Dr. A. Dexter Chapin

I have spent 46 years as a teacher and administrator in some of the best, and the worst, K-14 schools in four countries.

I have a BA in Cultural Anthropology and Biology from Stanford. Palo Alto gave me a tremendous education on the street and the sidewalks; less so in the formal classes. Off campus, the experience that focused the rest of my life was being Gregory Bateson’s assistant as he studied dolphin communication. He was a kind and patient mentor to a kid who had no idea who he was.

At graduation, I went to Africa and spent six months hitching around East Africa. I came back to Palo Alto looking for a job. I ended up in the only job I might be good at, teaching. Early on, I spent my summers teaching in migrant labor camps as part of UCSC graduate work before moving on to Kinshasa, Addis Ababa, Los Angeles, Santo Domingo, and Seattle, among others.

Coming back from overseas, I ended up wandering through the UMdCP School of Education. By happenstance, I ended up with a cross-disciplinary faculty expert in System Dynamics, and Cybernetics. My dissertation asked the question, if you want to change society, do you put resources into schooling? Computer limitations turned a dynamic model into a 200-page description of a hugely complex, causal loop model. The first reference was to a book I received as a Biology prize in high school.

I have spent the rest of my career applying two things I learned; as a program administrator/designer, Ashby’s law, and as an administrator/evaluator, Stafford Beer’s POSIWID. These two ideas have been guide rails for everything I have done in, and around, schools.

In 46 years, I have received extensive training as a Wilderness First Aider, High Ropes Instructor, Senior Contract Officer for the USPHS, and School Administrator.

I have served as a guiding consultant and presenter for Federal, State, and local entities in the development, and application of System Education Standards. I was once recognized as one of the best 20 teachers nationally.

My sole book, Master Teachers; making a difference on the edge of chaos, is an application of Cultural, Systems, and Chaos Theories. It has been a university text, and at last check many years ago had been downloaded about 6000 times from a Russian pirate site.

Other non-career experiences that make me who I am: deckhand and navigator on research vessels, seismic refraction tech, program analyst and contract administrator for the USPHS, heavy equipment operator for building salt marshes, and sponsored motorcycle racer.