Susan Silverio - A Short Biography
Susan's homestead kindergarten, "Spindlewood," which she began in 1986, continues as a branch of Ashwood Waldorf School and a model of a LifeWays center. Already a seasoned Waldorf early childhood teacher, Susan completed the LifeWays Early Childhood and Human Development Training, and has gone on to offer workshops at Waldorf Early Childhood Association conferences at Sunbridge College. She also taught "World Citizen: The Child from Birth to Three" at Rudolf Steiner Institute with Cynthia Aldinger in 2005. She is the East Coast Director of LifeWays Training and will be offering a one-year intensive training for those who care for young children, beginning in July 2006 at Merriconeag Waldorf School in Freeport, Maine.
"I grew up as the oldest of six children and navigated the 1960's by operating The Lemon Tree (a coffee house) with friends and family. It was there that I first experienced the joy and satisfaction of a small cooperative initiative. After graduating from Edgecliff College in Cincinnati, I moved to Maine where I served as a social worker with Children's Protective Services. It was a time and place for cultural creativity and I became a founding board member and teacher with the Community School, a small residential school for at-risk teens. I also had the opportunity to serve as a founding member of a community organization that brought agriculture back to the abandoned Maine State Prison Farm. After chairing a Care Committee for prison volunteers, we were able to establish Mid-Coast Hospitality House, an extended family farmhouse that continues to provide shelter for families and individuals in times of crisis or transition.
"As a single woman in the '70s, I opened my own house as a family day care home, where I discovered children's capacities for self-initiated movement and play. This has remained my lifelong interest. When I married John Silverio, I welcomed his son into our life. Together we created a family homestead with gardens, barn and an architectural studio that Matthew now shares with his father. There was also a small guest cabin, and it was here that Ashwood Waldorf School began in 1986 with my kindergarten class of 11 children. Several years later Ashwood purchased a central campus for its Early Childhood Center and Grade School in Rockport, Maine, and my kindergarten was expanded to become Spindlewood, Ashwood's LifeWays Kindergarten."
For more information on LifeWays, see www.waldorfinthehome.org or www.lifeways-center.org. Susan can be contacted directly at silverio@tidewater.net.
