00:00:00:08 - 00:00:34:14 Unknown Katherine and I'm Gail and welcome to women over 70. Aging reimagined, our award winning weekly podcast. Now in its sixth year. Visit women over 70 to explore our offerings. And consider joining the aging Ramanujan Circle, our free online community where women of all ages connect, share and re-imagine. Aging is a time of creativity and growth and empowerment. We're glad you're here and we want to tell you about today's sponsor, Women's Connection. 00:00:34:16 - 00:01:04:24 Unknown Women's connection is a nonprofit women's group with chapters around the country. Members are vibrant, accomplished women aged 50 and forward who connect around common interests, empower each other to thrive and stick together as they travel through the stuff of life, no matter what comes their way. You can find them at Women connecting.org. And today we're delighted to be talking with Sandra Sandy Tanzer. 00:01:05:01 - 00:01:29:14 Unknown Sandy lives in the home she and her late husband built on the Minnesota shore of Lake Superior, near the Canadian border. Her life story has many chapters and today we'll open a few of them. You'll hear about her trailblazing work and early childhood education. Her tended her role as caregiver of her daughter and her husband, al, and her thoughts on the political climate that we're navigating now. 00:01:29:16 - 00:02:03:00 Unknown Sandy is a speech and language pathologist whose vision and determination actually changed the way we think about education. She helped create the very first early childhood program in Illinois, one that became a national model and guided by her belief that education is for all children. She brought special education into early childhood classrooms. She championed the 1985 Pre-Kindergarten Reform Act, and pulled together coalitions to bring resources directly to families in underserved communities. 00:02:03:02 - 00:02:31:21 Unknown Long before it was common practice, Sandy showed up. Children with significant developmental delays can thrive in classrooms with their peers and welcome Sandy to women over 70 and reimagined. So thanks to my sister Karen Marino, your neighbor, for introducing you to us. Let's let's begin by hearing a bit about your philosophy. The education is for all children and how that's how that's guided your work. 00:02:31:23 - 00:03:00:23 Unknown It's been interesting to reflect and think about how did that develop? My last semester at the University of Illinois, I was given by the director, doctor O'Neill, a group of little kids, to a two and a half year old and a couple of three year olds and a four year old and that hadn't been done at the university. 00:03:00:23 - 00:03:32:12 Unknown We worked with school age kids, veterans, etc.. And so I didn't know much about little kids, but I sure knew I liked them and connected. So I spent the whole semester, playing because there were not specific materials or things like that. So that was great. And then I, went to join L in the in Germany in the service. 00:03:32:14 - 00:04:13:16 Unknown And, nobody knew very much at all about speech language therapy or pathology or anything like that. And so I said to L, well, if you meet anybody who has a little kid that can't talk, let's get together. And so very quickly, I got a lot of little kids who couldn't talk. And of course, we didn't have materials either, but we had everyday things, and the parents and the parents had to come to me because we were right on the east, west border, and it was a very secure, location. 00:04:13:18 - 00:04:38:10 Unknown So the parent and the kiddo and I used to do, you know, everyday things to and the kids made incredible progress. And years later, I heard from one of the families that said that my original diagnosis had been so helpful for their little boy. And I remember his name, Donald. So, then we had two kiddos, wonderful, wonderful kiddos. 00:04:38:10 - 00:05:18:24 Unknown And al was a person who shared every bit of responsibility with me. So we did everything together. And so I was able, much to everybody's astonishment, in 19, 64, to take a part time substitute job in speech language at the school. I could walk to. And so I stayed there a couple of years, and I was working with a little kiddo who was kindergarten age, and she was making lots of progress. 