SPEAKERS AND PRESENTERS

Thomas Armstrong, Ph.D. is an award-winning author and speaker with over thirty years of teaching experience from the primary through the doctoral level, and over one million copies of his books in print on issues related to learning and human development.  He is the author of eleven books including Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom, In Their Own Way, Awakening Your Child’s Natural Genius, 7 Kinds of Smart, The Myth of the A.D.D. Child, ADD/ADHD Alternatives in the Classroom, and Awakening Genius in the Classroom. His books have been translated into nineteen languages, including Spanish, Chinese, Hebrew, Danish, and Russian. He has written for Ladies Home Journal, Family Circle (where he received awards from the Educational Press Association, and the National Association of Secondary School Principals), Parenting (where he was a regularly featured columnist for four years), Mothering (where he was a contributing editor), and over thirty other periodicals, journals, and edited books. He has appeared on several national and international television and radio programs, including NBC’s "The Today Show," "CBS This Morning," "CNN," the "BBC" and "The Voice of America." Articles featuring his work have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, Investor’s Business Daily ,Good Housekeeping, and hundreds of other newspapers and magazines around the country. Dr. Armstrong has given over 500 keynotes, workshops, and lectures in 42 states and 16 countries in the past eighteen years. His clients have included Sesame Street,  the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the European Council of International Schools, the Republic of Singapore, and several state departments of education. He is currently writing a book on the stages of life. For more information click here to visit www.thomasarmstrong.com

Matt Hern lives in East Vancouver with his partner and daughters. He runs the Purple Thistle Centre (purplethistle.org), a youth exchange project and Crank magazine (crankmagazine.com). He holds a PhD. in Urban Studies, is on faculty at the Institute for Social Ecology and writes and lectures widely. He edited the collection Deschooling Our Lives and his new book is Field Day.

Loretta Heuer and her husband Bill "hybrid-schooled" their two sons Tad (27, currently at Yale Law) and Jed (22, an art director in a NYC ad agency), by combining unschooling, school-at-home, school classes, travel, technology and work experiences to help support their sons' differing personal interests and career goals.  The author of the Homeschooler's Guide to Portfolios and Transcripts, Loretta's current work focuses on helping adults appreciate the power, rigor and joy of mathematics.

Naomi Aldort Ph.D. is a parenting/family counselor who works with parents and educators internationally by phone, in family intensive retreats, and in parenting workshops. She is an inspiring public speaker and an internationally published writer. Aldort does not teach parents "how to get kids to be/do..", but rather how to be with children so that they are free to be their own magnificent selves. Her coaching is about transforming parent-child relationships from reaction and struggle to Freedom, Power and Joy. Naomi is married and the mother of three young people who have never been to school and are flourishing. You can visit the youngest at OliverAldort.com. Naomi Aldort's articles can be found in Mothering magazine, Byron Child magazine (Australia), Natural Parenting Magazine (AU), The Mother (UK), The Journal for Family Living, Taking Children Seriously (UK), Life Learning magazine (Canada), Gentle Spirit, Hand in Hand, the magazine of Attachment Parenting International. Her writing is also included in McGraw Hill University text book "A Child's World," and some of her articles have been translated to Japanese, Dutch, German, Hebrew and Spanish. For more information visit www.NaomiAldort.com.

Meredith Warshaw is a special needs educational advisor, writer, lecturer, and contributing editor for 2e: Twice-Exceptional Newsletter (http://2enewsletter.com). She is the creator of the Uniquely Gifted (www.uniquelygifted.org) website, founder/listowner of the GT-Special (www.gtworld.org/gtspeclist.html) email list for families with gifted/special needs children and the GT-Spec-Home (www.gtworld.org/gtspechome.htm) list families homeschooling gifted/special needs children. As an advocate for special needs children, Meredith is a member of the Board of Directors for the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates (COPAA).  She spent a decade doing psychiatry research at Brown University, using her education in clinical social work, research psychology and statistics.  Meredith has learned through experience the joys and challenges of  educating a gifted/special needs child, both by homeschooling and in school. Her son was in school for three years, has been homeschooled since then, and is now about to enter an experience-based high school program to pursue his interests in engineering. 

