Laura Burges
Third Grade Teacher
I love The San Francisco School’s diverse student and teacher population and the feeling that it is a lively, creative place for children to learn and grow together.
I am a native of the San Francisco Bay Area. I had many jobs before becoming a teacher, from Vice President of Smith & Hawken Tool Company, to an assistant to the Senate Majority Leader in the Alaska State Legislature. I discovered that I loved teaching kids when I taught in a one-room schoolhouse in the Los Padres Wilderness in California. I received my teaching credential from San Francisco State in 1985 and taught at Alvarado Elementary School in Noe Valley for one year. I began as a drama specialist at The San Francisco School, then taught Fourth and Fifth Grade, and finally landed in Third Grade, where I was meant to be. I have completed several years of monastic training at the first Buddhist monastery in the United States, Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, and I teach Buddhist Studies at The San Francisco Zen Center. I also lecture and lead retreats at other centers in Northern California.
