The Board of Education at Cincinnati Public Schools honored 100-year-old Sayde Dean Monday night for her contributions to the school district as a teacher and her lasting impact on the education system.
Dean was born in Kentucky and worked in education for nearly 40 years, starting in Georgia before teaching at the Lincoln Grant School in Covington, then spending 33 years at CPS.
She taught special education at Hays School, now Hays-Porter, starting in the early 1950's, where she began to recognize the importance of involving parents in their children's education. Around that same time, she launched an early intervention preschool program, sending teachers into homes to help parents prepare their kids for school.
Dean says originally, she wanted to involve families expecting children in the program to teach them about healthy diets and how to start preparing kids for school from day one.
"The government told me that was too young, and to wait a while," she said. "So, I got them at the age of two and taught the parents how to read — I had to teach the parents how to read, too — to read to their kids and to talk to them."
CPS officials say the district officially adopted the program in 1974. The Ohio School Board later used Dean's program as a model for school districts statewide in 1988. Dean says she got to travel the country to speak about the program and share what she had learned with communities across the United States.
Dean was a teacher when CPS was a majority-white school district and she helped push the school system toward integration. She says there were challenging moments during her career, but looking back, she says it was well worth it, and she's proud of how far the district has come.
"I loved what I was doing, and I had a desire to work with young people and to help them go further than I went. And I think I did a very good job," she said.
After retiring from teaching in 1990, Dean remained active as a volunteer working with preschool children in Over-The-Rhine. Although she's done a lot in her lifetime, she says she's not done yet.
"I've had a beautiful journey. I wouldn't give anything for my 100 years. And I hope to be here for 100 more," she said.
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