Moderator and Discussants for Uncollege Panel:

Ken Danford, Moderator. Ken taught in public schools for six years in Prince George's County, MD and Amherst, MA prior to co-founding North Star: Self-directed Learning for Teens in 1996 (then known as Pathfinder Center). Since then, he has been the Executive Director of North Star and helped hundreds of teens and families use homeschooling as a means to design and pursue their lives. He currently lives in Montague, Massachusetts with his wife and two children.

North Star: Self-directed Learning for Teens makes homeschooling an inspiring and viable option for any interested teenager in the Pioneer Valley. North Star offers classes, tutoring, and a busy social space to its members. Further, North Star assists its members in finding internships, mentors, and work opportunities in the local community, and supports its members' transitions to college and early adulthood. North Star welcomes lifelong homeschoolers, but the majority of its members are families new to homeschooling who choose to leave school because of North Star's presence. For more information click here to visit www.northstarteens.org

Rowan Harrison. I left high school as a sophomore and started attending Northstar Learning Center. I spent one year there and one year pursuing my interest in pottery. I then decided to enrol at Mount Wachuett Community College in their art program. I spent one and a half years enrolled full time and towards the end I became restless and bored staying indoors all day. I remember looking out the window and wishing i was outside. College lacked the diversity I love about life and having space and time to do different kinds of projects. College kept me focused on one thing and left little energy for other interests. People ask me if I will go back to college and I say, "maybe if I have time, but I'm doing way too many things right now, things I love!"

Ben Lucal is a 21-year-old musician and artist. He did not like school as a young child and was diagnosed with learning disabilities. After ninth grade he attended Sudbury Valley School where he was given time and freedom (finally!). There he met someone younger than him who became his greatest teacher. It was through her example that he rediscovered his love for learning and began to read. He lives simply and tries to keep an open mind and an open heart.

Sarabeth Matilsky is a lucky young woman. A lifelong unschooler and vegetarian from a strong family and community in New Jersey, she has been able to pursue her dreams all her life. She started dancing when she was 5, started cooking for her family of seven at age 9, has played piano since the age of 11, became a writer at 14, and pedalled her bicycle 4,500 miles across the U.S. when she was 17. Now 25, she lives near Boston with a nice young man she picked up while cycling in Illinois. Their son, Ben Starling, has been unschooled since his birth on January 10, 2004.

Eli Gerzon. More information is coming

Pamela Harrison. More information is coming

Moderator and Discussants for Learning Disabilities: Issues Professionals Struggle With Panel:

Pat Farenga, Moderator. See above.

Dr. Richard Falzone is a psychiatrist and parent of two homeschoolers. He completed residency training in Adult Psychiatry, and fellowship training in Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, at the Mass. General and McLean Hospitals, Harvard Medical School. In addition to general psychiatry, Dr. Falzone specializes in substance abuse and addictions in the adolescent and adult populations. His work in multiple treatment settings - outpatient, residential, and inpatient - informs his view that, for many families, homeschooling can be a lifesaving alternative to the public school system.

Dr. Falzone has also begun work on a long-term video documentary project, Skipping School, which will chronicle the experiences of local homeschoolers. A major goal of this project is to promote homeschooling as a mainstream alternative to traditional education by exploring the benefits of homeschooling and illustrating some of the practical and philosophical shortcomings of traditional public education. His website is: www.rfalzone.info

Dr. Ken Jacobson earned his Doctorate in Anthropology from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. He also earned masters degrees in neuroscience and in anthropology from Brandies University in Waltham, Massachusetts. His cross-cultural research on Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder was featured in the 1-1-00 issue of the New York Times. Jacobson has presented the results of his project for peer review at numerous professional meetings, and published several papers on the topic. He is the process of preparing a book length manuscript. His current research interests focus on power relationships between adults and children, social relationships between children and the ways in which those relationships impact on educational institutions. Jacobson is currently a Research Fellow at Boston University.

Jacobson may be reached at Kenjay@bu.edu

Dr. Robert E. Kay, MD, began his psychiatric training in 1958 and, after seven years in the Army, settled in Philadelphia where he has worked with both adults and children in numerous outpatient, inpatient, and school settings. But he now refuses to medicate children so is no longer able to be a substitute child psychiatrist. He has published many articles on raising children, the teaching of reading, the problem with school, and on how we could use sociobiological insights; i.e. he has never met a chimpanzee with a learning disability!

Dr. Thomas Armstrong, Discussant. See above.

