Because I had an educated mother who stayed home with me

One of the great gifts of my life is an educated mother. Lucky for me, even though my mother has a college degree, she chose — with my father’s support — to be home throughout my childhood.

It may seem a small thing, but there is something that happens in those early years of rapid development as young minds are exploring and beginning to understand the world. It's a stage of connecting, of first perceptions, of significant brain development. It's a time when nurturing and a sense of security create a strong foundation for future learning. If a sense of security is developed, one doesn't have to fight so hard to make life good. It just is.

It recently hit me that this is part of our magic in Utah.

No wonder it’s commonly stated that Utah’s education system has performed better than would be expected for its level of funding (Utah Foundation 2010). We have had a relatively high percentage of mothers at home who send children to kindergarten knowing the alphabet, reading, recognizing numbers, having some appetite for learning and with the benefit of a supportive home environment. Such children start life on the fast track.

It’s disheartening to see a child who starts kindergarten and is surprised the first day when the teacher holds up a card with some strange figure on it, and asks, “Class, what is this?” A child next to him (probably me) shouts out, “A!” and the child thinks, “How did she know that?” After the pattern has been repeated a few times with e, i, o, and u, this child is thinking, “Wow, she’s smart. How come I didn’t know that?”

Many accept the explanation that somehow they’re not as smart, maybe even dumb. When, in reality, it may just be that I had a mother who taught me, and she could because she had lots of time at home with me. Somehow that sets the course for much of our respective school experiences.

So, why did my mother teach me to read when I was small? It wasn't just about the economic value of the skill, though that has been helpful. She and my father both loved learning.

It’s hard not to pick up an interest in learning when you’re a child in such a home. It’s just simply part of your everyday life. But I suppose if my mother had been at work, I might not have picked up her ways. I would have seen her when it was time for dinner and time to be tucked into bed. She probably would have read me a book, but she would have been tired, and we might not have had the conversations we had throughout the day that shaped my world.