In the past few days I’ve had a few people asking me about the origin of PGF. Not the where and when, but the why. Over the next few posts I’ll attempt to explain a little.
About 8 years ago some friends and I were invited to a meeting. A city school district was going to do away with foreign language programs. At the same time the district was closing out its desegregation program. We were asked to represent the community, speak to the school board and come up with a plan. We saved the language programs right away. We also worked on a comprehensive plan to turn district schools into world schools. Several K-8 schools would be converted into magnet schools. Each would represent a study in a particular culture. The schools would feed into a U.N. High School. District students would be prepared for achievement on a global scale.
Unfortunately the larger plan never went beyond the Board and administration of the district. I’m sure you can imagine well integrated city schools turning out positive, dynamic and educated young people with a global vision. Unfortunately others could not.
For my colleagues and I, this was not our first or last community service mission. We involved ourselves regularly in civic projects and charitable ventures. What we did learn was that people with dynamic ideas of their own do not fit well into organizations that already have specific missions and values. You can work to the best of your ability and donate funds to keep it going, but you cannot reinvent (nor would I want to reinvent) that charity.
For me, the years spent in not-for-profit financial management, the years serving on Boards of Directors, the years of learning were my street education.
Well after a few too many nights of getting together with my fiends, philosophizing, reasoning and talking into the wee hours, an idea formed. The idea of a platform?