Marie’s Musings – Thoughts on education, publishing, and other intellectual titillations

by Marie Brown, Consulting Editorial Project Director

Marie Who, you’re probably thinking.  So, allow me to introduce myself.  My full name is Marie Brown, and beginning this month I’ll be writing a monthly blog devoted to education and educational publishing for Westchester Publishing Services, K-12 division.

Why me, you might ask? Read on to find out.

I have devoted my entire professional life to education and educational publishing. The inspiration for this lifelong commitment was sparked in my sophomore year in college and kindled throughout the rest of my undergraduate and graduate years of study, and continued during my four years as a classroom teacher, with a fifth year as a Department of Defense teacher at an Air Force base in Germany.

Upon returning from Germany, having a teacher’s soul and not a scintilla of business acumen, I took the giant leap into educational publishing development—founding a little company, Brown Publishing Network. I knew nothing of 5-year plans or business models, but I did know how to teach students through sound and motivating instructional materials. One project led to another—one client led to another–one year followed another.  At the end of the first eight years, my little company had taken over all the available office space in the building, had an in-house staff of 70, and a freelance cadre of more than 300 writers, editors, designers, and production specialists. Have you heard enough?  Okay, here’s just a little more. From 2003 through 2008 Brown Publishing Network was named as one of the Top 100 Women-led businesses in Massachusetts by Babson College. And in 2009, I was honored by my alma mater, St. John’s University with the Distinguished Leadership in Education Award. Now, that’s more than enough tooting of my own horn.

After 27 years, I sold BPN in 2013 and tested retirement.  I failed that test and decided to jump back into the ever-challenging, but supremely gratifying world of educational publishing.  Why did I choose to connect with Westchester Publishing Services?  Of all the companies I’ve encountered over the years, WPS most closely aligns with my own core values and goals for working in educational publishing. It has the highest standards of excellence and quality that I have been and will always be committed to. And they are nice people! I am thoroughly enjoying the experience and feel energized to be once again involved in the important work of educating children. After BPN, WPS is my favorite ed pub company!

So let me tell you a little more about the blog. “Marie’s Musings” will include items in both education and educational publishing and other items that I think might titillate you intellectually. It will cover trends, news, up- and coming-events, two-sided debates, statistics, and so on. It will usually end with a provocative Quote of the Month.

I will be honest, frank, opinionated (forewarned by: !BIAS ALERT!), and hopefully informative. Educational publishing is not usually associated with “fun”, but I hope we can have some fun while addressing serious matters at the same time.

So, as promised:  Quote of the Month –(!BIAS ALERT!)

As my 4-year old great-niece, Rosa, was getting ready for her father to read her a bedtime story, she said, “Wait, Daddy, we have to smell the pages first!”