As of 2024, a mere 9% of Milwaukee Public Schools 4th-graders are proficient in reading. Maya Smart, a journalist and literacy advocate, has made it her mission to give children the knowledge they might be missing out on.
Smart, author of “Reading for Our Lives: Why Early Literacy Matters and How to Achieve It,” spoke at the Marquette University Law School’s Lubar Center on Nov. 12. She talked about the necessity to equip parents and communities to prepare children to enter school.
Maya Payne Smart grew up in Akron, Ohio, before earning a bachelor’s degree in social sciences from Harvard University in 2002 and a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University in 2006.
Since marrying her husband, Shaka Smart, Marquette men’s basketball head coach, she has lived in nine different states. Now living in Milwaukee, she serves as affiliated faculty in Educational Policy and Leadership in Marquette’s College of Education.
When her daughter, Zora, was born over a decade ago, Smart became passionate about raising a reader and providing parents with practical tools to do the same. She believes in the power of caregivers and various community members to impact a child’s phonetic, oral, language and reading skills.
“I view it as my calling,” Smart said.
Though Smart doesn’t know if the reward will be seen for another decade, she is committed to her mission of empowering parents to provide “language nutrition” to kids, starting from birth.
“All the knowledge and content needed for kids to thrive can’t only be introduced in a school day,” Smart said. “We’re all responsible.”
Time spent introducing letters and phonetics to young children by talking and reading in the home sets them up to be proficient readers and understand more of their teachers’ instructions down the line, Smart said.
Children enter the classroom with different levels of knowledge because “parents are kids’ first teachers” who all teach their children differently, Smart said.
Smart hopes to teach literacy action plans to parents across the nation through her book — published in 2022 — conventions, workshops and website.
“Parents have to hear this message in surround sound,” she said.
Smart believes it doesn’t just end with caregivers, though.
After living in several states across the country, Smart noticed many communities don’t train teachers to teach reading to young children. Teachers aren’t prepared to modify their lesson plans to accommodate their entire classroom, she said.
Even though classmates are the same age, their knowledge can be “miles apart,” Helen Harris, retired MPS teacher and principal, told the Wire at the Lubar Center event.
“How does the teacher fill those gaps?” she asked.
Teachers having to meet the needs of multiple kids at once, Smart said, proves that prior exposure to “language nutrition” is essential for children to be successful and take advantage of their classroom experience.
Smart applauded Milwaukee, though, for implementing the Milwaukee Reading Coalition, which trains teachers and administrators on the “critical importance” of reading.
Although teachers don’t have control over how much students know before walking through the classroom door, they can learn practices to help students blossom as readers.
The best way to do that, Harris said, is to devote time to interacting with students before jumping into their own classroom.
“Teachers need practice with real kids,” Smart said.
Marquette University College of Education students already have the ball rolling. Through service learning, students have spent time tutoring children at local schools, with a focus on building reading-related skills.
“It was a dream program for some of our children who needed help with literacy,” Harris said of Marquette students tutoring at Milwaukee College Prep.
Just as future educators are learning tools to be effective teachers, Harris and Smart said current teachers must continuously adapt to the changing nature of education.
Teachers should be “trained well in the first place and supported over time,” Smart said.
Smart believes in the power of literacy and wants more kids to experience the strength and opportunities that come with reading proficiency.
This story was written by Elena Metinidis. She can be reached at [email protected].
