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Show 2 - GUSTY TIMES - JULY 1992 Free to be Ourselves Interview with Dave and Bonnie Seibert Dave and Bonnie Seibert live at the Castle Valley Academy. Their home is a neat white trailer surrounded by flowers, lush lawns, and mature trees. As I arrive they are planting tiny hybrid poplars given them by Leo Stevens. I think of starting trees in the five weeks. “It worked out very well,” says Dave. Their mutual comfort and pleasure in each other is evident, even after almost nineteen years. Dave and Bonnie’s lives have been surrounded by the Academy, literally and figuratively. They have worked there and raised their son and daughter children. The children automatically get pushed in the background,” says Bonnie. Had Bonnie been forced to work outside the home, they would he is the Academy’s teacher, Dave is also in charge of all the plants at the Academy destined for human consump- have freedom to landscape the yard and We have freedom to be ourselves, we fix it up," says Dave. “In child care it's called an ‘enriched environment’,” agrees Bonnie. “Gardens and pools and and acres of vegetables. A few poplars treehouses and an underground house,” will be easy. Bonnie and Dave have been here adds Dave. “A lot of this was instigated by our children.” Bonnie and Dave speak with deep love and respect for their children, came to help establish the Academy, Dave first, Bonnie six months later, and have left the Academy. Fortunately their wishes were respected. “It’s a special privilege of Moms to be needed and wanted at home,” Bonnie smiles. They see the dormitories and cafeteria that now exist as being a better way of managing both their own families and the students. “Children know when they're not first,” says Bonnie. “I was determined to prove”, says Dave, “that it was possible to have a family in an institutional setting like this and still have them happy and . . . not have them bitter against this type of work and against their parents.” He reflects that it hasn’t been easy to draw their continued presence is a joy and a comfort for Alumni. They came separately but, as they tell their story, it’s clear that they were deeply con- the lines between work that is so fundamental to his life and time with his family who are also fundamental. Both parents speak of their children’s needs and the importance of setting priorities to meet those needs. nected before they arrived. Bonnie first saw Dave at college in Tennessee where they were students. Attending her first Friday night the effect it was having on their children. “Teenagers talk louder than secluded, quiet, very active, sometimes more stressful than you like, type of setting. Freedom, that’s what we really enjoy about this valley and the school. for twenty-two years, longest of any other Academy staff members. They Bonnie and Dave tried home heading for one year but stopped when they saw there. “We have been able to have a summer heat and realize these people are professional green thumbs. Though his true love and career is music, and tion. This includes hundreds of trees department in the school. Their children became “campus runabouts.” Drawing by Hannah Lowry For Bonnie, that meant having the singing. “I was attracted to him on the mechanic bound for two years of children grow up “being in Mommy’s way.” Canning 900 quarts of fruit 3 spot, and that attraction never left,” she beams. She laughs as she adds, “Nine years I waited.” They worked together college, then back home to set up a year is a tremendous job, more so with business. Laura, born with cystic fibrosis, died a year ago last Christmas. Both children were creative and active, taking the initiative to follow through children “helping.” And yet it was her patience that led to both children’s Vespers she saw Dave leading the as Boys‘ and Girls’ Deans at the Academy in Mississippi before transferring to Castle Valley. Bonnie smiles as she recalls coming here to escape a misdirected beaux, “who thought I was the one for him.” Three years more would pass before Dave “had his eyes opened.” “Finally in the Spring of ’73 I decided this was disgusting, trying to teach as a single male. Most of my students were female, taking piano or choir.” Bonnie adds, “They would get crushes on Mark and Laura. Mark is a budding on their dreams. It was they who influenced their father to stop his becoming superb and motivated workers who would gladly assist their Mom in canning 100 gallons of strawberries. Bonnie sees this training as something that comes over time, rather than something one suddenly driven work schedule and shift to spending time with his children. He built tree houses with Mark and planted lawns with Laura, among other things. Parents and children worked and played alongside each other, as a team, becomes old enough to do. Dave and Bonnie see their children enjoying work, finding productivity fun, and appreciating “the true dignity of a training both parents see as invaluable and irreplaceable. manual labor.” The companionship that develops Dave lived in institutions from the from working side-by-side has been an him.” Dave recalls the turning point for him, when he gave up his conviction that the gal he’d marry would mirror age of twelve. He speaks of the his music career. This, coupled with his increasing discomfort with teaching as and Mrs. Institution” instead of Dad a single male, made him realize who he of in day care and would eat in cafete- was working with in all situations. “We’d been to school together, in rias. Dave and Bonnie saw this happening to some of the staff children at the Academy during the early years. Staff Mark is tangible. Love without respect could never yield such rich results. They also express appreciation for the experiences they have had with 400 were expected to “home head,” have students over these 22 years. Dave has Mississippi together, and here to- gether.” Their courtship, the period of getting to know each other, had lasted nine years. Their engagement lasted insecurity that developed in children whose parents worked, becoming “Mr and Mom. The children were taken care six to ten students in their home, to teach several classes, and run a major additional benefit. Both Dave and Bonnie have always had open and easy communication with their children, even in the teenage years. The respect these parents have for both Laura and Seibert continued—Page 6 |
