The Heart of Berkeley: The Historic McGee-Spaulding District

Walden’s founders found each other in the pacifist, anarchist, and libertarian communities of thought and action that were gaining momentum during and following the McCarthy era. Three of the men who founded Walden School in 1958 had actually met while imprisoned as conscientious objectors during World War II. One of them, Alan McRae, wanted to call the school the “Anarchist­ Pacifist Day School” but he was voted down!

Instead, the founders chose the name Walden, in the spirit of Henry Thoreau’s Walden, as a place where children would thrive as independent, creative, and aware individuals. It was formed as a collective, rooted in progressive values and centered on freedom of expression through arts­based education, social and environmental consciousness.

The founding families began with a student body of twelve: their own children and the children of friends. This was a time of dynamic development and rapid expansion for Walden. Teachers went without pay in the first five years, and the families who joined the school community helped build and sustain the school with their own hands. This first decade was marked by significant political and social activism among the majority of families. The founders were united by their shared belief in the personal power and political importance of creative expression.

By the second decade, Walden’s student population reached the capacity it has today, with between seventy­five and ninety students from year to year, for grades K through 6. The school is administered by a teacher­ collective, and parents are encouraged to commit 50 hours of work throughout the year in order to create a strong sense of community.