Meredith Warshaw, Discussant. See above.

Moderator and Discussants for Ivan Illich and Taught Mother Tongue Panel

Pat Farenga, Moderator (see above)

Eugene Burkart is an attorney who has advised and represented homeschoolers for over twenty years. He was introduced to the thought of Ivan Illich in Cuernovoca, Mexico in 1973 and has studied his work ever since, getting to know him personally as a friend.

Matt Hern, Discussant (see above)

Joey Mokos is a union organizer for Boston's Local 26, UNITE/HERE. He studied with Ivan Illich at Penn State University, and has been involved with Illich's research and circle of friends for over a decade, having traveled with him to Germany, Mexico and in the US. Joey and his wife, Becky, met at Divinity School, and they have a son, Sam, who is 1 1/2 years old.

Moderator and Discussants for Grown Homeschoolers Panel:

Sarabeth Matilsky, Moderator. See above.

Stephanie D'Arcangelo-Dalmer homeschooled for most of her life. As the second oldest of 7 children, whose mother was influenced by John Holt, she worked at the Holt Associates/Growing Without Schooling office as an assistant for 5 years as a teen. Stephanie attended the off-campus individualized BA program at Goddard college, and has her certification as a hatha yoga instructor with separate certifications in prenatal and Color Me Yoga for children. Married for 9 years, Mrs. D'Arcangelo-Dalmer is a second-generation homeschooling mother to two daughters, Mariah age 8 and Liliana age 6. Stephanie is the founder and coordinator of the Methuen Area Homeschooling Network and the Methuen Area Homeschoolers weekly activity group.

Jenine (Jenny) Turner is a lifelong autodidact from Virginia. Homeschooling gave her the free time to pursue competitive gymnastics and other interests. She graduated from the University of Rochester in 2003, where she earned degrees in Computer Science, Cognitive Science, and French. She spent a semester in France, and continues to travel whenever she can. Jenny is currently pursuing a PhD in Computer Science at Brown University.

Eli Gerzon. More information is coming.

Katy Hamilton is a former homeschooler who is now 20 and in her senior year of college. She is working on a degree in theatre with plans of going into film. She has worked professionally directing a training video and is doing her bachelor's thesis as a documentary about South African theatre.

Aidin Carey. More information is coming.

Moderator and Discussants for Teens Without Schooling Panel:

Ken Danford, Moderater. See above.

Vladislav Blanton is a 17 year old homeschooler. He was a memeber of Northstar for about 3 years and I now volunteer to teach classes at Northstar to the newer generation of homeschoolers

Lauren Farenga. I have been homeschooled for all but one year of my life when I entered sixth grade. I have been given the chance to explore various interests through homeschooling such as archeology, ballet, gymnastics and was also able to travel to France, England and Italy. At 14 I began attending Bunker Hill Community College as part of my high school education and ended up going full time and getting my Associates in Arts degree in Psychology this past June. Now 19, I will be entering the University of Massachusetts at Amherst a year early as a junior to continue my studies in psychology.

Lianna Nelson. I've been homeschooled my whole life, a total of almost sixteen years. As I'm approaching college age, I've been thinking more and more about educational options and decisions, and have been appreciating my current alternative route! I'm coming to the point now where I have to figure out what is going to happen in my life, and what it is that I'm going to make happen. I'm very interested in the performing arts and art in general, International Studies and the United Nations. I also enjoy Ballet, Flamenco and Yoga. Through being in the world and meeting even more awesome people in the world, I'm hoping to fuse together the things I love into something I really want to do.

Ethan Mathews. I started homeschooling at the begining of eighth grade with the help of North Star-acenter for homeschoolers. I had been doing only average in school, possesing the ability to do better but just not caring. The idea of homeschooling still delights me; I love learning what I want, when I want, and at my own pace. I am now entering my fourth year of homeschooling having recently passed the GED and plan to take a few college courses in addition to my homeschooling curriculum this fall.  

Dan Bouquillon is now 18, and currently a sophmore at the local Holyoke Community College. He began un-schooling at the age of 16, after an unfulfilling freshman year at Holyoke Catholic High School. He thinks leaving school was the best decision he has ever made, and wishes he had known about this option earlier. Currently, he is studying sociology, and politics. He recently traveled to Medellin, Colombia, and then to Chicago for a political convention. He loves to learn in many ways, and is grateful for the opportunites North Star helped him realize.

