Origin—One Mother’s Story
Prajna N. Ginty
Flowing River School is the present unfolding of a river that began as one mother’s response to a gap in services for children with brain injuries from a traumatic birth.
Ideally, birth begins as a gentle transition from the warm protective womb of our mothers to the nourishment of full breasts and loving arms. Unfortunately, for many children this is not the case, and traumatic events take place that separate them from the security of their mothers. My first child was born easily at home. She sort of slipped into our arms in full consciousness without complications. I remember being deeply mystified by her wide-eyed beauty. Two years later my healthy pregnancy with twins turned into a medical emergency where they were born three months premature in the operating room at Stanford Hospital. They were smaller than my hands.
My healthy first child taught me about the great possibility for wholeness and well-being. In the midst of a semi-coma and surgical proceedings for my twins, these possibilities were not forgotten.
When local resources were lacking to promote the wholeness and well-being of these girls, we joined together with other parents in 1998 to begin an integrated Waldorf Kindergarten in Santa Cruz, CA—and so the river started to grow. With grants from five generous foundations, The Village School and Family Support Center served a full school of children for five years, 30% of our population with special needs.
When zoning restrictions prevented us from extending our programs into the higher grades, the growing river led us to Beaver Run Special School in Pennsylvania. We moved across the country for three years to learn from a leader in providing an adapted Waldorf education and curative care for children with special challenges. With support from the Village School’s board of directors I was able to study the practical applications of neurological development from the experts at the Family Hope Center in Blue Bell, PA. I returned to California with a great appreciation for Beaver Run’s and The Family Hope Center’s philosophy—embrace of the whole child—and with many new resources. The river had continued to grow.
Back in northern California, we hoped to participate in The Somerset School in Colfax, but the school closed when its directors retired. The school did an exquisite job of combining Waldorf education, neurological development and animal care into a progressive healing education program. Although once again we were faced with a glaring lack of local resources specifically for children with fine and gross motor challenges or neurological delays, the river was still growing.
A local parent told us about a four-week intensive Conductive Education (CE) program for children with motoring challenges (cerebral palsy), but we needed to go back east as far as Michigan or Canada. We took one child at a time to see what could happen. While both children benefited enormously, the experience reinforced our awareness of the obvious lack of local resources to support children with these and other kinds of motor challenges.
The Flowing River School was born specifically in response to this lack of meaningful local resources, but it has emerged from the river that began with my twins’ untimely birth and has grown in strength as they have grown.
Where are we now? The Flowing River School just completed our first Conductive Education summer program. We continue to operate as a CA 501(c)(3) not for profit organization. Over the past two years, our board of directors and a large group of volunteers served to create our office, schoolroom and meeting place including the furniture and equipment necessary to run a successful small program.
Our vision and “the how to do it” continue to unfold each day as we step forward with the understanding that, as our medical profession continues to save tiny babies as small as ¾ pound with severe neurological damage, these children and their families have the right to a quality existence and to live meaningful lives.
Our long-term vision is to create an extended healing education environment equipped with resources and support so that these children will, in turn, make meaningful contributions back to our larger community. We are in the midst of a short-term and long-term feasibility study that includes demographic research, staffing requirements, and a variety of different sustainability options. In the meantime, please enjoy our website, learn about our current programs, and find out how to join us in our response to creatively filling a huge gap in therapeutic, educational, and social programs for so many children, families, and the people that care for them.
“My healthy first child taught me about the great possibility for wholeness and well-being.”
Libby had four hours of CPR, and required oxygen for many months.
Abby and Libby were 2 weeks old before I could hold them.
“The Village School and Family Support Center served a full school of children for five years”
Children at play