Just the Beginning...

A blog....so daunting to just start writing about the things we are passionate about.  At some moments I feel as if I have so much to say...other times I feel like I have nothing to write, or nothing worth anyone's time to read, anyway.  But, I do know that people seem to enjoy it when I present and I tend to find ways of explaining or teaching concepts that seem to make sense sometimes, so although it will be a challenge for me, I'll do it.  Well, I'll try it and see how I go.

We set up this blog a few days ago and I am the kind of person who wants to get things done and cross them off my list.  Writing the first entry has been on my list since I was convinced to do this and I have been procrastinating which is so "un-Carrie like."

"Anything," I was told, "will be fine."

But I don't think just "anything" will do.  I feel a lot of pressure to say things insightful or meaningful.  Something that when a person finishes reading, she won't feel it was a waste of her time.

Sometimes just getting started on a daunting task is enough to paralyze people and probably the reason why so many ideas in this world don't actually get off the ground.  I find a lot of us have great ideas...like my dad's idea of opening a wine bar that serves only wine from his home state of Connecticut.  Sure, great idea...but where to start when you have absolutely no background or experience in owning, operating and maintaining such an establishment?  I guess you start with a baby step, whatever that is.  And that is what I am going to do.  I am taking a step.  I am starting this blog even though I am not sure what I am going to write about or if anyone is going to want to really read it.

So what I am I going to start with?  The beginning.  I am going to start at the beginning.  The beginning of what?  Well, as this blog is about me as the founder of Live and Learn, I decided I am going to start at that beginning because honestly, I have a lot of beginnings I could start at...my life, my schooling, my first job, my marriage, my pregnancy, becoming a mom, moving overseas...the list goes on.  But I decided I am going to start at the beginning of Live and Learn because that, I think, will be what I base my future posts on....the real reason I started Live and Learn.

Live and Learn officially started in February 2008 however I ran the operation, under a different name and different owners, since 2006.  Coming from the US as a special educator and school administrator, I was bewildered at the state of special needs in Singapore and later, as I learned, in Asia and the international community as a whole.  I was working as an after school "tuition specialist" providing one to one tutoring for kids with special learning needs while having little to no connection to the child's classroom experiences.  My heart hurt for these kids and I didn't understand how they could be successful with such limited support in the classroom.  All hope for improvement was resting on my hour or two a week in a one to one session after school.  What floored me even more was the tuition center provided this kind of remediation support for about 250 children and I was, by far, the most qualified and experienced person in the center....including the owner.  Was this the norm or was I just seeing one side of this unbalanced equation?

I have come to learn, almost 6 years later, that it was not only the norm, but part a pervasive, larger problem that revolved around how our children with even mild learning needs were not valued in this community I was living in.  And it wasn't, and isn't, a "local" problem only.  Actually, I worked with both expatriate and local children, all of whom received very little support in their schools.  More concerning was that many of these "expat kids" were being asked to leave their schools if their academics didn't improve dramatically, and quickly.  But with such little support in their school day, how could they possibly make the necessary gains in such a short amount of time?

And then there were the new students coming in flocks to Singapore to settle into this "First World Country" with world class educational facilities in these mega expensive, super facility international schools.  And these students couldn't get in.  Mind you, we weren't even talking about kids with moderate to severe disabilities....kids with MILD needs could not get into these schools.  I remember one child, for example, who was 16 years old and had been diagnosed with a mild learning disability to which she received only 1 hour of special needs service PER WEEK in the US, mostly for organization.  She received all A's and B's in school, placing her on the honor roll every year since middle school, but because she had an IEP (Individualized Education Program) international schools in Singapore wouldn't even look at her.  Her family had to make the very difficult decision not to come to Singapore after all.  They couldn't sacrifice her daughter's educational success for a "cushy" Singaporean expat assignment....regardless of how much the job paid.

I saw a need.  I saw an ethical need.  As clear as the sky was blue, I knew I needed to do something to help, at least in some way, to make this better for kids and families.  I knew the benefits of providing appropriate support for children and they included benefits for all the other kids in the class as well.    And so...God brought me Shannon, my business partner, at the perfect time....and we jumped into this together.....and Live and Learn began.