The Final Bell : Teacher’s 43 Years in Kindergarten Coming to Close

Forty-three years and 1,500 kindergartners ago, Carol Haver taught her first class. Television was a novelty then, personal computers were a fantasy, working mothers were anomalies and nap times and graham crackers were kindergarten staples.

Today, television is universal, PCs and working moms nearly so. Nap time and graham crackers have gone the way of Buffalo Bob and Howdy Doodie. Only one thing remains the same, Haver says: kids.

“The curriculum has changed, our lifestyles have changed, but children don’t change, really,” Haver said, looking back on her teaching career. “They still have the same basic need for self-esteem and they still need that love.”

After more than four decades in the classroom, Haver, 68, will retire today from Gates Elementary School, where she has spent the past 23 years teaching kindergarten.

Before that, the Santa Ana resident taught 20 years in Northern California, Downey and Manhattan Beach. Except for 1947, when she was a student teacher, Haver has taught those attending their first year of elementary education.

“Unless I look in the mirror, I don’t know how old I am,” said Haver, a diminutive bundle of energy who admits she has difficulty sitting still. “Every year, I look forward to school starting because I love it so. But it is time to go on now. But I know, come September, I’m going to miss it.”

In her classroom recently, it was evident that Haver had not slowed much over the years. As usual, she was in her room more than an hour before the first student arrived. When they finally entered at 9 a.m., she tried to greet each child personally, asking, “How is my friend this morning?”

On this day two students handed her notes saying “I love you.”

“I try every day to talk to every single child, give them a hug or a smile, just tell them, ‘I missed you,’ or ‘Do you have any special news?’ ” Haver said. “Because I know that some of their parents are very busy and may not get a chance that day to talk much to their child, even though they love them.”

On her classroom walls are student paintings and photographs of a recent class trip to the beach. An upright piano with a faded finish sits in the back, along with two easels. An aquarium with nine goldfish is in one corner, a bowl filled with tadpoles in the other.

Haver sat in a chair in the front of the room while her 29 charges sat cross-legged around her on the floor. The Pledge of Allegiance was recited, “God Bless America” sung, and those students staying for the school lunch were asked to decide between pizza, chicken nuggets or sausage and biscuits.

The days of the week were listed out loud. A girl counted to 170 by 10. The class laughed when she made a mistake and Haver reprimanded them softly, reminding them that “being nice is what makes friends.”

Songs about “Jumbo the Elephant” and “The Funny Giraffe” were sung, then Haver donned a dolphin hand puppet for a story about a boy whose bike was stolen because he was careless. After recess, the students spent 30 minutes in the school’s computer lab playing a game to familiarize them with computer keyboards. Then it was snack time, which was followed by an arts and crafts class.

“I want to be childlike without being childish,” she said of her teaching approach.

On the eve of retirement, Haver says she wonders if kindergarten has become too fast-paced. Nap time was abolished, she noted, because it cut into the children’s class time. “I’m concerned about this because I think children need that quiet time,” she said. “I think it is possible for children to become too stimulated.”

Yet, she says, she has never lost patience with her students, although she wants to get their full attention during lessons, which can be difficult sometimes. To her, noise means the students are being creative.

“She makes you feel good by making you be her friend,” said Ashley Yergler, 5.

Tyler Dobbs, a 6-year-old whose father, Michael, was Haver’s student 20 years ago, said Haver was a good teacher “because she is really confident and she works hard.”

Although she once taught Pat Boone’s nieces, Haver says none of her former students are famous, but many have become successful in business, law, teaching and medicine. The only difference Haver sees between children of 1948 and 1991 is that the latter are more worldly.

“They still like their bikes and their skateboards and their roller skates, but they have seen a lot on television and they don’t see their mothers as much,” Haver said. “But you could bring my first class to 1991 and they would fit in.”

In retirement, Haver and her husband of 44 years, Warren, a retired school psychologist, plan to split their time between Orange County and the Monterey area. She wants to write children’s books, redecorate her home and travel. The couple never had children, but she says her students filled that need.

“They are my family,” she said.