Edith Bailey Biographical notes
I grew up in Columbia and graduated from University of South Carolina with a BA in psychology. I married a graduate student and took a job teaching children with autism at a school in Elgin, SC. Teaching children with autism was fascinating because it required creative problem solving to meet the individual needs of each child. After 7 years of teaching, I took time off to care for my newborn twins. Two years later, I had a second set of twins, all eventually diagnosed with attention and learning issues. (As a teen, one was diagnosed with Asperger�s syndrome.)
I held a variety of teaching positions in places we moved with my husband�s work. My children attended the preschool where I taught in Rock Hill, SC, before moving to the panhandle of Texas. Once my children were in school, I taught adult literacy, one to one, in a probation department and sometimes with jail inmates. Most had failed to learn the skills they needed because of undiagnosed learning problems. After moving to Houston, TX, I taught at an private school. Again, I found students who were struggling academically and getting into trouble due to learning differences that were not being addressed appropriately.
Experience with my children�s learning issues reinforced my experiences in teaching. It is all about encouraging curiosity and providing the appropriate guidance for the teachable moments that occur repeatedly each day. As a parent dealing with the public, private, traditional and nontraditional schools my children attended, it became clear that the more flexible the learning environment could be for one of my children, the more successful the child would be in school. There was always a direct correlation between a child�s happiness and success in school. This has an enormous impact on the entire family unit. The structure and atmosphere that makes one child happy, secure and thrive may create anxiety and lack of self confidence in another. I had four children in four different schools at times. As a teacher, this made perfect sense to me. After all, teachers and students need the same things, but may need them presented in different ways. We all need to be stimulated, provoked to think, allowed to be creative, and laugh a lot along the way. We need to feel good about who we are, what we have to contribute, and be provided opportunities to share our strengths with others. We need to do these things while we eat, play, talk, walk, read, observe, and make things. We need to be allowed space to grow intellectually, emotionally, and socially as well as physically.
Moving back to SC, I was challenged again to find the right fit for each of my children in school. After meeting Glenda Sternberg at Glenforest School, I knew I had found a kindred spirit. I had gone to Glenforest to find a school for my son. I was faced with a dilemma. This might be a fit for my son, but it was the perfect school for me. Would she take us both? His needs were more pressing than mine. Eventually I did apply for a job. I taught there for 12 years.
During this time, I took graduate courses in characteristics and methodologies of learning disabilities, courses focused on teaching math, science, social studies and language arts at the elementary level and some general education courses. This convinced me to seek a MA in Education in Divergent Learning from Columbia College. (My thesis focused on integrating social skills training in the daily curriculum of the classroom.)
I learned so much from Glenda Sternberg and my time at Glenforest. After her retirement and during the search for the new school head, Glenda told me that Gillian Barclay-Smith was someone I would really enjoy working with. She was right. Gillian and I had such a similar philosophy, though derived from very different experiences. We worked well together at Glenforest. When Gillian left Glenforest, so did much of the creativity I found stimulating. I was thrilled when she invited me to join her at the Barclay School. I feel at home at The Barclay School.
