Students will graduate from Pre-K3 at Opelousas Catholic on Friday, May 21.
Also graduating on that day, or rather retiring, is an Pre-K teacher who has been at the head of the class for 40 years.
That teacher is Ms. Faye Reiners.
"Having fun with the children. I learned that the children learn best through play,” she says. “I think just coming to work every day, and having fun, kept me here."
Reiners has been laying a foundation for young people since 1981 when she left a nursing career and decided she wanted something else.
And she's never looked back.
“It's passed quickly,” she says. “When I look back and see the children that have passed and now they've grown and are having children of their own. And they're coming back to OC. It's a nice feeling to know they want to send their kids back.”
Ms. Reiners scores high marks among her students because, among other things, “…she lets us play” says one child, while another adds, “…she reads us storybooks.”
The current school year will go down as her most challenging time.
“All these years we were trying to get them together to get along with each other," she says. "And all of a sudden we have to split up and keep them away from each other? That was hard.”
But the pluses of her teaching career, by far, outweigh the minuses.
Her most special moment? “I think when they hug me, tell me good bye and hug and say ‘see you tomorrow’.”
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