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STORY BEHIND THE NAME
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VO L . 76 N O. 12
Julia Goldstein’s lifetime of championing kids
BY BILL MOTCHAN SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH LIGHT
Just north of the University City Loop on Kingsland Avenue sits a modern brick building that has been a welcoming, innovative center of learning for preschool age children for 27 years. The Julia Goldstein Early Childhood Learning Center has 12 classrooms, a kitchen and a developmentally appropriate 27,000-square-foot playground. The two-story center specializes in a free program known as Parents As Teachers that empowers parents as their children’s first teacher. The program provides home visits and learning activities for families with children up to 5 years old. The program was the specialty of a noted Jewish St. Louisan for whom the building is named. On June 13, 1996, the University City Board of Education officially approved naming the building in honor of Julia Goldstein.
An education power couple Julia Benjamin was born in 1900 in New York City. She graduated from Teacher’s College in New York and moved to St. Louis in 1923. In 1930, she founded the McKnight Nursery School, one of the first preschools in the area, and operated it for nearly 50 years. In 1924, Julia married Albert Goldstein, who taught chemistry at Washington University and went on to become dean of the upper division of the College of Liberal Arts. The Goldstein family attended Congregation Shaare Emeth. While Albert Goldstein spent his career in collegiate education, Julia focused on preschool. She was convinced that early childhood learning could make
a huge difference in how a child progressed from kindergarten on. After retiring from McKnight Nursery School at age 85, she persuaded the University City school district to let her begin a tutoring program at Flynn Park Elementary School. The program began with 10 pupils who met once a week with an adult volunteer who served as a tutor/ counselor. That program was effective in its objective and now, nearly 40 years after its inception, the Parents As Teachers concept is considered highly effective at promoting early childhood development. Goldstein’s work was praised by then-Missouri Gov. John Ashcroft and Vice President Dan Quayle, who visited U. City in 1989 to meet her. At age 90, she was recognized in President George H.W. Bush’s “thousand points of light” program. She met and befriend-
ed actor Tony Danza, who featured her on a TV show he produced. She was also profiled on “CBS Sunday Morning” by Charles Kuralt.
Who was Julia Goldstein? Through her work running a preschool, Julia Goldstein was always a proponent for early learning. Her idea for implementing a public school tutoring program likely came after she visited her great-grandson Evan’s kindergarten class to observe it. Evan’s mother (and Julia’s granddaughter) Nancy Margulies said Julia noticed something amiss. “She observed a couple of kids who weren’t paying See JULIA GOLDSTEIN on page 6
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