For all the talk of teacher shortages, there are instant teachers assigned to all tiny students when they first arrive in the world.

They are the parents and other family members, everyone who comes to know and love that small child.

The influence that they have on a child's educational capacity is immense. These, say the experts, are the years in which a youngster's ability to learn is shaped.

Many educators and social agencies have embraced this concept and are working with it independently. There's "P-20," for example, a lifelong-learning initiative with public and private support. It shepherds several grassroots projects that benefit early education, such as "Na Pua Liko" in West Hawai'i, designed to involve parents in helping their children develop reading skills.

Advertiser education writer Beverly Creamer recently chronicled another example: Kamehameha Schools' efforts to extend its mission beyond its campuses, including a goal to help 10,000 keiki from birth to age 4. But even the school acknowledges that it'll be tough to reach that goal.

So, even with its considerable resources, Kamehameha is only a part of what should be a statewide, focused effort to reach children and prepare them for school, enhancing their chances for success.

To some extent, that's already being attempted in efforts such as P-20 and, more recently, the United Way's "Born Learning" campaign. The local Aloha United Way has signed on with Born Learning, which is a strategy for using employer networks and various community organizations to show as many parents as possible the means through which they can begin the teaching process with their children.

Through the United Way and its partners, a free teaching "curriculum" is being disseminated that instructs in the various, everyday opportunities for teaching (you can get information at www.born learning.org or by dialing the United Way at 211). Even an act as simple as singing to a baby enhances the parent-child emotional bond and introduces building blocks of speech and language.

Beyond launching this campaign, however, United Way leaders have wisely perceived the need for a new mission. Instead of merely fundraising, they have pledged to serve as a catalyst of change by bringing the myriad community leaders who share the goal to the same table.

They hope to counter a tendency toward redundant programs — a problem that arises, experts say, because various social agencies focus on fulfilling requirements of their grants rather than the unmet needs of the community.

It's encouraging to see this move toward coordination so that more can be achieved with less waste. The beneficiaries will be our better-educated children and the fruits of their scholarship in society.