I live in New York Austin.
I grew up in Tennessee and South Carolina on the internet.
I’m husband to Gena Gorlin.
We have two small children.
I’ve spent the last decade studying Montessori’s work and realizing her approach to education.
I was a pedagogue at LePort Schools.
Then I helped found Higher Ground Education, best known for its network of Guidepost Montessori schools.
Besides doing Founder Things, I ran Montessorium, Higher Ground’s think tank, and taught for Prepared Montessorian, Higher Ground’s teacher training institute. I left day-to-day operations at the end of 2023. Iām currently writing a book on education.
Prior to all of this, I got my philosophy PhD from UPenn, focusing on the philosophy of science, especially cognitive science.
I also trained in and taught the history of philosophy, especially Early Modern.
I was briefly a visiting professor at Franklin & Marshall College, where I helped to run their joint philosophy-psychology program.
I am still very much a philosopher in my work——I think, teach, read, write, argue——and am immensely grateful to be able to do this sort of work largely extra-academically: at startups, in education movements, and on the internet.
I’m shaped by a handful of intellectual giants whom I’ve at various stages of my life studied extensively: Maria Montessori, Ayn Rand, James Baldwin, Aristotle, and James J. Gibson.
I’m a lapsed rock climber.
I’m an ossified computer person who still writes web pages by hand.
