Friday Feature: Challenger School

Colleen HroncichThe late Barbara Baker left behind quite a  legacy. She was a first grade teacher in 1960 when she realized her incoming students were unprepared because her school district had dropped phonics. Despite being pregnant with her fifth child, Barbara quit teaching and started her own preschool in 1963. “I figured that if they learned phonic s in preschool, no one could take that away from them,” shesaid.That modest beginning —half of the students in the first class were family and friends—ultimately launchedChallenger School. Jeff Davis, whose own children attended Challenger, now serves as marketing strategist for the school. He says Barbara had a  huge waiting list the next year and couldn’t build fast enough to keep up with demand.“Barbara was a powerhouse,” according to Jeff. “She recognized that there was a window of opportunity with children that you really don’t get again. She had worked as a public school teacher and had been on the Moreland School Board in California. She’d done what she could to try and im prove things. But she realized these children’s opportunity was passing and the slowness of the bureaucracy didn’t satisfy her.”Because she wanted to focus on ensuring young children learned to read, Barbara stuck to preschool and kindergarten the first few years. But parents kept asking her to expand, so she did. She added elementary grades and opened new campuses. By the 1980s, Challenger School had added middle schoo...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs