Teddy McArdle Free School

Dana Bennis A native New Yorker, Dana learned about freedom-based education in college and has since spent much of his time working to support this approach. He has worked in a variety of schools with progressive and democratic philosophies, visited democratic schools around the world, and has worked in the non-profit sector to research and promote democratic education. Dana completed his Master of Education degree from Vermont College, and he currently manages an educational consulting company called Institute for Democratic Education - United States. He also works with The Calhoun School, a progressive school in Manhattan, and is an education program associate with The Bay and Paul Foundations. He lives with his partner Julie in Tarrytown, New York, and is an avid birder, reader, musician, information-gatherer, and nature-lover.

Alex Khost was given a copy of Summerhill from his father when he was fifteen and has been dedicated to the free school philosophy ever since. He has worked on and off as an educator since he was sixteen, teaching everything from English as a second language both in the United States and abroad to fine art, technology, and teacher certification at the K-12, undergraduate, and graduate levels in New York City public schools and at Parsons School of Design and Pratt Institute. He has a K-12 art teaching certification in New York State, international certification teaching English as a foreign language, and he received his Masters of Fine Art from Parsons School of Design in New York City. Alex is also a painter and has worked professionally as a web developer for years. He is married and has one son.

Alberto Alegre I am from Barcelona, Spain. I literally fell in love with Neill's ideas about education and Summerhill School when I was seventeen, and since then I have always been interested in supporting free education. For this reason I moved to the USA 10 years ago with my wife and my two children, with the desire of learning more about Free Schools. I collaborated with the Venice Community School were I learned a lot about how Free Schools work, the kinds of problems they face, and the possible ways of solving them. To learn even more, I moved to Albany and spent countless hours at the Albany Free School while getting my master's degree in Developmental Psychology at Goddard College (one of the most unbelievable colleges you can ever find!). At the same time, I developed research on parenting and children's emotional intelligence. Some years later, I presented my research at the annual meeting of the National Conference for Family Relations (NCFR) held in Orlando. I kept studying and researching about children's emotional development at Virginia Tech, and I am now almost done with my Ph.D. in Human Development. Also, while in Blacksburg, I taught at the Child Lab, and had the opportunity to familiarize myself with the Reggio Emilia approach to education (a very interesting approach for those who believe in children's freedom and inner wildness). Now I am in the process of publishing and presenting some of my current research on Emotional Intelligence and Emotional Security in research journals and international conferences. Also, currently, I am Assistant Professor of Education at East Stroudsburg University in Pennsylvania.

When I lived in Barcelona, I studied two different majors: Business Administration and also Education. I worked for a few years teaching little children, and then moved to work for more than 10 years in business companies. When I got tired of working with people who only cared about selling more, making more money, and getting higher in the hierarchy of the company, I decided to go back to education. That's when I moved to the USA. During my years as a corporate executive, I discovered in most adults a terrible lack of emotional security and maturity. That was also a strong motivator to start my research in these areas.

Dennis Charles Dennis runs the Youth Success Company, based in Flanders, NJ. He has been involved in education and working with youth for nearly 20 years as a teacher, coach, and administrator. Dennis currently runs programs for teachers, parents and teenagers in both the USA and Europe covering topics as diverse as confidence building, putting kids first and kids at their best. Dennis has 2 children, Ethan and Olivia, and is married to Karin. They are expecting their third child in February.

Pat Gamsby is a Classical Homeopath, graduate of The School of Homeopathy, New York. In addition to being a passionate student of this healing art, she has an extensive background with animals and children; She has assisted her husband, Dick, in running their pet boarding kennel, where they also raise and show Norwegian Elkhounds. Pat also does pet grooming and Elkhound rescue (helping to place dogs in new homes).She has experience and working knowledge about horses, dogs, cats, cows, chickens and goats. Since 1989, she has worked seasonally as a farm tour guide at Green Meadows Children's farm, teaching groups of school children about farm animals.

She has always been a seeker of knowledge and is an avid reader of practically anything. Other areas of interest include painting, stained glass, collecting gemstones, alternative healing, metaphysics, childbirth, belly dance, and natural parenting.

Pat and Dick have a blended family of four children including Adam, a student at Teddy McArdle Free School. Ever since a fifth grade teacher told Pat that she was "too young to have an opinion", she has felt that children need to be in an environment where they are respected as people. Disenchantment with her local school system's rigid expectations and concept of high achieving cookie cutter children led her to seek an alternative learning environment for Adam.

Sandra Jimenez-Molina Sandra has a B.A. in Philosophy from Montclair StateUniversity and completed her coursework in Early Childhood (P-3) at Bloomfield College. She brings a wide range of teaching experience ranging from special education to preschool education, where she ran child centered classrooms. She aided the children through philosophy and democracy to take charge of their own education. She is a homeschooling mom of one and is thrilled to join the TMCAFS.

Elizabeth McCarthy Elizabeth has worked in education, social services and tech support, and is currently homeschooling her daughter Sarah, working part-time painting children's murals, and studying to be a registered dietitian. Originally from NYC, her first encounter with alternative education was watching her father lobby to transform the school where he taught into a free school. Her own personal experiences with alternative education were less radical, but still very positive, as she attended an experimental middle school and high school.

She's taught elementary school kids in several summer enrichment programs, teens and young adults as part of Catholic Charities' summer workstudy program, and adults as an ESL tutor. Currently she's coleading an Earth Scouts chapter, and a local Slow Foods group. She considers herself a lifelong student, and at the moment she's teaching herself the bass, the banjo and learning how to work with chainmail.

