Peter Gow

A third-generation teacher and educator for nearly fifty years, Peter Gow has written on many topics relating to schools, teaching, and learning as well as on maritime and historical topics. Having grown up on the campus of the school founded by his grandfather and later headed by his father, Peter absorbed an understanding of education as a profession and culture of ideals, and in his writing he calls on educators and schools to live out these ideals in the work they do with children and for their communities. Peter is the author of AN ADMIRABLE FACULTY: Recruiting, Hiring, Training, and Retaining Teachers in Independent Schools (2005; rev. 2020), THE WATERY REALM (2006), THE INTENTIONAL TEACHER: Forging a Great Career in the Independent School Classroom (2009), WHAT IS A SCHOOL? A Philosophical and Practical Guide for Independent School Leaders, Trustees, and Friends (2011; rev. 2020), THE INTERESTED CHILD: Ideas for Engaging the Interest and Curiosity of Children of All Ages (2018), "PAST MASTER": Essays on Teaching and the Teaching Life (2020), and PUBLIC GOODS: Expecting the Best in Ethical Rigor, Moral Excellence, and Civic Engagement from America's Independent Schools (2020). He is the co-author of THE CONCORDIA YAWLS: The First Fifty Years (with Joseph Gribbins and Elizabeth Meyer, 1988), QUAKER NANTUCKET: The Religious Community Behind the Whaling Empire (with Robert Leach, 2006; rev. 2016); MESSAGING AND BRANDING: A HOW-TO GUIDE (with Carol Cheney, 2010), and LEADERSHIP THROUGH MENTORING: The Key to Improving the Confidence and Skill of Principals (with Phyllis A. Gimbel and Samson Goldstein, 2021). He was an editor and contributor for YAAHTING: A PARODY (1984)

Peter migrates between Massachusetts, the New York shore of Lake Champlain, and Arizona. Two of his children are teachers.