The EdUCater Team Insights
Connecting with MO Educators to Ensure All Students Thrive As Literate Digital Age Citizens!
A Post from Carla Nieman, Founder of The EdUCater Team When I started The EdUCater Team in 1998, I was driven by a strong sense of purpose: I wanted to support teachers and help students thrive as literate, digital-age citizens. I believed then, as I do now, that working together, Missouri teachers and The EdUCater Team can change the lives of children for the better. My passion for education originates from an unlikely source—a woman who made a difference in my mother’s life, one that would finally break the cycle of generational poverty: Eleanor Roosevelt. Eleanor Roosevelt’s visit to my mom’s “school” during the Great Depression changed not only my mom’s life but also the trajectory of mine. Let me back up. My mother, Patty Zirkle, was born to a generationally poor 15-year-old in the Ozark Mountains during the Great Depression. Her father, a miner, spent all day underground. Opportunities didn’t abound in the hollers, but like many Midwesterners, my grandparents were hard-scrabble and willing to work tirelessly to provide for their families. Eventually, though, my grandparents uprooted their family to seek better-paying jobs, leaving behind their close-knit and supportive community in the Ozarks. When WWII began, they joined thousands of other migratory workers looking for employment in factories and shipyards across the Midwest and Pacific Northwest. Like Rosie the Riveter, my grandmother joined my grandfather in becoming a welder. With both of her parents working in the shipyards, my mother became one of many very young children in need of attention, nourishment, and engagement. Many of these children lacked extended family support systems and were in danger of neglect. The communities surrounding the shipyards created what they called “schools” to look after these children, though they offered little in the way of education. Similar to others with backgrounds of poverty and trauma, my mother wasn’t one to bring attention to herself or her upbringing. So, many years later, when she offhandedly mentioned “a very important lady in a very fancy hat” who came to visit her classroom when she was young, I was curious. The “important lady,” it turned out, was Eleanor Roosevelt. She had come to the childcare center to better understand the shipyard families’ migration and education needs—or, as the teacher put it to my mom, because “You are all so important.” My mom recalled it was the first time she felt important. She carried this feeling with her the rest of her life, even though, with typical Midwestern humility, she didn't think the story unique or noteworthy. My mother grew up to become a teacher and taught at many levels, including middle school and college. She also made sure there were plenty of books in our home, that we talked about what we read, and that we understood the importance of working hard. She grasped the power of education to alter and improve my future. This history and lineage are my WHY.Eleanor Roosevelt was one of a long line of policymakers and educators whose work impacted my mom’s life for the better and forever altered the trajectory of our family.
That trajectory includes my lifelong commitment to helping teachers like my mom. Since 1998, I’ve been helping educators find the resources they need to effectively and inspirationally develop readers and writers in Missouri classrooms. Children need to feel seen. When kids are successful in school and believe they’re smart and important, lives and generational cycles can change. Educators, policymakers, and even book publishers all play a role in this equation. Our democracy depends upon it. Like the “very important lady” whose visit had such an impact on my mother, I strive to support Missouri educators so that together we can help empower our state’s children.
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