Poem of Kindergarten Encouragement & Inspiration

Dear  Rainbow Debbie and our Family of Friends who love and care for and teach our children,

One of my favorite (and I don't know the source, sorry) quotes is,

"The best way to send an idea is to wrap it up in a person."
 I could spend my lifetime writing about the incredible persons I
know who have given their lives to teaching, to children. Today
Deb, I want to write about Sylvia Ann Walton Jackson, who recently-
retired after decades of teaching at the Indianola Informal K-8
School in Columbus, Ohio. Many of those years were spent with
kindergartners , often in mixed groups like K-1 or K-2 .

Sylvia embodies the ideas of caring, kindness, gentleness, creativity
and fun. Marlene Robbins, a colleague of Sylvia's at Indianola for over
twenty five years, describes Sylvia as THE kindergarten teacher who
"sees the light in every child, who makes school a magic place to come to."

When Sylvia retired, she was filled with the passion of teaching, the
joy of the children, concern for the directions early childhood education
was steering, the admiration and appreciation of her fellow teachers
trying to keep the light and love in this stressful, test=driven time. Her
commitments to teaching and children took form in a collection of
deeply felt and thoughtful poems . Her collection is called, 
Discussion On School Reform - One Poem At A Time. 
The collection includes over one hundred poems for teachers, 
for families, for any person caring about our children and their education.

She gave me permission to share one of the poems with your
wonderful readers who are also the best ideas wrapped in themselves
and all they DO!

                                           Teacher Power

                                                      

                             You are a source of energy

Wind power                  

Solar power                    

Electrical  power                   

Teacher power.                    

You generate energy                   

Teach what you love and you will generate                    

Enthusiasm                    

Excitement                    

Intrigue                    

An atmosphere of discovery                    

You are the power                    

That drives                   

Interest                    

Teach who you are                    

Teach what you love                    

You generate energy                    

You turn on lights                    

And make brains work                     

    One of a hundred good messages in Sylvia Jackson's poems.
                         Keep the lights glowing! Love and Peace,

                                      Mimi Brodsky Chenfeld