AC_1965_Web

143 AN T I OC H CO L L E G E C L A S S O F 19 6 5 5 0 t h A N N I V E R S A R Y B O O K A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z S E E G E R SEEGER ELLEN SHAPIRO THEN AND NOW 4 B.A. Design FAMI LY 4 Son, Seth 4 Daughter, Anna 4 Grandchildren, Case and Alina and Robyn ADDRESS 4 138 White Rock Dr. Montpelier, VT 05602 CONTACT ebs@sover.net PROFESSIONAL LIFE I H A V E B E E N an educator since graduating from Antioch, though that was never the career direction I would have envisioned for myself while a student. My co-op advisor, Dan Hotaling, had suggested that I become a teacher after visiting me on a co-op at an outdoor education center, but I resisted. After gradua- tion, I went to Boston and found the Boston Children’s Museum whose director was Michael Spock ’59. When the museum received federal funds to develop new social studies kits for elementary classrooms using artifacts from the collections and elsewhere, Mike hired me. Mike’s vi- sion for informal, hands-on museum experiences for kids eventually had national influence. I was involved in both the curriculum development work and teaching school programs for visiting classes.The museum was an exciting place to work at that time, and some of the people Mike gathered together became my life- long friends and mentors. My co-op jobs, including those in Europe,were a central part of my Antioch educa- tion, and this work at the Children’s Museum seemed like another great co-op. From there I went on to become a classroom teacher for several years and then a reading specialist for over thirty years.After marrying and mov- ing toVermont in the early ’70s, I be- gan working part time in a federally funded Title I program which pro- vided supplemental support in poor school districts,which included most districts in Vermont at the time.We organized literacy support services for students in the five elementary schools of the rural central Vermont area where I lived, including two one-room schools and a two-room and four-room school. I eventually became coordinator of the pro- gram, training tutors and classroom teachers in early literacy best prac- tices as well as continuing to teach kids.Through these years I was very fortunate to work with, and learn from, incredibly talented teachers and administrators in other districts and at the Vermont Department of Education. Being such a small state, consultants from the department were innovative and readily accessi- ble. Educators knew each other and shared their expertise. PERSONAL LIFE I lived in Cambridge, Mass. for eight years after graduation. I mar- ried Jeremy Seeger in 1971 and was married until 2003. We moved to Vermont in 1973 and soon began building a passive solar log house way up on a mountain off the grid. It was a spectacular spot requiring a four-wheel drive vehicle for most of the winter and mud season.We had large vegetable and flower gardens, growing a lot of food and learning as we went.We raised two wonderful children there who both attended one of the one-room schools where I worked for their early school years. We were involved in the beginning days of the local food co-op move- ment and in a community theater group. Both of my children are now married with families of their own and live near each other in western Massachusetts. I have three grand- children ages one, four and seven who are a constant delight. I reg- ularly make the three hour drive down the interstate to spend time with them. After more than three decades living high up on an isolated moun- tain road, in 2008 I moved to a new co-housing community just outside the lively capital city of Montpelier, Vt., population about 8,000. Several years earlier my brother and sister-in- law, another couple and myself had bought this beautiful piece of land with great solar exposure and long views with the intention of start- ing a small co-housing community. As we began planning White Pine Cohousing, we gathered other folks of diverse ages, including two fami-