Mother and daughter shape young minds

"It's a new world every day," Barbie Johnson laughs as she talks about teaching kindergarten the past 37 years. "It's neat -- they begin to start reading and are able to accomplish things they never dreamed they could do."

Johnson began her career teaching kindergarten at Trumann, serving there for three years prior to spending the past 34 at Piggott Elementary. She completed her BSE and MSE in early childhood from Arkansas State University.

"Kindergarten has totally changed," Johnson exclaimed. "When I first started kindergarten was pretty much a social setting with centers such as housekeeping, dramatic play, blocks, art and such...now it's 80 percent academics!"

At the beginning of this school year Johnson, along with the other veteran kindergarten teachers Julia Winberry and Laura French, welcomed a new kid on the block. Natalie Kennedy, Johnson's daughter, noted that she jumped at the chance of working with her mother when a kindergarten teaching position became available with the retirement of V'Ora Cooper.

"Natalie grew up in the kindergarten room with me," Johnson noted fondly. "She always volunteered on her days off from college."

Kennedy is now in her fifth year as a teacher. She began her career by spending two years teaching kindergarten in Kennett, and the last two teaching sixth grade science and social studies at PES. "Kindergarten is where my heart is and what I've always known," she noted. "Plus, I thought it would be neat to teach in Piggott and nice to work with mom! We've got similar personalities," she added.

Not only does Kennedy enjoy working with her mother, but also with her own former kindergarten teacher (Winberry) and her former babysitter, Jeanne Potts, who works as a paraprofessional in the kindergarten classes.

"It's neat to have that feeling of being at home, and to be able to teach with all the people who taught me," she noted

Another key topic of discussion between Johnson and Kennedy is a new addition to the family. Blakely Drew Donner is Johnson's granddaughter, and Kennedy's niece. Blakely's mother is Kim Donner, a nurse practitioner who serves as administrator for the Clay County Health Unit in Piggott.

In his essay "All I Ever Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten" author Robert Fulgham concluded the work with these words --- "and it is still true, no matter how old you are, when you go out into the world it is best to hold hands and stick together."

Mother and daughter, grandmother and aunt, educators, friends and now colleagues -- sticking together.