A Life’s Journey in the Lives of Children

Abstract

My father was a research scientist and my mother started college when I was 4 years old in 1955, studying to be a kindergarten teacher. In 1959, the local school district asked her to teach kindergarten before she finished her degree. She took the position and continued college part time, graduating with a B.A. the same year I graduated from high school in 1970. I mention this because I figured out many years later that this effort by my mother influenced me in two important ways: first, I realized that teaching young children was a valuable work; second, I understood that going to college as an adult was a good thing to do. I went to seminary after graduating from college in 1974. My first term there was a 10 week field experience in a Head Start program. Working with the children and teachers in Head Start was the most fun I had enjoyed in my early life. I finished seminary in 1979, but within two years, I was ready to quit church work. I remembered that great Head Start experience and found a job in a day care in Minneapolis at the Glendale Child Development Center, directed at the time by the late Jim Greenman.