Opening explanation of my connection to ND for the ND Senators:
By way of background in ND, I am a CA resident currently but I lived in ND from 1976 to 1992 and my dad (Rodli Pederson, 1941-2015) and mom (Diane Dahlen Pederson, 1948-1990) both lived most of their lives since birth in ND (with brief interlude in WI). All of my grandparents on both sides also lived in ND for most of their lives. My paternal grandfather (Alton Pederson) was elected judge in Burke County and practiced law for many years. My maternal grandfather owned a creamery in Minot.
My dad most recently lived at the ND Veterans Home in Lisbon, where he passed away in 2015.
He had donated his remains to the medical school at UND for research, and will be buried in Valley City when "his teaching is complete" as the UND staffers say.
Long version for Inkwell group (version sent to Senators only included the Story about Mr. Goffe):
As Sen. Murkowski said, Betsy DeVos must show us that she truly understands the children across America, both urban and rural, who are not able to access an alternative choice in education.
She was talking about Alaska but it’s the same thing in North Dakota, and Sen. Hoeven, please think about how her confirmation could hurt ND where the public schools are so important, and often the only choice. We do not want to see ND go the way of DeVos’ “accomplishments” in Michigan. I grew up in ND and attended public school there for my entire K-12 education. I have so many personal memories of my teachers and what they taught me, both academically and as a student with a terminally ill mother with cancer who eventually passed away when I was in 10th grade.
I saved most of my school notebooks for many years, and remember many creative lesson plans - including 8th & 9th grade English with the late Mrs. Marlys Langemo, creating books of our original stories and poems and learning the parts of speech from her original rap stylings. Our family also talked a lot with Mrs. Langemo while visiting my mom in the Sheyenne Care Center (local nursing home) as Mrs. Langemo's mom was also a resident there.
In 3rd grade, Mrs. LaWanna Hieb took me under her wing as a new kid just arrived in Valley City from Mandan and I will always be thankful. Even in 6th grade, along with teaching us how important it is to learn how to think (not what to think) — Mr. Jan Beauchman saved 15 minutes to read to us every day (books read were varied from Louis L’Amour to Where the Red Fern Grows, not for “little kids” as we were about to go to junior high).
7th Grade Life Science with Mr. Mike Watterson felt like the first “real science” class where we got to do dissections of earthworms and test our own blood types. Nothing felt boiled down for us even though we were still in junior high, and a few years away from “real” Biology with Mr. Jerry Hieb. (I still love to say “medulla oblongata”). Mrs. LuAnn Opdahl (now LuAnn White, and working as a realtor in Fargo) provided emotional support when my mom passed away in 10th grade, on top of being my English/Journalism teacher for 3 years in high school and supporting me with college recommendations.
I still have my notebook from US History, where Mr. Art Goffe had us write out the entire Constitution by hand, leaving blanks to write notes from his class lectures on each section. Mr. Goffe was also a two-term Representative in the ND Legislature and it was exciting to hear him explain his work there when he was back in the classroom. He firmly believed in the power of citizens to enact change. He passed away last March. http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/times-online/obituary.aspx?pid=177979932
I’m still in contact with some of my teachers who live in ND and as far as I can tell, none of them are supporting Ms. DeVos.
I think the education I received was excellent, even if it was “only” the public school system (plus one private Catholic school) in a town of 7,000 people (Go Valley City Hi-Liners!). I can’t give all this credit to the VC public schools, but with their preparation and the support of my dad, I did manage to get admitted to Stanford, graduate with a bachelor’s degree (in English!) and finally pay off the thousands of dollars in student loans that I needed as a student from a middle-class single-parent family. I have been employed almost continuously in the game/interactive software industry here in CA for over 20 years. I currently hold a Director-level job at a Silicon Valley startup which specializes in educational content for kids on mobile platforms for clients like Samsung and Verizon.
Mrs. DeVos has no experience in public schools, either as a parent, child or teacher, and as Sen. Warren pointed out, is woefully underprepared to administer student loan programs and everything that the Dept of Education handles for higher education as well.
Please Vote NO on her confirmation as Secretary of Education.
