Michael DeSisto
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Albert Michael DeSisto (1939 - 2003) was an American educator, known for his DeSisto School.
[edit] Biography
Born in Boston, Massachusetts on May 29, 1939, he attended parochial schools in West Roxbury, and graduated from Cathedral High School in Boston in 1957. He studied at St. John's Seminary in Brighton for two years. He received a bachelor of arts degree in history and government from Stonehill College in North Easton in 1962.
He was a teacher, therapist, and director at The Lake Grove School on Long Island, New York. When DeSisto came into conflict with Lake Grove's management, he secured funding from the parents of about 30 students, and set out to found his own school.
DeSisto originally envisioned a string of schools nationally and internationally based on Gestalt psychological principles, and his own therapeutic model. He founded the controversial DeSisto at Stockbridge School in Stockbridge, Massachusetts for problem teens in 1978. In 1980 DeSisto opened a second campus in Howey-in-the-Hills, Florida.
In the early 1980s DeSisto and the DeSisto School were favorably featured in articles in Life, Time and People magazines. DeSisto made a number of appearances on national television with his students, including The Today Show. He was known as a regular on the Joey Reynolds show.
The DeSisto at Howey School closed in 1988, due to declining enrollment, and legal problems with the local government. The DeSisto at Stockbridge School closed permanently in June 2004.
In 1991 DeSisto authored his only book 'Decoding your teenager: How to understand each other during the turbulent years'. After its publication questions were raised about DeSisto's master's degree. DeSisto later admitted that his erroneous claim to the master's degree mentioned in his book, was due to a clerk who mistakenly placed it on his resumé.
In 1999 DeSisto produced an off-Broadway musical "Inappropriate" with Lonnie McNeil and Michael Sottile based on the journals and experiences of the student performers.
DeSisto died on 1 November 2003, of cerebral hemorrhage several days after receiving a kidney transplant.
