A ‘strong and caring’ nursery school teacher leaves her mark.
By: Diane Landis Hackett
Audrey Johnson of Princeton sits comfortably in a pint-sized chair in the classroom where she has taught preschool for the past 36 years. Her brusque demeanor turns soft for a moment as she tries to capture what she loves about teaching and what she will miss now that she is retiring.
"I don’t think of myself as a teacher. I show them what to do, but they are more like my playmates. I loved having all those little friends and thinking up projects for them," she says.
Ms. Johnson’s teaching style has been described as unique, stern and straightforward. "She loves children but she is not gentle and sweet," says Helen Duncan, her longtime colleague at Mary Dietrich Cooperative Nursery School. "She is strong and caring," she says.
Jeanne DeVoe, the former president of the Mary Dietrich board and a parent of a 4-year-old who attended Ms. Johnson’s class, witnessed Ms. Johnson’s influence first hand. "She is really a remarkable teacher. The thing that stands out about her is that she loves the kids. The school’s child-centered philosophy is definitely modeled after her teaching style," explains Ms. DeVoe.
The organization’s board recently facilitated the renaming of the school in honor of Johnson to Mary Dietrich Johnson Cooperative Nursery School.
Ms. Johnson is known for her creative approach to projects. When the class made stained glass, she took them on a walk to Princeton University to see the windows in the chapel. On soup day the class makes their own noodles and every child brings a vegetable from home to go in the soup. Then the families are invited to eat the soup together in class.
It was in 1967 that Ms. Johnson began volunteering her time to care for children at the Nassau Presbyterian Church in Princeton. At that time, the associate pastor of the church, the Rev. Mary Dietrich, wanted to offer parents more free time, so she organized a cooperative child care exchange. Today the school, still located in the basement of the church, is an accredited nursery school with 10 paid staff members and an enrollment of approximately 60 children.
Some believe Ms. Johnson’s childlike interest in learning has played an important role in her career.
Plainsboro resident Larry Birch, whose son, Tyler, attended this year’s class, describes her as one in a million. He recounts a story about the first time he dropped off his son at school. He was aware that small talk was not encouraged at drop-off, so he was surprised when Ms. Johnson summoned him over. "Come and look at this. I found this bug. What do you think it is?," she said, handing him a large, ugly bug. "I think it is a cockroach," he replied. With this, she marched over to her bug book and looked it up. Once she found the exact name, she put it in a cup and proceeded to show every child as they entered the classroom.
"Maybe this is how people used to teach," Mr. Birch says. "She was always bringing things out for the kids to do and see, but she never force-fed them."
He also recounts the time she argued with two "burly" electric company workers to give her a meter they had just replaced at her home. When they finally consented, she brought it into school and laid it on the project table with some screwdrivers and let the kids take it apart.
"The kid’s just eat it up. They can’t get enough of her," he says.
"Audrey is a gift to the nursery school and the Presbyterian church," says Betsy Ruddy, whose grown children attended the school and were also cared for by Ms. Johnson in the Nassau Presbyterian Church nursery, where she has worked on Sundays for more than 30 years.
Ms. Ruddy, an assistant professor of psychology at The College of New Jersey, views Audrey’s contribution from a professional and a personal standpoint.
"Every child should have a chance to have this type of preschool experience," says Ms. Ruddy. "There is a lot of controversy over children being pushed. There is a worry that they are not allowed to use their imagination enough at age three and four these days."
Ms. Johnson’s contribution goes beyond the school and the church nursery. She is an active volunteer for the Stony Brook Millstone Watershed Association and the Audubon Society. She also has played the piano for senior citizens, many of whom are younger than she is, at Merwick Rehabilitation Center.
As a divorced mother of three, Ms. Johnson juggled a number of jobs. She drove a school bus in the mornings to put her three children through college; at night she taught piano lessons, and in the summertime she ran a day camp at her home. A longtime friend, whose children were in Ms. Johnson’s class at Mary Dietrich and in her day camp, praised Ms. Johnson’s tenacity. "There were not many ways for women to make money back then, but Audrey made it work," says Jean Parsons of Princeton.
What’s next for Ms. Johnson? "I can’t imagine her sitting around the house and knitting," says Ms. Ruddy. And this is true.
At the age of 84, Ms. Johnson will start again in Goshen, near Cape May Courthouse, where her daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren live. There she says she will work at her daughter’s newly purchased gas station/restaurant/liquor store called Garrison’s Pub. She jokes that she will be pumping gas. And then, more seriously, says that she will probably just be cooking for the restaurant, reupholstering a few chairs and playing piano at her grandson’s school.
"I like to keep busy," Ms. Johnson says, avoiding the word retirement altogether.