As I approach retirement from the MMSD, I've come to realize the importance of prior events that have shaped my career path over the past 33 years. I've always been aware of how my early roots as an educator influenced my later experiences, but recently I've become more reflective about the people, situations, and opportunities that altered the direction of my work and life.

My career as an educator started in 1975, the same year that Public Law 94-142 — the All Handicapped Children's Act was enacted. As a new special education teacher in a small Oregon coastal community, I was embarking on a career in special education while this landmark special education legislation was concurrently taking roots in public education. Both P.L. 94-142 and I were young, inexperienced and trying to make meaning of our responsibilities. In retrospect, it feels like the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act — IDEA (formerly P.L. 94-142) and I grew up together.

After two years of teaching and a brief hiatus to obtain my master's degree at the University of Oregon, I returned to teaching high school students in Tigard, Oregon, a suburb outside Portland.

It was here that my career took an abrupt and unexpected turn in 1981 with the untimely and sudden passing of the district's special education coordinator. The district was desperate to locate an interim coordinator until they could permanently fill the position. I happened to be the only teacher in the district who held a special education administrative license and, as such, was immediately recruited to "temporarily" help out. I accepted the offer even though I loved teaching and did not want to leave my students. The rest is history... a veer in the road.

As I reflect back on my career, it is clear that both special education and I have matured, becoming more subtle and nuanced, but also more extensive and complicated. Although the basic tenant of the law - Free Appropriate Public Education - still rings true, the law has evolved into a highly complex and challenging set of administrative rules and regulations.

Like IDEA, I too have grown. Nothing illustrates this point better than the belief system I have cultivated and shaped over many years which now guides my actions on a variety of important topics and issues.

Take for example the topic of inclusive education. It is here that my philosophical position is decidedly clear; students should be educated together regardless of labels and differences. This belief is premised on valuing the inherent gifts, talents and opportunities for learning that each and every student brings to a classroom when educated together.

I further believe that it is public education's responsibility to prepare all students to eventually live and work together in an inclusive community. MMSD has embraced this belief system and today is recognized as a national leader in inclusive education among urban school systems.

My reflections about work and life have inevitably led me to some conclusions. For those who are new to their chosen work, I'd say "Buckle up and enjoy the ride 'cause it may get unpredictably bumpy and curvy as you navigate that twisty road leading to retirement."

For myself, I know that to have lived and worked in Madison has been a dream come true. I'm indebted to the MMSD for giving all three of my children an outstanding education.

I am also thankful to Art Rainwater and the MMSD school boards over the past 21 years for affording me the opportunity to be creative and take risks. In doing so, they gave me the freedom to challenge the status quo, promote change when I felt it was needed and ultimately, to do what I believed was the right thing for the students of this district. It truly has been a good ride!