On the first day of school in 1998, when Bill Clinton was president, my editor asked me to high-tail it to a bus stop off Whiskey Bottom Road and interview a kindergartner on their first day of school. I found one: little Lauren Speiser, who glistened in the late-summer sun, ready to face the world of colorful classrooms, cafeterias and playgrounds at nearby Forest Ridge Elementary.
It has been my great good fortune to have kept in touch with Speiser and her parents, Suzanne and Bill, through the intervening years. They're a supportive threesome, a veritable model of what a familial unit, prone to deep love and laughter, should look like on a wounded little planet.
"I remember being scared to leave my parents," said Speiser, now 22, still chirpy and bright. "But I was lucky to have a warm and inviting teacher named Mrs. Orloff. I remember her being so kind to me even when I was upset to be away from my mom."
Speiser was deeply comforted by Orloff knack for "noticing little things about her students. She complimented my butterfly clip so much that I think we bought her one for Christmas."
"I held her and didn't want to let her go," recalled Speiser's doting mother, Suzanne, of that teary turning point, that rite of passage. "But I knew I had to let her get on the bus."
My how time flies! Fast forward to today, where Speiser is putting the crowning touches on her first year as, yep, a kindergarten teacher at Hammond Elementary in North Laurel. I caught up with her to collect her thoughts on her chosen profession.
Kindergarten, she has learned, "has definitely changed since I was in Mrs. Orloff's class," she said. "You have to be warm and fuzzy, but I also like to think of a kindergarten teacher as a Nick Jr. TV show. A teacher is always on. We need to be exciting and interesting for our students or we will lose their interest."
So she invests a lot of kinetic energy, moving around and singing to captivate the leaders of America, circa 2061. The kids, she continued, also like to get dirt on their hands.
"We recently planted tomato plants. We do movement activities that go with the plant theme. We pretend to be a seed, sprout into a plant, turn into a flower, and then start to droop without water. Maybe we can turn Ms. Speiser's classroom into a new Nick Jr. TV show!" she joked.
All the creative changes notwithstanding, Speiser emphasized that many parents have their own images of what kindergarten looks like, what it is designed to offer. It's certainly not "just coloring," although she said it's still part of the curriculum, but not the driving theme of the day's lesson plan. "Then there are other parents that think their child won't get into college if they aren't in the advanced group."
When all the required state and county standards are fulfilled, what she's left with is a basket that bubbles with strategies that nourish and exhilarate.
Speiser holds dear her relationship with parents, but the fun piece, the chance for them to indulge in 'dessert' with the academics, is also critical.
"I have no problem giving students more challenging work, but I think it is more important to give them a solid foundation to help them in the future. They are going to be in school for at least the next twelve years. There is plenty of time for them to learn calculus and Shakespeare, but there is only a short time to get them to love learning."
Speiser pilots her Ford Focus to work early, making sure to get a jump on the day. She also is in the building after dismissal "at least an hour or more" coming up with innovative ways to flavor the lesson plan with fun stuff.
As her first year in the classroom comes rapidly to a close, Speiser cheerily dishes some old-fashioned advice to those who are ready to become elementary school teachers, too.
"Love what you do," she advised. "The students can tell when you're stressed and don't want to be there. If you honestly are dreading going to work every day or you are praying for a snow day, then please do yourself and your students a favor and choose a new career path. We have our students for a long period throughout the day and it needs to be a positive experience. I have my bad days, don't get me wrong, but 99 percent of the time, I go home with the same smile that I started with that morning."
Above all, she declared, take time to familiarize yourself with your students, let yourself become awestruck at their uniqueness.
"Personalize how you greet them each day," she said. "Every morning when the students come in, I ask how their sports practice went, or how their dog is doing. I can talk for hours about each student. I know their likes, dislikes, favorite sports team, what they want to be when they grow up, where they went on winter vacation. Their lives become so important to me."
As I finish, I can't help but recall two big films of 1998, the year Speiser stepped foot on the school bus: "Hope Floats" and "What Dreams May Come." Coincidence? No way.