Keith Burns, a SEED leader and theatre arts director with 24 years of teaching experience, wrote this piece about how SEED helped open his eyes to systems of privilege.

Patricia A. Matos, Greenwich Country Day School, 6th grade science teacher, SEED leader

There are rough days and there are great days. Facilitating SEED is not easy work; sometimes it takes all your skill at yoga breathing to get you through a moment (assuming you remember to do it!). What makes SEED tough? Sharing of yourself. Leaning into discomfort. Facing the societal inequities and seeing where you fit within those constructs. Facing your own privilege. And this is what the participants do! While these make SEED a personal journey for every participant, being a facilitator has its own challenges.

SEED Leader Peaches Gillette describes how SEED has become a foundational tool for the many diversity initiatives at her school.

Peaches Gillette
The Town School, New York, New York
Essay written 2012

In 1986, when I first came to The Town School, what was then described as diversity work was taking place in one kindergarten classroom among a handful of teachers who collaborated and worked to heighten racial and cultural awareness in their classrooms, with the hope that their work would be embraced and incorporated into the curriculum of the entire nursery division – a total of four classes. The group was informal and it was not recognized as a vital part of the school.