Our Wildwood, Volume 53

THE MIDDLE AND UPPER SCHOOL AS STARTUP

Corey Fetzer ‘04 brings a unique perspective as a member of the first graduating class and now an upper school humanities and literature teacher. “I think the upper school really started with this spirit of, let’s try some things out and see what happens, and we’ll refine from there,” Corey said. “I think that is something that has stayed the same, this willingness to take all the best research and all the best minds and put them together and launch something that might be imperfect, but with the knowledge that it can be iterated on. Wildwood’s openness to testing things out, seeing how they work, being a lab for the future of education— that spirit has always been important.” But naturally, things weren’t always perfect in those early days. “It was like the Wild West.” Corey said. “No one day was the same as the next. The first semester, we didn’t even have printed schedules. The teachers would write on the board every day what we were doing. We had cardboard walls that you couldn’t lean too hard on because our campus wasn’t finished.” Ultimately, those details were not what really mattered. “There was so much intentionality around the launch of the middle and upper school,” Corey said. “There was so much forward-thinking research and pedagogy that went into the program, and the bones are essentially the same now. Wildwood was 20 years in advance of what schools are now doing.” Most importantly, Corey found herself well prepared for college. She went to Pitzer, part of the prestigious Claremont Colleges, where she majored in English and minored in media studies; three others from the graduating class of just 20 students were also accepted there. “I had a friend and classmate in college who went to a different elite L.A. independent school, and she said, ‘This is so hard. Why didn’t anyone teach me how to write?’ But everyone taught me how to write all the time at Wildwood. Everyone taught me how to do the things that I needed to and if I couldn’t do something, how to learn how to do it, how to advocate for myself, how to ask for help, how to communicate with educators. It was both the academic side and the life skill component.”

Proof positive that Wildwood is not afraid to reflect and innovate was the work started by a passionate Board of Trustees, parents, and educators in 1996, when they began discussion and research around the creation of the middle and upper school. The goal was to extend Wildwood’s K-6 program—its principles of progressive education and its culture—in age-appropriate ways. Katie Rios (P. ‘24), longtime director of elementary, was invited to be on a committee of Wildwood educators at the time. She remembers the kind of enthusiasm the community felt about a possible K-12. “I always say that Wildwood is such a great place to be a kid and to become yourself,” Katie said. “Children are taught that they always have a place at the table and they’re heard and valued. To think about having that extend after 6th grade was really exciting.” Melinda Tsapatsaris (P. ‘28, ‘31, ‘33), founding faculty member, and then assistant head of school until 2017, said, “Starting the school from scratch was the gift of a lifetime. It was a creative endeavor that took a ton of collaboration and critical thinking, and so in some ways, we got to flex the same muscles and habits that we wanted our students to use. It was the ultimate project in creating a project-based learning school.” The work was both exciting and challenging. Melinda, who now is head of school at Westland School, said an idea from Deborah Meier, founder of the small schools movement, became popular during that time. “She said, starting a new school from scratch is like changing the tires on a car as the car is moving. When I left for two years for grad school, it was almost easier. My real master’s degree was being part of that startup team.”

Class of 2004

OWW SUMMER 2025

21