![]() So why not stay and teach as long as I can. “I could retire…but what would I do with my free time? I’d just come back to volunteer here anyway. And then there are full-circle stories like this: one of Ron’s students from his days at Emerson CDC is now a mom, and her daughter is in Ron’s class. “But our principal Caroline Jones said, ‘Why don’t you stick around another year? I don’t think you’re ready to go yet.’ I think she was right.”įor one, he’s excited about the direction of OUSD’s Early Childhood Education program, praising Director Christie Anderson and the rest of the team, as well as Principal Jones and fellow Manzanita CDC staff. “I was going to do it this June,” he says. Parents can go to work with their mind at ease that their child is fine.” “I could retire, but…”Īfter 34 years of teaching, retirement has naturally crossed Ron’s mind. That way, they can see their child is happy, having fun, learning. “From day one, I start taking pictures and text them to parents. “Keeping communication open with parents is so important,” Ron says. He also stays in touch throughout the school day. If a student is in the hospital, he will sit with Spanish-speaking parents and help with translation. I couldn’t ask for a better situation.”Īll of the families have Ron’s cell phone number, and he encourages them to text him, no matter the hour or day. “Our parents and families are wonderful,” he says. When the materials for the school’s new garden beds arrived, so did parents from Ron’s classroom, quickly pitching in to set up the planters and fill them with soil and mulch. “Especially for students with behavior challenges, or who’ve suffered trauma, getting them out in the open air and mud and water just seems to soothe them,” he says. Ron also sees time in the garden as a calming experience. “And we’ve still got a little room left to grow.” He then helps them build meals out of their harvests, whipping up a big stir fry or salad. “Kids have planted green beans, carrots, broccoli, chard, zucchini, cucumbers, cabbage, sugar peas, and we’ve got a pumpkin vine growing,” says Ron. “Sometimes parents will ask, ‘How can I get my child to eat vegetables?’ Well, when they’re doing the gardening, it’s very simple: they’ve grown it, they take care of it, they eat it right off the plant! They’re building better eating habits: fresh fruits and vegetables, especially organic-organic is all we grow here.” This sense of ownership and connection, Ron says, turns kids into natural veggie eaters. It’s all entirely up to them, with minor supervision.” This is a green space they can take care of, have ownership of. “In Oakland students grow up around so much cement, with not a lot of open space. “The garden is just a wonderful place,” he says. With the recent addition of two garden beds thanks to an Ed Fund A to Z mini-grant, the space is flourishing and his young learners are mastering the art and science of gardening: planting seeds, spacing out plants to give them room to grow, then watering, tending, and watching until they’re ready to harvest. ![]() The way I see it, if they don’t leave the garden dirty, I haven’t done my job.” “When they step outside, they’re running for the watering cans, grabbing shovels, policing the weeds. “Kids are very excited about the garden,” says Ron. The three- and four-year olds in his class have ample opportunity to let those open minds roam, especially in Manzanita CDC’s garden, the “outdoor classroom” that is Ron’s labor of love. “They’re like sponges and they just grasp everything.” The littlest green thumbs What about early childhood education has kept him so committed since 1983? “Preschoolers just have such open minds,” says Ron. After Highland he went to Emerson CDC, teaching there for 24 years before moving to Manzanita CDC, where he’s now in his seventh year. He also never left the work: he’s been teaching preschool full-time in Oakland ever since. ![]() The children were so diverse and wonderful. ![]() When Ron Benbow became a substitute teacher at Highland Child Development Center (CDC), he saw Oakland as a temporary stop, figuring he would soon return to Sacramento.
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