God is good when he brings my partner in crime home to me and we can get back at it on Planet Mom Radio. I really missed her (even though we texted daily.) My world is off kilter when certain people are geographically far away and Keri is one of them.

The biggest and best news about today is that Keri’s middle son, Miles, didn’t have school today and true to form, Keri brought him to work. He is actually as adorable in person as he is in pictures and he provided us with a lovable reminder of why we are in this work.

Today’s Episode

In keeping with the theme of the week and the topic of my guest appearance on Dan Yorke State of Mind, we finally got Keri’s take on the French President’s marriage to his former teacher (24 years older, married, with three daughters). We also dig in to a very honest and personal piece by Keri called “How the Light Gets In” about how she came to this work of education advocacy.

When I was 13-years-old, one of my teachers discovered me working at 9pm at the local Johnnie’s Foodmaster next to the North Street housing project in Somerville on the Arlington line. From there, dark secrets about our family came tumbling into the light — my mother’s intense struggle with alcoholism, my father’s extreme anger and frustration and ultimate “departure from the situation” and a desperate kid who forged her working papers so she could get a job and something to eat in the house.

And then, Keri shares a bit about her trip to San Francisco where she rubbed elbows with lots of Edu-folk and got to hear about the thinking and priorities of some of the most influential people and organizations in this space. And did her hair looking freaking awesome in every pic out there? Umm. Yes. Yes it did.

Thanks for visiting and as always, let us know where we’re going right and where we’re going wrong. We love to argue ya know 🙂