Gassen: The Reading Pig's magic

Educator and author Nic Clement stood before a group earlier this week at the Flowing Wells Unified School District’s Emily Meschter Early Learning Center.

In his audience were teachers, school administrators, governing board members, community partners, volunteers, friends, parents and — most importantly — about a dozen 4- and 5-year-olds seated on the floor, many wearing pink construction paper headbands with triangle ears and curly pink pipe cleaners as tails.

They were there to celebrate his newest book, “The Reading Pig Goes to School,” and watch Tucson Mayor Jonathan Rothschild sign a proclamation declaring February “Love of Reading Month.”

Clement thanked everyone for coming, and for their work supporting kids, and posed a frightening question.

“Think about our education world without champions. Without advocates. A world with only legislators making laws about education,” he said. An audible shudder went through the adult part of the audience. The kids swiveled their heads to see what was wrong.

“Without champions, without advocates, it would be a very stark world.”

The building we were sitting in might be there, he said, but it wouldn’t be a school.

Clement spent much of his education career in the Flowing Wells district and retired in 2013 after nine years as superintendent. He’s now the Ernest W. McFarland Citizen’s Chair in Education at Northern Arizona University and travels the state, sharing his expertise with schools and working with them to improve.

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He’s written a book about teachers, “Legendary Teacher Stories: How to Catch a Swamp Frog,” and founded “Legendary Teacher Day” to ask people to remember and recognize an important teacher in their lives.

He’s also penned a volume on leadership titled “Legendary Leadership Lessons: The Reading Pig.” It’s a self-effacing collection of his experiences and in it he tells the story of what happened when he subbed in a second-grade class while he was superintendent: The legend of the Reading Pig, a small rubber pig that he brought to the class with the aim of having each student hold it while he read during story time, was born.

That fateful day is told from a student’s point of view in his newest book, “The Reading Pig Goes to School.” Clement read it to the assembled preschool piglets and grownups, and it was a hit.

Clement is giving all net proceeds from his books to Make Way For Books, a Tucson nonprofit that gives free books to kids. He gave $500 to the organization at the event, with the promise of more to come.

Flowing Wells proves Clement’s point that advocates and champions for education make a difference.

Everyone in that room was dedicated to kids and their learning. I’ve written before about the powerful atmosphere in Flowing Wells, where the focus is always on the students. Their community includes many, many children who live in poverty — kids who live in motels or trailer parks and rely on school breakfasts and lunches to get enough to eat.

The care that Flowing Wells folks have for their kids — and each other — is evident in everything they do. And it’s that caring and dedication that helps to take all those buildings with classrooms and cafetoriums and make them schools.