Day 22 & 23: December 16-17, 2009

Our time on the road this past week was significant for me in many ways. We started in Deland, at the Florida Museum of Art. Jennifer Coolidge, the Executive Director, assembled a strong group of community leaders to show the Worst To First team what a powerful educational and cultural asset the museum has become, a true statewide treasure. As I listened to the group, I came to a deeper conviction about the FCAT and what I believe to be the devastating impact the “FCAT is all” approach is having on our children, in terms of critical thinking and problem solving. The arts, physical education, history and civics have all virtually been forsaken in the stampede for memorization. Though accountability must live on as one aspect of an evaluation process, I believe it is time for the FCAT to go away.

After our Deland visit, we moved into Lakeland. My cousins, Joe and Karen Ruthven, live in Lakeland and conducted a brief tour for us while there. When the tour ended, we made our way to Family Fundamentals, a program built on the Success By Six strategy which focuses on providing a wide range of services to struggling families and their children. Amazingly, fifty community organizations are partnering with Family Fundamentals which makes it so much easier for these families to get linked to a comprehensive range of social support services. The primary catalyst and financial benefactor of this wonderful program is Carol Jenkins Barnett, and United Way, active in so many Florida communities, is a key player as well.

As we walked to our next stop, the Lawton Chiles Middle Academy, many of the community leaders joined us. This fabulous school, named for my father, is the site of the high school he actually attended back in the mid forties. To feel the warm welcome from staff and students, have opportunity to address the entire student body over the loudspeaker, and experience the mob of handshakes and requests for autographs was very emotional for me. My father would be proud to have his name attached to such a high-quality school, with excellent leadership, resources, facilities, teachers and all around positive attitudes from everyone we met; Kudos to Principal Sharon Neuman!

Toward the end of the day, my cousin pulled together a very strong group of educators, advocates and business leaders for a substantive discussion on how Lakeland leaders can interface in our statewide advocacy campaign for kids. Sometimes you need to be refreshed to keep on keeping on. I know I certainly was during this trip. Thank you Deland and Lakeland!