Because of where we live, my children were not going to get the best education the United States had to offer. But they would do all right. From the beginning of my experiences as a parent in the public education system, the reality was that the kids would receive an average basic education. As parents, we were there to fill in the gaps as best we could and our own children would do fine.

That was not true for others. Through my volunteer work in classrooms, I was observing the number of children who did not appear to have a parental advocate to guide them through the system and identify where they needed help. Their parents could not, would not, or did not support their learning. Did they not understand that in America there are school districts where only a strong and persistent pressure will make the system “work”? Did they not understand how essential their help might be for their child’s success? Or were there other factors involved?


The issues I found worth fighting for on behalf of these kids included: safe and disciplined schools, reading, writing, math, and (particularly hard fought and lost) proper science education. Along the way, some minor battles were won but the eighteen years of participation in my districts’ schools was not fruitful enough to satisfy the need for educational improvement that was becoming more obvious across the United States. None of what I experienced was unique to my district. That reality was obvious in the multitude of research available on all educational issues.


My research left me with milk crates full of statistics and other information stacked in a closet. The time had come to clean that closet out. I approached it with every intention of throwing all the junk out. But that mass of collected knowledge begged to be looked at one more time. The themes became recurrent. The need to share became stronger. It started out as Just a Parent and became Education's Missing Ingredient: What Parents Can Tell Educators. I became a writer.

I dared to face the facts. I, like all those in the education field whom I had been critical of, had acquired knowledge but had not put the knowledge into practice.  Now is the time to do it.