On RSEQ's 30-Year Retrospective

RSEQ at 30! It is difficult to believe Rural Special Education Quarterly has provided such a rich voice for so many people, on so many topics, and with such depth of feeling for all of this time! The vision of the National Rural Development Institute (NRDI), and an organization under NRDI's umbrella, the American Council on Rural Special Education (ACRES), grew out of the strong feeling of Doris Helge and a small band of colleagues from Murray State University in Kentucky and other rural places truly across the United States. At early ACRES' annual meetings, those in attendance were asked to write their definitions of rural on large pieces of newsprint, often found in restrooms near the meeting rooms, in whatever hotel the conference was held - usually not downtown, but slightly away, not wanting anyone to feel so attached to a city they might not want to return home! The definitions were at once serious and humorous depicting the great variability of rural across the nation! In this first of two volumes of die 30-year RSEQ retrospective, variability is preserved. Included are articles about ACRES founding, policy and advocacy, and innovation and preparation through the mid1990s, or the first half of the publishing history of RSEQ. The contributors who authored this work added to the rich history and tradition of rural education and special education that to this day has an impact upon special education and human services practices as we begin the second decade of the 21st century. The Executive Editor of RSEQ, Dr. Belva Collins of the University of Kentucky, has always provided a rightful centering to our advocacy for things rural being sure we focus on the challenges associated with rural living and rural schooling even while celebrating those aspects of rural life that may seem, at times, more idyllic. The articles, selected, ffien, celebrate, challenge, and should cause us to think on how to grow to be better, to search for ideals in what it is tfiat we do, and remind us that history and tradition are the foundations of who we are as a people and why we do what it is that we do - especially at a time when "things" become more complicated, at a time when many want quick solutions that might not be solutions at all. We live in a nation founded on unique and longlived democratic principles. In the twelfth edition of DeTocqueville's famous tome, Democracy in America (1840), he wrote precisely what it is we are experiencing in this present day in all we do as educators enhancing the dignity, ambitions, and lives we are compelled to serve and befriend: "... society is changing shape . . . mankind lives under changing conditions, and new destinies are impending ... it is daily passing beyond human control, and every event and every man (and woman) helps it along." As professionals and citizens, we have been shaping change and will continue to do so into the future. It was for this reason that Helge and her colleagues and friends began ACRES so there would be a collaborative of education and human service professionals, parents, policymakers, researchers, and friends so the change that is shaped is done for the betterment of all. …