Florida Kindergarten Conference

As a lifelong journalist and as a regular reader of history and biographies, I know that the best stories in human history are about those individuals who made a difference in the lives of others. But I do not use “famous” people to make the point. Instead, I ask you, each of you, cannot you remember the best teachers in your life? Can not everyone?

Sixty-one years ago I was in first grade at Sandy Creek Central School in the snowbelt of upstate New York. Mrs. Soule was my teacher. (As far as I know, I say with a smile, she didn’t have a first name! Teachers of that era, in my memory, were only known by their last names preceded by Miss or Mrs.; I had no men teachers.) In any event, beyond members of my own family, I can remember no one else – no one – from that time. Mrs. Soule made that much difference in my life. Just think again of those who will remember each of you.

In a way, I am an educator myself…but one without the extraordinary skills you have learned in college and sharpened in the classroom. You have before you one of nine children who grew up on a farm. That farm went broke, which is how we came to move to Florida. In those times young women who wanted to go to college were not generally contemplating such professions as law or medicine but, much more likely, nursing or social work or teaching – especially teaching. All six of my sisters became teachers. Their lives and work have blessed so many children, just as you have.

If you come to my office in Miami, you will see a large framed quotation from Robert Fulghum, who almost a quarter-century ago wrote a book called “All I Really Need to Know, I Learned in Kindergarten.”

And while I know most of you have heard these quotations, they are worth our hearing them again:

“Most of what I really need to know about how to live and what to do and how to be I learned in kindergarten,” the author wrote. “These are the things I learned: Share everything. Play fair. Don't hit people. Put things back where you found them. Clean up your own mess. Don't take things that aren't yours. Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody. Wash your hands before you eat. Flush.”

And then a bit later on, he writes: “Think what a better world it would be if we all -- the whole world -- had cookies and milk about three o'clock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankies for a nap. Or if all governments had as a basic policy to always put things back where they found them and to clean up their own mess. And it is true, no matter how old you are, when you go out into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.”

Those quotes and those lessons underscore for me how vital your work is. I admire you all so much. That’s my most important message today.

This noontime you have before you someone who didn’t go to kindergarten. When I was growing up, there just wasn’t any kindergarten in the place where I lived. So first grade became my “kindergarten.” If any of you go back to “Dick and Jane,” then you are in my era.

The theme of your conference is one that resonates with me – that is, a focus on individuality…on preserving childhood…on letting children be themselves while learning and growing. You know the imperative of joy in learning. You know that a child’s growth is not only cognitive and physical, but also social and emotional – and, yes, spiritual. You care deeply about quality, and know that only real quality leads to real learning. You are, in brief, my sort of people. The future of our communities and our country is blessed by your caring work.

Now, one more quotation that helps to make the point about the child as an individual and the child who needs to play, and who learns so much from that play. It's from a recent New York Times column by Alison Gopnik, the author of "The Philosophical Baby." She writes here about "the learning that babies and young children do on their own."

"Babies," she writes, "can learn a great deal just by exploring the ways bowls fit together or by imitating a parent talking on the phone.... (W)hat children observe most closely, explore most obsessively and imagine most vividly are the children around them. There are no perfect toys; there is no magic formula. Parents and other caregivers teach young children by paying attention and interacting with them naturally and, most of all, by just allowing them to play."

Then there is the power of imagination and creativity, Like me, no doubt, you read frequently about, and worry about, how competitive we will be in this global economy vis-à-vis, say, China or India. The former country produces eight times as many engineers annually as we do. But even to this day, there is something almost uniquely different about American ingenuity, creativity and imagination. It is a powerful driver of human progress. Creativity and its cousins are produced, in their earliest stages, through “play,” and therefore directly linked to your work and your devotion. The writer Daniel Pink’s book, “A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future,” speaks to the power of play. Only an education ethos that emphasizes individuality, play, imagination and creativity can continue to produce a plethora of Thomas Edisons and Bill Gateses.

Your emphasis on the individual child and your emphasis on play make so much sense to me. The research bears you out. Here’s a quotation from an Alliance for Children study called “Crisis in the Kindergarten: Why Children Need to Play in School”:

“Young children work hard at play. They invent scenes and stories, solve problems, and negotiate their way through social roadblocks. They know what they want to do and work diligently to do it. Because their motivation comes from within, they learn the powerful lesson of pursuing their own ideas to a successful conclusion. Research shows that children who engage in complex forms of socio-dramatic play have greater language skills than non-players, better social skills, more empathy, more imagination, and more of the subtle capacity to know what others mean. They are less aggressive and show more self-control and higher levels of thinking. “

Then I go to another study, this one the Hoboken Curriculum Project, and read these words:

“Our findings indicated that a developmentally appropriate curriculum with a strong emphasis on play can enhance learning and development so as to improve both the social and academic success of young children.”

