Rex A. Holiday - The Family Link to Education: The Road to Personal and Professional Success

The Family Link to Education

ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD

Lanham Boulder New York London

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Available

ISBN: 978-1-4758-4516-7 (cloth : alk. paper)

ISBN: 978-1-4758-4517-4 (electronic)

TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Printed in the United States of America

I would like to dedicate The Family, part I of The Family Link to Education: The Road to Personal and Professional Success, to my wife and eternal companion, Jane Faith Holiday. She has sacrificed so much for me and our children, and if it had not been for her constant encouragement I would not have been successful in most of my major accomplishments, including completing this collaborative book project. I guess you can say that it is in her middle name.

I thank my mother, Lila Holiday, for instinctively knowing that talking, reading, and singing would help develop my young mind and intellect. Mom was always so patient with me when I would repeat, more than once, Read it again, Mommy! Of course she always did, and I always loved it.

I thank my father, Charlie Holiday, who, although tragically gone by the age of forty-two, left an everlasting impression on me about the importance of education. Dad taught industrial arts and math at the secondary school level in the Sequoia Unified School District located in Redwood City, California. At the time of his death, Dad was enrolled in graduate school at San Jose State University pursuing a Master of Science degree in chemistry.

I want to thank my sister, Robbin Holiday-Lawson, for her dedication to teaching STEM at the secondary and postsecondary level for more than two decades. I also want to thank my sister Rita Holiday, who works in public relations for a Silicon Valley technology giant where she promotes STEM for women and girls through scholarships and mentoring programs.

I want to thank my grandparents, great-grandparents, and great-great-grandparents who passed down a legacy of teaching from one generation to the next on my mothers and on my fathers sides of the family. While as of this writing I have never formally taught in the classroom, I am convinced that teaching is in my genes.

I thank my friend, Dale Fritchen, who encouraged me to take a seat on the Manteca Unified School District (MUSD) board of trustees. I also want to thank the MUSD administrators for their continued support with all of my research in education projects.

Finally, I thank my Heavenly Father for blessing me with an amazing spouse, experiences, opportunities, and the intellect required to cowrite this book.

I wish to dedicate The Family Link to Education: The Road to Personal and Professional Success to my parents, Lewis L. Sonntag and Natalie R. Sonntag, and to the rest of my relatives, especially to my maternal grandmother, Rebecca Yaspan, who literally saved my life, gave me personal attention and love, and really was the mentor who originally inspired me to teach.

During my school years, my school counselor, Mr. Osegueda; my Spanish teachers, Mr. Harvey, Mrs. Cannon, and Dr. Galn; and the international program director, Dr. Lantos, were particularly helpful and encouraging. It was because of their sincerity to students and their dedication to the school community that I also chose to become a teacher. Indeed, they were great role models for others as well as for me.

My personal friends, the Ballew family, Woody Brown, Miklos Fejer, Mike Forman, Arlene Krauss, Thu Lam, Leo and Aziza Mara, Michelle and Giovanna Mercurio, Christian Mitchell, Jordan Mitchell, the OLeary family, the Shalom-Nautico Community, Karen Steves-Ott, and Adele Stinson are very loving and very supportive and have helped me both personally and professionally. Jerry Hackett and his philosophy of being self-full in order to become better personally have been especially helpful for me.

My professional friends, Dr. Edward Brasmer, Marcia Chapman, Carol De S Campos, Mindie Dolson, Denise Elling, Sarah Fox, Jeff Gaines, Terri Godinez, Barbara Henry, Bill Jones, Joe Mora, Nina Norton, Bonna Purdy, and Jim Stoker, have been exceptionally wonderful role models for so many people as well as for myself.

I also extend my professional acknowledgment to Bertram Linder, the educational literary agent who guided me with my previous books for teachers and for families and who has unfortunately passed.

Along with all of my former students, since retiring I have had the pleasure of working with other students, with their parents, and with adults who are also very inspirational, intelligent, and humble. Those particular people have been Allie, Alyssa, Annie, Beau, Connor, David, Davis, Derek, Dylan, Erin, Katie, Laura, Lauren, Lexy, Lia, Margaret, Matthew, Miya, Patrick, Salima, Sarah, Shane, Sofia, Tiffany, and Yasmin.

Jenna is a unique young lady whose perspective about life is very positive, and she is very humble. Her attitude and her personality are truly allowing her to achieve all of her goals in her life while being an outstanding role model for her family, friends, and everyone else whom she encounters.

To all of you whom I honor in this acknowledgment, thank you for being you. I admire all of you immensely.

Rex A. Holiday, PhD

It has been said that no amount of success outside of the home can compensate for failure inside of the home. The saying is all-inclusive, and does not point to any specific individual. Failure inside of the home affects each and every member of the family in some way or another. Likewise, success outside of the home will also have some residual effect on every family member. In most circumstances, a strong home foundation is a prerequisite to success outside of the home.

The term family, as it is used in this book, denotes a general concept of family, but it is not meant to define what a family is or what a family should be. Families come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and parent-child dynamics, so in order to avoid the perception of exclusivity or naivet, this book purposely exposes some of its own assumptions about families. Some of the unique dynamics in families include socioeconomic status, education level, single or divorced parents, special needs children, or even special needs parents.

There are also homes where children are raised by grandparents, foster parents, uncles and aunts, or even their older siblings. The hope is that no matter the family structure, the advice and suggestions of each chapter and subsection will provide information that can be adapted to each familys unique situation.