Secretary's Column
By Dr. Rick Melmer
Department of Education

My, how you have grown!

During the summer, we often take time to attend family reunions. In today’s society, family members tend to live farther apart and consequently don’t see each other that often. The comment, “My, how you have grown!” often can be heard when one family sees another family. (We always prefer if those comments are made to young people and not to one of the adults in our family!)

It is true that we sometimes don’t realize how much things change (like our kids’ vertical growth) when we live under the same roof with them. However, when we see family members for infrequent gatherings or look at an old photo, the changes become fairly obvious.

I was reminded of a similar change in June when I attended a Governor’s Town Hall meeting in Wilmot, S.D. After the meeting, we were visiting with some of the people who had attended the meeting. Superintendent Tim Graf introduced me to Betty Ward. Betty is a lady who has lived in Wilmot during her adult years and has had the energy and compassion to take in well over 300 foster children. Yes, I have the number right – 300- plus children in need. Many of the children were minority or special-education eligible, and she loved them like she would her own children. In addition to taking them in as foster children, she also adopted several children as her own. At the age of 74, Betty is still taking kids into her home and caring for their needs.

During our meeting, we talked about No Child Left Behind and the need for all students – including minority and special education students – to have a good education. After hearing that discussion, Betty took the time to meet me and say how pleased she was that we had expectations for ALL students, not just the regular education students.

She also reminded me that when she began to take in foster children more than 40 years ago, many of the handicapped students were not even welcome in the schools. They were expected to get an education at home or in an “institution.” Betty was so thankful that these young people could join their classmates in a school building and get a first-class education.

It is true that we not only educate all students in our schools, but we also have expectations for them to achieve. We hold ourselves accountable to provide an appropriate education for all students that enter our doors – no matter how they enter our doors.

So the next time you think we haven’t made the kind of progress you would like, remember where we were just a few short years ago. “My, how we have grown!”