And just one more academic source, this from a recent issue of the Harvard Education letter:

“Teachers in pre-K-third grade increasingly focus on a narrow range of literacy and math skills, with studies showing some kindergarteners spend up to six times as much time on those topics and on testing and test prep than they do in free play or ‘choice time.’ Many schools have eliminated recess or physical education, depriving children of their need to move and develop their bodies. Instruction is often focused on ‘scripted’ curricula, giving teachers little opportunity to create lessons in response to students’ interests.”

It quotes a position statement this year from the National Association for the Education of Young Children urging “educators to incorporate play into daily instruction, devise classroom tasks that are challenging yet attainable, and become attuned to the needs of each student so that materials can be adapted to a child’s individual needs.”

Now isn’t this what your work is all about?

Surely it is. And the evidence is clear.

I see it so many places.

For instance, I see it in Mary Prather, age 6, of Tallahassee. She just entered first grade at Trinity Catholic. Loves to play. Loves to read. (She is, not incidentally, a beautiful granddaughter. Trust me -- I am her grandfather.)

Beginning with her earliest months, Mary benefited so much from parents who read with her, talked with her, sung with her, held her. They know, as do you and I, that a caring parent is a teacher's best ally. Jennifer and Walter Prather know it is the parents' first responsibility to make sure Mary has a loving, caring, play-filled childhood as a springboard to a lifetime of success.

Tonight, as every night, Mary will go upstairs to her room and read before she goes to sleep. For several years Mary took books to bed and pretended to read. Now she really reads -- "Amelia Bedelia" or "Henry and Mudge," for two examples. Mary doesn't yet know all the words, but she just loves to try.

I can remember Jennifer in her early years doing the same. And I remember my own childhood (including reading books under the covers by way of a flashlight.) I just loved books. Still do. I read at least a book every week -- usually histories or a biography or a piece of good fiction.

For me it all started more than six decades ago with parents and teachers who instilled in me a love of learning and reading. My first book? I think it was "The Little Engine That Could."

The consequences of missing the quality basics of the early childhood years are enormous. You have heard the research -- one particularly important item being this: If a hundred children leave first grade not really knowing how to read, 88 of those 100 will be at best mediocre readers at the end of fourth grade.

This noontime you have before you an idealistic, optimistic sort. Life turns out to be short, and we are only given a brief time to make a difference. I dream that all children have a chance for a great start in life. My compass, like yours, is moral…but today I focus on the practical. “For these are all our children,” wrote the author James Baldwin. “We will profit by, or pay for, whatever they become.” Or, to quote the famous child psychiatrist Dr. Karl Menninger: “What we do to children, they will do to society.”

You do not have an “expert” speaking with you today, but rather someone who came to a full awakening of the opportunity of investment in early learning after a 35-year career at seven newspapers as reporter, editor or publisher -- someone who liked his work so much I didn’t miss one day of work in 35 years. (That, of course, is also the mark of a significantly driven, even perhaps obsessive human being!) In all those years I had a wonderful opportunity to make a difference in people’s lives, and the chance to meet and write about some very interesting people – ranging from Fidel Castro to Bill Clinton, from Pope John Paul II to the Queen of England.

Not that many few years ago, I knew almost nothing about the matters of which I speak this noontime. Back in 1996 when I was still a newspaper publisher, Lawton Chiles governor of Florida asked me to be a citizen member of the Governor’s Commission on Education – a two-year effort to look at the future of education in the 21st century. Though I am the father of five, and though my children were raised by what I have since learned were early education principles, I had no idea that there were “principles” of high-quality early development, care and education. What I came to learn made me realize the very future of my community and my country depends on what we are talking about today. That’s why a decade ago I decided to “retire” and devote most of my energies “retired” a decade ago to this topic.

It is not as though the only learning years of one’s life are to be found in the earliest years – people do learn all their lives -- but rather that there are windows wide open during those early years, and never again will so many windows be open quite so wide. These years are clearly the time to invest in quality basics, remembering that only quality leads to real and positive outcomes for children. The research tells us that if ever we were to invest a dollar wisely in the years before birth to age 5, we would have a return on investment of at least seven dollars that wouldn’t need to be spent on police, prosecution and prison.

