She has nurtured preschoolers with early childhood knowledge, understanding and plenty of hugs over the years.
Now, it’s time to focus on family, art and travel — in retirement.
A new chapter.
Shamong resident Susan Pickard has been a teacher at Small World Nursery School on Stokes Road in Medford for 32 years.
The private school opened in 1979, only one year before Pickard began her career. It offers care for 2½ to 5-year-olds.
Whoever is hired for her position has “big shoes to fill,” said nursery director Barbara Meimbresse.
“We work here as a team,” Meimbresse said.
There are 13 teachers on staff and 155 students this school year.
“Most of the people have been here forever,” Pickard said. “It’s just a fun place.”
When looking into preschool options, she advised parents to find out the ratio of kids to teachers and also the teacher turnover rate.
Teary-eyed after one of her last graduation practices, Pickard explained the joy she’s felt over the years as a teacher.
“It’s just a happy place to be when you’re around kids all of the time,” she said. The kids are so happy, which makes the work enjoyable.
This year, she taught 15 students in the morning program and 13 in the afternoon.
Pickard has always had a love for youngsters.
“I wanted eight children. My husband said no,” she said.
Instead, she went back to school and got an education degree from Glassboro State, now Rowan University.
She began her studies while still at home in New York state.
She also had three of her own children and so far has four grandchildren — one of whom was just graduated by the school.
Pickard heard about the job opportunity at the nursery originally — through two women who had children in her daughter’s preschool. However, she was still working toward her degree at the time.
When she started a year later, she was pregnant.
“My husband was overseas a lot,” she said. (He’s is a retired general from the Air Force).
He was involved in the Vietnam War while she raised their children, and was also involved in offensives in Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan.
“It leaves you home with your kids,” she said. “It was nice to keep busy.”
Preschools have no benefits and a different salary structure than other schools, but Pickard stayed put — even though she originally thought she would quickly move on.
“They come in pretty much like babies,” she said, but the kids’ minds are like sponges.
“They learn so much,” she said. “We do it all through fun and play. It’s wonderful.”
With the new Common Core Standards for kindergarteners, there have been teaching updates at the preschool level.
“Over the years, things have changed,” she said. “It used to be just learning their names, shapes and colors.”
At the preschool level, phonics are incredibly important, she explained.
The school focuses on a different letter each week.
The kids also embark on art projects and motor-skill development.
With the advent of the Internet, too, lesson planning became easier, she says.
“We go through the whole range of mathematical skills and reading readiness,” she said. “By the time they leave, they’ve picked up everything.”
Self-confidence growth is of huge importance, she said.
In the first week, many new students cling to the parents.
Over time, Pickard has watched them emerge without their parents.
“That’s one of the best parts of (being a teacher),” she said.
As retirement looms, Pickard fears not being around kids as much.
“The kids themselves … they motivate you,” she said.
Of course, there will be benefits to retirement. For one, she will be able to spend more time with her watercolors.
“She has such an appreciation for art,” Meimbresse said, and that has transcended into her career and into the minds and hands of the children she has taught.
Her husband operates a flexible business.
The last few years, the couple has taken summers off to travel.
“We’ll just do more traveling,” she said. “Having an Air Force husband who’s used to traveling helps.”
They’ve already visited Italy, Spain, Alaska, Hawaii, Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Caribbean Islands.
They have homes in New York and Delaware and visit their in-laws in Florida.
“I love being around my grandkids and my children,” she said. “Being with family is a big thing.”
While she is leaving her post as a full-time teacher, she wants to be a permanent substitute next year.
She will miss the hugs, though.
“Every morning, you come in and these kids are here to hug you,” she said. “When they leave, they give you a big hug.”
Whenever she would walk into her grandson’s class, she said, she would give him a hug and the other kids would pout, “That’s not fair! I need one too!”
So, she’d then go around the table and hug each child.
At a recent surprise party, her grandson looked sad and was distant. When she asked what was wrong, he responded, “Why are you doing this?” imagining that retirement meant that she was completely leaving the area.
One of her students had a similar idea, asking if retirement meant Pickard was tired of her.
When she insisted that she was not, the student responded, “Good!”
