Tishua Franklin is the Swiss Army knife of early education experts.
In addition to teaching full-time kindergarten at the Mark Twain Scholars School in southwest Detroit, Franklin is also the CEO of Purpose Education and Purpose Graduate School, which opened in 2022. We are a small private daycare/kindergarten located in Detroit. Polite discipline, reading, writing, gardening, karate and general kindergarten preparation. (During a recent stop at the school, Franklin was spotted dancing to the song “Baby Shark” with students ages 2 to 5.) Franklin's gig at the Mark Twain Franklin was able to hire a full-time director. Sherry Robinson, a child development assistant (CDA) teacher, will run the School of Purpose.
Franklin published a book in January titled “100 Ways to Teach Children to Read.'' This passage begins with the sentence, “Parents are a child's first teacher.” One of Franklin's main goals as she works on literacy issues in Detroit is to get parents to help educate their children whenever possible. Their literacy skills are already two years behind,” she says. “We need our parents.”
This book motivates caregivers of children to get words and letters in front of them as soon as possible, the way Franklin shouted from the mountaintops.
“Literacy begins in the womb,” says Franklin.
Franklin credits her grandmother with instilling the importance of education at home. She also paid for Franklin to attend private school, which ultimately led to her attending Michigan State University.
While at MSU, Franklin spent a year student teaching at Southfield Public Schools in the late '90s, where he met a solid first-hand mentor in Susie Melamado. When she became her teacher, she applied Melamad's style. “Her style has worked, and my kids have grown up,” Franklin says.
The light bulb for entrepreneurship went on for Franklin when she was teaching a local pastor's kindergarten class.
“I thought, if this church can run a kindergarten, why can’t I?”
Mr. Franklin believes that all children need preschool education. That way, Detroit's youth will have the tools to “read by third grade.” This is the name of a portion of a recently amended Michigan law that promotes literacy through intervention rather than punishment. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has said establishing widespread preschool education is one of her goals for 2024. Literacy is a mission for Franklin, and he dreams of one day opening his own charter school and creating an educational culture.
“This is what I would do.”
For more information, visit Purposefuleducations.com.
