That’s because science, as with any empirical endeavor, such as teaching or parenting, where the goal is to promote an exchange of ideas or influence specific behavior, comes almost always with two sides to every finding. Often, it is the very nature of disagreement or pursuit of an alternative that fuels the creativity and passion for discovery. A healthy difference of opinion is a positive sign that progress is being made.

However, there are some places where the facts are just too substantial, the trends too obvious, the results simply all too clear, as we are reminded every March 8th, on International Women’s Day.

I wish I could stop here and say I have always been a champion of this holiday, as it is observed throughout much of the world, but sadly to say — and I’d wager I’m not alone in this, especially amongst American men — before today I don’t recall ever even having heard of it. That may be because I live a shelled life according to my own principles, but more likely it’s due to the fact that we don’t do enough in this country to give voice to what is the indisputable reality: Women are not treated equally.

Either way, I’m not going to try and write myself into this courageous and remarkable history. For one hundred years women have been saying and writing and witnessing it better than I could ever attain in one quiet morning (or a thousand) at my keyboard. What I can offer though, through hope and example, as a citizen, and as a son and a husband and father, is that one day my daughters and every woman will not have to argue this side anymore. Now, that would be progress.

Please, for a much more moving message on this, watch this short video starring Judi Dench and Daniel Craig which appeared on UK Guardian.

We had always been on good terms with the elementary school and we both liked her teachers very much, as did Lia too. But neither of us were sure what reaction if any the administration might have in helping us manage her treatment. Franca is a high school teacher at the same school but on a different campus and knew firsthand of the process as well as the planning, preparation and partnership it would require of everyone, especially of Lia’s teachers. So the first thing we did was schedule a meeting with the school for the Friday before students returned.

To prepare for the session, Franca read through and followed precisely the suggestions outlined in the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation’s School Advisory Toolkit. This guide, which can be downloaded from the JDRF website, offers a great many details and tools for parents and educators to use in developing a collaborative and thoroughly detailed plan. The toolkit was invaluable and made it much easier for us to understand and share with the school Lia’s specific needs.

As we expected, her teachers and the principal greeted us at the meeting with compassion and promised us their diligence in attending to Lia’s wellness. We spoke about diabetes and the war it had raged inside her pancreas and we helped them understand what was required of Lia and those responsible for her to ensure she’s receiving the care necessary to keep her safe, be it food, access to the bathroom, frequent blood sugar monitoring or insulin. We went over her daily schedule and the times of the day she would need to check her blood sugar and what symptoms to be on the lookout for in the case her sugar levels rose too high or fell too low. We gave them contact numbers and instructed them in the use of glucagon kit. We showed them the supply kit Lia would be using at school. We talked about the letter we were sending home to her classmates’ parents informing them of her diagnosis and we asked to come talk to the students themselves about diabetes, to which the school agreed, as they did to everyone of our other requests, including the creation of Section 504 plan, specific to Lia, outlining in writing the modifications and accommodations the school would provide in regard to her medical disability.

There was much more still to understand and talk about but when we left the school an hour later I felt much more at ease. The principal and teachers had convinced us that we had an ally in them in fighting against this disease, and though their word was all we had, sometimes you just can’t ask for any more than that. Only the day and the weeks and months that follow will truly tell.

To find more information on the JDRF School Advisory Toolkit, click here.