Stinson to retire from GR schools at end of the month

GLEN RIDGE, NJ — Cynthia Stinson, a preschool, special-education teacher at Linden Avenue School, is retiring at the end of this month.

Stinson has taught in the district for 17 years and has been a teacher for 20 years.
“I taught for three years, took 17 years off to raise my kids, and then went back to teaching for another 17 years to put my kids through school,” she said in her Linden Avenue School classroom last week.

She said it was time for her to retire. But she said she worked this last year not to help put her children through school but just for the joy of teaching.
“I love teaching and I love these kids,” she said.

No one knew she was planning on retiring until this spring, she said.
“All my colleagues were mad and sad,” she said. “The good thing about this program is that it’s a team. The team will continue. They just need a teacher.”
The program, which combines a teacher with therapists and an aide, began 19 years ago. Stinson has been a part of the program almost since its inception.

“I came in September 1999, as the aide,” she said. “The teacher left in February 2000 and I took over.”

Stinson was certified at Keene State College, in New Hampshire.
“I always wanted to be a teacher since sixth grade,” she said. “We had a program in my sixth grade and you had to pick what you wanted to be when you grew up. I picked a kindergarten teacher.”

Stinson said the school which she attended as a girl only went to the sixth grade.
“I helped the kindergarten teacher during the day,” she said. “I remember doing things with the children. I guess that is where it started.”
Teaching has changed since she began.

“There’s more paperwork,” Stinson said. “The kids are the same. The techniques are basically the same. But the administration-thing has basically changed.”
Stinson’s students are as young as 3 years old. They stay with her until they
are 5.

“The goal is to get them ready for pre-kindergarten,” she said. “For the most part, we do it well. I love this program because we have this rapport with the pre-K.”
Another thing that has changed in teaching is the use of technology.

“I’m not a fan of the technology for these kids,” Stinson said. “I think they should be playing with blocks and Lego. They should come to school and manipulate stuff. They can always go home and sit in front of the computer screen.”

The playing in which preschoolers at Linden Avenue are involved is purposeful playing, Stinson said.

“Three-year-olds have to learn to share,” she said. “With blocks, they have to be shown that squares can be made into triangles. There’s a lot of playing and socialization. This is how they learn.”

While the children are playing, Stinson said they are also learning how to communicate through speech.

“It’s all infused,” she said. “While they’re playing, they learn their language.”
She said if anyone wanted to become a preschool, special-education teacher, she would tell them that they have to love little children, have patience, and understand how these children develop.

“For the special-education part, you learn a lot of techniques,” she said. “The teacher has the therapists all day long.”

Stinson knows when she has succeeded when she sees a former student promoted from Linden Avenue as a general education student. Linden Avenue School is a pre-K to second grade school.

Having a former student become a general-education student is the ultimate goal for her. But there are small, successful steps along the way. It may only be that a student sat in their own desk without help, she said.

“Promotion is fine,” Stinson said, “but it’s the little things that keep us going. That’s what I’m going to miss.”

One thing that Stinson found out as a preschool, special-education teacher is that her former students do not remember her. The parents do, of course, but not their children. Stinson said it was interesting to discover that she was forgotten.

“We do a lot of hard things,” she said. “And a parent will say to the child, ‘There’s your preschool teacher.’ But they don’t remember me. I don’t care if they remember me. I just want to get them ready for pre-K and life.”

Stinson said as a preschool, special-education teacher, she met a lot of parents who, for the first time, learned that their child needed help.
“So, we try to make it easier for them, too,” Stinson said.

Stinson is the wife of Pastor David Stinson, of the Glen Ridge Congregational Church. “I’m going to spend more time at the church,” she said, “and volunteering and reading.”

Before she returned to teaching, Stinson said she was doing a lot of rug-hooking. She may do that again. And there is always Sunday School. Except when she was in college, Stinson has taught Sunday School since the sixth grade.

“I think that I will teach Sunday School forever,” she said.