Personal ContextEarly path to teachingI grew up in the farmland of Bucks County, and I made up for the isolation of my childhood home by surrounding myself with books and my own imagination. I didn't plan on becoming an English teacher, but the seeds were planted early on. I was raised by two creative workaholics who provided me with endless learning opportunities. My mother is an elementary gifted education teacher and my father ran the family janitorial company until a catastrophic brain injury took him out of the workforce five years ago. Though a quadriplegic, he is able to use a computer through an infra-red camera system that tracks his slight head movements and he now devotes his full attention to his true love, listening to and writing about music.
My mother sewed my clothes until I became old enough to resist and made me elaborate books and games to play with, such as a scavenger hunt book to bring to the Philadelphia Museum of Art that was full of clues and hidden pockets and moveable Velcro pictures. My older sister and I would often play school, where she was in full control. Through her sheer dominance and force of will rather than any preternatural skill on my part, she taught me to read and do timed division and multiplication by the time I entered kindergarten. She was always a strong personality and by example, she taught me to read everything, question everything, and challenge everything. She has since channeled this intensity into the practice of law and city politics. |
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I am a product of the Central Bucks public school system and a small, Quaker, liberal arts undergraduate education. I had an exemplary education, though some of my most formative experiences as a student occurred in classes at Fleisher Art Memorial and Moore College of Art, where the city served as inspiration and broadened my worldview. I had many positive mentors in school: inspiring and dedicated teachers who found opportunities for my creative expression, nominated me for literary and poetry awards, gave me scholarships to summer programs, and both supported and challenged me as a writer. I also had a number of negative influences that challenged me in other, significant ways, mostly egotistical teachers who held court over their classrooms and showed me what teaching behaviors to avoid. The teachers I was most influenced by were flawed, genuine people that made room for me in their lives and challenged me by example. Rather than creating a cult of personality, they showed me what was possible and provided me with opportunities to experiment and move forward creatively, an environment I strive to cultivate in my own classroom.