Lucy Wheelock

School is so exciting for them. May it always be.

Lucy Wheelock.  Do you know her?  I didn’t either…until today.

Today was the first day of the school year for our 2nd grade son.  I swear, it was just the other day when we were in his new kindergarten classroom, helping him find his cubby for art supplies and the slot for his daily, “mail.”  This year, his mail will be in the form of homework. He is less than thrilled about that last part.  And today, my husband and I are helping our daughter sort through her first day in her new kindergarten classroom, cubbies and all.  Our daughter embraces it all…for now. She is an apparent social butterfly, but who knows how or if she will change over this instrumental year.

Anyway, back to Lucy Wheelock.  I learned about her during our kindergarten get-to-know-you meeting when our school’s principal talked about the importance of kindergarten.  It’s not just, “child’s play.”

Lucy Wheelock.

It was the revolutionary Wheelock who said, "The ideal kindergarten is the ideal republic. Its little citizens are trained to self-activity, self-control, and the 'due freedom’, which comes from a regard for the rights and happiness of others.”

It's an interesting quote, made back in 1891 by the educator who later founded Wheelock College in Boston. It does seem that everything we need to know or, SHOULD, know is taught in kindergarten.  Given my daughter has gym and Spanish three times a week; an IPad lab, art and music twice a week, sign me up. I already learned a lot on her very first day!  

The start of an ideal republic.

And so today my five-year-old entered her first big girl classroom and she is now part of the ideal republic. The lessons she and her classmates learn this year will hopefully serve them well as they grow into adults...which will happen soon enough.

Be the change!

Amy Gregorio
Your Mrs. International