Name:  Jeanette Stockon
Age: 77
Home: San Francisco, California

We met Jeanette at Mario’s Marina in Rio Dulce, Guatemala. 

Work:  Retired Educational Therapist

What makes her interesting?:  Jeanette and her husband, Chuck, had been married twenty years before they finished their college degrees – his from Cal and hers an MA in Learning Disabilities and Reading from St. Mary’s College in California.  For 35 years, she was a reading specialist.  The last eighteen years were in a reading center with a focus on dyslexia. 

Important event in her life:  In 1990, the reading center closed, effectively shutting the door on 80 students who were enrolled.  Jeanette and three other teachers divided the students up and continued to tutor them from home until they were finished with the curriculum. 

In 1994, she and Chuck tried to retire and go cruising, but she continued to get phone calls from families who needed help in reading for their children and knew of her reputation.  By 1995, she realized that she had to do something.  The need was too great for her just to walk away. 

This devotion catapulted her into developing the program that ultimately became “Reading is Magic.”  It began with a video of Jeanette at a chalkboard.  Dyslexic children require visuals to assist them in assimilating words and the sounds they make.  Over time, she created an enhanced script for multiple segments to “Reading is Magic.”  These segments utilized cartoon characters to introduce the phonetics of words.  Each lesson built on the ones before.  Every new story reiterated all of the vocabulary used to that point.

The program became more sophisticated and Jeanette realized that to take it to a professional level, she needed to find an illustrator, someone savvy in the world of graphics who could adapt the program to modern technologies.  She had a friend who taught a multi-media class at a local college.  Jeanette was allowed to sit in on the final exam which consisted of the presentation of five-minute movies the students produced. 

She picked her designer, Keith, because he did a show on his favorite child’s book.  His animations were lively and perfect for “Reading is Magic.”  Jeanette hired him on the spot and for the next three years Keith worked solely for her.  She would write a lesson plan with goals for the day.  Her only requirement was that he take a walk everyday.  She paid him for taking the walk. Together, they built the program using Keith’s illustrations and the voices of family members to create such characters as Trish Fish (“sh” in phonetics), Mr. Bear (“ea”), Erma Worm (“er”), and Tucker Duck (“ck”).

“Reading is Magic” is now available on CD and is marketed to school districts all over the country.  www.readingismagic.com

Jeanette isn’t concerned about making money through the program.  “It’s a mission, not a business,” she readily remarks.  When she becomes aware of someone in need of “Reading is Magic,” she makes sure that they get it and in some cases stays actively involved in the student’s progress.

What she taught us:  Jeanette is a living example of “once a teacher, always a teacher.”  Even though she and Chuck have been cruising since 1994 to places like Alaska, the Pacific Coast, Ecuador and the Galapagos, she continues to promote “Reading is Magic” and monitor its impact on those who use it. 

Philosophy of Life:   The most important thing in life is family, but we are here to help others.  God is love. 

This mother to four, grandmother to eleven and great-grandmother to five lives out this philosophy everyday.