1 SPEAKER BIOS FOR THE 2014 LIVING EDUCATION RETREAT

DR. JENNIFER SPENCER

"It is thus with all work: simplicity in the means employed is a sign of excellence. To simplify is to have knowledge; to complicate is to be ignorant." -Jean-Henri Fabre

I began my teaching career in public school, but once I met Charlotte Mason, I was forever ruined for any other educational model. Her books not only showed me how to be a better teacher; they lit a fire in my soul that transformed my entire way of thinking and living. Although I did homeschool briefly, I have spent most of the last twelve years teaching in private school. Three years ago, I helped found Willow Tree Community School in Shelby, North Carolina, where I currently work as the head of school and elementary teacher. I love to read, hike, travel, and explore local and independent music. My husband, Wes, and I have been blissfully married for 20 years. We live in Gaffney, South Carolina, with our eighteen-year-old son Drew (the musician), our fourteen-year-old daughter Marley (the artist and aspiring doula), and our very spoiled, very cute, and fairly illmannered dog, Buddy.

NANCY KELLY
If music, poetry, art, give us joy, let us not hesitate to present these joys to others; for, indeed, those others are all made in all points like as we are, though with different experience. -Charlotte Mason

I thrill to see others awaken to this way of living and learning where both teacher and taught can find delight and richness glory! through high school and beyond. Kent and I have been married for 27 years and we live in Windom, Minnesota, in a 3-story Victorian house with four children at home. We have two that have graduated from college and are now married. I have homeschooled using Charlotte Masons methods for the past 20 years or so, teach at our TBG community, blog at Sage Parnassus, offer a consulting service for those trying to implement a living education, speak on the Charlotte Mason philosophy and method, and just generally try to encourage others on this journey. I love Shakespeare, biographies, learning, gardening, writing, family, and my front porch.

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GLADYS SCHAEFER
Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life? -Mary Oliver

I love words. They have the power to transport me far and wide, from desert sands to deserted stars. Fact words, fiction words, pretty and ugly ones. Our simple alphabet containing only twenty-six letters has produced over 600,000 words! That is magical. My degree is in Accounting with a minor in English. I said in college many times, Im majoring in Accounting to make a living and minoring in English to make a life. I am delighted to say that the life has outlasted the living. After a number of years working with the Department of Treasury, I came home full time to raise and love my delightful children, finding in Charlotte Mason and her philosophy of education a home for all of us. My sixth and last child started her university career last fall and I began to wonder in earnest what I was supposed to do now that I had worked myself out of my homeschool mom career. Those that the Lord calls He equips and the route before me now is one that I started many years ago. We discovered a decade ago that our two youngest children had dyslexia, dyscalculia, and dysgraphia. My love for reading came in handy as I started to research all that I needed to know to walk this path with them. The journey has brought us to many mountaintops, but also we have travailed the darkest valleys. Dyslexia, dysgraphia, and dyscalculia are learning differences that affect one in every five children (and adults). I currently serve on the Board of Directors for the Charlotte Mason Institute and the Alabama International Dyslexia Association. I am cofounder of the Dyslexia Support Group and am a founding parent of Decoding Dyslexia, Alabama. Tutoring students with learning differences has been a wonderful way to spread the Mason philosophy to children and parents alike. KARLA TABER
It is our business to know all we can and to spend a part of our lives in increasing our knowledge of Nature and Art, of Literature and Man, of the Past and the Present. That is one way in which we become greater persons, and the more a person is, the better he will do whatever piece of special work falls to his share. - Charlotte Mason

My physician husband, Jeff, and I live in Windom, Minnesota, and have 5 grown children (ages 20-29) and 3 grandchildren. Besides the daily activities of homemaker and medical transcriptionist, I enjoy teaching in our local CM community. Most recently I have been teaching poetry to 3-4th graders at a local Christian school. My life is enriched with music, reading, handwork, and family.

