About
Our dispositions and habits shape our learning experiences for better or worse.
Through teaching, modeling, and consistent practice, intellectual character can be developed. That conviction is the whole of my work.
The story
I was teaching high school when Covid arrived, at a moment of real political tension in this country. I watched my students struggle to communicate across dividing lines. Most weren’t curious enough to try to understand a differing point of view, and many were afraid to speak up at all, unsure how they’d be treated for it. The same habits crept into the staff room. And if I’m honest, into me. I was self-censoring too, at school and in my PhD program.
So I set out to become a better learner and thinker myself, especially in tumultuous times and now in the age of AI. That search led me to intellectual virtues, and I’ve been exploring ever since how they shape our academic, professional, and interpersonal lives.
The mission
To help every school community treat intellectual character as seriously as it treats intellectual ability. I frame the value of the virtues across four domains.
Personal
Thinking honestly about your own mind, its limits, and its blind spots.
Interpersonal
Disagreeing well, listening seriously, and changing your mind when you should.
Academic
Having an appreciation for the process of learning more than for where it will lead.
Professional
Maintaining and demonstrating habits of thinking and learning in practice.
What makes me different
First, I come to this from a web of intersecting backgrounds. I’ve worked part-time in restaurants, sold in corporate America, started an education business, taught in a classroom, tutored one on one, and now conduct research at an education nonprofit while completing my PhD. Across all of it, in myself and in others, I’ve seen firsthand which dispositions of learning and thinking make someone successful.
Second, I don’t lecture or run workshops from the position that I have something to teach you or your students. The truth is I’m still grappling with these ideas myself. This is a chance to work through them together, and to build a learning culture that sets all of us up for success.