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Master teacher in Awakening Wisdom:
Empower learners. Create community. Free minds.

A systems approach to create successful school cultures

Co-founder of Ho`āla School
Principal of River School for 18 years

41 years as teacher and administrator,
refining Awakening Wisdom to nurture students

An educational leader passionate about
the well being of our youth

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AWAKENING WISDOM
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Testimonials for the Awakening Wisdom

  • With Awakening Wisdom, all students are given more than just an education. We are given a place where we are accepted for who we are, encouraged to express ourselves and our abilities, and celebrated for our ideas, our accomplishments, and our identity.

    - Casey Fern, Ho`āla Alumnus

  • River School was the place where is I got that extra push to become who I am today; I have a confidence I never dreamed of, and a drive to follow my educational and career goals that does not waiver.

    - Kat Rae, River School Alumnae, Currently at UC San Diego

  • River School taught me that I was part of a community that was greater than myself. I learned that being a responsible member of a community involves listening to and respecting diverse perspectives.

    - Michaela Lambert, River School Alumnae, Whitman College Graduate

  • Awakening Wisdom has given me the ability to look outside of myself and be a part of what’s good for the whole. At home and at work, I do my best to take responsibility for my actions and work towards being a part of the solution, instead of perpetuating the problem when issues arise.

    - TIFFANY HUYNH, Ho'āla School Graduate

  • Awakening Wisdom has elevated "personal responsibility" in its curriculum for student, teacher and parenting success. From this small Wahiawa private school, where cooperation means more than competition, and listening and clearing are skills actually taught and valued, I believe that the leaders of the world will spring.

    - JAN CHING, Ho'āla School Parent

  • River School has given me the confidence I needed to express my needs and wants. River School gave me my voice.

    - GIOIA BISHOP, River School Graduate

  • Not very many people can say that they began to mature in middle school. Not many people can look back and say, 'I was treated like an adult which in turn allowed me to act like an adult.' I was treated with respect. My opinion was just as important as the opinion of my teachers and the faculty.

    - KATRINA CASTNER, River School Graduate
    Serving In The Peace Corps In Columbia

“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people together to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.”

– Antoine de Saint Exupery

A Little About Linda

        Linda has been an educator for forty-one years, starting at Our Lady of Sorrows School, a small Catholic school in Hawaii.  There she learned a new educational program being implemented that is now called Awakening Wisdom, the result of the collaboration between Sr. Joan Madden, the principal, and an Adlerian psychologist, Dr. Raymond Corsini.  In the interview for the position, Sr. Joan said to Linda, “You know, you don’t just teach subjects; you teach who you are.”  This bit of wisdom has guided Linda in her own development at Our Lady of Sorrows for fifteen years and then twenty-six years in California teaching in comprehensive public middle schools, as a district Gifted and Talented Resource teacher, and, finally, eighteen years as principal of a charter middle school, River School. There she developed the processes of Awakening Wisdom that support students’ social and emotional needs and character development through the implicit curriculum of the school’s culture. In her retirement she is writing a book on the lessons she has learned about the power of Awakening Wisdom to create respectful learning environments that nurtures self-wisdom.  Following through on Sr. Joan’s request, “When you bake good bread, you share the recipe,” she is also working on a non-profit to share Awakening Wisdom so more students and their families can benefit. 

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