Evelyn Ramirez was apprehensive last Wednesday morning. In fact, she was a nervous wreck. After all, it was the first time that her 5-year-old daughter, Odalys, was ever away from her, heading off to her first day of kindergarten in North Bergen.
“My baby has always been with me,” Evelyn Ramirez said. “I mean, she’s never left my side since the day she was born. I don’t know if I’m ready to send her off to school yet. Maybe she’s not ready.”
It was that apprehension that kept Ramirez from enrolling her daughter in the district’s Early Childhood (Pre-Kindergarten) program, which is held in temporary classroom trailers inside Bruins Stadium in North Hudson Braddock Park.
“She wasn’t ready to leave me at 4 years old, and I wasn’t ready to let her go,” Ramirez said. “But now, I guess I have to. I’m so afraid that she will be so scared.”
While there might have been a few sad moments when Evelyn Ramirez let go of Odalys’s little hand and let her run off to her first day of kindergarten, the little girl had the time of her life. She never shed a tear and waved proudly to her mother as she went into the school for the first time.
“She did better than I expected,” said Ramirez.
Guttenberg Superintendent of Schools Dr. Robert Penna called the first day of school “my favorite day of the year” for just that reason.
But, he said, “I’m always concerned about the kindergarten students who didn’t go to our Pre-K. That little boy or girl has perhaps never been away from home. It can be a very traumatic experience.”
Penna said that there were perhaps three children who experienced the “first day blahs” and expressed their emotions in an ear-popping way.
“We had a handful of criers,” Penna said. “One child had his mother around the waist and wouldn’t let go. He almost tackled her.”
Cathy Stewart has been teaching kindergarten for the last decade, so she’s used to the routine.
“It’s a whole new beginning to them,” Stewart said. “It’s the most emotional day and definitely the most apprehensive. You hear the screams of ‘Don’t go, Mommy.’ Some kids even hold on to the door jamb, not wanting to go in. I always say that if I can get through the first hour, then I’ll be okay. But it’s that first hour that really gets to you. Most are fine, but you get those few that really get so emotional.”
Stewart’s experience dealing with the “first day blahs” paid off, because by mid-morning, everything was back to normal.
“I went back to check on that little boy who had a tough time tearing himself away from his mother,” Penna said. “Wouldn’t you know that he was drawing with Crayons and having a grand time? It just takes some time.”
Penna said that most of the 950 students at Guttenberg’s Anna L. Klein School were happy to be returning to classes.
“By the time September rolls around, the kids have become bored,” Penna said. “So they’re looking forward to seeing their friends again. They like the regimen that school provides for them, the direction it leads them in. Where else can you go that you spend the entire day with your best friends? I can’t do that in work. No one can. School provides that wonderful environment.”
Penna said that it is extremely helpful to have the state-mandated Early Childhood program, because it gets youngsters more acclimated to school at an earlier age.
“Rarely do you see the Pre-K kids get emotional,” Penna said. “They just go and don’t have a care in the world. It’s the kindergarten kids who get emotional. But our students are so well prepared and advanced by going to Pre-K. They can count and know their alphabet by the time they’re in kindergarten. They’re so acclimated and so far ahead of other students their age.”
Stewart said that she loved meeting her new class.
“It’s a whole new challenge,” Stewart said. “By the time we left the first day, they were all fine. One little boy hid all day, with his coat over his head. He wouldn’t look at anyone. By the end of the day, he was smiling and wanting to get his picture taken. I really like the group I have. I think it’s going to be a wonderful year.”