Because It's - ee cummings

because it's - ee cummings
     
because it's

Spring
thingS

dare to do people

(& not
the other way

round)because it
's A
pril

Lives lead their own

persons(in
stead

of everybodyelse's)but

what's wholly
marvellous my

Darling

is that you &
i are more than you

& i(be

ca
us

e It's we)
 
*E. E. Cummings is one of my favorite poets and this poem echoes some thoughts that I have after our trip to Washington D.C. for the National Association of Gifted Children (NAGC) Affiliate’s Leadership and Advocacy Conference.  WATG board member (and past president), Deb Kucek and I went to D.C to represent our Wisconsin gifted children in conversations with all of our state representatives.   The first days of the conference were spent in understanding current trends and data and ended with training sessions focused on relevant and effective advocacy techniques with government officials.  We specifically concentrated on two asks with the representatives.  The results are summed up in the following release from William Knudsen of NAGC. 
 
“We had some positive advocacy news immediately following the conference. 
 
Congress officially rejected the Administration’s proposed elimination of the Javits program in Federal Fiscal Year 2018 (FY18).  Congress funded it at $12 million for FY18.
(FYI- We asked for $32,000,000.  That is only .000008% of the federal budget.  A VERY small request!  The good news though is that a complete elimination was proposed and it stayed in at $12,000,000.)
 
Even though we had this win on the Hill, the Administration has proposed eliminating Javits in FY19. 
 
We need to keep up the advocacy pressure to ensure Javits funding for Federal Fiscal Year 2019 (FY19), which begins October 1, 2018.
 
In terms of protecting the gifted language in the Higher Education Act, we had several offices say they were interested in finding ways to make sure gifted is included in any reauthorization.   

It is imperative that we continue to build on the work done at the 2018 Leadership and Advocacy Conference and grow our advocacy network.

To continue this great work, we must recruit more advocates to join our cause and stay engaged with our legislators.” 
 
As William Knudsen requests, we must recruit more advocates to join our cause for our gifted children.  This is why E.E. Cummings’ poem is relevant for us.  The synergy of the “WE” is by far more powerful than the “You” or the “I” alone.  Let’s be “WE” for the sake of our gifted children!  It’s April… Let’s “dare to do people”… (specifically our gifted children).   
 
…what's wholly
marvellous my

Darling

is that you &
i are more than you

& i(be

ca
us

e It's we)
*This poem was copied as E.E. Cummings wrote it.  It is not a formatting problem.  Please enjoy it in the style he intended.