Did you wear a pink hat? Stay home? Help a girl make sense? Reactions to the post-inaugural marches were as varied as womankind. Listen in to a spontaneous stream-of-consciousness between a group of women bloggers around the country who lend their voices to education. Here is our email chain. Beth Hawkins, Minneapolis; blogger, Beth Hawkins Fellow women writers, education advocates and mama bears: […]
If School Choice is Not a Neighborhood Choice, Then It’s Not My Choice.
The recent National School Choice week, and the controversial nomination of Betsy DeVos as secretary of education, got me thinking about my own adventures with school choice as a teenager. I attended a high school in a notorious inner-city region. Shootings were not unheard of. My 10th grade science teacher recruited me to attend to a […]
I Made a Deal with My Daughter so She Wouldn’t be Victim to the Forgotten Middle School Years
A few years ago, on a return flight from some random conference, I was settling in to read my Time magazine with Sheryl Sandberg, when the passenger next to me begged to read it when I was through. This beautiful Indian woman and I spoke for 3 hours, breaking all my inflight rules. I learned […]
The Option of Homeschooling Allows my Sons to Learn What They Need to Learn, in Ways They Like to Learn
Education has always been the cornerstone of my family. My parents and my sisters and I all had such a love of learning that there was never a “push” toward excelling. It was just always who we intrinsically were. I went to high school to be a surgeon and college to be a psychologist, so […]
How to Tell Stories That Matter: No Frills, Just Smart and Serious Advocacy from Children’s Services Council Sandra Bernard-Bastien
I met this Trini queen over my years strolling the halls of the Children’s Services Council (CSC), the organization created by the voters to improve the lives of Broward’s children by addressing system-wide issues head-on. Being a Jamaican woman, I was immediately drawn to her familiar songbird accent, her unapologetically curly hair, and belly-filled laughs. But as we […]
Does Her Teacher Love Science As Much As She Does?
She’s turning 12. And in my classic avoidance of throwing a party or hang out with a bunch of pre-teens, I planned a girls trip to New York. We will see Christmas lights and snow if we are lucky. Of course, this is coming from two tropical girls who had to buy coats and closed-toed shoes for […]
Principal Steven Larson Locks Arms in a Neighborhood United
I met Steven Larson last year. He was fresh in town and was stirring up some partnership conversations in Pompano. This former Assistant Superintendent in Hillsboro, Oregon had moved his wife and 3 kids to South Florida to be closer to family. He took on the role of Principal of Pompano Elementary, the last failing […]
Educator Keisha Lopez: “I Have a Very Special Boy with Autism. He is Brilliant.”
I never thought she would become a teacher. Neither did she. But having her first child reignited her life-long passion, and she walked away from corporate America. She did what most of us wouldn’t dare. Keisha Lopez took her Business bachelors and her Management Information Systems masters degree and she jumped into the public school system. Who […]