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The SRV Model
SRV 1930 to 2010
80 Years Ago
Before coming to SRV, Grace Rotzel had worked with Marietta Johnson at The School of Organic Education in Fairhope, Alabama, where she came to appreciate "the atmosphere of openness and freedom, [and] the work–for–work's sake idea." In the first year the teachers encouraged caring for animals and exploring the environment, "and the reading, writing and arithmetic that was involved in these goings–on." In the early spring, they needed a little extra help to break the ground for the creation of the school's first vegetable garden.
Twelve Turnings
As part of our 80 year celebration, we'll also be revisiting the nature writing of SRV founder Grace Rotzel.
March is a rousing month. Not only the slapping of the wind, and beating of the rain, but an inner waking up brings us to our senses. We say that man is not a hibernating animal but perhaps this is only four–fifths true. Some part of us must lie dormant during the winter, else how explain the liveliness and quickening that comes with spring. A whiff of tangy spring smells, and we are out looking for snowdrops and watercress. We envy the beagle his quivering, sensitive nose but we do quite well with ours, sniffing the sassafras and spice bush.
The staccato outburst of the woodpecker breaks through that last layer of fog in our fuzzy, winterized brain, and lo and behold! We suddenly take our five senses out of storage, and come alive.
At school we see, hear, taste, smell and touch MUD mostly, for that is what we have a plethora of. But we also have bluebirds, fox sparrows and white–throats, and they bid us look up and not down. The soft cascades of silvery tones, and flashes of color and motion appear only to the alert of eye and ear. It's a game to find out how alert you can be.
Grace Rotzel – 1959
