Almost thirty years ago, I married a young American woman who I had met while traveling in the States. This brought me to Virginia to live in the suburbs of Washington DC, and it introduced me to the wonderful world of the independent school.
For 26 years I was teacher, Dean, Head of middle School and a member of the senior administrative staff at The Potomac School in McLean, VA, where I lived on campus, raised three children who all went to the school with me, and where I grew up professionally and personally.
However, there is a season for everything, and my increasing belief in the need for education to return to its 19th century little red school house model in order to achieve 21st century success led me away from Potomac first to Peoria, Illinois, and now to Kazoo to a school where every child is known, is loved and has the opportunity to be the best student he or she wishes to be. I am delighted to be here.
Kazoo takes a contrarian view of education, rejecting curriculums and testing defined by the federal government downwards, views the educational experience through the eyes of the child, and works to build 21st century professional skills such as critical thinking and problem-solving skills while attending also to the social-emotional and physical growth of each student. At Kazoo, education is about the student and the person.
I was born in Belfast, Ireland. I have been married to his wife Lori, a developmental therapist, since 1985, and we have three kids: two girls in college, and a son who is a high school senior next year. I enjoy being lazy: reading British detective novels in which murder and mayhem rule before tea, and I seem to spend the rest of my time at the beck and call of my three children. I would not have it any other way.
