she/her

I was in the Parrish hallway as Courtney Smith was wheeled out on a gurney. We were all deeply saddened and shocked. The admissions office demonstration by SASS ended in kind but steadfast solemnity as limousines carried our classmates away. The war and the Cambodian invasion added to the urgent feel of the need for racial equity. A couple of us met with president Robert Cross about our concerns for needed changes. I reported his response, which shocked me, to a large group assembled in a lecture hall-- that maybe the time for private colleges, for colleges at all, was passed, that perhaps we needed a whole rethinking of education. Serving on the CEP (council on education policy) I remember we 3 student members voicing needs for change. Michael wanted them to think about why people learn better with and from friends (not the Quaker usage of the word)-- but that relationship augments learning. I asked for consideration of full academic credit for studio arts and education courses (these were then still not considered intellectual enough for full credits.) After one longer comment by either Michael or Jonathan Lax, my fellow student members, Provost Charles Gilbert looked at us all, including Professors Helen North, Patrick Henry and a couple other faculty members who were there. Gilbert calculated that if we counted up the hours students had spoken in recent CEP meetings and multiplied by the combined hourly salaries of the faculty on council, we would see how wasteful we had been. It is my memory that all 3 of us walked out of the meeting at that point. The CEP could not meet without a quorum and without any of us students, they did not have a quorum, Gilbert told us meeting privately with us.

After a career spent finding ways to increase education engagement, effectiveness, equity, excellence, personalization and relevance, building a few online and hybrid platforms for individual, school, district, and state use-- this year has been very busy and simultaneously hopeful and frustrating.

We now have the content, the understanding of cognitive development and learning, the means to assess, personalize, and deliver learning to support individuals K-12 and throughout their lives as needs and careers change. Yet most districts, and in the case of my home state of Hawaii (itself one district) resistance to building an online platform to serve all students, teachers, and families has lagged. Thus teachers have been thrown into teaching with multiple platforms, the district has lacked data it could have had as a natural process of learning, families have been confused by multiple platforms for their children, and some students have been left out as others have thrived.

The equity gap has grown. At the same time, finally there is a level of recognition of the power of electronic learning and media to educate, personalize, engage and encourage. Hopefully, this will continue and we will transform our schools and our society to value and nurture the gifts of each- regardless of age, economic, intellectual, or other personal gifts and conditions.

I am a mother of 4, a painter and sculptor, writer, Unitarian Universalist minister, community activist, and education entrepreneur.