00:05:19:01 - 00:05:46:18 Unknown And the psychologist in the building, or maybe in the group that work there or whatever, came to me and said I had to stop working with her because I was keeping her buoyant and he couldn't, test her and have her be mentally impaired if I kept working with her. That was an absolute turning point in my life. 00:05:46:20 - 00:06:17:06 Unknown I worked so hard with that little girl. She made so much progress. And that was where I absolutely decided never, ever, ever would I not, help every child make the best that they could? So I wouldn't have expected that. But that's how it happened. Oh, that's a so I know we can't we don't have time to hear about all of your progressive works, but what stands out for you as the most influential, the most rewarding? 00:06:17:08 - 00:06:53:17 Unknown Well, at the time that Sesame Street was funded, in 19, 63, we wrote, I wrote with a couple of other folks a first chance project. However, what led up to it is fascinating. I hadn't heard about Doctor Jeanne McCarthy. She was the first, person to write a learning disabilities grant in the country. And so learning disabilities started in Schaumburg, district 54. 00:06:53:19 - 00:07:24:13 Unknown And I was entranced, just interested in her. And so I went to a speech and then I met another woman, Carol Samak. Remember that name? Oh. She's amazing. She's a teacher. An early childhood teacher, and we were both taking a neurology course together. And she said, well, if I was interested in doctor McCarthy and learning disabilities, I had to come to district 54, in Schomberg. 00:07:24:15 - 00:07:58:22 Unknown So I did 1968, went to district 54, and I was in the same building with Carol Campanelli School and, maybe 2 or 3 months into the year, doctor McCarthy came to us and said she well, I had this little boy named Stephen, who was four, turning five, and he might have been diagnosed with autism. No, kids with autism were really being diagnosed then and then. 00:07:58:24 - 00:08:11:08 Unknown And he might be hard of hearing, but he didn't talk. And so Carol and I decided to see him on our lunch hour. So we started having Steven and his mom. 00:08:11:10 - 00:08:26:04 Unknown they came. And what do you know with our novel techniques, we found out if we cut up cereal boxes, letters, he could take the letters and make the name of the cereal box. 00:08:26:06 - 00:09:01:00 Unknown And then pretty soon we found out he could read like a newspaper. He liked sports and, so we. But he still was sick. Meaning he didn't have the motor facility, to speak. So anyway, we worked and worked with him, and, he eventually ended up in Carol's class. But the outcome of Steven was that. Oh, we did take videotape of our very creative. 00:09:01:02 - 00:09:36:07 Unknown At that point, therapy process. And so, doctor, McCarthy then took us around to special education forums where we presented with what we had spliced together videotape. But it was really interesting to everybody who was watching. So then we insisted that we had to start in early childhood program, and that that was essential, that every child deserved the opportunity and it had to be sooner rather than later. 00:09:36:09 - 00:10:09:20 Unknown So, after school, what really was an after school? The district allowed us imagine the district allowing us in 1971. This is about, between 2 and 3 in the afternoon. We had ten kids who were, three and four who had significant delays. And we saw them every day from 2 to 3 at no cost. That was like a novel, novel, novel at the same time. 00:10:09:23 - 00:10:49:00 Unknown Then we gathered 40 of the folks. District 54 was huge. 17,000. K through eighth grade and mean huge staff. So gathering 40 people to look at how would we develop a early childhood program. And we met weekly, and we investigated High scope and David Riker all the folks that were really everybody at the time. And, you know, we found all kinds of really, really important work that we wanted to use. 00:10:49:02 - 00:11:26:15 Unknown Okay. Then 1973 Illinois passes, the Early Childhood Special Education Act. Then we're in the midst of writing this first chance. We call it Seac Schomburg Early Education Center. I love that 80 kids and and we were funded. I just still can't believe it. We were funded for $100,000 in 1973 a year. And of course, we did all kinds of dissemination and things. 