Availability
Summer months (July and August): I am available six days a week (Monday through Saturday), 7:00 AM to 9:00 PM. Academic year: I am available five days a week (Monday-Friday), 3:00 PM though 9:00 PM, Saturdays from 7:00 AM through 9:00 PM.
Rate
$60 / hour
Education
I graduated with a diploma from Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts in 1981. At Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, I pursued a liberal arts curriculum, majoring in art history with an emphasis on Italian studies (including a semester at the Trinity College Rome Campus), and I received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1985. From 1985 to 1990, I pursued both academic studies and professional training at a number of theological seminaries and divinity schools, and in 1990 I received a Master of Divinity degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Hamilton, Massachusetts. At an advanced level, I have pursued seminars and research at the General Theological Seminary in New York City and at the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 2001, I completed an intensive training and internship module at the Massachusetts Institute for New Teachers. Over the last two decades, I have continued as an avid reader and researcher in the context of owning and directing Basileia Books, an academic and antiquarian book service.
Living and working at a two-acre estate in Andover, Massachusetts, surrounded by wetlands and woods, I am an avid reader and gardener. I constantly expand and maintain an academic and educational library, a rich resource for my work as an antiquarian bookseller, teacher, tutor, and translator. I also constantly expand and maintain our vegetable and flower gardens, perennial plantings, and grounds, a living laboratory for my work as a landscaper. I am the eldest of four boys: a son, brother, brother-in-law, and uncle. I keep up an extended network of friends in North America and Europe, and I frequently travel throughout the USA and Canada. I am a passionate devotee of classical music, architecture, and the visual arts. I am a Christian in the Protestant Episcopal Church USA, with a particular leaning toward biblical teaching and preaching, catholic and reformed liturgy and worship, and global mission. I seek spiritual and psychological growth in the context of my own faith and in dialogue with world religions, most notably Judaism and Islam. Last but not least, I adore children, appreciate the rewards and challenges of adolescence, and enjoy partnering with adult learners!
Typically but not exclusively during the summer months, students and their families enroll in test preparation courses. I have extensive experience in preparing students in the upper elementary and middle school grades to take the SSAT and ISEE, with an eye on admission to private secondary schools. From time to time I have prepared high school students to take the SAT, with an eye on admission to the finest colleges and universities in the USA. On one occasion I have prepared a college graduate to take the GRE, for admission to leading graduate schools.
My teaching and tutoring centers on the arts and humanities and leans toward classical education. Latin and English are my favorite subjects for classroom instruction. In any setting, I'm particularly keen on vocabulary development and the fruits that it bears in reading, writing (both expository and creative), and speaking. For all grade levels beginning with the third, I integrate focused instruction in grammar, syntax, and etymology in all contexts of studying and employing the English language. I encourage young people to become life-long readers and polished writers, and do so by guiding them in their own balanced choice of fiction and non-fiction genres and supporting them in the articulation of their own voices and styles.
I have extensive experience in tutoring elementary, middle, and high school students in mathematics. I emphasize precise comprehension and usage of terminology, simultaneous flexibility and rigor in problem-solving algorithms, and application to real-life situations and scientific pursuits.
Drawing on graduate-level study in education, pastoral theology, homiletics, and counseling, I adapt and apply the best curricula, resources, and pedagogies for each particular learning situation. In many instances, concerted attention to social, psychological, and spiritual themes is the most critical factor in the student's growth. Especially for adolescents, awareness of and direct instruction in metacognitive strategies bolsters the student's discipline, self-esteem, and objective achievement. As appropriate and desired, I entertain readings and conversation in critical topics and life skills, including physical fitness, sexuality, nutrition, mental health, criminal and social justice, human rights, and biblical faith. I constantly elicit and affirm the emerging life-path and vocation of each and every student.
Avoiding the mind trap of "normal", I conscientiously ascertain and walk along each and every student's abilities, aptitudes, and identities. Over a quarter-century of educational and ministerial service, I have worked successfully with students with intellectual disabilities, physical-health limitations, language-based deficits, attention disorders, hyperactivity, social immaturity, anxieties and dysphoria. Students who manifest special gifts and talents are expected and encourage to develop them through Socratic learning, interdisciplinary reading and research, and exposure to hermeneutics and philosophy.
