Good News for EducateOregon!
Hello my lovely people!
First and foremost, I want to again say thank you. Thank you for signing the petition and for caring so deeply about this cause. I've been reading all your comments and I cannot express how much joy it has brought me to see this many voices all calling for better education in Oregon.
We have passed 7000 signatures in 3 days! That's amazing and it couldn't be done without you sharing and signing! But now I have some interesting news...
Oregon House Bill 2845 was passed in 2017 and succeeded in fostering this exact curriculum. This was brought to my attention by a person who works as a school teacher in Beaverton, OR and a woman on Facebook who informed me she saw the petition and wanted to know if I had seen the material that PPS schools have been implementing over the last few years.
Two points:
First, this is a link to the content that was shared with me. It is very informative and very thorough. I am elated to see that this is already being implemented in schools!
Second, I need to acknowledge that I jumped into this without any research in an attempt to change what I saw as a broken system. I did not do any research other than using my own personal experience and the anecdotes of those around me and this was not a great way to go about change. If I had done even menial research, I would have seen that this topic was already covered. I could have used my time, and quite frankly, your time and signatures more effectively.
I will be talking with one of the women who developed the program above this Saturday to better understand the development of the program and how it is taught to teachers all over Oregon. I will be educating myself on a better way to use my time and voice as well.
I cannot stress enough how grateful I am that you all feel so passionately about this topic as well. Starting tomorrow morning, the petition will be suspended. Overall, this was a learning process with an excellent, although admittedly awkward end. Although this petition was for something that was already fixed, it got the conversation going. If even one person came away from this with more information on Oregon's past, I will be satisfied with the petition.
Thank you all for your support. I hope in the future to be brainstorming some new petitions (heavily researched first of course) so this won't be the last time you hear from me.
-Maddie
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