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Educators Set
Sights on Early Childhood at Conference
Gongwer News Service, September 30, 2003
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The Governor's
Education Summit has been run by the Michigan Foundation for
Education Leadership for the past nine years to keep its
direction somewhat divorced from the governor's office. But in
her first event, Governor Jennifer Granholm was able not only to
take control of the agenda for the summit, but bring in a packed
crowd of teachers and administrators to hear that message.
The theme of the summit for this year was "Great Start-Great
Finish," with all of the speakers and most of the breakout
sessions concentrating on early childhood education, a theme
that Michigan Association of School Boards Executive Director
Justin King said was adopted at the behest of Ms. Granholm.
"The whole endeavor here is to get people to understand that
education does not begin at age 5; it begins at age 0," Ms.
Granholm said to strong applause. "We need to change the minds
and understanding of parents."
As part of that effort, Ms. Granholm unveiled new public service
announcements featuring her reading to children and explaining
the need for parents to do the same. And she said Meijer stores
had agreed to print some of the same information on their
grocery bags.
The goal, she said, is to get the message to as broad an
audience as possible. "We want new parents to run into
grandparents who say, 'Are you reading to your child 30 minutes
a day?'" she said. "We need to hit this from all directions if
we're going to create a movement."
One of the keys to improving parenting skills in literacy is the
new version of the READY kits. "You're given an assembly manual
when you get a bike, but not when you have a child. That's about
to change," she said.
The READY kits, established under former Governor John Engler
and former Superintendent of Public Instruction Art Ellis, have
been revamped to concentrate even more on early childhood
literacy and the parent's role in developing that. In addition
to a book and music appropriate for young children, the new kits
also include a new video by the I Am Your Child Foundation to
guide parents in reading to their children.
The state is providing 40,000 of the kits to hospitals around
the state and Ms. Granholm said she is also working in
communities to ensure home visits by nurses to those parents
receiving the kits to assist them in using the materials. State
Surgeon General KimberlyDawn Johnson has also sent letters to
all of the obstetricians and pediatricians in the state asking
them to ask new parents if they have received the kit and viewed
the video.
The videos also will be shown in the waiting room of all Women,
Infants and Children Program offices in the state, she said.
"It may not be a life or death matter, but it's certainly a
quality of life matter," Ms. Granholm said.
Rob Reiner, an actor, director and spokesperson for the I Am
Your Child Foundation, said in a video-taped statement to the
summit attendees that ensuring literacy and early childhood
education is not only in the best interests of the children.
"We're going to see lower crime rates and teen pregnancies and
drug use," Mr. Reiner said. "Plus, we'll have more productive
citizens entering the job market. This is truly the way we dig
ourselves out of the economic problems we face today."
Mr. Reiner had been scheduled to speak to the group, but had
cancelled because of other commitments.
Some of the impetus for reaching parents and young children is
now on the intermediate school districts under the program Ms.
Granholm created to provide funding for those programs. And she
noted to the administrators present that the applications for
those grants were due to the state Tuesday.
But she said it was not likely that the state would be able to
carry the costs of the programs alone. "If we can't find the
public dollars initially, perhaps the corporate and foundation
community can help us get on our feet," she said.
Ms. Granholm also committed the rest of her administration to
working toward improving early childhood education through the
Children's Action Network. The network brings together all of
the directors of departments that touch on children's lives as
well as private organizations that have an interest in
education.
"It's a recognition that educators have a job to do in the
classroom, but we in society have a job to do as well," she
said.
She said there are a variety of societal issues that affect
children's ability to learn that can be addressed by such
departments as Community Health and the Family Independence
Agency. But she said the Department of Corrections also is an
integral part of children's lives because many inmates are
parents who will eventually released and need to know how to
care for their children.
And sometimes dealing with non-educational issues helps to
improve learning, said Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom
Watkins. "Children don't come to school as their cute academic
selves," Mr. Watkins said. "They bring their hunger, their
families and their emotional issues."
Demographer Harold Hodgkinson with the Institute for Educational
Leadership of Washington told the group that it was essential to
begin addressing the problem now or current population trends
would make it worse. Statistics show that children from lower
economic groups start out behind those from higher income
families.
And he said recent trends showed those lower income families
having more children than the higher income families,
essentially increasing the percentage of children starting out
not ready for school.
He urged more standards for child care providers as well as more
information to parents.
Ms. Granholm said she has implemented a program to have "every
public employee who touches the life of a child" trained to
understand the need for and some methods of early childhood
education.
Mr. King said the task for conference attendees is to find ways
to spread the message in their own communities. "We're preaching
to the choir," he said of the summit attendees. "We've got to do
something."
SUMMIT ATTENDANCE: Despite the packed house, the ninth annual
event did not break any attendance records. But that was largely
the fault of the Lansing fire marshal. Michigan Association of
School Boards Executive Director Justin King said the fire
marshal had strictly limited the conference to 1,000 people in
the room provided at the Lansing Center, which left more than
300 people on waiting lists hoping for a seat.
"I think it was the spark the new governor has lit," he said of
the attendance and registration. "Some of it might have even
been a thank you (to the governor)."
The Lansing Center itself can house significantly more than
1,000 people for a conference, but Tuesday was the only day that
would work for both Ms. Granholm and Mr. Reiner. That was also
the day of another event at the facility that prevented the
summit from taking the entire ballroom area as it has in the
past to accommodate all of the attendees and sponsor booths.
Mr. King said the first summit was actually the best attended at
about 1,200 but that attendance had dropped over the past few
years.
CLASSROOM COMPUTERS: Though a number of school officials around
the state have raised concerns about the program to provide
laptop computers to all sixth graders, Ms. Granholm indicated
that was not the majority of sentiment.
"I have heard that people are very excited about it," she told
reporters at an impromptu press conference after her speech.
But she said the state is trying to accommodate some of the
concerns being raised. "We're trying to roll it out in a very
sensible way," she said.
Mr. King said some of the concerns being raised were local
control issues: districts would like to have more control over
how the money is used. "There are people who'd like to do
something else," he said.
The proposal will "help to bridge the digital divide", Ms.
Granholm said, but noted that it may not survive significant
budget cuts in the coming fiscal year, given budget shortfalls
that are putting all programs at risk of cuts.
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