Parents' Corner: When the Student is Ready, The Teacher Will Come
By Evelyn Hardesty, Parent
From the Spring 2003 Newsletter

My six-year-old Joanna has decided she wants to learn to read. I wondered how learning to read would work, however, without anyone teaching her, since there is no reading class for her to attend at DVS. I have helped her learn the alphabet, and other students and staff members at school will read with her or listen to her read stories, but the number one person in charge of her learning to read is Joanna herself.

I want to provide an example of her dogged determination to learn how the read. At home, I often have to sit through what I call the extended long play version of The Cat in the Hat, full of stretched out words like “c-c-cold“ or “sh-sh-should“. One night, I was too impatient to sit through it, so I got up midway through the story.

When I came back a little while later, I found Joanna steadfast in her determination to finish working on her reading. She had her rat, Emily, on her lap, and was reading out loud to her. I was reminded of the expression, “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.“ What I saw that evening was a young person with enough serious desire to learn that she had become her own teacher. No need for credentialed professionals or even human beings to share in her learning experience!

Diablo Valley School admits students of any race, color, sex, sexual orientation, national or ethnic origin to all rights and privileges, programs and activities generally accorded or made available to students and staff at the school. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, sex, sexual orientation, national or ethnic origin in administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship and loan program, and athletic and other school administered programs.

Our school has enrolled students from: Antioch, Berkeley, Clayton, Concord, Danville, El Cerrito, Lafayette, Livermore, Martinez, Oakland, Oakley, Pittsburg, Pleasant Hill, San Francisco, San Leandro, Vallejo, Walnut Creek and other communities in the Bay Area.