Over the years since my so-called “retirement,” I have come to believe the tragedy of early childhood unpreparedness is preventable. Have come to believe that we must, community by community, build a movement for everyone’s child -- poor, rich and in-between. Believe that a movement for everyone’s child is basic American fairness. The poor need more help, of course, but the way to help them the most is to help everyone. Building a movement is never about those children, but always about our children. The American dream embraces all children because all children need all the basics. This is not the makings of a “nanny state,” but rather strategic wisdom and basic fairness.

So how might that be translated into the real world that you and I live in? Here are two quick examples of “building a movement”:

No. 1: You and I live in a state not well known for investment in education. But, in fact, we did pass a constitutional amendment for “universal prekindergarten” in Florida because we made the case that this was about everyone’s child. This year 159,000 Florida 4 year olds are sitting in free-to-every-family pre-K seats. That constitutional amendment (still with much to fix to make it the “high quality” education that people voted for) would never have passed had we targeted only some children, regardless of how needy. But when Floridians saw it was about fairness and the future for everyone’s family, they passed it overwhelmingly.

No. 2: Here’s a second example of the thinking-about-everyone approach: Our state has a law that lets voters in counties decide if they want to raise their property taxes to provide a dedicated funding source for children. My own community first tried to do this back in 1988. Good people led the campaign, arguing that the community ought to help the most needy. It failed, 2-1. In 2002, it was back on the ballot. This time we made the case that this would be about everyone’s child, while certainly acknowledging and understanding the obvious: That is, some children and families do need and should receive more help. We passed it, 2-1. This year we will spend more than $100 million on early intervention and prevention, costing the owner of a median-assessed-value home $57.93 a year, and administered by an independent board (called The Children’s Trust). For just one example, of many more, I note that just three school years ago we had only 19 nurses and 24 health clinics in our public school system. Today we have health teams in 135 schools. That means fewer absences from school, improved academic performance, a decreased dropout rate, children treated quickly, and a parent being able to stay at work (and, hence, increased productivity). Or I could tell you about the millions we are investing in higher-quality, brain-stimulating child care and still more millions for programs for children with special needs. All this, and much more, can happen when the community’s vision embraces all children.

But I have more recent, and even better, news: Back in 2002 we promised voters that we would sunset The Children’s Trust after five years of operation, and they could decide in 2008 if they wanted it to continue on…and on…and on. Remember that I live in a community that is a poster child for the housing crisis in this country…a community facing not only hurricanes, but stressed, as you are, about the economy. It would be awfully easy to vote against any taxes – and, make no mistake about it, The Children’s Trust is a tax.

But here’s what did – and can – happen: A little more than a year ago, the people of Miami-Dade voted to reauthorize The Children’s Trust in perpetuity – with an 85.4 percent favorable margin! It is proof positive of what can be done – if we have the vision and the will.

But that is not all we are doing. We have increased the number of higher-quality child care sites from 17 to more than 350…developed the best local early childhood website in the country, plus 24-hour phone lines for parents…deliver high-quality parent skill-building information plus babies’ first book to the parents of every child born each year…distribute more than 40,000 parent skill-building newsletters each month – and everything we do is in three languages.

The case I make this noontime is in the self-interest of the people of Florida. Because our state is so special for so many, it might be too easy to overlook the pain and the poverty in which some of our neighbors live every day. For the general community to ignore any pain within our midst ultimately imperils the whole community. All of us want a community where people feel safe, where people have a chance for a wonderful education and to enjoy a bright future. Our state has its best chance for its brightest future when everyone has a real chance to succeed.

You – and parents – have the power to help all children succeed. Such power is transformative when we do it together. All children deserve a real chance to become contributing adults. I believe in what you can do and, most of all, what you will do.

I’d like to close with a small story to remind us that we have known for a very long time what we must do for our children. So I go back eight centuries to the wisdom of one of England’s greatest kings, Henry II. His obsequious attendants told him frequently that the very realm depended on him. One day he could take this line no more, and reminded them that “in my kingdom there is a town, and in the town there is a street, and on the street there is a house. In the house is a cradle with a child in it.” And on that child, Henry would say, all else depends. And so it is, and always will be.

So it is today where we live. Thank you, and God bless every one of you for making a difference in so many lives, so many futures.