When looking at the world and its problems, I think most people would like to somehow change the world for the better, but the prospect seems too grand and the problems overwhelming. On my refrigerator are a series of square quotablemagnets that have helped inspire me and that help me remember what is important and what is doable. The first magnet that I bought (What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?) challenged me to consider returning to graduate school for advanced degrees. As I needed encouragement or focus I added others:
If you are going to doubt something, doubt your limits - Don Ward
In the long run, we only hit what we aim at - Thoreau
Trust yourself, you know more than you think you do - Dr. Spock
Never, never, never give up - Winston Churchill
Be the change you wish to see in the world - Gandhi
I realized that ultimately what was important to me, to make my life worthwhile and meaningful, was to help children and change their lives for the better. 
I know people who change many children's and adults' lives in a big way, such as fund raising to build schools or clean water systems in Third World countries. I value, respect, and support their work greatly, and would like to think that I could be a person who could do that too. The reality is I can't, at least I can't right now. What I can do and have chosen to do is to try to change one child's world in a small way, by identifying their learning difficulties so that they can be more successful in school. It seems like a very small thing to do, but that which I am capable. Then yesterday I stopped by my office and found a package and a copy of a letter from grandparents of a child that I had assessed. The two-page letter was addressed to the new Superintendent in Greenwich and copied to the Director of Pupil Personnel Services. It praised the evaluation that I and the two other members of the Central Evaluation Team performed and declared it superior to other private prior evaluations produced by highly respected and published PhD evaluators, for which the grandparents had paid thousands of dollars. It ended saying that thanks to me and the other two evaluators, their granddaughter has a chance to become a productive member of society, rather than a burden to it. "What these professionals do matters, and matters deeply." The package contained a beautiful crystal paperweight inscribed with a quote from Garrison Keillor: Nothing you do for children is ever wasted. One doesn't ever enter into the field of education become rich, but today I feel like a million bucks.
I know people who change many children's and adults' lives in a big way, such as fund raising to build schools or clean water systems in Third World countries. I value, respect, and support their work greatly, and would like to think that I could be a person who could do that too. The reality is I can't, at least I can't right now. What I can do and have chosen to do is to try to change one child's world in a small way, by identifying their learning difficulties so that they can be more successful in school. It seems like a very small thing to do, but that which I am capable. Then yesterday I stopped by my office and found a package and a copy of a letter from grandparents of a child that I had assessed. The two-page letter was addressed to the new Superintendent in Greenwich and copied to the Director of Pupil Personnel Services. It praised the evaluation that I and the two other members of the Central Evaluation Team performed and declared it superior to other private prior evaluations produced by highly respected and published PhD evaluators, for which the grandparents had paid thousands of dollars. It ended saying that thanks to me and the other two evaluators, their granddaughter has a chance to become a productive member of society, rather than a burden to it. "What these professionals do matters, and matters deeply." The package contained a beautiful crystal paperweight inscribed with a quote from Garrison Keillor: Nothing you do for children is ever wasted. One doesn't ever enter into the field of education become rich, but today I feel like a million bucks.
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