M. John Daniel arrived on the Monterey Peninsula in January of 1995, an eager Army specialist whose task was to learn Arabic for the next two years. John's polyglot proclivity had awakened during his time in high school where, bitten by the language-learning bug, he studied French, Spanish and Russian in his senior year. He would go on to earn a B.A. in French from Mary Washington University in his home state of Virginia. It was after college that John decided to follow his father and brother's lead and enlist in the U.S. Army. He counts his military adventures among his most exciting and rewarding life experiences.

Having performed in theaters his whole life, often beside his mother, father and brother, John quickly became a part of peninsula productions, working with the Wharf Theatre, the Unicorn Theatre, The Western Stage, the MPC Theatre and the Pacific Repertory Theatre. He continues to audition and perform locally.

During a production of Godspell at the Wharf Theatre, John realized he had a knack for communicating with adolescents, and began to consider a career in teaching language at the high school level. A teacher education program at San José State, a stint as a seventh and eighth grade French teacher at Jane Lathrop Stanford Middle School in Palo Alto, and a year studying and teaching in Paris led John to his first long-term substitute teaching position at Seaside High School in 2001. There he taught drama, Spanish and English as a second language.

Joining the faculty of the Stevenson School in 2002, John began his nine-year run teaching all levels of French and Spanish 1-3. While at Stevenson, John helped train faculty in educational software, coordinated the AFS student program, served as sponsor to the senior class and ran the box office for the school's theatrical productions. John completed an immersion M.A. program in French at the University of California Santa Barbara and regularly led student groups on excursions to France with the Berkeley-based educational tour company ECI.

Language learning and cultural awareness happen best in a motivated, supportive environment-- an environment like York School. It is here where John, informed by current trends in language pedagogy, will dedicate himself to developing 21st century polyglots.