07/31/2024
Yesterday, my wife Rachel McCaulsky successfully and unsurprisingly defended her doctoral dissertation, " The Implementation of Arts Curriculum at Large Urban Districts in the Northeast United States that Serve Students with Disabilities."
Rachel has had a profound positive impact on the critical mass of students, educators, school leaders, and other professionals through her years as a teacher, Art Coordinator, Assistant Principal, Arts Director for South Brooklyn, and of course as a professional dancer.
Arguably she led the most vibrant and cohesive online school curriculum in all of NYC public schools. When others lowered the bar, she raised it higher. She brought professional dancers, Broadway theater professionals, professional dance organizations, Graffiti Artists and so many more on Zoom. She had kids with multiple disabilities moving. She had parents and guardians moving. She brought the ARTS to the people, at the highest level, to heal our trauma, when the world was hurting. Yoga. Meditation. You name. Rachel led it. While the results will not be measured by test scores, the impact was felt and that's what matters.
d supported her cause.
Now through the years of completing your coursework while pregnant, spending many 4ams in the car studying and getting things done, many hours on the train reading and researching, more hours on the train to Albany, yet more hours with your executive coach and professors, and cohort leaders, and interviewees, you have filled a gap. A gap between the arts and special education. A gap that is underserved and overlooked because math, literacy, and science test scores take precedence. A gap that, if tapped into, will create the synergy to improve the overall human being. A gap that can heal the trauma students experience in schools.
Rachel McCaulsky you are a champion!
You are the new-age leader.
You are a trailblazer.
Now my message to you is simple:
Become the person we have not seen to do the things you haven't done; so that the world can be the place it has never been. Dr. Rachel McCaulsky.