CONVENTION 2008 - SCOTT AND MARCIA SOMERVILLE

Scott Somerville went to Harvard Law School with five children in 1989 and graduated with honors (and a sixth child) in 1992. Scott was a homeschool activist before he was a lawyer. Scott battled the New Hampshire rules revision subcommittee to a standstill in their effort to triple the regulations on homeschoolers. That brush with the law was enough to induce him to quit his day job as a programmer. Scott went straight from liberal Harvard to the Home School Legal Defense Association and spent the next fourteen years fighting for homeschoolers' freedoms. In October, 2006, Scott left HSLDA (with their blessing and full support) to join Lampstand Press in a full-time capacity and encourage fathers as the heads of their homeschools. Scott has written and spoken extensively on subjects ranging from parental rights to the privacy of the home, but his central concern has always been for the homeschool family – especially the homeschool dad.

Marcia Somerville has home schooled her six children “from the beginning.” She was ready to quit homeschooling when her oldest entered high school and her youngest started Kindergarten: trying to teach five subjects to six children looked impossible. Marcia had received an excellent education herself: she attended Kent School and Dartmouth College. She knew what a good education looked like, and was not satisfied with racing from child to child and subject to subject day after day. Marcia reached the end of her own ability, but God met her there. After weeks of tears and prayer, she came up with a different way to teach. The Tapestry of Grace curriculum was born! Today, Marcia leads the continuing development of Tapestry of Grace as she travels with her husband to speak to home schooling parents. Her life message is what she learned in her own home school – the nearness of God is her good.