Press Release                                             June 1-3, 2005

Baku, Republic of Azerbaijan

Russia's neighbor, on the Caspian Sea 

Linda Lee Ratto, Ed.M. was a keynote speaker at the first annual “Integration of Children with Disabilities” Conference sponsored by World Vision and the Center for Innovation in Education.  Mrs. Ratto was also honored at a booksigning and reception at the US Ambassador Reno Harnish and his wife Leslie’s home in Baku.  In addition, hundreds of teachers from across Azerbaijan attended Mrs. Ratto’s workshop on how best to utilize the story and messages in her children’s chapter storybook: WHERE DREAMS COME TRUE, ages 7-12 years. 

“Teaching 300 post-soviet teachers how to participate in a workshop was a new challenge for me.  I have keynoted in countries with translators before, but the Azerbaijani post-soviet citizens are highly intelligent and unique.  They have been raised not to think independently, nor with a great deal of creativity. Comprehending the participatory aspect of a workshop, rather than the customary attending of a lecture, was the first growth spot for the teachers and me! Fourteen Azeri teachers were asked to lead small groups of 10-20, reading aloud the first few pages of WHERE DREAMS COME TRUE’s fourteen chapters. Next I asked them to collaborate by doing one of the numerous activities provided in the Azeri translation of my teacher guide.  Finally, a leader from each of the groups was to come on stage and summarize -- in a couple of sentences-- their chapter and speak about their activity. This is where their past soviet training was a hindrance – all but two teachers simply retold the chapter at length. No one had time to talk about the activities associated provided for each chapter because they repeatedly, one-by-one, just retold the chapter.  Nonetheless, we ended the two hour workshop well, with all of the teachers deeply knowing the story WHERE DREAMS COME TRUE and having done select activities. They are prepared for teaching the book in August when they will begin school year 2005-06, even though the workshop format was new to them.”

Educator, former principal, CEO, and author Ratto also appeared on national television with three high school English students who readWHERE DREAMS COME TRUE in English with their English teacher,Elmira.  The hour long TV discussion centered around the challenges of integration and also the three students’ impressions of the book. Though WHERE DREAMS COME TRUE is a younger read, the three students, age 15-16 thought the book brought home deep understanding of the need to allow children of all abilities to attend school throughout Azerbaijan.  (In this country all children with disabilities are placed in institutions or stay at home with little or no education provided.)  Mrs. Leslie Harnish, who serves as the Children’s Program Director for World Vision and is the US Ambassador’s wife, joined in the television show and shared the Education Conference’s success stories of the first year of “Integrating Children with Disabilities.”

 

The week-long education conference and book tour took Mrs. Ratto to a school for children with severe disabilities and a private meeting with Mrs. Mehriban Aliyeva, MD the President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation and the Azerbaijani President’s wife. After numerous booksignings, meeting dozens of ambassadors, directors of oil companies (the largest oil pipeline in the world opened on the Caspian Sea in Baku in May 2005), and heads of state, Mrs. Ratto and her husband of thirty years David traveled to Newcastle, England to meet with the co-author of another of her books.

 

For more information and search inside Mrs. Ratto’s books please go to:

 

Linda Lee Ratto's Author pages