 Diane
Goudie MA, MEd, LLD has over thirty years of educational
experience, both as a teacher and administrator within the
public and independent school systems. Her commitment throughout
her academic and professional career to the education and
growth of young women led to her co-founding The Linden School.
 Eleanor
Moore BA, MEd, LLD brings thirty years of experience
as a teacher, guidance counsellor and administrator in an
independent girls’ school. As a co-founder of The Linden
School, Eleanor is passionate about making a difference for
women.
Founding The Linden School was intrinsically
a manifestation of how women's ways of knowing and working
could come together to make a school which actualized what
we knew and would come to know about how girls do learn and
how they want to learn. However, all-girls schooling goes
back to our own experiences in all-girls schools in the '60s
in New Zealand and Canada. For anyone who has been to an all-girls
school it is an experience that makes a lasting difference.
For those who have not had that opportunity it seems to be
a peculiar mystery.
In creating Linden, we were sure that we
could teach teachers to implement girl-centred pedagogy into
the classrooms and that we could develop curriculum which
would not only be academically challenging but also would
have at its core social justice and a questioning of the status
quo. Perhaps the surprise to me is that some fifteen years
later the feminist scholarship of the '80s and '90s which
informed our school in its early days is now supported by
more recent research on the brain.
We are so proud of the way that Linden incorporates
this research into its practices, both in the classrooms and
in the administration of the school. To have become known
as the leader in girls' education in 15 short years is a real
testament to the hard work done by the teachers at the school.
They constantly question the way that they engage with the
girls on a daily basis, often having to reconstruct their
practices to reflect the knowledge that we have about girls
and learning.
We are thrilled that Linden has made it a priority to place its limited resources
in pedagogy and curriculum and in accessibility rather than in the material trappings of education.
(And yes it would be nice to have a bigger gym.) How do you teach the girls to think differently about
resource allocation and social action, unless these emphases are practised and are integral to school
culture? Making change involves teaching about and modeling structural shifts rather than preserving
traditional schooling models. Linden culture is grounded in mission. That is our strength and our consistency.
Making a difference is often uncomfortable and that is particularly true for young people.
Striking that balance between comfort and risk-taking - both essential elements of "the intellectual play"
of Linden - has always been a challenge for us - prickly but always worth it.
Linden is maturing into what we dreamed of some 15 years ago. Now it is time to write
down our story, our practice, our success and to share this with other educators of girls around the world.
On a personal level it is time to mentor others, to develop new skills especially in music and to foster in
others the will to make a difference.
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