About Me
production of I Pagliacci by Ruggiero Leoncavallo, April 2005.
Photo by Ellen Sawislak.
I (David H. Albert) am a homeschooling dad, husband, writer, and storyteller. I'm the author of three books about homeschooling: Have Fun. Learn Stuff. Grow. Homeschooling and the Curriculum of Love (Common Courage Press, 2006); Homeschooling and the Voyage of Self-Discovery (Common Courage Press, 2003); and And the Skylark Sings with Me: Adventures in Homeschooling and Community Based-Education (New Society Publishers, 1999); editor of a book about my Indian parents The Color of Freedom (Common Courage Press, 2005); as well as two books about the uses of storytelling, The Healing Heart ~ Families and The Healing Heart ~ Communities (New Society Publishers, 2003). I write a regular column - "My Word! - for Home Education Magazine, and a second column - "What Really Matters" - with Joyce Reed, for Life Learning and Natural Life Magazines. My work has appeared in scores of magazines and journals worldwide, ranging from Home Educators' Family Times to the Journal of the American Philosophical Society. As founder of New Society Publishers, I was both editor and publisher of John Taylor Gatto's Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling, and more than a 100 other titles. I was also a founding member of Co-op America and the National Association of Socially Responsible Businesses.
I live in Olympia, Washington with my long-forbearing wife and partner Ellen, who works as a hospice nurse. My older daughter Aliyah (21) is an honors graduate of Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, and is now working on a Ph.D. in Musicology/Italian Renaissance Studies at Princeton University. My younger daughter Meera is now at American University in Washington, DC, working toward a degree in international business and international service. While the menagerie is now shrinking, my house is also shared with two dogs - Gracie and Duncan, a rabbit - Echo, two 15-year-old cornsnakes - Tassel and Silk, and an American Singer canary named Ugo.
I hold degrees from Williams College, Oxford University, and the University of Chicago, but the best education I ever received I got from my kids. I took up the violin in my 40s and founded a community orchestra (that way they can't kick me out), and took up opera singing at age 52 (I'm not bad!) When I am not learning with and from children, writing, making music, or raising funds for community development projects in South India and other good works, I serve as Senior Planning and Policy Analyst for the Washington State Division of Alcohol and Substance Abuse. I am also an active member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), and moderator of the Quaker Homeschooling Circle.
I'm available for speaking engagements or workshops in your community and for consulting. Write me at david@skylarksings.com or call me at (360) 352-0506 and we can figure out how to make it work.