My next step was to enroll in a teacher training program. As I worked my way through the coursework, there was one book that we were assigned that has stuck with me to this day. I don't remember the class, but the book was Savage Inequalities, by Jonathan Kozol.
The book dealt with the inequalities in public school funding. Much of the problem is tied to property taxes and since poorer neighborhoods collect less property tax, they have less to spend on public education.
He provided some very disturbing examples of school that are in just horrible condition and where basic resources go lacking.
While I would ultimately return to the corporate world, the memories of great teachers I had the opportunity to work with have stayed with me. And, Jonathan Kozol's book has also stuck with me.
While I don't have the answer for resolving funding equality, I do have the ability to use technology so that teachers regardless of what type of school they teach in can find unused resources from other teachers.
This gave rise to Classroom2Classroom. A marketplace for teachers, parents, retails to sell unused material appropriate for a classroom library and to share their knowledge about those books with others.
What I've seen is that where the resources are, the need is typically not. So how can we identify where there are unused resources and make them known to those in need. A marketplace structure seemed the most logical.
After all, it only seemed fair that if someone spent money building a library, they should have an opportunity to monitize their idle resources so they could re-invest into their classroom or childs library.
But Classroom2Classroom had to be more. It would be an ideal place for parents to sell home library books that they had acquired during the school year to augment their child's learning. After all, current material is always in demand in the classroom.
As we prepare to launch in late May 2012, let's see what happens.
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