Once shy about being in a public role, Haslam said she now enjoys using her position to promote early education and the importance of parental involvement, according to The Tennessean.
“I really look at this role as an opportunity to serve,” Haslam said. “I have a voice, and I want to use it in the best way I can. I started looking at the dropout rate (for high school students), and what I learned is that they were probably behind and had been behind – some as far back as the third grade.”
It is a time in a child’s education that is usually the most critical, she said.
“You learn to read in the third grade and then you read to learn, so you have to be on grade level,” Haslam said. “I learned that 46 percent of third-graders are proficient in reading and more than half are getting behind.”
Haslam said Sumner County fares a little better than the state average with 54 percent of all third graders on grade level in reading, but that still means that 46 percent are not, she said.
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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee First Lady Crissy Haslam is teaming up with Grover, the loveable Muppet from Sesame Street, and United HealthCare to teach kids the benefits of eating healthy and getting in shape while helping them learn to love reading.
The First Lady will meet with a group of kindergartners and pre-K students at Buena Vista Enhanced Option School in Nashville on Tuesday and read to the children Sesame Street’s book “Food for Thought: Eating Well on a Budget.” The event will combine the First Lady’s mission of helping kids to be better readers and Sesame Street’s efforts to teach kids about nutritious eating. Haslam will read to the children before they engage in an interactive session on healthy food.
Tennessee is said to have an obesity rate of 30 percent.