PRESCHOOLERS CHALLENGED                      
by Tom Nash, POST Staff Writer

At a ribbon cutting ceremony at the "Color Me Children Preschool and Daycare," at 6869 Sunkist Drive, Oakland, it was revealed that Ms. Paula Edmonson, the owner/director, was teaching the pre-schoolers Spanish and Computer Science.

Not only teaching them, but she is challenging their learning ability with math on a daily basis.

A former New York school teacher, Ms. Edmonson came to California to enter the public school systems as a teacher, but after learning of the poor education children receive in Oakland, she decided to go into another field.

She became a manager at Wells Fargo Bank. With a master's degree in marketing, she had little difficulty in getting a position.

But then the opportunity came for her to re-enter her primary love, teaching, and she opened her own "Color Me Children." [In the summer of 1996 Color Me Children moved to a larger site at 8115 Fontaine. The Berkeley school openened in the Fall of 1997. Both sites offers the same academic curriculum.]

[...]

"I am very proud of the accomplishments of my children," referring to their academic achievements being well above industry standards, "they are being challenged to learn more each day, and by the time they are ready for kindergarten they will be head and shoulders over the other kids. I only hope that Oakland public schools will not destroy what they have learned, but will continue to challenge their young brains to permit them to absorb more knowledge," she said.