Dreams often don't include a complete narrative. Goals aren't always in sight at journey's start.

When Lois Knapton's youngest child entered kindergarten a dozen years ago, she simply wanted to get out of the house.

"I figured I could become a para educator at a school," she said, which is a fancy way of saying teacher's aide.

So Knapton, a single mother of three armed with a bachelor's degree earned before her children were born, took a course on the Newport campus of the College for Lifelong Learning (now Granite State College) with an eye toward becoming certified to be in a classroom. Then she took another. And another. And another.

Lois Knapton took an educational idea, to be a teacher's aide, all the way to a Ph.D. (GIL TALBOT)

Ten years later, Knapton has a Ph. D. and is director of special education for School Administrative Unit 43 in Newport. And she's not shy about the fact that next spring she'll be putting out resumes to become Superintendent Knapton.

"For Lois to do what she did is very, very rare," said Mary Ford, dean of education programs at Granite State College. "Now she's supervising our teachers who are in our postbaccalaureate program."

Knapton's educational journey epitomizes University System of New Hampshire Chancellor Stephen Reno's vision of how the state's public schools can be interconnected to benefit students.

"It's like a successful navigation of the academic waterways," said Reno, in response to a description of Knapton's academic travels.

Reno wants the state's high schools, community technical colleges, and USNH's four institutions — Granite State, Keene State, Plymouth State and UNH — working together so students can take advantage of all their academic resources.

"It is obviously not the typical case," said Reno, "but it is what the people of New Hampshire should expect and it should certainly be available within the public education system."

It's been a meteoric rise for the 43-year-old Knapton, but it hasn't been easy.

Lifelong Learning courses were parent-friendly, in the sense that many of them could be completed via home computer.

"I'd be sitting at my computer and they'd want me. I'd have to say, 'Mommy's in college right now.' "

Night classes at Plymouth State presented more challenges. Knapton spent a lot of nights parenting over the phone during breaks.

"You ask them, 'Are you going to bed? Did you brush your teeth?' You call on relatives and friends," she said.

After earning master's and post-master's degrees from PSU, Knapton didn't hesitate to plow on toward her doctorate. That was achieved in 2004 through a sister program with PSU. Problem was, the University of Sarasota is in Florida. She flew back and forth several times for two- and three-week courses.

"When I went to Florida I had to tell them, 'Mommy will be back in two weeks.' I know some day my kids will look back on this and say, 'That's so cool. You got your doctorate. You got your floppy hat.'

It's apparently served as inspiration.

Knapton's twin 20-year-old daughters are in college, one at New England College and one at Plymouth State, and her son, 17, is a senior at Kearsarge Regional High School.

After four years overseeing special education at SAU 43, Knapton is ready to apply what she's learned to a broader audience.

"I really want to change the educational system," she said. "I know I can do that, but it does take a strong leader. Leadership matters."

Classroom instruction, said Knapton, needs to move away from book lecturing to hands-on learning.

"We need to be more creative, and we need to have more fun," she said. "And Idon't mean fun like playing. We need to get our kids thinking about their thinking. Other countries have been more successful because they ask their kids to think deeply and be problem solvers."

Knapton even dares to go where most public school employees will not tread. "I think the charter schools opening up right now understand that," she said. "I think in the public system we're stuck in the dinosaur age."

Knapton said it takes at least three years to affect real change within a public school system. A superintendent has to have a clear mission and sell it to faculty and parents.

"You have to have buy-in from your staff," she said. "You get a few people who like what you're talking about and you grow them."

Parents, said Knapton, too often become the forgotten stepchild.

An open-door policy, plenty of informational nights and, most critically, phone calls that are returned without exception help to avoid flagging parental interest as a child moves through school.