As a Harmony parent, I have been closely following the accomplishments of my school and its sister schools. All I can say that they are doing a wonderful job.
These accomplishments have recently been crowned by the rankings of Newsweek and U.S. News. In both rankings, Harmony schools were placed in the top schools. In Newsweek‘s list, seven Harmony campuses made the list and four of them were among the Top 25 Transformative Schools throughout the nation. As for U.S. News, one Harmony campus received a gold medal, while two other campuses got silver and bronze.
These are all nice feats and as a parent I thank all the administrators and the teachers. But one person especially stands out amongst others: Dr. Soner Tarim.
I have always appreciated his dedication, but I had no idea about the extent of this dedication until I received a letter from a former Harmony parent. Here is the summary of that letter:
I know Dr. Tarim for many years. Actually, I call him Soner, because he is a close friend of mine. I was one of the parents of the first Harmony Campus on South Breaswood and Dr. Tarim was the principal of the very first Harmony and I vividly remember that he would stay up in the school until late hours like 10 or 11 p.m. I have never seen such a dedicated educator before. The school actually had teachers with the same mindset of dedication.
In those days, Dr. Tarim gave me his cell phone number and whenever I called him, he would answer for sure. He was not that type of guys who remained inaccessible at all times. That still is quite a luxury when I consider the superintendents of the school districts who live in their ivory towers. But Dr. Tarim has always been unique. His availability with the Harmony community still continues. People now talk about how Harmony Schools expanded into a 36-school network, but in my humble opinion, this expansion owes a lot to Dr. Tarim’s dedication and self-sacrifice. Thank you for your efforts, “Soner”.
It is tough to add something once you read the memories. A few weeks ago, a retired teacher from Texas was accusing Dr. Tarim of not speaking in public a lot. Never met with Dr. Tarim, she looked so pathetic in her accusations. Dr. Tarim is a person who speaks to the Harmony community in every occasion. Some parents would take what I mean here. I don’t think this retired teacher has ever worked with a principal like Dr. Tarim in her life.
Keep up the good work Dr. Tarim. I can see the days when more and more Harmony Schools would become the proud of Texas.
I don’t know why people want to put the Harmony school system down. My son has been attending the Harmony school of Ingenuity since they open three years ago and at that time it was truly a blessing to me. I live in Ft. Bend and the Schools my son is zone to attend are not up to part and the ft. Bend school district has done everything to keep parents like me that believe my son has the right to a good education, from getting one. It should not matter where I live in Ft. Bend.
Prior to Harmony, I had to lie on application, use friends address, phone number etc. in order to get my son the best public school education he is entitled too. I don’t have the worries of being caught anymore. Not only is my son getting a private school education at a public school cost, he’s getting so much more; he has an extended family.
My son is a part of their CRLP (College Readiness leadership program) and Science Olympus, he has mentors that actually care about him as a person and believe in him, and willing to go beyond to make sure he has every opportunity to be successful.
Ft. Bend county and Harris county school system can not give my son what he’s getting from the Harmony school system. None of these school systems are perfect; they all have flaws; however, I will remain faithful to Harmony because over the last three years they have shown me that they will remain faithful to my son.
April Daughtry
Concerned parent