I also knew that our director was going to try everything in her power to make Mary work out before she would even consider firing her. I knew that Scary Mary was damaging the children she taught. All I could see was the small hump of her bent back and the rounded curve of his dimpled elbow sticking out. The big benefit of pre-K might not be educationĪ few weeks later, I saw Scary Mary grab another child by the belt loop.
She nodded seriously and assured me she would talk to Mary. I went on my lunch break and made a complaint with the director. “Do you want your mom and dad to cry because you don’t eat? You want to be skinny and small like a girl?” Scary Mary yanked him out of his seat - hard enough that his knees hit the underside of the table - and wagged her finger in his face. A blond boy who was prone to nose picking and daydreaming had once again let his lunch sit, uneaten, while he talked and giggled. Once, I walked by Scary Mary’s open door and saw her pull a child out of his seat. An assistant teacher who worked with Scary Mary seemed completely terrified of her she barely spoke. She often reacted to misbehavior with pointed, cruel remarks. She maintained a glossy red manicure, and she’d snap her fingers while yelling at the kids. Like a Disney villain, as soon as she was alone in her classroom with the kids, her voice changed from a high chirp to a bark. She was short, with a black bob, and she smiled ear to ear at the parents. This is what the 4-year-olds called her as they clustered in the corners of the playground. Preschool teachers are hard to recruit and retain - and hard to fire, even if they’re terribleĪ teacher at one of the schools where I worked early on was known as Scary Mary. The strongest advocates for children are their parents. Even at well-run preschools, I’ve seen teachers behave in subtly persistent or outright cruel and, at times, physically harmful ways. My time as a preschool teacher has taught me this: Parents cannot rely on preschools themselves, or the state and local laws that regulate the schools, to ensure their children are being treated well. Good: joyful recess time outside, lots of story time and creative play, childhood friendships forming, and, often, friendships between good teachers and warm parents. Bad: high ratio of children to adult, very low pay for teachers, terrible teachers not getting fired or replaced. This preschool was typical of the preschools I taught at over the next 15 years, bad and good. I worked hard at my job and felt awe, at times fear, at the amount of influence I had over the children’s lives, their day-to-day emotional and mental health. I worked six hours a day, and when my son was out of school for holidays, I was able to bring him with me to work. The parents at this preschool were mostly lower middle class. When my son turned 5 and entered kindergarten, I got a job at a typical preschool. Surely my kids didn’t learn anything in that din, but I loved them, and they were well cared for. I taught for the first time in that tiny room, surrounded by the screaming, happy kids of the drop-in facility. The school was one large, chaotic room with one smaller room for the “preschool” cordoned off by large, primary-colored plastic blocks. My first job as a preschool teacher was at a local drop-in day care where I live in San Diego, California, that also ran a small preschool class.
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