Here's how a group of Memphis teachers found 'the magic pill for education'

In a spacious local classroom on Thursday morning, a toddler named Serenity took three toy elephants that were different sizes and methodically placed them on a sheet of paper. In the smallest square, she placed the smallest elephant. In the square labeled “medium,” she placed a more sizable elephant. In the “large” square, she placed the largest elephant.

Then, with a smile on her face, she pointed at the smallest square and put just the slightest bit of distance between her hands, to show exactly what the word “small” meant.

Across from her, a boy named Dallas piled a whole herd of elephants onto his sheet and proudly proclaimed “I did it,” while nearby, a girl named Harmonee constructed a tower of blocks, before saying “Uh oh, it’s getting windy,” and knocking them down.

As she rebuilt her tower, two other girls, Destinee and Brooklyn, worked with a teacher on tracing and pronouncing the class’s letter of the week, “W.” And on the opposite side of the room, another teacher worked with a girl named Faith on an interactive lesson about the body part of the week, the brain.

It was a typical day in the classroom run by JESSRAN, the Memphis-based nonprofit that strives to give toddlers from low-income families the chance to learn and succeed, by providing them with a free education that blends instructive and independent hands-on learning. Located in the Westwood neighborhood and partially funded by the local city and county governments, it has four teachers and 21 students, who have just begun their second year with the organization.

“They are starving for knowledge starting at age two,” said Eric Harris, JESSRAN’s founder. “So, let's go ahead and hit it when that iron is hot, and turn them into lifelong learners.”

Group lessons and independent learning

The name of JESSRAN’s flagship two-year program is Equity to Prosperity, which started in August 2022 with the current batch of students, who are slated to finish in June and move on to preschool.

When the children began last year, they were 2 years old, so Harris and his wife Tonya Harris ― also one of E2P’s teachers ― modified a curriculum meant for preschoolers. This year, with all the students either age 3 or close to turning 3, they’re using a modified kindergarten curriculum.

But E2P doesn’t take a traditional classroom approach. The Harrises worked rigorously to develop an effective instructional method for the children, diving into research and pulling from the theories of educational heavyweights Maria Montessori, Rudolph Steiner, and Reggio Emilia ― who all emphasized the importance of independent and experiential education.

The result is a schedule that mixes group lessons with independent learning, free play, and a two-hour nap. The students spend much of their day at the program’s learning centers, which are literacy, library, math, science, blocks, art, music, and dramatic play. These centers are spread throughout the classroom, and at some of them, the students work or play on their own, while at others, they’re guided by a teacher.

Regardless, the activities are typically tied to E2P’s subjects of the week, and the program’s staffers continuously keep the age of the children in mind.

“At the end of the day, they're going to be a 2-year-old or a 3-year-old,” Eric Harris said. “So, you have to put them in an environment where they can maximize who they are, develop who they are, be comfortable with who they are, learn how to cope with whatever it is that they're dealing with that day, make some friends… and then it all works.”

Time will tell how effective the program will ultimately be. But if all goes according to plan, the current class of E2P toddlers will finish the program kindergarten-ready, even though they’ll be gearing up to enter preschool.

“They're probably literally going to kill it,” Harris said. “Their teachers will not know what to do [with them].”

Breaking the cycle

Education, though, is just one of the components of E2P, which is also focused on financial empowerment. All the students live below the poverty line, and their parents receive $500 a month from the nonprofit for the duration of the program.

Parents of students in the program must be full-time students or working at least 30 hours a week. However, many working people in Memphis still face significant financial issues. According to estimates from the research-focused nonprofit Slingshot Memphis, a living wage for a family of two in the Bluff City would be $18.49 an hour, while a living wage for a family of three would be $23.31 an hour, and a living wage for a family of four would be $28.13 an hour.

