reflected upon the knowledge and wisdom learned from my coursework, and have rationalized that what we absorb as young children shapes and molds us into whom we become. I want to take these gifts of motherhood and primary teacher to nurture my son to the best of my ability, so that he may develop his full capacity to become an honest, knowledgeable, and beautiful member of humanity. In this work, I utilize every bit of what I have learned about the human dynamic, and I know that my education was not in vain….it’s just waiting there for me to return again when the time is right, like a trusty friend.
In the meantime, I have developed a few strategies to keep myself moving through the barriers that exist between family life and my education so that I can work toward future goals. I am educating myself in the works of Rudolph Steiner’s Anthroposophy and the developing child in Waldorf Education. I am the Director of After School Care at the local Waldorf School in Jamestown. I have a small Eco-friendly business, recycling natural fibers into cloth diapers, children’s clothing, and natural toys. I am learning how to grow organic food for my family in our backyard, and have a small flock of chickens. Every bit of my Socratic coursework is weaved within the fabric of my daily life. As humble as it may seem, I am so happy and fortunate to see it all in fruition.