Photos by Dawn Reaves
Pre-K Director builds community support for early education
Kathleen Hale is spending more time in Pre-K classrooms, as the coronavirus disrupts educators’ lives and leaves the program she oversees short-staffed. While it takes time away from her normal duties as the Director of Pre-K Programs for Fayetteville Public Schools, Hale does not mind one bit. “I love being in the classroom,” she said. “It’s my why. It’s why I get up in the morning... to see these children thriving and learning, and having experiences they otherwise would not normally have. It does my heart good.”
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She says there is nothing quite like watching a student light up after learning a new concept. “When they actually get it, it’s like magic,” she said. “You see their self-esteem grow, their vocabulary grows and then you see them learning pro-social skills and becoming helpers and leaders, and important members of their classroom family.” Hale has deep experience with the power of public schools. Growing up in the urban center of Baltimore in the 1960’s, she describes her homelife as ‘bleak,’ with an adverse childhood experience score of 9 out of 10.
