Page 74 - EdViewptsSpring2017

What I Learned About Education

From a Road Trip with My Daughter

By Dr. Hope Blecher, Director of Curriculum and Instruction for the
Secaucus Public School District

With one click of a SUBMIT daughter and I drove from New Jersey five years. During this time, I listened
button, I made a choice to to Washington, DC, singing to the to her stories about working the
phone-a-thon, bringing performing arts
radio, stopping for coffee, and talking
blend my work life with my with each other, I caught a glimpse of a to inner city pupils, serving as a youth
reflection of how those 23 years dove- guide, coordinating fundraisers, orga-
home life; this time it would include tailed. It's interesting to learn about nizing donor events, and chaperoning
my daughter. With 60 other workshop being an educator and a mother from high schoolers at local and national
participants, I experienced this com- your own child. conferences. In my mind, I saw ways
bination and it was insightful. Of the The theme of the conference was for us to blend. The door opened with
33 years I have spent in public edu- Building Productive and Caring the call for proposals. Working with
cation, 23 of those have been spent Citizens. When I saw this and read two colleagues, Daryl and Maryellen,
as a parent. Sometimes, the overlap the description for the 2016 National we crafted a proposal that was accept-
feels like a collision, other times like a Forum on Character Education, I felt ed. When due to circumstances, they
well-choreographed dance. This fall, it was time for Loren to see what I do, were unable to attend, the foursome
the work-home blend afforded me the especially since she had been over- became a duo. Loren and I hit the
opportunity to co-present at Charac- seas and then at college for the past road to meet this challenge.
ter.org’s national conference. As my

Educational Viewpoints -72- Spring 2017