I started teaching in 1974, defaulting to what I knew: the tiny boarding school founded by my grandfather and at that time headed by my uncle. After a year and a half a personal matter--love, if you have to ask--found me in yet another independent school, where for three years I honed my craft under great mentors.

A child of the Sixties, I graduated from high school--yes, an independent school--in 1968 and experienced college amid protests and draft worries, resenting the hidden powers behind the status quo. By 1976 I had cut my hair, but I still had dreams of a more egalitarian world, and so that year I began the coursework toward public school certification.

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