1987: Ever since our first child entered kindergarten in Germany at age three, I have been an active, education advocate. I was elected to serve on her school's “Elternbeirat” (parent council) twice, even though I was (and still am) a Dutch citizen.
I developed a parent survey in which 97% responded favorably to the idea of making Ecology a mandatory subject in schools. This led to the kindergarten adding it as a component to its curriculum.To this day the school focuses on the environment for one month each year.
1993: In Las Vegas, NV, I served three years on my children's elementary school's PTA, twice as president. In that capacity I drafted and presented a resolution at the state PTA's conference to make Ecology a mandatory subject in schools.
1997: In Greeley, CO, I became president of "Greeley EAGLES", the local affiliate of the Colorado Association for Gifted and Talented. As an avid and active GT advocate, I learned as much as I could by reading many, many books on education.For the next nine years I served on my school district's Gifted and Talented Advisory Board, working closely with the District GT Coordinator.
2001: Chairing the GT Advisory Board's GT-At -Risk subcommittee, I helped develop and analyze a district wide survey on the state of gifted and talented education and wrote the report for it. I regularly published columns related to gifted education in the local newspaper.
I served on the accountability committees of both my children's schools for as long as they attended, and represented my son's high school on our district's accountability committee one year. But, for two years prior to that I had already attended the meetings, with near perfect attendance, as the sole visitor.
2005: When the new district superintendent implemented Reading First, a lock step schedule, eliminated recess and even playtime from all its kindergarten classes, I became an opponent of standards and high-stakes testing.
2010: I am now actively involved with Uniting 4 Kids and the Save Our Schools March.
2014: On October 24th, I published my last post on the BuildBetterSchools blog that was terminated on October 26th. Most of its contents is now available here at The School Buzz, but this post was my last one there, to voice my opinion on how advocating/fighting for quality schools that serve the common good will remain a dream, because not enough people are united for the cause, and many are misguided about what quality education is.
