Literacy Expert and Retired Educator Dr. Margaret Moore-Hart Recently Featured on Close Up Radio

SUN CITY CENTER, FL, UNITED STATES, June 3, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- “Most important for parents to know is that when your children or grandchildren are born, begin reading to them right away!” encourages our guest. “If you continue to do that, they will love to read.” Our guest has an unwavering commitment to education and reading, which ultimately has been reflected throughout her life and career. Close Up Radio recognizes the achievements of Dr. Margaret Moore-Hart.

Dr. Margaret Moore-Hart is a retired educator whose passion focuses on teaching literacy (reading and writing) for students studying to become teachers in the elementary classroom. She retired from Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, MI, in 2010, where she served as a tenured professor for decades teaching reading and writing classes. “This gave me the opportunity to teach preservice teachers how to teach reading and writing to students in the classroom,” Dr. Moore-Hart summarizes.

Dr. Moore-Hart emphasizes that literacy is both reading AND writing. “Reading and writing is important for all of us,” she observes. “You have to read what you write, and you sometimes have to write about what you read.”

Throughout her career in education, she has emphasized the importance of diversity and multiculturalism when it comes to literacy. This is evidenced throughout her many academic articles published in various literacy articles and books that she has written.

Her most successful book, co-authored with Barbara J. Diamond, is titled Multicultural Literacy: Mirroring the Reality of the Classroom. Published in 1995, the book focuses on the gap in literacy for many culturally diverse students and various strategies to overcome this gap in multicultural classrooms.

Dr. Moore-Hart is most proud of the dozens of awards and recognitions that she has earned throughout her career. One of her most notable was the Christa McAuliffe Showcase of Excellence Award that she and her co-author earned in 1992. “It was for the use of multicultural literature to promote cultural awareness in reading and writing skills,” Dr. Moore-Hart explains. “This program builds upon the students’ background knowledge and experience to promote the academic achievement of all students. To me, this is important, because in addition to being an astronaut, Christa was also an educator. Unfortunately, she was one of the astronauts who perished in the Challenger explosion back in 1986.” What was most painful for Dr. Moore-Hart that day was that she was driving to a school to do a presentation on writing for students and their teachers.

Many of her additional awards came from the Dean during her time as a professor at Eastern Michigan University. One significant award was the Dean’s Award for Distinguished Professional Activity, which she earned in 2002 for her curricula in her classes. Many times, she took her students to diverse classrooms in schools within the community to work with a student on a reading or writing activity that she had modeled at the university. Another award of significance that she received was in 2009. It was the Dean’s Award for Distinguished Scholarship, very close to her 2010 retirement. This was because of her many written contributions to various journal publications and her presentations at National and International conferences.

“Even as a child, when I was in first grade, I loved my teacher,” recalls Dr. Moore-Hart. “I knew then that I wanted to be a teacher. I played school with my brother, who is a year younger, teaching him what I had been learning in the classroom. When he started kindergarten, he was way ahead of others.”

“Of course, I also read with all with my children and grandchildren – just making it fun, learning to read, and enjoying books,” she adds. “My oldest granddaughter especially loved books and always read various books while I was reading to her younger sister. One time she fell asleep while reading her book in her nearby bed while I was reading with her sister. We both giggled when we saw her fast asleep still holding her book.”

Dr Moore-Hart’s education began at Knox College is Galesburg, IL, where in 1968, she earned her Bachelor of Arts in French and Elementary Education. During that time she made the Dean’s List. Years later, in 1983, she earned her Master of Arts in Early Childhood at University of South Florida in the Tampa Bay area. In 1987, at the same university, she would go on to receive her Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction – Reading and Computer Education.

In the interim, from when she graduated with her Bachelor of Arts to when she earned her Masters, she became a teacher at several elementary and middle schools first in Illinois and later Florida. After initial employment as an assistant professor and the Co-Director of the National Writing Project, at Clemson University in Clemson, SC, in 1988, she then became a professor at Eastern Michigan University, until her retirement in 2010.

Since retiring, Dr. Moore-Hart, known throughout her career for her interest in the written arts, has now been focusing on visual arts. “I promised myself when I retired to pursue my passion for art,” Dr. Moore-Hart corroborates. Specifically, she has taken up the hobby of watercolor painting and photography with plans to continue, already having earned some recognitions. For instance, some of her works have already been accepted by the Florida Suncoast Watercolor Society and the Florida Watercolor Society.

Also, as a grandmother, she has been encouraging her own grandkids to pursue the field of arts by painting and drawing together. She then hangs their finished pieces in their bedrooms for all to see.

Her passion for teaching has not subsided. Now she works with her husband, who is the Patriotic Education Chair for a local Veterans Service Organization (VSO). Specifically, she supports high school students who attend a four-day patriotic education conference that develops leadership skills and teamwork, civics, and free enterprise.

“I think what is most important is that we have a passion for what we do,” concludes Dr. Moore-Hart. “I loved teaching.”

Close Up Radio recently featured Dr. Margaret Moore-Hart in an interview with Jim Masters on Wednesday May 28th at 3pm Eastern

Listen to the Podcast
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/close-up-radio-spotlights-literacy-expert-and-retired/id1785721253?i=1000710432903
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-close-up-radio-242020413/episode/close-up-radio-spotlights-literacy-expert-278211912/
https://open.spotify.com/episode/0wP0cVPJcrZpn9xa1Q2PkX

Lou Ceparano
Close Up Television & Radio
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