In 2023, we launched Regional Working Groups to support early childhood advocates in working together to address local issues related to our campaign, In Defense of Early Childhood Education and Care: Restoring the Link Between High Quality and Child Development.
In 2025, our Kentucky Working Group launched the Ready for Me art campaign as an ongoing collection of art created by children, teachers, parents, and community members. The goal of the campaign is to share the thoughts, hopes, and freedom-dreaming (Ki Gross) of those in early childhood spaces every day, with those working on behalf of children and families in early childhood.
Ready for Me rejects the premise that young children are deficient before they enter kindergarten. Children are born curious and eager to construct knowledge through hands-on, engaging experiences. Environmental and biological challenges can impact a child’s ability to pursue their curiosity and to construct knowledge, but that does not make them inherently deficient. A child who does not know their letters, or numbers, or how to spell or write their name, but can recognize when their emotions change, or demonstrate respect for elders, or take initiative in solving problems, is not deficient. Academic knowledge should not be the only basis for defining school readiness.
Early in 2025, the KY WG identified two areas they believed they could effectively address as initial steps toward the vision for early childhood in Louisville. The first was the question of “kindergarten readiness,” which had come to drive every budget decision, policy discussion, and political move. The second was identifying the best strategy for addressing this issue from the perspectives of children, families, and teachers, at a minimum, to ensure their experiences were acknowledged. As Kim Pirog said, “You have to make it so big that it cannot be ignored.”
After much deliberation and reflection, it became clear that the group wanted to change the narrative around going to kindergarten. As Michele and Hans continued to formulate this idea, Michele began writing about it. Drawing from those writings and from the children she saw during her daily classroom visits, the words “not me ready for kindergarten… kindergarten, be ready for me” emerged. Thus, “Ready for Me,” as it was repeated again and again by group members, offered clarity and direction for the work.
Michele and Hans, as well as members of the KY WG, had previously worked with the artist Lily Yeh in Louisville. Her considered and measured approach to using visual arts as a vehicle for social change was a natural fit for this effort. Gathering art was a practice many members, particularly Side by Side Studios, were already doing. The group adjusted the lens by asking the artists to visualize what would kindergarten look like if it were truly ready for the children of this community? What would it need? What would be on the walls, in our hands, and in our arms? How many pathways would lead to the outdoors, and how many wild spaces would there be? What kind of food would we find there? Would we grow it? Who would be there and what would they know about me? What would I want them to know about me? What would my adults want them to cherish and see in me? What would my community agree to if kindergarten were ready for me? Would it insist on a new way of viewing community helpers? A new way of holding them accountable for shared safety? As mentioned earlier, would it mean you set aside your beliefs about who I am and what I lack, and let what I have to offer and how I shine step forward? What would it all mean?
Art was gathered as adults in children’s lives laid down their dreams at the feet of the group in varied forms. When the artwork was exhibited in spaces such as the Muhammad Ali Center, paper taped to tables invited the community to respond. Side by Side Studios was able to enter juvenile (in)justice facilities, where art created by older children was later shared with peers at high schools across the city. Across all of these settings, the paper-covered tables revealed deep knowing and a longing to connect.
Photo credit: Side by Side Studio Muhammad Ali Center Council of Students at the Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville, KY
After sharing this campaign with the other Regional Working Group Co-Facilitators, we agreed to collapse the working groups into a national Ready for Me Campaign. Our goal is to invite early childhood educators, caregivers, parents, and advocates to create local Ready for Me campaigns and share the artwork with our larger community.
We believe that Ready for Me can help us change the narrative around kindergarten readiness that is often harmful to optimal whole-child development. By centering our responsibility to be ready for the children we challenge practices that assume young children are academically behind or lacking in skills needed to succeed in kindergarten. Instead we return kindergarten to the space where all children are welcomed and we are prepared to meet their needs because we know they are ready to be who they are!
As we launch this new campaign we invite you to read and share our campaign statement and sign up to lead a Ready for Me in your local community. Childhood doesn’t need more gimmicks and programs that devalue the intrinsic curiosity and wonder all children bring with them into school environments. Childhood needs to be valued, honored, protected, and allowed to flourish. Children don’t need to be ready for kindergarten, kindergarten needs to be ready for them!