FEATURED POST by Charlie Ivey

Now, that I’m retired, I’m often asked what did I do during my career.  I sometimes whimsically say that I “worked my way down to the TOP!”  

That is a cute way of explaining that I started my career a long, long time ago teaching and working with high school students.  After a few years, I was assigned as the principal of a junior high school, which transitioned to a middle school.  Even later, the new elementary school was built, and I was named its first principal.  During the twelve years I was there, we added a pre-K classroom to serve four-year olds. Finally retiring from the public school system after thirty five years, I accepted the position of Executive Director of the Partnership for Children which served and advocated for children from the time they were born until they started school.  So essentially, I DID work my way DOWN to the little ones.

As I worked my way “down” I discovered something very important.  Each level was intrinsically grounded upon the one before it, with each becoming more and more important.  So it went to reason, that the pre-school years – the first years of a child’s life – are the most important educationally.  I learned to appreciate this fact as I worked with parents and professionals who worked with the younger children of this age.  They instill not only the “basics,” but a love of learning (and especially, reading!) in the children.  From this foundation, all other learning and development takes place. The simple act of reading to a child everyday not only models the “how-to” but the necessity and affinity of doing so. It is a skill that NEVER leaves a student and one that benefits children throughout their lives.

Never let it be said that it’s too late to learn – or to read.  This vital skill serves the sixty-year-old, just as it does the preschooler or the elementary and high school student.  That is why Literacy Connections is just as important as the Partnership for Children.  They both develop the skills that impact individual learners as well as society at large.  One of the most moving videos I’ve ever seen was the sharing of a book by two beginning readers – one, a toddler, the other a grandparent, enjoying reading the first time of his life.

I loved my career.  Working with all age levels gave me a perspective few rarely share.  But what I learned from all those forty-plus years was this..... the earlier we work with learners, the most beneficial, the most effective, and the cheapest it is!  It truly is the TOP!