Memories

 

This has been my life verse since I accepted Jesus as Savior and Redeemer in 1975. Little did I know just how winding my path would be.  After 4 years of a  Music Education/Piano/Vocal  degree at a faith-based college in western NY, followed by a time of straying from my faith, followed by a year of teaching high school music, I found myself running to the Arms of God once again.  This time I asked Christ to be Lord over my life. And in doing so, He led me to a research fellowship via University of Albany (this meant:  free graduate school tuition, and a paid 52 weeks internship with teaching during the day and attending grad classes at night). I was busy but thankful for the opportunity to get my Masters of Science in Education Psychology/Special Education with a permanent certificate for NYS good for teaching infants through geriatrics.  And I only had to pay for my groceries and rent!

After that grueling year of sharing an apartment with 2 other grad students (my sister Joy and our friend Deb), I moved into an apartment with one of my special ed grad friends and the job hunt began. Within one week (and 3 weeks before our graduation ceremony in June 1987), I had FIVE job offers.  Three were easy to say No to (all public schools) I was torn between this place and the place I ended up. Sadly, the place I ended up doesn't exist any longer.  The name of the school where I accepted a Master Teacher position in one of the 3 Self-Contained Special Ed PreK rooms was Kenwood Child Development Center.  This is a place I immediately felt God wanting me to teach at.  After the first interview I wasn't sure if I had the job.  And then I received the phone call.  "Come back for round 2".  After that, I knew I had the job.  Sure enough, a week later I was offered the position and signed the  contract.  I was to begin for Summer School in July 1987.  We followed the Albany Public School calendar which meant teaching Sept thru June, then 2 weeks off, then teaching summer school for 6 weeks, then 2 weeks off. How I loved teaching my 3-5 year old special needs students.  Most of my classes all nine years that I was there, were children with speech/language disorders and/or emotionally disturbed diagnosis. A couple of students were on the autism spectrum but were on the higher level (Aspergers Syndrome). I learned sign language very quickly because for 2 years I had a deaf student. 

Every single day, walking across the expansive parking lot and lawn/playground, I literally thanked God.  I thanked Him for the opportunity to teach at this historic, beautiful place. Here is a very old photo of what the campus looked at. 

image aerial view in snow: and courtesy of  Stephen Kerwin
Albany Historic Foundation 

The building in the back, right,  with all the paths leading to it,was Kenwood Child Development Center where I taught on the first floor, back left.  If you can zoom in, you can see the pathway that makes a circle and my outside entrance of the classroom (we were the Purple Room) which first led to my veranda where we would have play centers set up on hot summer days.  This building was where the DayCare Center had rooms and where the 3 special education PreK rooms were located (the first 2 floors).   the top floors were where retired Catholic nuns lived.  The first floor also included our faculty lounge, the main office, and the kitchen.  The kindergarten and more offices were on the 2nd floor including more daycare rooms.  The daycare was separate from special ed preK (they charged tuition of course and could take more students per  room)...they were open year round just closing for major holidays. They were open 6 AM-5:30 PM.  My hours as a special ed teacher were 8 AM-3:30 PM and my students were in class from 9 AM-1 PM.   Each special ed  room had 10 students and a master teacher and an assistant plus our speech therapists, Ot, Pt, Social Worker.  I loved this job. The daycare teachers would also interact with us and all of the children interacted together on the playground. The playground was to the right of the back building where that snow covered space is.

The big complex taking up most of the photo was the Convent, Chapel, and a pricey private school called Doane Stuart School.  It was for grades k-12 and the very wealthy Albany families sent their children there. I think some children might have also been there on scholarship.  My students and I and my assistant Marta, would sometimes go to the chapel for "quiet time" on very hot summer days.  All of the buildings were of stone and brick for the most part so they stayed cool with no air conditioning.  

Kenwood Child Development Center was like one big family.  We were all friends.  The other 2 special ed teachers and I actually have kept in touch over the years as have a couple of the other staff, my former boss (Special Ed Coordinator) and a couple of the daycare teachers via social media or Christmas cards. 

Why am I writing all of this??  Because Thursday evening, 23 March, it all came crashing down. 

From what I understand since this video was released (I saw it happening on our local news vs You Tube), the building that housed Kenwood CDC is still standing but is in ruins.  The private school, chapel/steeple (I saw it come crashing down and I broke down in tears) and convent are all ashes or broken stone at this point.  

Doane Stuart School/Convent before the fire
image courtesy of albany historic foundation

As we watched this unfold, the Kenwood family as we call ourselves were texting each other, commenting on each others FB pages, and just crying at the devastation and the wonderful memories we made there.  

And I couldn't help but wonder what I would be feeling if I could have remained teaching there.  You see, after my one year maternity leave in 1993-1994, I returned to my purple room for Summer School 1994 and placed our oldest girl in the Infant Daycare room there. I taught until June 1995, and then I felt like God was leading me to be a stay at home mom for a few years. When Claire was born, and I was ready to go back to work when she turned 5, I discovered that the special ed classrooms had had to  close due to lack of funding from the state. How sad I was that I couldn't return to the teaching job I loved best. I taught at Kenwood for 9 years.  But some of my colleagues were there for 13 and a couple were there from the beginning! (1968).  And then sometime later in the early 2000s, the daycare center  either moved or closed.  I honestly don't know what happened with it.  The private school...the part that had the devastating fire....closed in 2005 and they moved across the Hudson River to a new building. 

It's memories that keep love alive, and wow did I have a love for that school.

Although the campus is destroyed and the fire inspectors will begin their investigation into what happened, we are holding fast to all the good memories we have of teaching, laughing, playing, learning, growing, and loving the children whose lives we touched and who touched ours. We will always have our memories. 

my mug from our 20th Anniversary celebration
my 2nd year of teaching

I have taught at four other places since leaving Kenwood (not counting my time teaching and training my own 2 daughters and not counting the piano students I had in my small studio the first 7 years of our marriage).  When Claire, our youngest was 8 months, I took a "job" (volunteer position with them paying part of my daycare costs) teaching parenting classes at a crisis pregnancy center (faith-based) to moms/dads mandated by family court to get some parenting skills. I did this part time for 5 years before "burning out" from that. I have been a PreK co-teacher at a private school in Troy where all of the families pay exorbitant fees to have their child schooled there. That was a one year job due to the other teacher returning from her leave of absence.  Then I worked (didn't really teach...just guided and provided 1:1 instruction) as a program aide for our local public school (loved it for 5 years and hated it the last couple....I quit in 2016 due to admin changes and things I was witnessing that were not ok and no one taking some of us seriously about these matters).  After a one semester of a sabbatical, I returned to special ed PreK as an Assistant Teacher at the school I'm currently at and will retire from in June.  It's like I've come full circle.  I started in Special Ed PreK and now am ending in a school that is a close second to Kenwood. But...it's not Kenwood.  Like our first loves, I think we always remember our first significant teaching experience. I treasure every memory I have of that place. 

May the Kenwood Complex live on in our memories.