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Release date: April 11, 2005

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Charlemont woman receives Abigail Adams Eliot Award

Teresa Dailey is first recipient of new honor for outstanding service to young children

"I would like people to really understand how important [early childhood education] is,” says Teresa Dailey, the first recipient of the new Abigail Adams Eliot award. "Some people think, ‘Oh, they're young and it's not as important as some of the other grades.' But children at this age absorb a lot, and their youthful experiences can affect a lot of things that happen in the future.”

Abigail Adams Eliot (1892—1992), who established the nursery school movement in America, couldn't have said it better herself. Eliot believed that nursery school was not custodial care but a genuine education program, and her career reflected her interest in and respect for young children. It's a legacy that the Franklin County Collaboration for Children and the Education Department at Greenfield Community College are honoring with a new award in Eliot's name, established to recognize outstanding people in the early childhood education field.

They found the ideal candidate in Teresa Dailey, Lead Teacher at Parent Child Development Center in Greenfield. At the young age of 26, Dailey enriches the lives of preschool children every day and serves as a role model for future early childhood care professionals.

"I started out as a statistic,” says Dailey. "I was a teenage mother, a very young single mom, and I wanted to make sure that my own child had a normal life and the best of everything. I wanted to learn about her and learn the best way to teach and nurture her.”

She was working two jobs, at Kimball's Laundry and in the summer youth program at Greenfield Community College, where "a wonderful person named Herb Hentz” started talking to her about college and how important it was. She was 17. "I knew I needed an education if I was going to raise my daughter right,” recalls Dailey, "so I enrolled at GCC.”

She completed a one-year certificate program in emerging careers, and decided to go into early childhood education at GCC. It took her three years, working and going to school, to get her associate's degree. It was during that period that Dailey was hired by Parent Child Development Center as an assistant in one of their Head Start classrooms. With her associate's degree, Dailey moved up to teacher; in 2002, she was promoted again to Lead Teacher, a position in which she also supervises a teacher and an assistant teacher.

Dailey has already had the opportunity to change the lives of her young charges. "I had some families who had really hard struggles,” says Dailey, "and I worked closely with the families and helped get them in a better place. There's always kids that need a little more; they need someone telling them they're special. I know how much my kids mean to me and I want to be someone who can be that person for other kids, just in case they don't have someone.” That's what keeps her in the early childhood education field, because, as she notes, "it's not the money!”

Now Dailey is thinking about going back to school again, perhaps at UMass's University Without Walls, to pursue her bachelor's degree. "That would enable me to work in public schools some day if I chose to,” says Teresa. "I would probably minor in adolescent criminology, learning about the trouble that young kids can get into. I know from my own beginnings that youths may think they're in a desperate situation, but I want them to know they have the power to change their path and do the right things.”

"We were very impressed with her journey through the profession,” says Sharon Roth, Associate Professor of Education, and a member of the selection committee. "She began as a young, single Head Start mother, progressed through the various opportunities you get in Head Start, and pursued her associate's degree at GCC. Now she intends to go on for her bachelor's. We felt that that was a very important example of role-modeling for women who are thinking of this field as a possibility and maybe think they can't jump the hurdles confronting them.”

It's a role that comes naturally to Dailey. "I try to encourage the people around me, just by understanding their struggles and sharing my stories,” says Dailey. "I'm really close to all the people I work with, so I try to be there for them as much as possible. Things can get hard, but if you want something bad enough, you can do it.”

Above all, she never forgets the people who were there for her. "There were a lot of people around me who knew I would be successful even when I didn't,” says Dailey. "I'd really like those people to know how important they were to me, and I'd like everybody to know that it doesn't take a whole lot of people to help or support someone; it can be just one person.”