The Puzzle: Blog

I started my career in education as an English teacher with Detroit Public Schools in 1993. My first teaching assignment was at the high school I graduated from after writing a letter to the principal– Mumford High School, made famous by Eddie Murphy, who wore a t-shirt with the school’s name in the first Beverly Hills Cop movie. In the thirteen years to follow, I taught at four additional Detroit high schools– Renaissance High School, The High School of Commerce and Business Administration, Southwest High School, and the Detroit School of Arts– where I learned the science and art of teaching from hundreds of gifted and talented young people as well as professionalism, service, and the calling of the work from teaching colleagues and dynamic school leaders.

My time in Detroit laid the foundation for my belief in the transformative power of education. It is the power of a solid education delivered by people who invest in your success and who go above and beyond the limitations of expectations, resources, and circumstances to provide opportunities for students to create a future of their own design.

Then, in 2006, my career took an unexpected turn. In June that summer, I traveled to Florida as an AP Reader for the AP Language and Composition test. During one of the breaks, I engaged in a conversation with the table leader, who happened to be a college counselor from a private school I had never heard of in a state that was not on my radar. However, how she described her school, its mission, and the job opening she thought would be an excellent fit for me piqued my interest. Later that evening, I called my husband, David, and shared the conversation. He pulled up the school’s website and read the school’s mission and the job description on our home computer. He then said, “Why not?”

Two months later, with the help of our family and friends, my husband, son, and I packed up all we owned and embarked on a twelve-hour drive to Minnesota when I accepted a job at Breck School, located in Golden Valley, a western, first-ring suburb of Minneapolis. My initial job took me out of the classroom and into the Twin Cities, coordinating the Upper School students' weekly engagement in community service. I also worked one-on-one with students as the upper school learning resource instructor, helping students discover their executive functioning skills in managing the rigor of Breck’s curriculum. Over the eleven years that followed, I held administrative roles in the upper school, such as dean of studies. I also founded and served as the first director of what was then known as the Melrose Family Center for Servant Leadership. I still carry my work from Breck into everything I do and maintain deep connections with students and colleagues.

The decision to leave Detroit and move to Minnesota, where we had no family, was not easy. However, the opportunities opened to us as a family, particularly our son, could not be undervalued. Breck School was a caring community that nurtured and educated my son and assisted David and me in understanding the most critical journey we’ve navigated together—discovering our son’s learning differences.

We uncovered our son Adam’s learning differences in 2nd grade through observant and caring teachers, honest conversations with family and trusted friends, tears, and eventual psychoeducational testing. My husband and I went on a journey of discovery, understanding, and embracing our son’s learning differences. We empowered Adam to do the same when we transitioned him from Breck School to Groves Academy as a 3rd grader.

Groves Academy, located in St. Louis Park, is the leading school in the Midwest for students who have learning disabilities such as dyslexia, ADHD, executive function challenges, and other language-based learning disabilities. He thrived under Groves's mission of building confidence, success, and purpose through transformative learning experiences. Adam’s lower and middle school experiences were anchored in an evidence-based, explicit instructional approach and a deep understanding of Adam’s learning profile that significantly influenced his self-advocacy skills and agency as upper school approached.

The start of the 2017-2018 school year marked Adam’s second year in the Groves Academy upper school and my first year as its Head of School. Being a leader of a school like Groves was a humbling experience because I became a part of a school that directly impacted my son’s life.

Attending a school focusing on teaching students with learning differences is a pragmatic and emotional decision for parents. Thoughtful consideration is given to the academic approach, outcomes, mission, value proposition, and return on investment as much as emotional impact. Most parents seek enrollment for their child at schools like this out of profound desperation and often feeling highly vulnerable. The complexity of the child’s learning profile is reaching a critical stage of acquiring the skills to learn how to learn versus constructing knowledge from what is taught. Their child feels defeated as a learner and repeats far too often, “I’m stupid,” which becomes a way for a child to describe themselves.

Our charge, then, is significant. We must disrupt the pattern of negative thinking that often plagues students with learning differences. As author David Flink says in his book Thinking Differently: An Inspiring Guide for Parents of Children with Learning Disabilities, we can help our students to think differently through our approach:  “So instead of marginalizing different thinkers, we should make knowledge more accessible to all kinds of learners. Once we remove unnecessary barriers, their brains will do their jobs as well or even better than anyone else’s brains might. They’ll just do it differently.” This is a call to action for all of us, to empower our students and help them realize their full potential.

Adam's journey at Groves is a testament to the transformative power of education and the hope it can bring to families facing similar challenges. His remarkable success story at Groves, overcoming his learning differences and thriving in a supportive environment, is a beacon of hope. It inspires other families to believe in their children's potential and the power of education to unlock it.

Adam attended Groves through graduation in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The sudden shift to online learning presented unique challenges for Adam, as it did for many students with learning differences. However, with the support of his teachers and the adaptive learning environment at Groves, Adam was able to navigate these challenges and successfully graduate. He received his diploma from me through the passenger window of David's car on a pizza paddle. Our son, Adam, is an artist. He is creative, kind, intuitive, and deep-thinking. He recently graduated from college with a bachelor’s in Studio Art.

Reflecting on my journey in education, both personally and professionally, I am reminded of the incredible power of community, support, and belief in every child's potential. From my early years of teaching in Detroit to my leadership at Groves Academy, my career has been shaped by a deep commitment to empowering students and guiding them toward success. My leadership roles, combined with my experiences as a mother, have shown me how transformative education can be when delivered with care, understanding, and dedication. I remain driven by the belief that every student deserves the opportunity to thrive, and I am grateful to have played a role in helping others on their own unique journeys.

Flink, David. Thinking Differently: An Inspiring Guide for Parents of Children with Learning Disabilities (2014) HarperCollins Publishers

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