Katherine Łastowiecka

Katie Łastowiecka grew up in Northwest Arkansas where she was homeschooled alongside her three siblings. She echoes the sentiment of Beatrix Potter: “Thank goodness I was never sent to school; it would have rubbed off some of the originality.” Her experience learning in the world rather than separated from it greatly influenced her views on education. Her days were spent picking blackberries in the woods, playing the piano, and listening to her mother read world history by the fireplace.

She attended the honors program at a state college where she fostered her love of Shakespeare, and even spent a summer as a dramaturg for the Arkansas Shakespeare Theater. An honors course titled “What Makes Us Human” was her first introduction to the ancients: The Odyssey, Antigone, The Oresteia, The History of the Peloponnesian War, etc. Needless to say, she was hooked. Little did she know, she would come to teach many of these texts with the same zeal of her professor.

Her decision to obtain a masters in education was largely motivated by her own lack of high “real school experience.” “Best to know what school is like before I commit my life to working in one” she thought to …