By Michele Walsky | Observer Contributor
A streak of orange and black flutters outside the Garrison Education conference room, attracting Professor Maureen Provost’s attention for a moment and she’s pleased. Planting a bush to entice butterflies is exactly the kind of open-ended lesson plan the Associate Professor of Early Childhood Education is teaching at the Mount Wachusett campus.
Happy shrieks ricochet off the playground, but the Garrison Childcare Center is far more than a daycare. It is headquarters for the Early Childhood Education and Elementary degree program, a classroom with hands-on experience with Provost at the helm. More importantly, it is a place where preschoolers bloom. “Children are egocentric so we let children steer the curriculum,” Provost said, whose unofficial title is “Glitter Slinger.”
If growing minds are fascinated by falling acorns, the week’s theme is acorns and autumn leaves. One child just became a big brother and the day’s agenda switched to a chart of birth weight guesses. The highest bid was 100 pounds. The wall is adorned with self-portrait drawings, giving away the answers to “What kind of baby were you?”
“If you make it interesting, children will come,” is Provost’s favorite self-quote, a tagline twist from the movie “Field Of Dreams.”
A firm believer in education beyond worksheets, she illustrates how experience is a far better tool. According to Provost, “children can learn colors by using crayons, but they can feel red by dipping their fingers in paint and spreading red across the page. Orange has more meaning when mixing red and yellow together”.
Provost is active in her community. She hates to see families struggle, is a strong believer in democracy, and helping each other out. Attending Trinity College in Burlington, Vermont, she became a worker bee for Mayor Bernie Sanders’ “Success by Six” literacy and reading program and taught school in Colombia, South America.
As for the future, Provost cannot imagine being anywhere else but the Garrison Center.
“The bottom line is children. We have to do right by children,” she urged. “I want to make their lives better.”
Provost has been a full-time professor at MWCC for thirteen years, adjunct faculty for ten, and serves as night faculty liaison for evening activities. In her spare time, she volunteers as artistic director and paints theater sets, 32 so far. She received a Master’s in early childhood education, a Bachelor’s in elementary education with a minor in fine art, and hopes one day to pursue a doctorate.
Garrison enrolls children 2.9 years up to kindergarten age. Some are offspring of Mount Wachusett students, others are part of the Head Start program, and if space allows, private pay.
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