Parents As Children’s First Teachers | March CBEL Collaborative
Written by Tim Buckley, February 2026
Schools cannot replace various things that parents provide for their children: moral values, cultural traditions, social and emotional support, and role modeling.
Yet schools find themselves trying to fill in gaps that family life hasn’t provided. Meanwhile, the cost of living today practically demands two incomes to support a growing family. That puts added stress on parents to be bread winners and ideal parents too.
CBEL Collaborative Gatherings are a place where community connection and great ideas come from having conversations over breakfast. “Our next Collaborative Gathering embraces a theme we touched on last time,” said Jim Seymour, Director of CBEL, “From Fragile to Resilient - but this time we’ll focus on how best to support families in their parenting roles, especially around early learning.”
And, in true Collaborative fashion, it will be personal stories that bring the key points home, not lectures, and not talking heads.
Three moms and a grandpa will introduce the topic by looking at their own lived experience, while reflecting on the things that made a difference. Who was there for them? How did their all-important early learning experiences come about, and who was to thank for that?
Elizabeth Heredia is a mom of two, and the Secretary for the Cummings Neighborhood Family Council. In addition to parenting, she’s part of CBEL’s neighborhood programs that enliven the early literacy picture through the RULER program and Infant/Toddler Play Groups.
Jim Seymour’s youth was littered with chaos. Were it not for a couple of key interventions, his brief jail time might have turned into years of hard time. “Rather than speaking as a nonprofit director, I’m coming at this from the standpoint of a dad and granddad learning how to help my grandkids be ready for kindergarten,” he said.
Leslye Garcia is a mom and currently works for the Marion & Polk Early Learning Hub, with a decade of experience working with families whose struggles with financing daily life sometimes neglected their children’s education. Leslye brings together personal experience with a keen look at the patterns that make up healthy parenting, how systems sometimes make things worse and how simple things can make the difference between “okay” and “excellent.”
Katie Costic is a mom whose early life has greatly impacted her own way of parenting. Her role as the Highland Elementary Super School coordinator helps to bring together the resources that will result in better attendance and higher academic achievement.
After brief remarks by these four, the rest of the room will discuss our own paths, what worked, and what would “better” might look like.
CBEL’s Collaborative Gatherings are as unique as they are engaging, a place where grassroots and grass tops people create social bonds and social capital.