"I never considered becoming anything but a teacher," said Bernadette George, principal of Delcroft Elementary School in Folcroft. In response to direct community need, Ms. George invited an outside agency into the school to provide before- and after-school child care services. She also instituted a school breakfast program that offered a reduced-cost or free breakfast to qualifying students. In the area of academic reform, she helped to implement the Botel Written Retelling Teaching/Assessment Project. This project, which promoted collaboration among teachers, had as its engine an assessment technique that drove instruction. As Ms. George's philosophy of education favored direct experience over second-hand knowledge, she believed that educators must "provide children with experiences that proves to them that everyone can learn."
