Berkeley Elementary Schools

One of the little houses at Rosa Parks Elementary

Some of my favorite walks in Berkeley have been to its elementary schools. The first one I ever visited was Thousand Oaks, nearby MLK and Solano. Ironically, I was there as part of a volunteer effort to clean up the school. The first thing I said when I got there was, "This is ridiculous. It's nicer than my school." And my school is one of the top-ten research universities in the nation.

The only other two that I've really scoped out have been Cragmont and Rosa Parks. Each of the three has its own feel.

Thousand Oaks feels bigger than the others, it's school garden is really far along and every single pole and every single wall is art or artfully crafted. They're big on displaying student art, in a way so you can tell little kids made it.

Cragmont, on the other hand, incorporates student art as well, but it's more subtle. You're not just noticing the purple stick figures and the animals with too-long legs. You notice the way the colors go together perfectly. The mosaic at Cragmont is something that should inspire whole cities. Not just little kids and their parents. And I don't know how those kids can feel like they're in school when they have that huge view of the bay right in front of them. It doesn't feel like school, it feels like it should be teeming with tourists and their cameras.

Mosaic wall at Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks is my favorite. The pictures are from Rosa Parks. Rosa Parks has a pond, a solar panel, and a mosaic wall. But my favorite part is that it feels like a little neighborhood. I held a series of short classes in one of the little house/ classrooms that make up the perimeter of the blacktop... and it's just sweet to walk into a little cottage that's really a school. Not to mention they're cute colors, reds and yellows. I wish malls and, actually, just everything was set up like a little mini neighborhood. Like Polly Pocket.

Another Polly Pocket classroom at Rosa Parks