I had a follow up visit at the Doctor’s office last week that reminded me of one of my favorite things about what we do. This particular Doctor is a former Greystone House parent. As I was leaving, he reminded me to say hi to one of our teachers from his kids. This is a common request. We get families that come back to visit fairly regularly, and it isn’t unusual at all for us to see a first or second grader giving their former teachers a hug. What stood out about this request is that his kids had been at Greystone House from the youngest ages and are now in high school. And their teacher is still with us.

We are very fortunate to have some very long tenured staff. Our professional staff in particular has an average tenure that is in the double digits in terms of years of service. Part of our long tenure average is of course good fortune. Part of it is that we have benefits for staff to take advantage of. Of course part of it is the environment itself which is well managed and as caring for staff as it is for children. But we think one of the biggest reasons is we let our teachers teach. They get to do what they were trained to do and what they are passionate about and it shows.

We think this longevity has a number of benefits for our families when it comes to our teachers and long-term staff.
– Our teachers know the curriculum very well and have had a large number of opportunities over the years to see what works and what doesn’t. They are better teachers with better material as a result.
– Stability is very important for young children and the fact that a child who entered the primary class three years ago still has the same teacher when Kindergarten begins goes a long way toward emphasizing the type of stability we offer.
– Your children are being cared for by people who have chosen what they do as a profession – not just a job. It is because of the love they have for children that they are here. We think that is priceless. We also know it is why we have so many families that start at 6 weeks and stay until public school starts.

From the point of view of the children, a teacher who is engaged, loving, and equipped to deal with all of the events that can occur throughout the day is priceless. They can’t tell you that, but if they have a teacher that isn’t capable you would see a difference. Obviously not all children connect with every teacher, but keeping teachers around long enough to give them the chance is critical.

What this blog is really all about for us is to take the opportunity to say a very public thank you to our teachers (and all teachers who are engaged and care deeply about what they do). We are all better because of you and we hope they know just how much.