Giving Compass' Take:

• Ann Schimke, writing for Chalkbeat, interviews Lora Grippin, a licensed preschool teacher who runs a school out of her own home. 

• How can the education community show the importance of early childhood  education and the need  for more teachers in this field?

• Read about why the push for preschool teachers to earn costly degrees is straining the system. 

Inside her home in the rural northeastern Colorado community of Sterling, Lora Grippin runs a licensed preschool that carries the state’s rare top rating. She reads classic books — “Mary Poppins” and “Little House on the Prairie” — to her toddlers and preschoolers each afternoon. She converted a bedroom into an art room and stocked it with every conceivable kind of art supply in her quest to help her charges flex their creative muscles.

Grippin, who routinely works 10 or more hours a day, takes her job seriously. But not everyone does. People often ask if she’s “still babysitting.”

Grippin talked to Chalkbeat about how she wishes she could respond to that question, what she does when a child is having a bad day, and how she incorporates the community’s leading industry into the preschool experience.

What’s something happening in the community that affects what goes on inside your program?

We live in a small, rural, agricultural community. Our play and many of our conversations revolve around crops, farm animals, tractors (the best color of tractor is a hot topic that we avoid), and the fair. Most of the families are very involved in 4H. Agriculture is the most important contribution to our community and keeping it involved in preschool helps to prepare these young minds for adult life.

What part of your job is most difficult?
I am asked quite often if I’m still babysitting. I know that it is not meant as an insult, but it’s unintentionally very demeaning because it shows a lack of understanding about the qualifications we all hold. I would love to say in my best teacher voice, “I am a qualified, professional preschool teacher. This is my chosen occupation. I am licensed with the state of Colorado as a child care provider and have to follow their rules and regulation.

Read the full article about preschool teacher by Ann Schimke at Chalkbeat