Portrait: 1,030 Kids and Counting

PORTRAIT: 1,031 KIDS AND COUNTING

Lily Tomlin said “I like a teacher who gives you something to take home to think about besides homework.”

For 38 years Michelle Mangan has been a teacher. Most of

those years is teaching kindegarten or pre-kindegarten children, here in the South Bay. She estimates 1,031 kids taught to date. Classes range from 20 to over 32, at any given time.

The kids come in various sizes and shapes, some of whom present more challenge than others. So what? Mrs. Mangan is as dedicated now as ever. In fact she thinks one of her very best years was during the Pandemic because she had to go to unusual lengths to prepare projects, packets, materials and flash cards to keep the kids motivated and engaged.

Most teachers prefer not to teach kindergarten or pre-k. Not so Michelle Mangan. “It gives me an early opportunity to set a foundation. Keep in mind I may well be the first one at any school to teach them about expectations, pride, to be a good person, to be kind, and to give back. All of that is as important as the A, B, C’s.”

Mrs. Mangan is not thinking retirement. She is thinking how much more there is to do. She is thinking about tomorrow.

Life outside the classroom invariably presents its own challenges. Michelle has overcome cancer, and a brain tumor, no less. Married, with a daughter looking to start college next Fall, Michelle keeps at it. “The classroom is often sixty hours, six days a week. The Beatles sang ’Eight Days a Week’, so I’m coasting...”

Over the years, kids come back to visit her, now much taller, some adults. She is invited to graduations, weddings, even births. She occasionally bumps into parents. “They often say such tender things”, which reassures her. “I always wanted to be a teacher, from a very early age, so I’m livin’ the dream!”

If the school district is looking for a poster girl with a new campaign: “Dedicated to Your Child”, her image would work very well.

“There are difficulties, not the least of which is having to share information with parents that they do not want to hear,

or believe, and which you do not want to tell them. This is their child, their flesh and blood. But, it’s part of what teachers have to do. We are soldiers at the front line of education, that’s it.”

In the past 3 years Mrs. Mangan has moved classrooms, three times, involving 500 boxes. Five hundred boxes. She embraces good learning, she has treasure chests of teaching gems. For Michelle, each new room is like moving into another house.

Actual teaching began at 21 with teen moms and their babies. Some of the children were from very poor families. Yet, there are very hard situations in this community as well.

“Some kids have considerable challenges, such as anxiety, obsessive compulsive behavior, attention deficit disorder, some are on the spectrum, and some simply struggle to learn. My view is simple: Don’t enlist to teach if avoiding stress is a high priority. This is not a job you can phone-in. Teachers are often underappreciated, but when you see that a very young student has begun to develop a strong foundation, that you have helped to build that foundation, you forget about the hours, the pay, the complaints, the difficulties. You can’t wait until the next day, when the sun comes out, you expect it to, you insist! I finish a day and tomorrow becomes at least as important.”

By Ron Sokol, South Bay resident, and author of “Ask the Lawyer” in the Daily Breeze and Long Beach Press Telegram.