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DR. DONNA JOHNSON
It is remarkable how, overnight, a quiet mature lady can learn to sit cross -legged on the floor and play a tin drum, quack like a duck, sing all the verses of The Twelve Days Of Christmas, make paper flowers, draw pigs, and sew on the ears of severely-injured teddy bears. -Marlene Walkington Ferber

Having grandchildren offers an added delightful opportunity to observe children develop and learn. Somehow, as a grandmother, it seems easier to allow spontaneity or personal initiation. While enjoying this new opportunity, I continue my work at Dakota Wesleyan University in Mitchell, South Dakota, preparing future elementary and special education teachers. My earlier experiences included regular and special education in public and private schools as well as homeschooling my three daughters. It was while home schooling that I began to follow the philosophy and pedagogy of Charlotte Mason. My doctoral research at the University of South Dakota examined the relationship of narration to reading comprehension; I have made presentations recommending CM methods at homeschool, International Reading Association, Learning Disability Association and CMfocused conferences. My husband, Chris, and I live on a farm near Marion, South Dakota, with our cat Wally; we visit our three daughters, three sons-in-law, and granddaughter as often as possible. BOBBY JO NICKEL
Mankind is a weaver who from the wrong side works on the carpet of time. The day will come when he will see the right side and understand the grandeur of the pattern he with his own hands has woven through the centuries without seeing anything but a tangle of strings. -Lamartine

My life has been aimed toward education since I was young and playing school with my siblings. I received my degree in education and taught briefly in the classroom setting. I am currently blessed to put the ideas of living education into practice at home with my two young sons. I also teach hand crafting in our Truth, Beauty, Goodness community. My husband, Josh, and I share life on our 6 generation farm at Eagle Lake near Windom, Minnesota. You can read about our journey at Where the Blacktop Ends. KRISTIN SPITTLE
He wants them to learn to walk and must therefore take away His hand; and if only the will to walk is really there He is pleased even with their stumbles. - The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis

My husband and I live in Fulda, Minnesota, with our five children, ages 7 16. We have homeschooled our children for 11 years, growing and changing in the process each year. I enjoy knitting, gardening and preserving our own food, and raising chickens. Charlotte Masons teachings have picked me up from stumbles more times than I can count. Praise be to the Lord, who is pleased with all my stumblings!

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CHERI STRUBLE
Our goal is to produce a human being who is the best he can be physically, intellectually, ethically and spiritually; a person who will have the enthusiasm of religion, full life, nature, knowledge, art, and physical work. Charlotte Mason

This quote, to me, really defines what it means to be fully alive! It is a lofty goal and one I love trying to reach for with my children. I live in the foothills of North Carolina along with my wonderful husband, Mark. We have six boys and two girls at home and one married daughter living on the coast. We have used Charlotte Masons philosophy in our family for seventeen years. I adore books, fiber arts, nature, camping, gardening, and travel.

AMY TUTTLE
It is our business to know all we can and to spend a part of our lives in increasing our knowledge of Nature and Art, of Literature and Man, of the Past and the Present. That is one way in which we become greater persons, and the more a person is, the better he will do whatever piece of special work falls to his share. - Charlotte Mason

Hello! I am *amy in peru* (and yes, I really live there). I'm sure you'd like to know that my favorite color is the rainbow and SILVER with diamonds. My favorite thing is the WHOLE ENTIRE breathtaking universe! I am blown away by the Maker of it all! I like to talk about NEW-to-me ideas, to appreciate REAL beauty and to contemplate DEEP truths. Sometimes, I think my 6 kids (0-16) or my adventurous missionary husband may be the coolest thing about me... You see, I'm just me, a very regular person (if there is such a thing). I spend my scant free time reading, photographing, writing, painting, hiking/nature studying, thinking and traveling (though not all at once or in that order). Aspiring to Charlotte Mason's principles, my current fetishes are: Teaching Reading, Notebooks a la Bestvater, and Languages (Science, Citizenship and Mothers' Education are close seconds). I am forever indebted to and am a helping part of AmblesideOnline. I blog about all of the above at Fisher Academy International . AMY FIEDLER
The days are long, but the years are short. -Gretchen Rubin

