You have to have heartfelt interest in teaching to have it work for you.

Joy Plugge, 70, taught kindergarten for 21 years at Lassen Elementary School in Sepulveda until she retired in 1983. She is now back at Lassen as an aide to a 22-year-old teacher. Plugge is widowed and lives in Van Nuys. Iwent to a country school, District 71, outside Falls City, Neb. One to eight grades, all in one room, but, man, did you ever get a good education. There were about two students in each grade. I think there’s nothing like it.

We went to school at 8:30 in the morning and didn’t get out until 4 in the afternoon. Walking to school 3 miles in hip-deep snow, it was good exercise. All my family have been very healthy because we were out every day walking.

I was poor and couldn’t go to college. I went to work right away. I wanted to be a journalist. The first job I got after I got out of high school was at a newspaper office. That disillusioned me because I couldn’t stand the language. It was bad, especially the sports people. At that time, I don’t think it was a woman’s world. Then I went to work for a doctor. I’ve had a lot of different careers. I used to work for the Auto Club.

I didn’t start college until I was 38. I graduated when I was 41 and went to work right away as a teacher. I went into teaching because, financially, I needed a job. I had two brothers in teaching and they both said: “You’re a born teacher.” So I talked to my husband, and we decided that would be the best thing to do. I could be part-time housewife and part-time career woman. My daughter was 9 and my son was 12.

When I started teaching in kindergarten, I fell in love with it right away. Kindergarten children have very open minds, and you can introduce anything in the world and they’re very enthused. They haven’t learned to be blase yet.

When Lassen School opened in 1962, I came to this room, K-1, as a kindergarten teacher. It was beautiful when we came in. It was brand-new and all the trees were just starting to grow. It’s older now, and a lot of children have passed through. I stayed in this room until I retired five years ago.

After I retired, I came in as a volunteer and worked on Fridays for a couple of years. Then they needed an aide to the teacher in this room. She started last September, so she’s a comparatively new teacher. I came to work two or three weeks ago. So here I am back in the very same classroom where I began.

My job is to help her, and I do some of her paper work. I like it very much because I spend four hours a day and I’m all through. As a teacher, you spend 24 hours a day and you’re never through.

Teaching kindergarten is pretty stressful at times due to the noise level and discipline problems. You have to have iron nerves. Also, I never was able to get teaching out of my mind. If we went on a vacation to the mountains, we collected pine cones to use in the classroom. And, if we went to the beach, we collected rocks. I was sort of half teaching all the time.

I think kindergarten is one of the vital points. I think the most important point of kindergarten is the social side--children learning to work in groups, learning to share things together, learning to help one another.

The good things about teaching are that you feel you’re really helping children and you’re doing good in the world. If you’re not too concerned about salary, then I say teaching is really perfect. I’ve enjoyed teaching more than anything else that I’ve done. But if you’re concerned about salary and about putting in a set number of hours a day, then I wouldn’t recommend it. You have to have heartfelt interest in teaching to have it work for you.

My father wanted me to be a teacher. That was the last thing I wanted to do. But it worked out very well. Also, my children worked out very well. My son went to West Point, and my daughter graduated from Berkeley in an honors class. They’re both married and have their own homes and children. And, to me, that’s about as successful as a parent can be.