Next month, please join us for a movie night. 

On Tuesday, June 7, 2022, Strategies for Children is co-hosting the virtual screening of “Starting at Zero: Reimagining Education in America,” an exciting exploration of the value and potential of early education and care programs.

After the screening, there will be a panel discussion featuring Massachusetts community members who are actively involved in early childhood – and viewers will get to see the premiere of a Massachusetts companion video.

Register here to see the event live at noon.

Or register here to see a recording of the event – with Spanish translation — that will be streamed at 6 p.m.

As its website explains, “Starting at Zero” explores “the power of investing in high-quality early childhood education so that all children and families have the opportunity to attain the American Dream.”

It’s a look at the latest brain science and at the perspectives of “of policymakers, educators, academics, business leaders, pediatricians, parents, and children.”

The film features “five current and past governors who are champions of early childhood education: Governors Steve Bullock of Montana, Kay Ivey of Alabama, and Ralph Northam of Virginia, as well as former Governors Jim Hunt of North Carolina, and Phil Bryant of Mississippi.”

Willa Kammerer, the film’s director, explains how the project grew.

“When I embarked on this project with the Saul Zaentz Charitable Foundation back in 2017, we did not set out to produce a feature-length documentary on early childhood education. We were interested in how the state of Alabama had consistently achieved the #1 nationally ranked state pre-K program, and wanted to create a playbook for how other states could establish similar programs in their own states.”

Interviews for the film led to the realization that “there was so much more to the story—that it had roots in North Carolina, Georgia, and Mississippi, and other threads in Oklahoma and Montana, Chicago and Omaha, and beyond.

“Before we knew it, we’d traveled around the country pursuing this question of “what is high quality” in early childhood education? Also, how do you accomplish it, and why is it so critical to our nation’s current and future success?”

Please encourage everyone in your professional and social networks to join us for this screening.

Our co-hosts are the Zaentz Charitable Foundation, Firestarter Interactive (an organization Kammerer launched to promote the power of storytelling), and Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Saul Zaentz Early Education Initiative.

We’re excited to see the power of storytelling devoted to the power of early education and care!