I am beginning to suspect that many folks who grew up in Prescott had Penny Nicholas as their Kindergarten or first-grade teacher. If I’m doing the math right, kids born in 1963 all the way up through 2010 have graced her classroom and maybe even posed for a photo with her in front of Washington School holding a sign that said their graduation year. If I’m doing my math correctly, that means well over 1600 kids have passed through her classroom on their educational journey.
What they didn’t know then was 13 years later, they’d be invited to come back and stand in front of the same school with their Kindergarten teacher, taking another photo to celebrate their graduation from high school while having a mini-reunion with their classmates. Even if some of them have moved away, Penny works hard to track them down through hocial media and invite them to join if they can. After the photo op, her former students sit with her in a nearby grassy field and talk about what’s next for each of them and what they remember from their Kindergarten year.
She shared a few of the “before and after” photos with me and told me that she was looking forward to getting together with 16 kids who are still in the area from this year’s high school graduates, her former “Kindercritters” as she calls them affectionately. She has saved some of the notes their parents sent her during those school days and she is excited to hear what their plans are for their next stage of life.
Nicholas knew what she wanted to do with her life from an early age. She briefly owned a nursery school in Flagstaff, but didn’t enjoy being a boss and business owner. “All I really wanted to do was teach,” she shared. She spent 20 years teaching first grade and 27 years teaching Kindergarten before retiring eight years ago.
When she started out, Kindergarten was only half-day, but later on it switched to an optional full-day class. She made sure to stress academics in the morning when all the kids were together. Many of them knew their ABCs already, but she worked hard to make sure each kid in her classroom spent time working on reading, writing, spelling and handwriting, even keeping journals at such a young age. “I made sure we did something special each week, like a field trip or having the fire department stop by, so they would have something they could write about. They had to write at least three sentences in their journal each week.”
As a longtime Prescott resident, she runs into her former students around town. Lots of times they recognize her before she recognizes them. Sometimes she can still see the five-year-old she remembers in their faces. Maybe it’s an expression when they see her that gives it away and brings her back to the classroom all those years ago, conjuring up their first name at least. Sometimes she has to ask. “I remember a tall guy with his arms open coming at me,” she said. “I know you’re going to hug me, but I need to know who you are.”
Even at my own job, when I mentioned Penny’s name, two of my coworkers had good stories to share – one as a former student herself and another whose daughter was in Mrs. Nicholas’ class. And when I mentioned both of their names, Penny remembered both of them and told me to tell them to stop by and say hello soon.
It’s bittersweet to think after this year, there will only be four more classes of Kindercritters left for her to visit with before all the kids she’s taught in the last 47 years will officially be adults. But she knows as long as she lives in Prescott, she will continue to run into the kids whose lives she started on such a strong educational path, seeing many of them working and raising their own families in this community.
Prescott-area resident Kelly Paradis is a community liaison for Good Samaritan Home Health and Hospice and Prescott Evening Lions president. She has fond memories of her own Kindergarten teacher back in Minnesota.