00:11:26:15 - 00:11:59:19 Unknown So we put the classrooms together, amazing teams, and we had full multidisciplinary teams. With social worker, psychologist, teacher, ot, PT, the speech language everybody and every classroom was staff, every two classrooms, which were 12 kids in each classroom, was staffed with a full team. So okay, then what you're required to do when you have a federal grant is, of course, demonstrate. 00:11:59:19 - 00:12:37:16 Unknown And disseminate. So guess what? We had 3000 visitors, you know, and you have to document everyone. So we had 3000 visitors and they saw kids that they never thought would be in a group of kiddos. Down syndrome, read syndrome, kids with physical handicaps, just kids with speech, language all together. I had a psychologist psychiatrist come to me and say they looked. 00:12:37:18 - 00:13:07:23 Unknown They looked typical. I don't we don't know how you do, you know, but what we did, we set up natural settings, projects all over the classroom based on the high scope model. Everything was labeled and and we played and interacted in natural contexts. And through that time, then we also developed a whole natural based assessment model based on Piaget. 00:13:08:00 - 00:13:55:12 Unknown And that we did a a statistical analysis of all the kids in Schaumburg by age. Anyway, it was really, really fun. And, so we served 80 families for 70 years. Oh, thank. And then we did 42 national players and tations we went into school districts, I would take a whole team, take them to new Jersey or wherever, and then the district would pick 10 or 12 kiddos that they wanted us to assess and show them how we did this natural play based assessment. 00:13:55:14 - 00:14:31:00 Unknown And because there was no video or anything that we could do it with, we had people sit around the room and just be quiet. And then that's the way we did the assessment. But the audacity, I think now of in that time to take teams in the other districts and demonstrate. But it worked. Everybody did it then. And I also remember you telling me that you brought, resources to underserved communities so that the families didn't have to come directly to the school. 00:14:31:02 - 00:15:07:04 Unknown Yeah, that wasn't this first project. That was the, 1985 project. The and that is all on the the tape, the oral history tape at the Abraham Lincoln Library. Yeah. So that is if, if any, we what we did then at the end of, seek was to bring together ten school districts, not ten. Yeah. Seven, eight, nine school districts, three townships, Palatine, Wheeling and Schomberg. 00:15:07:06 - 00:15:40:03 Unknown And it was our first attempt to collaborate. So and we had one, eight, 100 agencies that all we brought all together to collaborate. And all of those school districts, we spent two years before deciding what we needed to do. And then Jenny Kusama's, who was the most amazing administrative assistant, and I wrote that grant then in 1985, and I could talk about that forever too, but Seac was the reason it all began. 00:15:40:05 - 00:16:06:21 Unknown And so I just want to again, thank you for mentioning the oral history tape, but the Abraham Lincoln National Library, it's fascinating. And we can we can list here a lot more detail. It's yeah, we did thousands and thousands of families and Reese. Oh the other thing about seats that was critical was we did parent visits every week and we, had parent groups. 00:16:06:21 - 00:16:42:17 Unknown Chuck Hanlon, the psychologist, and I did all kinds of groups and social workers. But parents, as with in my earlier work, parents were crucial. If you didn't involve and totally, attach with the parent as well as the child, the amount of change was phenomenal and groundbreaking at that time. And yes, so, Blake, what is this? Nobody. Well, Perry Preschool had thought of it, but it was only 137 kids, so. 00:16:42:19 - 00:17:04:02 Unknown So you moved to, permanently to live on the Minnesota lake shore of Lake Superior. And then I've had the privilege of visiting you and your beautiful home. And I know that your passion continues so that you are still you're doing. Tell us about what you're able able to do now, contribute there in the Grand Portage area. 00:17:04:04 - 00:17:55:10 Unknown Well, once I moved here, Pawlenty was entering his second. We moved in 2004. We built and it was the best of fun and, Pawlenty was governor. And so I somehow got, the early childhood Committee for Minnesota. And Art Reynolds was also professor Art Reynolds from the University of Minnesota. And we like each other. But, it was really, really an interesting experience because what, it