Passion for change: Erin Jones at TEDxForestRidgeSchool

I know Erin Jones well and she inspires me. This speech is authentic Erin, her journey is shared with all she meets because she thinks that everyone can be great. "It does not matter where you start, it matters where you finish."



I believe that and excellent education should not be measured by a test outcome, but how it created a student who can be their best self, bring into being a better world, and have the ability to be self assured and a self thinker, not a follower, a collaborator not an obstructionist. Being able to walk with others, bring them along and when needed accept wise guidance.



She would make a brilliant Superintendent of Public Instruction for WA State. I live in this state that has not yet had a leader who believes that we can produce the most brilliant students in the nation. Why should Microsoft, Boeing, Starbucks, and other employers have to import their workers because locally, our residents have not been given the rigorous high expectation they deserve. Teachers have been bogged down with systems that do not make sense to anyone and the outcomes divide us along race and economic lines. Left to their best thinking, teachers can teach a poor child how to read and to think and to learn. They did not enter their profession to support the newly created "failure industry."  People who should be benefiting from our technology industry that is in WA State, are filling up the client base of social service agencies, and non profits, students failed by adults thus become the economic security for other adults. This is not fair, nor ethical.



I have in my home a child whose mother for many reasons not been able to provide a permanent home.

They are highly mobile, but she is determined that this gifted child of hers will have a better life and it shows. Education, her natural gift for art and music, the discipline of practice in track, keeps her knowing nothing but achievement. We have a school system that keeps her labeled as homeless.  So, I have brought mother and child into my home which was an easy thing for me to do. I like Erin am determined, fixed on the vision of poor children not having to focus on where they started or linger on what detracts but stay focused on where they are going.



As adults we must work harder and smarter, leverage our talents and passions. Because I am a natural educator, I write and I read, I share information and I receive information.  So I wanted to share this TED Talk with the readers of my blog and hope that they hear something that Erin says that will inspire them in the ways that she inspires parents, students, teachers and education leadership.