Mrs. Linda Peterson's Teaching Career

Teaching in 1976

Dear Laura,

I recently received an invitation to my 50th Golden Reunion at Texas Wesleyan College on April 25, 2026. Sam and I plan to attend the breakfast. 1976 was also the year I graduated from college with my degree in Elementary Education and certification in Kindergarten. The kindergarten certification required an extra semester.

At that time, I was going to school, managing household responsibilities—cooking, cleaning, and more—and working every weekday from 2:00 to 6:00 at Little Tyke Day Care Center. I had applied to Birdville I.S.D. and was waiting to hear if I had been hired. On the Friday before school was set to begin, while I was at work, I suddenly thought, “I haven’t been hired.”

The next day, Saturday, I received a call—I had been hired to teach kindergarten. I would teach mornings at Browning Heights in Haltom City and afternoons at O. H. Stowe, both in Birdville I.S.D. The man who hired me gave me the school addresses. Since I wasn’t familiar with either one, I went to see the classrooms that very day. The school secretary had already arranged the tables and chairs. I remember calling my parents to share the news and tell them I needed to be ready to start teaching on Monday. My father said, “You have been getting ready to teach for years.”

Kindergarten was still new in Texas—I believe it was only the second year it was offered. My parents, who were from Iowa, had attended kindergarten, but I had not. While working at Little Tyke Day Care Center, I discovered that I especially loved working with five-year-olds, which is why I wanted to teach kindergarten.

David Smith was my principal. I’ve seen him recently at Birdville Association of Retired School Personnel meetings—he is now one hundred years old. He was also friends with your grandfather, Jack Peterson, who was the principal of Snow Heights Elementary.

I especially loved the kindergarten room at Browning Heights. It was an addition with a door that opened to the outside—and best of all, I had a key. I could come and go as needed and even control the thermostat. There were two kindergarten classrooms connected, with two bathrooms between them.

On the first day of school, I greeted the students, took their pictures with a Polaroid camera, and wrote their names on the photos to help me learn them quickly. I read The Gingerbread Man to the class and gave them gingerbread cookies.

I was very happy as a kindergarten teacher. Five-year-olds are a special age—they truly want to please their teacher. I believed strongly in positive reinforcement and would often say, “I like the way Timmy is sitting and showing me, he is ready to listen.” We had many fun days, and the students would come in each morning and greet me with big hugs.

Throughout my teaching career, Browning Heights was always my home base, though I traveled to other schools for afternoon classes. In other years, I taught at W. A. Porter, with Bette Nolen as principal, and at Mullendore with Principal John Fanning.

I was pregnant with you during my last year of teaching in 1985. That year, I had an especially wonderful class at Mullendore—the smallest I ever taught, with only 16 students. In previous years, classes had been as large as 25. I remember one especially sweet little boy named Cory. One day, he asked the class, “Who thinks the teacher will have a baby boy?” and then, “Who thinks the teacher will have a baby girl?” The girls all voted for a girl, and all the boys voted for a boy—except Cory. He voted for a girl, so the class prediction was that you would be a girl.

After you were born, Cory’s mother brought you to visit us, and he brought you a little yellow duck.

I truly enjoyed that chapter of my life as a kindergarten teacher—but becoming your mother was even better.

Love,
Mother