didn't seem that Minnesota understood collaboration, that they were much more stove piped and didn't. 00:17:55:12 - 00:18:23:14 Unknown And I even had to suggest, because I was working when I left Schomburg with 68 languages, I just suggested that some of the materials be done in another language, and that was so anyway, it was interesting to be I was on that committee for four years. I drove into Minneapolis, and so it was, I hope, a decent experience for them. 00:18:23:14 - 00:19:01:08 Unknown I was so unusual from their perspective. But it was it was fun. And then, I oh, I got credentialed in Minnesota because, you know, I felt like I needed to be credentialed even though I was donating, the money to grants as, needs as not, you know, payment to me, but payment to the grant. So then I went and started to make normal home visits in Grand Portage, Grand Marais, even a little south. 00:19:01:08 - 00:19:38:18 Unknown But mostly I, was in Grand, Portage and Grand Marais and, and then I volunteered in all the childcare centers. And so I did speech and language and child development and all of the kinds of, of things. And then there was this little boy who was Stephen from 1968. Now in, 27 or something like maybe 27. 00:19:38:20 - 00:20:20:19 Unknown And he, and I, I went to visit him and he was Steven all over. He was nonverbal, sick, and had no connection or attachment, to anybody. So I walked in the door. His mom said I could come, and he had a deck, an old fashioned deck phone directory, and he would flip a page and I would say track, and he would flip a page, and I would say track, and he would flip a page, and I would say track. 00:20:20:21 - 00:20:46:16 Unknown And we connected. And that was fun. And so I said to his mom, can I come back? Oh, she said, oh yes. I've never seen him be like that ever before. So anyway, we've had and to this day, this kiddo who is now 22 and I are still doing therapy. I did probably 20 or 25 hours of therapy a week. 00:20:46:18 - 00:21:16:23 Unknown Throughout any time I go in the store in town or, even today in the school, somebody says grandma Sandy, and that's what they call me up here is grandma Sandy. So. And I can't resist kids. It's an addiction. As soon as I see a baby, I'm dead. I love them so much. Okay. So, Sandy, I know that you wanted to talk a bit about. 00:21:17:00 - 00:21:43:19 Unknown You're very concerned about the political landscape today, and and, you know, you're a, a trailblazer, a change maker. So what would you like to to share with us about your. What's going on? Pull it. I been an activist most of my life. I was started in at the university, the University of Illinois with the early Martin Luther King. 00:21:43:21 - 00:22:12:09 Unknown Rallies and so forth. And then Emmett Till was killed in Chicago and, I and he was killed when I was a sophomore in high school. And it was just horrendous. Well, so I've always been a part of a group like, indivisible. And we have Arrowhead, indivisible here. Last Saturday, of course, we had the rally. And so I told I was the last speaker. 00:22:12:09 - 00:22:47:22 Unknown So I told the group this story, there's a beautiful, beautiful Unesco landmark. And, villains here in Castle, Germany, which is where Allen and I were for, you know, four years. And, eventually we got to know and well who we called Tanto Rosa, and we went everywhere with her. She showed us all kinds of historical sites, but she and I would go walking at least twice a week at films. 00:22:47:22 - 00:23:15:18 Unknown Her at this huge a landmark built in 1600 that had on top of that a huge copper Hercules, Hercules, of Deutsch and then we would walk and she would in German. I spoke German and understood German. She would tell me about what had happened during the whole Hitler rise and how he was such a trickster. 00:23:15:18 - 00:23:42:18 Unknown And she went on and on, and we walked and walked, and I didn't want to stop her. You know, I was 22 or so, and it was really important to her to tell what had happened. And she talked about the Holocaust and the trains going through Castle and and as it happened, my dad had been a B-17 pilot and had flown in over Castle twice. 00:23:42:18 - 00:24:18:19 Unknown And they always aimed for the Hercules, not aimed for it. But the bombing run was over because it was a very, very heavy, industrial area. And that's where L and I were basically stationed. We were stationed just a little, farther from, Castle in Road Fest. And, and, so she talked and talked and I was, I was just, incredibly incredulous that something like that had happened anywhere. 