TEACHER'S CORNER: TEACHER FINDS ENERGY IN KINDERGARTEN CLASS

"All I ever needed to know I learned in kindergarten ..." is more than a matted and framed wall hanging in Jean Norman's classroom. For the past 25 years, boys and girls at the Primary Annex in Jackson have been helping her understand what energetic enthusiasts called kindergartners really need to know.

Norman said realizing they are in school with classmates and a teacher is not a hard concept for kindergartners. However, she said, the idea of receiving enough attention in a group of more than 20 is a bit more challenging. "I tell them we're like a big family," she said. "We have to help take care of each other. We will be sharing with more people than we're used to. All of this means cooperation and that is our class motto."

Five-year-olds are quite impulsive and usually a little more honest than adults, Norman said. They are full of questions and surprises. One day you may be in the middle of a discussion about fire prevention, she said, when the little fellow on the third row announces that he is growing hair on his arm. "Of course everyone else needs to see the hair immediately," she said, "and you know from experience that the safety instruction cannot resume until the arm has been inspected."

Norman said she has received many helpful hints from her mother, who was also a teacher. Two things a teacher should keep in her desk at all times, she said, is lotion for aches and pains and Lifesavers for sore throats. These things have saved many students from trips to the school nurse, she said.

Norman's husband is also employed by Jackson R-2, which she said makes for nice vacations and holidays. She enjoys golfing, traveling, yard work, and spoiling her nieces and nephews in her off time.

"Some of my friends say they wouldn't want my job," Norman said. "But where else would you get to see a real pig's eye, passed around with pride from 'Grandpa's butchering'? Where else would you get a quail's foot to 'take home and keep forever'? Where else would you find love notes, big red apples and bouquets of dandelions? I love kindergarten!"