Private School Status

Saturday, March 15, 2025

Mama

Partner

Entrepreneur

Educator

Principal

 

…to name a few of the many important roles I play in this lifetime AND one very exciting addition that I snuck in at the end…

 

That’s right… PRINCIPAL…

 

A role that feels so expansive, exciting, empowering and equally makes me feel triggered (from my school board days) and in a power trip (from how I witnessed many in this role show up for the students in their care).

 

So before I share further, let’s add an emphasis on the PAL part of princiPAL.

 

Okay. That feels better. Let’s proceed.

 

Almost a year ago to the day, I began exploring the possibility of what it would look like to take Child of the Wild through the process of becoming a private school.

 

I loved to hate this idea…

 

Two of the things I cherish most about Child of the Wild is that it is apart of the alternative education sector and NOT the public education sector.

 

And second, that the governing body is our commUNITY of parents called to enroll their wild ones NOT a group of government officials.

 

From the standpoint of a business woman with the vision to grow her program far and wide it made total sense to go through this process {for the ‘perks’ and ‘permissions’ on the backend of things}.

 

It just felt so vulnerable to be seen in the ‘up stream’ approach that is the foundation of the program. The thought of being turned down, ripped apart, judged, etc. was paralyzing.

 

BUT the big picture vision of massive commUNITY impact and program availability lit a fire in my soul and led me through the application process with my head held high.

 

After a few months of emails and phone calls.. and pages of filled out information, I received a phone call early one August morning with the final verdict…

 

In a split second Child of the Wild went from an alternative nature based program to a PRIVATE SCHOOL… a private school to which I am the PrinciPAL of.

 

So what does this mean?

Well, it means everything.

And it means nothing.

 

It means everything because…

• This ‘stamp of approval’ means the big picture vision I hold for the program lives on in FULL FORCE.

• The government legitimately acknowledges what we’re doing within our programming as a form of education and this is HUGE.

• I didn’t have to give away my authority in exchange for becoming a private school and our governing body remains the parents of the wild ones enrolled.. the government is actually more hands off than I anticipated they would ‘need’ to be.

 

And it means absolutely nothing because…

 

Nothing has changed… private school and principal are just words. Words that may carry A LOT of weight behind them, but just words none the less.

 

And so, I see this as a beautiful opportunity to rewrite the meaning of what these words have become and the energy that they hold. The program our commUNITY has grown to love remains the same. Fully intact with a ginormous permission slip to be WILD & FREE, as it has been since the beginning and will continue to be.

 

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for following along on our wild journey.. things are really JUST GETTING STARTED! It is a great honour to be the princiPAL of this private school.. but an even greater honour be a PAL to all the wild ones and their beautiful families who are on this journey with us!

 

Onward and upward we go, the currents of this stream are easing and it FEELS SOOOOO GOOD.

​

Rebecca Seabrook

Program Founder & PrinciPAL