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Community Cultivators

Just as Early Learning Nation showcases the ways families, researchers and grassroots nonprofits and organizations are building an early learning nation—one community at a time—our Community Cultivators series highlights how innovators across all sectors build and sustain global communities from the ground up. We hope the series inspires your own early childhood work.

First and Goal: How Malcolm Mitchell Unleashes the Potential of Early Literacy

Mark Swartz·November 4, 2021·5 min read

“Some of this stuff doesn't even make sense,” marvels Malcolm Mitchell, children’s author and executive director of the Share the Magic Foundation. “I'm actually sometimes taken aback by it, because I don't really know how it all transpired. Talking through it kind of helps.”

For Families and Children, a Champion for Democracy and “Constructive Disagreements”

Mark Swartz·November 2, 2022·6 min read

Here are five principles Dutta-Gupta keeps in mind while leading an anti-poverty organization dedicated to ensuring that policies, programs and practices advance racial equity.

Funny Strange or Funny Ha-Ha? For Teacher of the Year Tabatha Rosproy, It’s Both

Mark Swartz·August 19, 2020·4 min read

“People keep apologizing to me,” Tabatha Rosproy says with a nervous laugh. She knows what they mean, but she can’t...

Going Big for Our Youngest with Jim Steyer

The Founder of Common Sense Media and Wide Open School

Mark Swartz·July 15, 2020·5 min read

Just as Early Learning Nation showcases the ways families, researchers and grassroots nonprofits and organizations are building an early learning...

Good and Good for You: Ellie Krieger’s 5 Food Tips for Children and Families

Mark Swartz·September 3, 2021·5 min read

It all started with a spanakopita. Ellie Krieger was about eight years old, and her mother and aunt took her...

Gordon Hartman’s Ultra-Accessible™ Ambitions

Mark Swartz·June 14, 2022·6 min read

Named for his daughter, the first “Ultra-Accessible™” theme park in the world, and other fully inclusive ventures, offers experiences for everybody.

Henry Louis Gates, Jr.: A Child Of Television Explores History – Personal, American and Global – to Illuminate Ancestry, Cultural Influences and Social Justice

Mark Swartz·February 15, 2021·6 min read

Just as Early Learning Nation showcases the ways families, researchers and grassroots nonprofits and organizations are building an early learning...

Jessica Meir’s Five Rules for Being a Good Earthling

One Half of the World’s First All-Female Space Walking Duo Returns to Solid Ground

Mark Swartz·October 13, 2020·4 min read

During her 205 days on the International Space Station, astronaut Jessica Meir had a little green friend. It wasn’t a Martian, it was mizuna lettuce that she tended as part of an experiment. “There was definitely a psychological component of having something green we could take care of,” she says. “We also got to eat it.”

Ken Burns: Committing to Complexity

Nothing against TikTok, but the documentarian still believes in sustained attention

Mark Swartz·March 13, 2020·4 min read

If you add it all up, Ken Burns and PBS have broadcast over 200 hours of documentary films. It might...

Kyle Zimmer Builds Community of Educators on Frontlines of Economic and Educational Justice

Mark Swartz·October 29, 2019·9 min read

In the late 1980s, as Washington, D.C., endured the crack era, Kyle Zimmer felt compelled to do something to help...