00:24:18:21 - 00:24:49:04 Unknown And the more she told me, I couldn't I can't tell anybody because it's as horrible as you think. And, And how everybody was affected. That was the terrible part of it. So then a few months ago, I was, talking to the group at Aero and Indivisible about something, and all of a sudden I'm weeping, and I'm positive, you know, we do good things. 00:24:49:04 - 00:25:28:16 Unknown We work hard. Couldn't understand. So then, and another time, I was talking at a town hall, and I was in tears. Oh my goodness. Then what did I remember? Two days later, Germany villain Sarah Tonto Rosa and all the discussions. And what did I think? Oh my God, we're experiencing exactly the same thing now. Exactly. And I mean, especially like yesterday, having the East Wing torn down without any permission. 00:25:28:18 - 00:26:04:14 Unknown I mean, anyway, so that's so I'm still an activist. Will always be an activist. You're a recent widow. You've been very involved in caregiving for your your dear husband, Elle. Anything that you'd like to tell our listeners about that part of your experience? Well, because we were always partners in everything. We were partners in this. I was, you know, with him the whole time, Liz and York were here, everybody was just wonderful. 00:26:04:16 - 00:26:33:01 Unknown And, one, the last year before this year, the year ago, when he died, I did constant therapy. It's online. It's an app. It helps memory. It's free. Medicare pays for it. I always paid for it. It's 32 a month if you pay for it. I just felt it was so worthwhile paying for it that I wanted to pay for it. 00:26:33:03 - 00:27:02:02 Unknown And so we did that for a year. And then the last year when he decided no more medication, no more. He had just amazing, staff at the University of Minnesota. Doctor Martin Freeman did microsurgery down the his whole, esophagus. And it was just astonishing. But anyway, the last year then what we did, we spent an hour and a half listening to his CDs. 00:27:02:08 - 00:27:37:19 Unknown He had the biggest CD, classical collection of anybody, and we would sit and listen and just love sitting by each other and holding hands. And then we had al was the photographer, and he took thousands and thousands and thousands of pictures. So we decided to take the ones from when we were in Europe, when we were so young, and that we would digitize those and write stories about each country and, and then make a little memory movie about each one of those. 00:27:37:21 - 00:28:02:01 Unknown And that's what we did. He was so determined to stay upright. And you know, we used a walker in a wheelchair, but he was only in bed for days. And at the last I was just holding his face. When I held his face, his whole body relaxed. And then I was able to say, I love you. And he was on his way. 00:28:02:04 - 00:28:30:02 Unknown However, we have the sacred stones. We have 15, 16 of these, and they have al on them, or dad or Grandpa and I have them everywhere because we got 15 and they're in a beautiful box. So in there, his ashes, of course. So that's the best part. Thank you so much, Sandra. This was fascinating. You've had quite a life. 00:28:30:02 - 00:29:02:07 Unknown You've just you've contributed so much to children and school systems. And you brought back many memories of district 63 for me, which wasn't as progressive as district 64. And so thank you for all of that and for everything that you have done. Thank you. That's and listener, thanks for listening to women over 70. Your loyalty helps our community thrive. 00:29:02:09 - 00:29:39:11 Unknown And we invite you to get more involved in Aging Reimagined Circle and your voice as we challenge myths and create bold new narratives about women and aging. Visit women over 70. I come to learn more, and women over 70 is proud to be part of the Age Wise Collective, a group of women podcasters championing pro aging voices. This week we shine the light on fit strong Women Over 50, a podcast for the Becoming Ally Immunity, hosted by Jill McCausland and Chris Brown. 00:29:39:13 - 00:29:58:05 Unknown They interview experts and share their insights about losing weight, keeping it off and working out. Does it them at becoming. Ellie alaykum. Thank you Sandy. Oh, thanks for the opportunity. I just love that.