Shedding Light and Spreading Truth

Sharing Information from the Road - travelling the country, visiting the classrooms of Four State Teachers of the Year and watching as they teach lessons they prepared in alignment to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) has been an experience I am honored to share. I've walked beside teachers, administrators, students and parents for over 21 years now in Chicago, IL and Atlanta, GA and have never seen the high level of energy and passion -- by everyone in the schools I met actually -- about the possibilities of something big! There is a palpible passion by teachers in support of these foundational standards to truly help our US public schools help our children succeed.

Four Special Episodes of The Ignite Show will soon be released (still deep in the throws of post production - whew!) that will highlight these teachers and share interviews, conversations and other information by leaders and other teachers about these state standards. I can't wait for everyone to benefit from the up close persepctive I've been able to get by being so directly engaged in this project. (Thank you Hunt Institute and NNSTOY!) I was particulary struck by a comment made last week in an interview with Delia Pompa, SR VP of The National Council of La Raza when she visited us in the studio before a live audience. She said of the CCSS that this is "a civil rights issue." I agree - deeply. It remined me of my time Venus Blue in Chicago, IL years ago when she and I had a brief moment working together at a "soul sister level" she would say -- as we discussed the need to provide every child in every school  across the US with absolutely the same information and opportunity for success. I was involved in helping teachers bring the arts into the classroom at the time -- and she said that was civil rights work! This IS an opportunity to accomplish this. I so hope we - as a US citizenry - do this right.

This 3-min video by The Council of Great City Schools sheds light and absolutely reflects the truth about the CCSS -- I'm sharing it with as many as I can -- and hope you will watch it and share it too.