Ending a Textbook Career

After 22 years of helping kindergartners in Irvine start their education careers, Terry Mayle ended hers Friday in laughter and tears.

Even the last lesson she gave Friday was intended to help them in the future: how to buy lunch at the cafeteria, a skill they would find essential as long as they are in school.

As class ended for the last time in Mayle’s classroom, an airy room decorated with the work of her pupils and flowers from well-wishers, the teacher at Westwood Basics Plus School fought tears each time she addressed her wriggling students or tripped over phrases like “for the last time.”

On the last day of class for Irvine schools, Mayle, 58, greeted former students who are now proud middle school students, hugged parents and shook hands firmly with colleagues.

“Terry is up among the stars who have the knack and a gift to get kids curious. She generates that sort of thing,” said Joanne Hodder, the principal at the grade school.

“When she leaves, we will all be going through something like the empty-nest syndrome.”

During her tenure at the school--a campus that has won the national Blue Ribbon School award--Mayle has represented the school in the Irvine Teachers Assn., the Kindergarten Task Group, the School Site Council and a committee charged with helping select text and reading books.

She began her teaching career in 1964 in Los Angeles County and later taught in Washington state. But she took a break, staying at home to help raise her daughter before resuming her career in 1979 in Irvine. Mayle taught kindergarten and fell in love with the school district and its students.

And on Friday, the Newport Beach resident savored the final moments.

“Friends, this will be the last time you come here as kindergartners,” Mayle said as she sat in her classroom rocking chair and looked over her young students. She took a moment to dispense some wisdom to each child, then gave each a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

“You are now officially a first-grader,” she said. “When I’m at home, I’m going to think about how ready you are for first grade and that I have to let you go.”

It was a day for old friends too.

Elena Shaygan, 13, a former student who has visited Mayle about twice a week for nearly eight years, said her old kindergarten instructor has inspired her to someday be a teacher.

“She’s been such a wonderful teacher, and she taught me stuff I would use the rest of my life,” Elena said.

“I come to her class sometimes to take notes on how she teaches her class. None of her teaching goes to waste.”

Karen Nelson, dressed in the same floral print as Mayle, has known the kindergarten teacher since Mayle taught her children more than 20 years ago.

Nelson later became a teacher, and the two worked together in the same classroom for more than a decade.

“We’ve been together for so long, we even shop the same,” Nelson said. So close have the two become, Nelson said they sometimes finish each other’s sentences and their daily lesson plans.

Hodder said Mayle’s positive influence on children has given students a wonderful kick-start and has helped carry them through the rest of their school years.

“Kindergarten starts that whole journey,” Hodder said. “It’s like a finely tuned car--if it’s taken care of and nurtured, the trip is going to be more successful.”

On Friday the children learned a final but lasting lesson: how to handle a lunch tray.

They dutifully stood in line to collect their food, learned to balance the trays to avoid spills and were told how to open their milk cartons.

Mayle said she will spend her retirement with her soon-to-be-born grandchild, traveling and volunteering as a literacy instructor.

“The first day of school is a time for students to cry,” Mayle said. “But today is the last day of school, and it’s my turn to cry.”