'This is my heart': Tallahassee's Creative Pre-School celebrates 50th year

To see Dr. Pam Phelps may require some stop-frame photography. Phelps doesn’t rest, sit down (except in very small chairs), and it appears, daily covers every inch of the one and a half acres, three buildings, and numerous outdoor shelters of her Creative Pre-School premises off Tharpe Street.

For the last 50 years, Phelps has been not only the founder and prime-mover of the experiential school for little tykes, but a researcher, national lecturer, writer, and developer of a play-based curriculum for children, birth to school entry, that has now been adopted in Indonesia for use in their early education programs.

The Tallahassee Democrat tagged behind Phelps one day during Creative Pre-School’s Golden Anniversary month this April as she moved from busy room to busy room. Located in a working-class neighborhood, the blue concrete block building, with its porches and fenced play areas isn’t fashionably upscale.

Caring for generations

But it has been home to a learning program that has seen generations of little children grow to successful adults.  Inside, there isn’t a board of what was once an old church building that Phelps doesn’t know. “I bought it in the early '70s, back when the land was zoned for agriculture,” she says. “I paid $20,000 for all of it, and $20,000 to renovate it.”

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The outlines of a church sanctuary can be guessed out in the main school, with an elevated altar area now serving as the kindergarten and a “sanctuary” divided into four play spaces by shoulder-high shelves and boxes of toys, blocks, and items that little hands can manipulate and create with.

There are 54 children in the pre and kindergarten sections, and across the street in a separate building, 25 younger children in the affectionately called, “Baby House,” where little ones who can’t yet walk and toddlers will “grow together.”

Several teachers are 'lifers'

What strikes a visitor immediately is the number of teachers in casual blue T-shirts who move in and out of the groups of children. “We have 16 teachers,” says Phelps. That works out to about 4.6 children per teacher. And many of them are “lifers.”

That is to say that “Chuck” has been with Phelps for 34 years. “Sandy” for 37 years. Dr. Laura for 42 years. “We train our teachers in our curriculum, selecting them for their love of children and commitment to using play as the foundation for learning and building the learning into the play.”

In one corner, Miss Cathie is seated at a half-moon table with a half dozen 5 and 6-year-old children around her. They are all holding scissors and cutting out large circles onto which each child glues round eyes and soon a long trunk. They are making elephants as they discuss something serious.

“What is endangerment?” asks Miss Cathie. Hands go up. A dark-haired girl describes jungles being cut down so “the animals can’t make their homes anymore.” A boy points out that people want to cut off the elephant’s tusks. The children cut and paste for a minute or two, then Miss Cathie asks, “How many feet does the elephant have?” Then, “How many do you have? How many feet are there together?”

And, “What if a baby elephant came along… how many feet are there now?” The themed discussions take place in other sections of the school too. “Patterning, the zebra’s stripes as an example, helps children recognize patterns in nature as well as in math and reading,” says Phelps. But all the time the children are moving, active, going from place to place, manipulating, and creating. The water table and the “cooking with mud” kitchen are examples.

'Play-based curriculum'

Phelps says that Marie Montessori revolutionized the materials that children use in early childhood education, especially those dealing with math, letters, etc. “We use these materials as well, but emphasize building, dramatic play, and using fluid materials like paint, sand, and water in our play-based curriculum.”

Pam Phelps says that her own upbringing was somewhat, “feral.” “My parents let me go pretty much where I wanted. I spent a lot of time with my dad exploring the woods — investigating!”

Later, she earned a teaching degree and taught for a time in the public schools as she began to raise her own three children. “Our home was always filled with neighbor children…along with 30 gerbils, dogs, cats, snakes…”

Phelps went on to earn a Master's and Ph.D. in Early Childhood Education as Creative Pre-School was growing. As an academically-based educator, Phelps’ opinions on learning are laced with research reports, studies by major institutions, and her own experience working with children for over 50 years.

From conferences to cooking breakfast

She admits to having little patience with parents or politicians who purport to know how to educate children. "Watering-down education or making children fit into test-score parameters are not helpful for developing healthy adults,” Phelps says.

In another room, eight children are building with large wooden blocks. One 5-year old has built a stable. A boy, two large robots. There appears to be a church with a pulpit, and beside it, perhaps a Grecian temple. Mr. Chuck titles each one with the child’s name and the name of the creation.

Outside in the fenced Fairy Playground, children take part in little scenarios, working out the best way to deal with a situation where someone kicked over your blocks — how to understand why someone would do that and how to integrate them back into the group. “Getting ready to enter school is not just about whether you can read or not,” nods Phelps.

As Phelps ticks off a few of the conferences and presentations she will soon be giving, Mr. Keith, another 20+-year employee, zips by with lunch. The children are given breakfast, lunch and midday snacks each day — most of them cooked by Phelps. Just another of the myriad tasks that seem to only invigorate the 82-year-old founder.

And what of retirement? Sitting back and enjoying your days?

“This is not just work, you know. This is my heart, my life. I love my husband dearly, but I wouldn’t be good just sitting around the house,” she says. And looking around at five tiny children cuddled up with a teacher on a swing under a tree, she says, “This isn’t a job — this is my life’s work.”

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Tallahassee's Creative Pre-School marks 50 years of learning, love