Arthur Mallory, former Commissioner of the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, once observed, "Visionaries don't expect to do things instantly. In education you think in terms of a decade or in increments of 20 years."

Mallory's axiom clearly applies to Mildred Winter. In an effort begun in 1972, Winter coordinated a variety of public and private efforts to make Missouri the only state in the nation with a statutory mandate to provide parent education, screening, and other family support services in all of its 543 school districts.

The Parents As Teachers program (PAT), authorized by the state's Early Childhood Development Act in 1984, is designed to enhance child development and school performance by supporting a child's first teachers—his parents—in the formative first three years of the child's life. Based on more than three decades of research in early childhood education, PAT offers Missouri families of preschool children:

• Personalized home visits by specially trained educators who provide timely information at appropriate stages of a child's development. They also offer tips on such topics as home safety, effective discipline, and constructive play.

• Group meetings with parents of children of similar ages, during which parents can share experiences, common concerns, frustrations, and successes.

• Periodic monitoring and formal screening to assure that youngsters do not reach age three with an undetected health problem, handicap, or developmental delay. Screening also helps identify children with advanced abilities.

• A referral network so that parents who need special assistance (medical or financial help, for example) can locate resources not available through PAT.