My adult life has been shaped by the love of two things the arts and economics. My love for the arts really comes from my parents. My mother was a singer, dancer and actress before she met my father. After, she always worked in business with him, but from being young I remember my mom singing the jazz standards. My father was more of a spectator than an entertainer, but he had a lot of friends who were Jazz musicians.

My parent’s passion for artistic endeavors rubbed off on me and I studied dance, acting and music and at one-point thought that I would pursue the arts as a career. But my future followed a different path and that path was started by a teacher.

While my love for the arts came from my parents, my love for Economics came from a High School teacher. As with any good teacher, he loved the subject matter and his interest peaked my interest. This teacher’s ability to pass on not only knowledge, but a love for the subject led me to follow finance in my higher education and in my career. In my career, I was one of four women working on the Pacific Stock Exchange Floor in the 1980s. Later, I hosted a financial talk show on KMNY 1600AM and owned a Stock Brokerage.

But just imagine if I had never had that teacher? Just imagine if I never had access to education,
because I could not afford to pay for school. Just imagine how much different my life would be now. The point being the opportunity to learn opens up greater opportunities. Education develops individuals by exposing them to possibilities and providing them the passion and the skills to hopefully achieve those possibilities.

Having access to a school and a teacher who cares is life-changing. According to the World Development Report 2018: “Learning to Realize Education’s Promise” argues that without learning, education will fail to deliver on its promise to eliminate extreme poverty and create shared opportunity and prosperity for all.” A world were all children had equal access to a good education would produce the greatest use of our most precious resources and talent.

Margaret Melanie Gold
Lumiere De Education Foundation
Board Member
Florida Office
MMGoldLDE@gmail.com