a tempo summer2007
Ohio’s First Lady Visits the BGSU Kindergarten Program
Joyce Eastlund Gromko leads students
Two mornings a week, Dr. Joyce Eastlund Gromko travels from BGSU to Weston Elementary School to work with kindergarteners, whom she’s been helping prepare for their music program on May 14.
On May 1, however, the BGSU professor of music education went to Columbus to share her methods with another interested listener—Frances Strickland, first lady of Ohio.
After hearing about Gromko’s Kindergarten Project, Gov. Ted Strickland’s wife accepted an invitation to visit the participating schools this fall. The first lady was also interested in broader dissemination of a music book like the one that was given to all the kindergarteners in the project this spring, Gromko said. She plans to contact a professional colleague who has recorded a CD that she hopes could be used to create another booklet of children’s folk songs.
An educational psychologist by training, Frances Strickland developed a widely used screening test for kindergarten-age children. Also known for playing the guitar and singing, she is now, as first lady, advocating for music education as well.
A full news story is available from The Monitor, BGSU’s online magazine.