Audrey

Audrey is just 37 days old. On day 3, when it was time to go home from the hospital, Audrey could track her mother's voice. Basic survival skill, I know, but when such a tiny baby turns her head to make eye contact with her mom - that's got to be the closest thing to pure love that I've ever seen. Let's hope all babies go home with that.

That connection forged-from the very beginning- between mother and baby is the starting gate for her education. Words are an essential part of that bond. The more words, the more complex and varied the thoughts. How can you think without words?

The problem is that children don't all come to Kindergarten with the same arsenal of words. Some come unpracticed in basic thinking - because they don't have the words with which to think. Some have never been read to or taught to hold a pencil. The potential of these little vessels is massive. The problem has everything to do with who's pouring.

It's not that these children are not loved. We'd be in a lot worse shape if they came to school unloved. But they need books - and hundreds of thousands of words - and someone to sit down and read with them, talk with them, and help them coax meaning out of the pictures and words.


Dolly Parton is one of my heroes. The mission of her organization, "Imagination Library" is to get age appropriate, new books into the hands of children every single month from birth until they turn 5, regardless of their family's income. (http://www.imaginationlibrary.com) I like Dolly's voice, I like her smile, I like her style, but mostly I like how she focuses her star power to get kids the tools they need to think.

Parents are a child's first and most important teachers. If we want to insure health & prosperity and the very future of our country, we'd better make sure the books and words are there from the very beginning of a child's life.

It's all been said before. Why is something so obvious shoved off the table? Does public education have so little credulity? Why is education NOT a priority?

My cat doesn't generally exhibit much foresight, but she gets pretty concerned if I don't fill her bowl - long before that bowl is empty - and starts complaining about it long and loud. Maybe our leaders are more like her than not - they certainly appear to have the wherewithal to predict the dire consequences of a short sited education system, but as long as their bowls, and their constituents bowls, are full it's not really something to worry about.