John Taylor Gatto worked as a scriptwriter in the film business, was an advertising writer, a taxi driver, a jewelry designer, an ASCAP songwriter, and a hotdog vendor before becoming a schoolteacher. During his schoolteaching years he also entered the caviar trade, conducted an antique business, operated a rare book search service, and founded Lava Mt. Records, a documentary record producer, which won several awards for cover design and content, and which presented the horror of H.P. Lovecraft, dramatized, and the speeches of Richard M. Nixon and Spiro Agnew, exactly as given.

He climaxed his teaching career as New York State Teacher of the Year after being named New York City Teacher of the Year on three occasions. He quit teaching on the OP ED page of the Wall Street Journal in 1991 while still New York State Teacher of the Year, claiming that he was no longer willing to hurt children. Later that year he was the subject of a show at Carnegie Hall called "An Evening With John Taylor Gatto," which launched a career of public speaking in the area of school reform, which has taken Gatto over a million and a half miles in all fifty states and seven foreign countries. In 1992, he was named Secretary of Education in the Libertarian Party Shadow Cabinet, although not a libertarian. He has been included in Who's Who in America from 1996 on. In 1997, he was given the Alexis de Tocqueville Award for his contributions to the cause of liberty, and was named to the Board of Advisors of the National TV-Turnoff Week.

His books include: The Curriculum of Power (forthcoming), Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling; The Exhausted School; A Different Kind of Teacher; and The Underground History Of American Education. For more information click here to visit www.johntaylorgatto.com

Dr. Pat Montgomery has been an educator for over 50 years now in conventional schools, in innovative schools, helping home based educators—the whole lot. She is the Founder and Director of Clonlara School headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It operates both a campus, day school and a home based education program. The campus, day school is relatively small, serving approximately 50 local students. The Clonlara School Home Based Education Program spans the entire globe; it serves approximately 3,000 families in every one of the United States and in 30 foreign countries. For more information visit www.clonlara.org

Cindy Gaddis is "learning at the feet of" her 7 always-homeschooled children, ages 18, 16, 14, 12, and 10 by birth and ages 6 and 4 by adoption, along with her husband of 20 years, Weston. She has been published in Home Education Magazine and Growing Without Schooling. Cindy has been moderating a yahoogroups e-mail list for families homeschooling their children with autism (aut-home-fam) for the past six years and recently created an e-mail list for families homeschooling creative learners (homeschoolingcreatively). Adding on to her strong commitment to homeschooling children with autism, Cindy has become quite passionate about this creative learning style and is a popular speaker at homeschooling conferences on this topic.

Pat Farenga, co-author Teach Your Own: The John Holt Book of Homeschooling, author of The Beginners Guide to Homeschooling and many other publications about learning outside of school. Pat was the publisher of Growing Without Schooling magazine for 16 years and worked closely with the late John Holt. He will be your host and Master of Ceremonies for this weekend. For more information click here to visit www.holtgws.com

Roland Legiardi-Laura is a filmmaker and poet. His documentary Azul , a study of Nicaragua's people and history through their poetry, won nine international film awards and three ACE nominations. Mr. Legiardi-Laura's poetry has been widely published and anthologized. He founded Words To Go and P.O.E.T ., America's first traveling troupes of performance poets. He is Chairman of the Board of Directors of The Nuyorican Poets Cafe , and founder of its Fifth Night Screenplay Reading and Short Film series . Over the past five years The Fifth Night has produced 190 screenplay readings. Thirty-six of those screenplays have already been made or are currently in production. He is the editor of Poetry-in-Translation at Bomb . He has been a nominator for the Rockefeller Media Arts Program. Mr. Legiardi-Laura has served as a member of the Board of Governors of the New York Foundation of the Arts. He has been awarded numerous grants and fellowships from the New York State Council on the Arts, NYFA, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the Rockefeller Foundation and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Arts. He is on the board of Advisors of the Nantucket Film Festival, the New York Comedy Film Festival and the East Village Parks Conservancy. His current documentary film project is a three-part series entitled "The Fourth Purpose: The Enigma of Public School." For more information click here to visit www.johntaylorgatto.com

Glenn Dickson is a clarinetist who has led the klezmer band Shirim since 1985 and the avant jazz/klezmer band Naftule’s Dream since 1996. Dickson won a 1997 Massachusetts Cultural Council Artist Grant for Composition and has studied and performed with microtonal jazz legend Joe Maneri. He was a featured soloist on the soundtrack of Sidney Lumet’s "A Stranger Among Us" and wrote the music Shirim performed on the soundtrack of Woody Allen’s "Deconstructing Harry ." His latest recording is "Pincus and the Pig: A Klezmer Tale," Based on Sergei Prokofiev's "Peter and the Wolf." The story is written and narrated by Maurice Sendak.

