Education. I don’t think a day passed in my home without my dad saying, “An education is the only thing they can’t take away from you.” This was the credo by which he lived and raised three children. There always was and still remains a reverence about education in our home.

This past week marked the 87th annual American Education Week, founded by the National Education Association. The week emphasizes the importance of “providing every child in America with a quality public education from kindergarten through college, and the need for everyone to do his or her part in making public schools great.”

Here is District 102, we are most fortunate to have a unique person as the head of our Education Association and someone who embodies the importance and enthusiasm for education: Melissa Mangan, first-grade teacher at Ogden Avenue School. Under the leadership of Mangan, the teachers have entered into a formal partnership with the administration of the district to ensure that a collaborative effort is in place for strategic planning for the classrooms. This liaison salutes our public schools and the relationships among teachers, students, parents, Board of Education members and administration. The Education Association is proof that the positive and supportive interactions among children, parents and teachers are the key to a child’s success in school.

For the week, students in District 102 participated in many activities: They celebrated their school by wearing school colors one day; they also celebrated in a unity builder exercise whereby they were invited with a buddy to say why they think their school is great.

“One of the most popular activities from last year was the day that teachers wore college sweatshirts to school,” Mangan said. “We wanted to demonstrate how important life-long learning is and talked about our experiences in college.”

The students stopped the teachers in the halls and made comments about the college attire — stating that their parent went to that school, they had watched the football game the previous weekend or had some other connection to the college. It turned out to be an interactive exercise among teachers and students even outside the classroom.

Additionally, one of the proudest moments for Mangan and other teachers in the elementary grades are the notes the fifth- and sixth-graders write to their former teachers to express their thanks, memories and their views.

“Some of the pieces that come out of the sixth grade are pieces of literature,” Mangan said. “One of our goals is to build a love for learning and it is so nice to see.”

The week really spotlights the positive things happening in our school district. Mangan said that in District 102, 90 percent of the students exceed the norms and she emphasizes how great that is at a time when many schools are not in the same place.

As Mangan summarizes, “Teaching is an art.”

We are indeed fortunate to have our children begin their educational careers with educators such as we have here in District 102.

Questions, comments, ideas? Please e-mail me at lifelgp@comcast.net.