After dedicating more than 38 years to teaching thousands of students, Susan DarDar said she'll retire from Meaux Elementary School in Abbeville after this school year.
DarDar's mantra for her classroom is kindness.
"[Be kind] not only to yourself, but to everybody around you," DarDar said.
Nearly forty years ago, DarDar began her teaching career working with high school students in Vermilion Parish, but in 2002 she said she fell in love with the pre-kindergarten population.
"Our little people come with big emotions," DarDar said. "We have to show our kids how to handle these emotions...It's okay to have any of these emotions, but how you deal with them, is most important."
Erica Stephens said DarDar teaches her three-year-old son Theodore this year and she's thankful.
"She's [DarDar] just the perfect balance of love, discipline," Stephens said. "I would just say when I got that call and she called me and said, 'I'm going to have your little one...He's my last one...I literally cried...I feel so blessed."
DarDar said the journey and experience of teaching has been so rewarding, even after retirement, she said she plans to visit Meaux Elementary and continue helping students in her community.
"I'm going to do something this year," DarDar said. "I put it on my Amazon wishlist—a kindness book and it's kindness rocks. And someone donated me the book and someone else donated me the rocks and we're going to paint the rocks and we're going to put them around the school."