Milva McDonald has been a homeschooling parent for fourteen years, and has been facilitating writing groups for homeschoolers for ten years. Her children are 20, 18, 7, and 6. She is co-founder and president of Advocates for Home Education in Massachusetts (www.ahem.info).

Dr. Karen Cole is an educational psychologist specializing in educational resources for families. She is founding director of Big Learning, which offers workshops, a family-learning newsletter, and a comprehensive website for families who love to learn together. Prior to founding Big Learning she was a researcher at the Institute for Research on Learning, developing innovative math, science, and technology explorations for kids of all ages. Dr. Cole's articles have appeared in Home Education Magazine and many other parenting magazines and education journals. Visit www.biglearning.com for more information.

Sophia Sayigh, is co-founder of Advocates for Home Education in Massachusetts, Inc. (www.ahem.info). AHEM is a nonprofit, independent, grassroots, volunteer-run, educational organization that gathers and disseminates information about homeschooling in Massachusetts through education, advocacy, and events. Sophia has homeschooled her two children for ten years.

Andy Migner lives in Boxborough with her husband Channing and their three children (ages 18, 15 & 11). Seventeen years ago, she read John Holt's Teach Your Own and the family has been unschooling ever since. She has written articles for Growing Without Schooling and has given the keynote address and led workshops on Mindful Parenting and Self-Directed Learning at other conferences.

Anne Ellinger co-directs True Story Theater, an eighteen member company based in Arlington, MA that uses Playback Theatre and other improvisatory forms to promote social healing. A previous performer with the women’s world music band, Libana, she has been homeschooling these past two years with her 14 year old son. www.truestorytheater.org

Moderator and Discussants for Homeschoolers of Color Panel

Venus Taylor is the founder of the Association for Diverse Homeschoolers of Color (ADHOC), a support group for homeschoolers of color in Greater Boston. After having children, she left her career as a Prevention Specialist working with “youth-at-risk,” believing that her children would be at less “risk” if she kept them out of traditional schooling. She and her husband, Hycel, are convinced that her Ed.M. (Harvard University) are put to great use facilitating the unschooling of their two children, ages 8 and 10. You can find her contributed chapter, entitled, Behind the Trend: Increase in Homeschooling Among African Americans, in the newly released, HOMESCHOOLING IN FULL VIEW, by editor Bruce Cooper, Ph.D.

Erika Davis-Pitre lives in central Connecticut where she is the legislative VP for CHN (Connecticut's Homeschool Network). She is one of the founding members of http://www.afamunschool.com, a national online community of unschoolers of color. She is the Networking and Q&A Editor at FUNgasa, a E-zine created for and by unschoolers of color. She is the proud mother of 4 children: One unschooled, great and curious 12-year-old, one high schooled graduated, former unschooled, smart and athletic 20 year old college student, one creative, insightful and always schooled 22 year old actor, and one talented, thoughtful and always schooled 26-year-old physician assistant. And she is the always learning and growing wife to her wonderful husband.

Rosa Brown made the decision to homeschool when she was teaching Math and Science at the Agassiz School in Cambridge, MA. She possesses a Bachelor's degree in Planning from MIT and earned a Master's degree in Education from Harvard through the mid-career Math and Science Program. She says, “It was an easy decision to make to stay home and raise my own child rather than pay someone to take care of him while I tried to teach classrooms of kids who didn't want to be there anyway.” She considers her family a "traditional" homeschooling family in that they follow a set curriculum through A Beka Book (used in many private, independent Christian Schools).

Jennifer Wiggins is currently finishing her undergraduate studies in Psychology at Bay Path College, while homeschooling her son and two daughters for the past three years. She has also worked as a mentor and foster parent for close to ten years. She strives to create a more holistic approach to education to include a balance of spiritual, artistic, physical and intellectual growth. She feels her family is almost done with de-schooling and embracing the love of learning in their own way.

