A remembrance from Jack Zimmerman.
My connection with Rachael—then Shelly—began in the mid-eighties at Crossroads School in Santa Monica. A few years before that (in 1983), a band of intrepid warriors--Ruthann Saphier, Maureen Murdock and I--had initiated a council-based communications program for seniors that included a five-day rite of passage retreat at The Ojai Foundation. With the strong support of Paul Cummins, then the Headmaster of Crossroads, the program developed into a multi-grade council experience for the whole student body that became known as “Life Skills” or the “Crossroad Mysteries Program.” By the time Rachael took over the reins a few years later, the Mysteries Program was in need of a strong hand at the helm of what was turning out to be a highly innovative opportunity for students to explore the deeper issues of their lives in a safe and supportive environment. Rachael provided that leadership from a place of deep passion, strong educational background and a commitment to the expansion of education beyond the cognitive into the realm of social and emotional learning.
The Mysteries Program blossomed under Rachael’s guidance, and expanded into the outdoor education and community service aspects of the Human Development Department at Crossroad. By the time Rachael became Department Chair, the practice of council had become endemic in the school. During those years Rachael and I worked closely together, meeting the many challenges she faced every day in implementing a program in which speaking and listening from the heart were the ground rules of communicating. I remember many lunches and endless cups of tea debating how to train council facilitators, convince parents we weren’t therapizing their children and getting reluctant teachers to support the program. Rachael’s psychological background stood her in good stead…She knew the implications of what we were doing, pushing beyond comfortable cognitive educational boundaries into the world of feelings and even spirit. Fortunately, she was able to speak the truth in meetings and conferences in a way that reassured parents and faculty (the students were never a problem). We started parent councils and soon many Crossroads teachers became council facilitators—all of which was a tribute to Rachael’s vision and tenacity. She never let up, even when it cost her sleepless nights and many a bump in the road to becoming a major figure in the faculty.
Rachael had a gift—already visible in these early days—of languaging volatile material in a professional way that allowed the Mysteries Program to be finally accepted as a cornerstone of the Crossroad Curriculum. This gift also helped to excite other educators about the Mysteries Program and during the late eighties and early nineties many other independent schools started similar council-based programs. Rachael took part in many educational conferences in California and elsewhere, spreading the word and using the Mysteries Program as the advanced guard of what was to become her revolutionary vision of social and emotional education for young people. It was Rachael that introduced me to the work of Daniel Goleman and Howard Gardner. It was Rachael that began to see the implications of our innovative program as a way to revolutionize the way educators looked at their mission. The inspiration that was to flower a few years later in her seminal work, The Soul of Education, was seeded in those challenging and exciting days in Santa Monica. She sent me a first draft of the manuscript in 1999 with the question: “Do you think the word `Soul’ is too much for the title of this book?” I had no hesitation (after reading it) in responding, “No, it’s the perfect word and the book deserves that title because of the depth of your commitment and where you have gone with the work.” Soul brought the practicalities of social/emotional learning into the foreground of education and, in particular, brought council into the mainstream.
Rachael’s departure from Crossroads was not easy…Her stature left both a large footprint and a big “heartprint” as well. Her ambitions for “the work” to become a force for evolution in American Education sometimes put her on a collision course with those carrying more traditional values. But she was ready to expand, become more independent and bring the work into the Mainstream. The shift to Boulder and the birth of the PassageWorks Institute gave her just that opportunity.
For a while we collaborated after she left Crossroads and in those years I remember reminding her often not to forget her Santa Monica roots. However, the simultaneous building of PassageWorks and writing of The Soul of Education left little time for remembering and we lost touch for a while—during which Shelly morphed fully into Rachael. Our reconnection in the late nineties when the council work led me to Boulder to do council trainings brought us together again. She and Mark generously took care of my needs while in their home town and we jointly led some trainings. By that time council had become part of a larger social/emotional learning curriculum for Rachael, and I remember many evening dialogs debating whether council was part of her work or her work was part of council. You can guess who took which viewpoint. The conversations—both intense and good natured--always ended up with us both laughing and agreeing that both positions were true and, in any event, it really didn’t matter. We worked together occasionally in those days, often with John McCluskey, who was both a PassageWorks and Ojai Foundation-CCT trainer. John was and is a bridge that connects Rachael’s work with what we have been doing at the Foundation for so many years.
Rachael led many Crossroad senior rites of passage retreats in the eighties and early nineties. She was gifted in that context, always creating a safe and strong crucible for the students to make the transition out of high school…During these past few months, as Rachael has herself been making the final rite of passage with strength and courage, I have often thought of those early years, hoping that what we learned together then stood her in good stead as she faced the final crossing. From everything I’ve heard in recent weeks and knowing her as I have, I suspect it did—and for that I am grateful. Rachael gave the world a lot to think and feel about, particularly the world of education. There is no more important gift that anyone can give than that. So I bow to my old friend and colleague…May you be sitting once again in many councils, councils that will set the field for the evolution that is now gathering its forces and to which you have contributed so much and so deeply. Ho!
Jack Zimmerman, February 2010
The PassageWorks Institute (founded by Rachael Kessler)
The Soul of Education: Helping Students Find Connection, Compassion and Character in School by Rachael Kessler (avaliable through Amazon.com)