That’s a far cry from the $14.42 hourly wage that Slingshot estimates would leave a family of four in poverty. But the monthly $500 from JESSRAN allows its parents to more effectively support their children and cover key expenses. For example, one mother used a chunk of her first payment to buy new clothes for her rapidly growing young daughter, while another parent replaced bald tires with new ones.

The funds are distributed through debit cards that are reloaded with $500 on the 15th of every month; and they’re unrestricted, meaning the parents have free reign over how the money is spent. But most of the time, they buy things for their children.

As Harris said, “It’s just amazing just how much they literally spend on their kids.”

Being offered in tandem with the money are support services. JESSRAN contracts with both a social worker ― who helps identify and address household needs ― and a specialist, who helps the parents plan financially and potentially work towards long-term goals, like home ownership.

The hope, Harris explained, is to provide a boost that can help the families emerge from poverty.

“A lot of people don't understand how perpetual poverty is. If you're in poverty, probably your parents and your grandparents [were, too],” he said. “But somehow, you’ve got to break that cycle. So, we're breaking the cycle for the parent now, with the $500, and breaking it for the children by giving them… the capacity for learning that they need.”

The magic pill

Harris founded JESSRAN after spending more than two decades working as a teacher and school administrator in the Memphis area. For much of his career, he worked in high schools, but he couldn’t help but feel that many of the students were missing something foundationally ― it was as if there were necessary things they just hadn’t been effectively taught earlier in life.

“It was always something,” he said. “Why are the high school kids not getting it?”

After holding leadership roles at places like Cordova High School, White Station High School, and East High School, Harris was named the principal of E.E. Jeter K-8 School in 2018, which gave him the chance to lead students earlier in their educational journeys. But even with kindergarteners, elementary schoolers, and middle schoolers, there were kids who already seemed ill-prepared for school.

Something was missing.

So, hoping to reach children at an even earlier age, Harris got permission to launch a preschool program at Jeter. But in 2021, while leading the school, he began working towards a Ph.D. in urban affairs and public policy at the University of Memphis. And as he went through the research process for a public policy class paper focused on early childhood learning, he came to a realization: the education process shouldn’t start with kindergartners or preschoolers, it should start with even younger children.

It should begin, he thought, with 2-year-olds.

“They’re the magic pill for education,” he said. “Pre-K… is great, kindergarten is great. But by the time a child is four years old, their brain is about 80% developed. So, you take a kid with an 80% developed brain and put them in a classroom setting, or a traditional learning session for the very first time, it doesn't work as well.”

Lighting up

Harris' realization ultimately drove him to found JESSRAN and develop E2P, and the nonprofit’s current operation could just be the start. Right now, it has limited reach in a city with a lot of need, and when JESSRAN launched in 2022, it received 1,000 applications from families. So the plan is to expand the model.

“If there were two classrooms ― meaning anywhere from 50 to 100 kids ― in every single impoverished neighborhood in Memphis, it would completely transform the school system,” he said. “And that’s what my goal is.”

Reaching that goal, of course, won’t be easy, and paying for the teachers, classrooms, and monthly $500 stipends will require more money. When Harris was asked how he could reach his goal, he said: “Funding, funding, funding, funding, funding.”

He also must lead the fledgling nonprofit ― which he noted requires you to “hustle and scrap every day” ― while finishing his doctorate. Free time is scarce. But Harris maintains that he enjoys the work, and whenever he’s feeling tired, he’ll step into the classroom and interact with the students.

He’ll see a boy like Romeo, who will proudly proclaim that his middle name is “Hulk” and flex his muscles. He’ll see a girl like Harmonee, who’s able to pronounce words like “bat” and “hat,” by sounding out the letters she’s learned.

And he’ll reflect on the students' propensity to learn.

“It doesn’t matter what type of crummy day you’re having, they’re going to light you up,” he said. “Every single day these kids show you something that amazes you.”

John Klyce covers education and children's issues for The Commercial Appeal. You can reach him at John.klyce@commercialappeal.com

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Memphis nonprofit JESSRAN looking to expand early childhood educaiton