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Family
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I started out in Needham, Massachusetts and graduated from high school in 1973. I think the highlight of my educational experience in Needham came in my senior year when I enrolled in what then was called the "Needham Alternative High School" - a sort of school within a school. Having pretty much exhausted the standard curriculum, I was looking for something different and spent the year designing my own classes and working one-on-one with teachers to pursue a variety of interests. Most memorable was a "course" that a few friends and I constructed around the topic of Child Development. In addition to doing volumes of reading and a good deal of writing, once per week we would drive to Jamaica Plain where we would meet in the home of a psychologist who had recently had a baby. Little did I know that this would be the start of something big!
Growing up, I always had the impression that we were living in a relatively small town. It wasn't until I headed to Brown University in Providence, RI and talked with kids from all over the country that I realized that a senior class of 650 wasn't that small after all. Brown was a great "fit" for me. I worked extremely hard as an undergraduate but also managed to have a lot of fun. Over the years, I've also lived in Sharon, MA where I managed a community residence for retarded women; Cambridge, MA where I taught elementary school by day and attended Lesley College (now Lesley University) at night in pursuit of my Masters in Elementary Education; Denver, CO where I taught kindergarten, first- and second-graders; and Waltham, MA where I pursued my PhD in Social/Developmental Psychology at Brandeis University. I have lived in Wellesley, MA, the home of Wellesley College, since 1985. I am still waiting for that Victorian home that I've always known I was "supposed to" live in (I think it's going to be a long wait!), but Wellesley has been a great place to raise my children. My two top passions are my family and my teaching/research. I'm also very interested in turn-of the-century "Arts and Crafts" oak furniture (especially Gustav Stickley "mission" oak) and the hand-tinted photographs done by Wallace Nutting who lived during that same time period.
I am married to Malcolm Watson, a developmental psychologist and professor at Brandeis University. When we first met, Mick's interests centered on the development of play and art in children. More recently, he has switched his focus and is now investigating the antecedents of aggression in children and adolescents. Mick is also an accomplished painter - water colors are his specialty. We have two children. Our older son, John, is a strong student and a darn good trumpet player. John, who will be entering high school next year, also enjoys baseball and at least for a while there fancied himself a catcher. His number one passion is definitely the computer and all the RPG and science fiction games it has to offer. Ethan, our younger son, is in elementary school. He's a fantastic artist (like his dad!) and an avid reader. Ethan recently started to play the electric bass guitar. He already has all the "moves" (hips especially) and is also making impressive headway with the musical end of things. Rounding out our family are Chester the Cat and Cubby the Dog.
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