My days are filled with all the joys and challenges that come with being a wife and mother. My husband of fifteen years, Jason, and I have four young children and have been home educating using Masons philosophy and methods for the past two years. Oshkosh, Wisconsin, is the place we call home and also where my husband serves as lead pastor of Water City Church. I do my best to balance ministry with our busy home life and am thankful for a husband who knows when I need to be given the night off to get coffee with a friend (thanks, Honey). As a Mason educator who is still unlearning much of what I thought I knew about education, Im thankful for the ongoing support and inspiration that I enjoy through our CM co-op, The Arbor Guild, and also our monthly CM study group.

TAMMY GLASER
"Children should have the joy of living in far lands, in other persons, in other times a delightful double existence." - Charlotte Mason

I left a wide and varied career in the Navy to homeschool my two children in 1995 and traded one adventurous life for another. My youngest, having completed his freshman year of college, is working while he takes the final steps in joining the Air Force. My eldest, who has autism and aphasia, and I continue our lifelong journey as learners at a small Charlotte Mason style private school. Every Friday our school hosts The Feast, a day in which local homeschoolers can attend school. I became interested in Masons ideas in 2000 and my understanding is still unfolding. I speak at conferences, write articles, and blog. Besides volunteering at school every day, I enjoy knitting and crocheting, reading, tutoring, bird watching, singing, and nurturing my daughter's talent in watercolors. I just launched rarefied, a blog to inspire readers to fall in love with the beauty and refreshing truth of mathematics. My husband, Steve, and I share out time between South Carolina and Kansas. KENT KELLY
It is well that a child should be taught to keep under his body and bring it into subjection, first, to the authority of his parents and, later, to the authority of his own will; and always, because no less than this is due, to the divine Authority in whom he has his being. Charlotte Mason

For over 20 years Nancy and I have homeschooled our 6 children. I work at a transportation company on the management team and have the IT duties as well. I like to hunt in the woods and play in the gym at my weekly pick-up basketball games. While I have enjoyed the outdoors and athletic competition since my childhood, Masons philosophy has informed these activities with insights that go much deeper than the physical world.

SALLY ALMODOVAR
"If God be for us, who can be against us? Romans 8:31

A new call to serve has entered my familys life through the beginning of a new church in the small town of Lakefield, Minnesota. Besides serving our community through sharing the gospel, I continue to educate my 5 children using Charlotte Mason's methods. I have been on this journey with my children for 7 years and have participated in the Truth, Beauty, Goodness Community for 6 years teaching geography, nature study, composer, hymns, and folk songs.

ANTHONY ALMODOVAR
"There are good and evil tendencies in body and mind, heart and soul; and the hope set before us is that we can foster the good so as to attenuate the evil; that is, on condition that we put Education in her true place as the handmaid of Religion." Charlotte Mason

My humble beginnings are rooted in the concrete jungle of New York City where I spent my entire childhood until 1982, and began my working career with the branch of the US Air Force, specializing in electronic maintenance and graduating with a degree in Computer Science. I later settled in Chicago, Illinois, where I met my beloved wife and best friend Sally Lynn. In 2005, my wife and I moved from suburbia Chicago to reside in the rural and quaint town of Lakefield, Minnesota, with our 5 children, and presently hold a position as Systems and Network Administrator with a local transportation company. After graduating in 2013 from Liberty University with a Bachelors of Science in Religion, our family is now endeavoring to plant a church in our community with the Minnesota Baptist Association and, at the same time, I am continuing my religious education under the mentorship and training of the MBA in pastoral care and homiletics. I am also serving on the board of directors for the pro-life organization Helping Hand Ministries in Worthington, Minnesota, and have been an avid bee keeper for the past 4 years.