From the Editor
Hall of Fame
Anne Wujcik — Friday, December 09, 2011
First an apology to a number of companies whose news got left out of last week's issue. I forgot to adjust dates to account for our Thanksgiving publishing break. Their stories are included this week. I also want to look back a week myself. Many of us make the trip to New York City the week after Thanksgiving to participate in a series of education industry events starting with the Ed Tech Business Forum, sponsored by the Education Division of the Software & Information Industry Association, and wrapping up with the Association of Educational Publisher's Hall of Fame Awards. It's a great time to learn about industry trends, catch up with long-time friends, meet industry newcomers and celebrate the hard work and dedication that keeps the industry growing.
The AEP Hall of Fame induction was, as always, flawlessly produced and both a fun and moving event. Every year I am so impressed with the people that the AEP honors as inductees into its Hall of Fame. This year was no exception. Honored this year were Dr. Charlotte Frank, SVP, Research and Development, McGraw-Hill Education; Don Johnston, Founder Don Johnston, Inc.; and Paul McFall, SVP, Pearson School. Each has made an enormous contribution to both the educational publishing business as well as the children and schools we all serve.
Charlotte began her career as a math teacher and eventually became Executive Director of Curriculum and Instruction for the New York City Board of Education before joining McGraw-Hill, where among other things she provides leadership for the annual Harold W. McGraw Jr. Prize for Those Who Have Made A Difference in Education as well as serving as the co-chair with Peter Yarrow (Peter, Paul & Mary) - "Operation Respect: Don't Laugh At Me."
Paul started out as a classroom teacher and then a school administrator, moving into publishing in 1970 as a sales representative for Harper Row Publishing in North Carolina and through a series of moves and acquisitions worked at Macmillan/McGraw-Hill, before moving on to Pearson. Paul spent a good part of his career in sales, serving as national Sales Manager at Macmillan/McGraw-Hill School Division and brings that perspective and his solid understanding of what will work in the classroom to his work of advising product management and product development on key curriculum issues.
You'll forgive me if I focus for a minute on Don Johnston. Don's company, which he founded in 1980, is dedicated to helping struggling students, focusing on assistive technology accommodations and learning intervention tools to serve students, teachers and families. Don dedicated his award to students who struggle and feel failure. "Your feelings of failure do not have to get in the way of your success and your life goals," he said. "I believe that my learning disability actually helped me in business because it forced me to do things differently."
Growing up in the 50s, Don's dyslexia made school difficult. During his acceptance speech ne noted that he was in 9th grade before he really learned to read and he experience the prejudice and misunderstanding that too often accompanies living with a learning disability. Don was a practicing psychologist and organizational consultant before starting his business. In 2008, Don wrote an autobiography, directed to teens, in which he describes his personal struggle growing up with dyslexia. He gets hundreds of letters from students, many of whom did not realize until reading the book that other struggled in the way they do and still succeeded. Don answers these letters encouraging students not to give up. I was most struck by Don's sense that one of his greatest strengths was the fact that he thought and learned differently, allowing him to bring a different perspective to business discussions or strategy sessions.
All three Hall of Fame inductees spoke about the support they had along the way from mentors and the strength they found in the teams they worked with. Each in their own way also spoke about how privileged they feel to have been part of the educational publishing industry, to work with both publishing colleagues and educators, on making a difference in the lives of children. And all three expressed some concern about the direction of American education, urging listeners to focus on what was really important. As Don Johnston said in his AEP blog, "We need to focus less on standardized test scores and more on engagement, problem solving, creative thinking and written and oral communication. Learning should be fun and motivating in new ways to prepare students for advanced education and/or the working world."
A final note. If you haven't seen it, do a quick read of an Op-Ed piece in the Dec 5 issue of the New York Times, co-authored by Frederick M. Hess, Director of Education Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute and Linda Darling-Hammond, Professor of Education at Stanford. Hess and Hammond stand on opposite sides of the educational policy divide on many issues, but they retain the ability to engage in a meaningful and civil dialog about those differences. In this Op-Ed, referring to the appropriate role for the federal government in education, they highlight four things that they both agree are roles that only the federal government can play.
