Can children learn social sensitivity from dogs? Fourth-grade teacher Amy Weinstein sees heartening evidence in her class that they do. Her dog, Pete, who just returned to school in the middle of taking a social-skills class, was welcomed back with tenderness and love from her students. Over the year, the children have become familiar with Pete’s needs and his history. When Amy adopted him, he had been physically hurt by an “insensitive human,” and the students know that as a

For years White Pony Director Susie Kohl has been a collector of parents’ stories, and in her new book, The Best Things Mothers Do, just released on Amazon, she shines a loving light on mothers and the ways they handle challenges, sometimes extraordinary, with creativity and resilience.  Susie considers the true stories of mothers in her book heroic because they boldly counter the culture’s stereotypes of the confused mom, either over-involved or in her child’s life or obliv

My favorite story about catching oneself in a lie happened at school. I was eating lunch in a classroom when a five-year-old spotted a chocolate chip cookie on the floor and picked it up, eagerly holding it next to her lips. “Is that yours?” I asked. “Yes,” she responded eagerly. Then she paused, and it seemed as if a shadow fell across her heart. She quickly smiled and said “Just kidding” apologetically and put the cookie back on the table. I could identify with her dilemma.

Greg with Christie and her soon-to-be-shorter hair Children who will never meet him have Greg Vinson to thank in part for the wigs they received after losing their hair due to cancer treatment or medical conditions like alopecia. When he was one year old, Greg, who works in our elementary aftercare program, was constantly pulling his mother’s hair. His mother, fourth grade teacher Christie Vinson, had a solution: she had it cut so short she could put it in a ponytail that was

Games often have strict rules about getting things right the first time. For example, the rules of Scrabble state that you can’t change your mind once you lift your hand off a tile placed on the board. In kickball there are no re-kicks, or “mulligans,” for a missed kick or bad play. Once the ball is kicked, the play is considered live. Of course, sometimes people playing games agree to let others have another turn. However, in ordinary life being able to have a second chance,

A clever father found a way to boost his son’s feelings of self-worth during a time of family transition. He purposely spoke on the phone in front of his son, listing the ways he was being a great big brother to their new baby. Sometimes he even pretended to make a call even though there was no one on the line, talking enthusiastically about his son’s amazing new brotherly behavior. This empathic dad intuited that overheard conversations often make more of an impression on ch

Scanning 50 Years of Life at The Meher Schools The first personal computer came to market the same year The Meher Schools was founded—1975. We got our first computer in 1983, when Apple Computer donated a computer (an Apple IIe) to every school in California. For the first few years, we used ours only to maintain class lists. Gradually we began to incorporate Access and Excel for some of our record keeping, but we still had to use paper forms to gather information. A major tu

Meet Jenna Chalmers, our new registrar. Jenna began working at the school last month. Her role involves helping current and prospective elementary school families navigate the application and enrollment process, managing the student data system, preparing reports, and supporting other administrators in their work. Prior to joining our staff, Jenna worked as a video game designer ( The Sims , SimCity , Spore ) and developed apps for the STEM toy company GoldieBlox. She says th

Lara photographs a student’s “tree house,” which she’ll upload to the Artsonia site. Artsonia sent her this light box to help her take quality photos. Our students take home a lot of art they’ve made at school, and it’s always hard for parents to decide what to keep and what not to. Lara Cannon had the same problem when her two children were here—and she’s the art teacher! She’s since found a solution, a website called Artsonia that creates an online digital archive of studen