Crossing the Threshold: Our New Name
On the first day of school, four different groups of students took one panel each and worked to create an art piece celebrating our new logo. It perfectly represents the eclectic, individualized nature of our program.
In this blog post, I am excited to share why we renamed the school, originally Skybridge Academy, in the fall of 2022. As we were growing and evolving, it was something I was thinking about. Then, I found out a school that just happens to be in our area had trademarked a name very similar to ours, and it felt like a nudge to move forward in the renaming process.
Since working on my master's degree, I have been interested in the different ways some indigenous cultures view raising children and educating them. There is often a ceremony around twelve years of age where the child crosses a threshold and is then viewed as an adult member of society and given a new name that acknowledges the shift in how they are viewed and expected to participate in the culture in this expanded role of young adulthood.
When Skybridge turned twelve, I felt the school wanted independence from me as the person who birthed it, which is something most 12-year-olds seek. I knew it was time for a new name.
I am a deep meditator, and last January, when doing my New Year’s meditation, I learned about the word Appamada. As soon as I stumbled upon this word, I felt in my gut this was the new name.
I did a lot of research about this Pali term, which is the ancient language the Buddha taught in. We are not a Buddhist program, but ancient words deeply inspire me in languages like Pali and Sanskrit that have whole spiritual meanings. This is something I heard Joseph Campbell speak about, how these ancient languages have words with profound and complex meanings that we don’t have words for in English. I have a deep passion for these words and even legally changed my middle name to Margalo, which is a derivative of the Sanskrit word Marga, which literally means the path of an animal, but more broadly represents finding one's own true path.
I prepared a packet of information for Dave, our director, introducing the word to him and giving him its meaning. We both sat with it for the better half of a year before agreeing that “Appamada School” represents where we have evolved and how we want to grow.
In my deep dive into this ancient word, which took me through many articles about Buddhist texts, I have heard different takes on the meaning, all in the same lane. Here is what the word means to me: Pamada is a form of heedlessness, or mindlessness, regarding how you move through life, like when you drive somewhere and have no idea how you got there. Appamada is the opposite of that: it is mindfulness regarding how you move through your days coming from a place of deep inner wisdom. It is the setting of intentions about where you want your life to go, and then constructing your time and focusing your energy so they align with this higher vision of what you want to achieve and the type of life you want to live.
I cannot think of anything more important than this at a time when there is so much competition for our young people’s focus and attention. Last year I read several books discussing the use of technology and how it is impacting our ability to focus mentally.
I love technology and use it every day. I also believe that our brains cannot multitask how we ask them to with the constant distractions of pings and notifications.
I believe the word Appamada is an invitation for our students to focus on their inner process and learn how to be self-referencing. We ask them to go inside themselves and examine what they want their education to be. Our program partners with each student in deeply supporting them to curate a meaningful education path based on who they are as unique individuals in the world regarding how they learn and what they are passionate about. We have a student who now has her Ph.D. in Bioinformatics and a graduate teaching at a local nursery school while studying education. We have a student who lives in Scotland while getting his Master’s Degree in Physics and a student who remained here in Texas and is in College Station at A&M studying Architecture and Engineering.
We have been using the name since August, and for me, it feels like Cinderella’s slipper. The shoe fits perfectly and is the best verbal expression of the work we are inspired to do with our students. I believe names carry energy, and am grateful for this guiding word that is our north star in determining how we are navigating meeting the needs of our students in today’s complex society. The best thing about this name is watching the students discover what Appamada means to them and how the concept of it can support them in being the highest version of themselves.