Mason R Shepherd III Mason is a Graduate Student at Montclair State University pursuing a Master's Degree in Educational Psychology and a certificate in School Psychology. He is currently working as a volunteer for the Teddy McArdle Free School and has received awards for his past volunteer work with the Mental Health Association of Morris County and for the United Way of Morris County, NJ.

Alberto Alegre I am from Barcelona, Spain. I literally fell in love with Neill's ideas about education and Summerhill School when I was seventeen, and since then I have always been interested in supporting free education. For this reason I moved to the USA 10 years ago with my wife and my two children, with the desire of learning more about Free Schools. I collaborated with the Venice Community School were I learned a lot about how Free Schools work, the kinds of problems they face, and the possible ways of solving them. To learn even more, I moved to Albany and spent countless hours at the Albany Free School while getting my master's degree in Developmental Psychology at Goddard College (one of the most unbelievable colleges you can ever find!). At the same time, I developed research on parenting and children's emotional intelligence. Some years later, I presented my research at the annual meeting of the National Conference for Family Relations (NCFR) held in Orlando. I kept studying and researching about children's emotional development at Virginia Tech, and I am now almost done with my Ph.D. in Human Development. Also, while in Blacksburg, I taught at the Child Lab, and had the opportunity to familiarize myself with the Reggio Emilia approach to education (a very interesting approach for those who believe in children's freedom and inner wildness). Now I am in the process of publishing and presenting some of my current research on Emotional Intelligence and Emotional Security in research journals and international conferences. Also, currently, I am Assistant Professor of Education at East Stroudsburg University in Pennsylvania.

When I lived in Barcelona, I studied two different majors: Business Administration and also Education. I worked for a few years teaching little children, and then moved to work for more than 10 years in business companies. When I got tired of working with people who only cared about selling more, making more money, and getting higher in the hierarchy of the company, I decided to go back to education. That's when I moved to the USA. During my years as a corporate executive, I discovered in most adults a terrible lack of emotional security and maturity. That was also a strong motivator to start my research in these areas.

Dana Bennis A native New Yorker, Dana learned about freedom-based education in college and has since spent much of his time working to support this approach. He has worked in a variety of schools with progressive and democratic philosophies, visited democratic schools around the world, and has worked in the non-profit sector to research and promote democratic education. Dana completed his Master of Education degree from Vermont College, and he currently manages an educational consulting company called Institute for Democratic Education - United States. He also works with The Calhoun School, a progressive school in Manhattan, and is an education program associate with The Bay and Paul Foundations. He lives with his partner Julie in Tarrytown, New York, and is an avid birder, reader, musician, information-gatherer, and nature-lover.

Dennis Charles Dennis runs the Youth Success Company, based in Flanders, NJ. He has been involved in education and working with youth for nearly 20 years as a teacher, coach, and administrator. Dennis currently runs programs for teachers, parents and teenagers in both the USA and Europe covering topics as diverse as confidence building, putting kids first and kids at their best. Dennis has 2 children, Ethan and Olivia, and is married to Karin. They are expecting their third child in February.

Frank Gaughan, PhD, is an assistant professor in the English Department at Hofstra University. His research interests include teacher training and educational reform movements.

Alex Khost was given a copy of Summerhill from his father when he was fifteen and has been dedicated to the free school philosophy ever since. He has worked on and off as an educator since he was sixteen, teaching everything from English as a second language both in the United States and abroad to fine art, technology, and teacher certification at the K-12, undergraduate, and graduate levels in New York City public schools and at Parsons School of Design and Pratt Institute. He has a K-12 art teaching certification in New York State, international certification teaching English as a foreign language, and he received his Masters of Fine Art from Parsons School of Design in New York City. Alex is also a painter and has worked professionally as a web developer for years. He is married and has one son.

Carla Khost is a senior web designer at Fox News. Carla is a graduate of Seton Hall University, with a bachelors in communications and has worked for corporations such as Standard & Poor's, Intel, Johnson & Johnson, Dialogic, IBM and General Motors. She is a new mother who has been introduced to the idea of a free school by her husband Alex Khost. Having gone down the conventional educational path all her life, she truly believes the rigidity of school-type settings and teacher-led instruction tend to stifle children's natural curiosity, setting them up for life without a true love of learning.

Peter H. Khost is a doctoral candidate (ABD) in English at the City University of New York Graduate Center, specializing in composition studies, with additional emphases in utopian literature and medieval mysticism. He has been a full-time lecturer in the Program in Writing and Rhetoric at Stony Brook University since 1999.

Deidre Small was born in the Caribbean island of Trinidad and is a mother of one. She is a student of Psychology as well as Life Coaching and has been a homeschool advocate and has spoken at local homeschool conferences spreading the word about alternative education ideas to parents. She has been dedicated to alternative learning ideas since the birth of her son, Jalen. Her desire is to continue the vivacious sense of curiosity all children possess throughout their entire lives. She feels the Teddy McArdle School fits her philosophy about learning and she would like to take a proactive role in its development and success.

Hank Khost is a market researcher by profession and has taught social psychology and consumer behavior courses as a college adjunct. His education includes a B.S. in sociology , M.A. in psychology and M.B.A. in marketing. For the Teddy McArdle Free School he will assist the administration in any roles requiring more hands, especially in building awareness among the general public and fund raising. Having raised five fine sons, Hank has gained a little insight into things that work and how parents and teachers can help young people.