Jocelyn Cooper began her love of homeschooling in 1992. Now, along with her husband, Jocelyn has homeschooled her 3 daughters, ages 12 to 2, all of their lives. She is an avid supporter of natural learning and believes kids learn best when their exposure to new things intersects with their interests. Though Jocelyn has a B.A. in Mathematics from the University of Virginia and has worked at jobs as wide-ranging as being a tutor to being an international trade negotiator for the American textile industry, she uses her knowledge from homeschooling more often than from any other educational source. Most recently, Jocelyn founded and ran a camp called Homeschool Summer Camp An Awesome Oasis for Kids in Bellingham, WA. In addition to homeschooling, Jocelyn loves drumming, sewing, dancing, reading, traveling and following the seasons in nature.

Moderator and Discussants for Homeschoolers and Classical Music Panel:

Nicky Hardenbergh and her husband homeschooled their two children from K-college. Both children played musical instruments in elementary and secondary school years.  Their daughter, a recent college graduate, is on her way to becoming a professional violin player; this fall she will begin a fellowship which will result in a Masters of Music in violin performance. Nicky has served on the board of the National Home Education Network (nhen.org), and is currently on the board of Massachusetts Home Learning Association (mhla.org).  Nicky is a contributor to the recently published book "Homeschooling in Full View: A Reader," published by Information Age Publishing.

Hannah MacDonald is a 14-year-old lifelong homeschooler from Bellingham, MA. She has been in over 30 shows, primarily musicals, in the past 11 years. Some of her favorite roles have been Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz (2003), Rusty Footloose (2004), The Narrator in Joseph…Dreamcoat (2005) and Belladova in Phantom (2005). She was a featured singer in the independent film “They Walk Among Us” which premiered this past February. Hannah hopes to pursue a career in music, drama, and dance as well as literature.

Oliver Aldort, 11-years-old, has given his full debut recital on cello and piano at age seven, after one year of lessons, here on Orcas Center stage. He was the cover story of the paper and an audience of 140 came to hear him. Since then he has given many recitals, won top awards and has been a soloist with three different symphony orchestras in BC and WA. Recently Oliver apeared on KOMO TV, and he will be featured on national public radio in the program "From the Top" which will be recorded live on October 2nd in Jordan Hall in Boston. Oliver's half size cello has been awarded to him by the Carlsen Foundation. You can see him on his site www.OliverAldort.com

Shannon Vale homeschools her two children in Boxford, MA. Her youngest, Bridget, is in her tenth year of playing Suzuki violin and is a member of Josibria Quartet, the Northshore Youth Symphony Orchestra, and the New England Conservatory. Along with working for the Northshore Youth Symphony Orchestra as their office manager and in various other positions, Shannon is a freelance writer whose articles have appeared in Home Education Magazine.

Deborah Gold. More information is coming.

Sebastian Gold. More information is coming.

Ezra Lichtman. More information is coming.

Discussion Group Facilitators:

Maureen Carey. More information is coming.

Deborah Stevenson is Executive Director of National Home Education Legal Defense (NHELD). As such, she has written numerous articles on a variety of issues that affect the rights of parents who homeschool. Her work has been published in a variety of publications including Home Education Magazine, Family Times, and on multiple websites including those for Sonlight Curriculum, Ann Zeise‚s A to Z, The Homeschool Mom, the Military Homeschoolers website, Connecticut Homeschool Network, and websites in Utah, Illinois and many other states. Attorney Stevenson also has been interviewed by many state and national newspapers and has appeared as a guest on many television and radio programs across the country. She also maintains a private practice in Education and Appellate law in Southbury, Connecticut. Attorney Stevenson established NHELD in 2003 after having founded and continually operated Connecticut's Citizens to Uphold the Right to Educate (C.U.R.E.), a statewide grassroots legislative watchdog organization, in 1989. She also homeschooled her two daughters from birth, each of whom entered and graduated from college early. Her first daughter, Samantha, graduated summa cum laude at age 16 after double majoring in math and astronomy and obtained her master‚s degree in astrophysics at age 19. Her second daughter, Cassandra, graduated cum laude at age 15 after majoring in justice and law, and is currently, at age 17, working on her second degree in interactive digital design.