For more than 40 years, Mary Lou Harshman has guided some of the youngest minds at Poway Unified School District as they begin their educational journey. From her start as a kindergarten teacher at Tierra Bonita Elementary in 1982, she knew there was no other grade level that she would rather teach.
That’s right, four decades in kindergarten.
“I feel like I’ve been very, very lucky to have been able to do the job that I have for this many years, and to have loved it as much as I have,” says Harshman.
While her time at PUSD has been fruitful, believe it or not, becoming a teacher wasn’t her first career choice.
“I know there are some children who play school when they are little and dream about being a teacher when they grow up. That was not me. I never dreamt about being a teacher,” she says. “When I was in second grade my teacher asked all of us what we wanted to be when we grew up, and I said I wanted to be a movie star.”
She embarked on a path into education instead of Hollywood, following her mother’s advice. For the next 44 years, Harshman became one of the first teachers ever for hundreds of Poway Unified’s kinders.
One year after she started at Tierra Bonita, she moved to Midland Elementary and taught for two years. Then, a hop over to Sundance Elementary for another two years. She then helped open Canyon View Elementary in 1987 and remained there for eight years before moving to Park Village Elementary, where she would teach for the next 31 years. In that time, she became a mainstay at the campus and in the lives of kindergartners who have walked the campus’ halls.
Witnessing the evolution of education
Harshman’s career has spanned several major changes to how children are educated. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), No Child Left Behind, the Science of Reading. That’s all in addition to the countless technological leaps that impacted daily life: widespread internet, moving from chalkboards to whiteboards to SmartBoards, cellphones, and now, AI.
Despite several shifts in how education is approached, she can recall the start of her journey like it was yesterday. Children were commonly taught the ins and outs of one letter a week, spending the days pronouncing the letter A, for instance, words that start with A, how to write A, and so on—a far cry from the complete sentences and story structure taught today in kindergarten classrooms.
Harshman says as time went by, that approach changed, some aspects driven by what parents would like to see, some driven by other forces. She recalled a visit she took with another teacher to Idyllwild to observe a teacher from New Zealand working on writing with students, and what a change it was to implement in the classroom.
“Up to that point, writing in kindergarten was teaching them to write their name, and teaching them how to form the letters of the alphabet, that was writing. But this teacher was actually having the children come up with a sentence, and having them put a beginning sound to represent each word in that sentence,” she says. “My teammate and I brainstormed the whole way back home about how we could implement the writing process in our own classroom. And we did it! That was the turning point and beginning of starting to teach our kindergarten children to truly start writing. I look at that now, compared to what I’m doing today. The writing my students are doing today is what first or even second graders were doing when I first started teaching.”
There’s also a range of abilities to consider and plan for in today’s classroom setting. Harshman says some students come to her classroom prepared to read a chapter book, and others may just be getting their first exposure to reading.
“I think children come with more preschool experience than they had 44 years ago, but you still have the range of abilities,” she says. “So that’s always the challenge, the wide variety of students, and to try and meet the different needs of each child.”
While reading and writing have come a long way, Harshman says she hopes kindergarten classrooms also find a way to bring play-based learning into the mix a little more, calling it “their learning time.” While it may not look it to adults, she says play is work and children soak up vital social-emotional interactions and problem solving during these moments.
“They learn through play. I hope to see more play-based learning in the future,” she says. “I won’t be teaching it but, I think there’s such value in hands-on, developmental learning.”
Some things never change
One of Harshman’s favorite aspects of teaching kindergarten is seeing how students progress over the year, both in their academics and social-emotional learning. She says it may look the same in August or September every year, but eventually, you see the results before the next summer.
She recalls one principal who asked her why she chose to continue teaching kindergarten instead of moving up into higher grade levels.
“At the beginning of the year, kindergarten is especially tough, because they come in with very little school experience. They don’t know how to line up or use scissors or glue.You have to teach them every little thing,” she says. “The growth that these children make is just incredible. It’s amazing. January is usually when that light bulb turns on and they start making all the connections.”
That satisfaction of seeing her students become confident learners, in addition to her love of teaching reading are some of the reasons she says she never developed a desire to teach any other grade level.
There’s also the knowledge of knowing these are their first steps into schooling, and that she’s the first stop.
“To know that you have laid that foundation and this is the beginning of their educational career, is a gratifying feeling. Not only are they learning academics but you also want them to learn to love school and feel safe and happy here,” she says.
Part of Harshman’s approach to fostering a love for school is to create a classroom that feels like a home, help students see each other as family, and make sure that her students feel happy, welcomed, and empowered to make mistakes in a safe space.
“I always tell my children at the beginning of the year that they have their real family at home, but for this one special year, we are our classroom kindergarten family,” she says. “These children will never be the same exact group again, but for this one year we get to share this classroom together.”
Looking back and moving forward
That sense of family has endured over the years. Harshman says she is now teaching the children of her former students. She’s met them during Kinderfair events, where students get to meet her and see the class before they begin the school year. She’s run into them while out and about.
She says it’s incredibly special each time she meets a former student, especially when the topic turns to their cherished classroom memories.
“I have this little puppet, Wise Owl, and every morning we sing a good morning song with Wise Owl. And they’ll ask things like, ‘Do you still have Wise Owl?’ ‘Do you still have the gingerbread man?’ And they’ll share memories from being in my classroom. That’s special,” she says. “Every student I’ve taught holds a special place in my heart.”
Harshman wonders where her students go after school, adding that she’s heard from at least one doctor (and assumes there are plenty more). And just to be sure, every year, she tells her students that if anyone becomes the President of the United States, she would like to be invited to the White House for dinner.
As she closes this chapter, she also remembers the colleagues that she’s taught alongside, saying her work family has only added to the fulfillment of being a teacher.
“I also feel extremely fortunate for all the people with whom I have taught. I couldn’t have done everything I’ve done all these years without wonderful teammates. In this profession, if you’re lucky enough, you have wonderful people surrounding you that share ideas with each other … and I’ve had that my whole entire career,” she says.
Forty-four years later, she says she’s looking forward to post-teaching life, filled with gratitude for the people she’s worked with and the littles she’s worked for along the way.
And it would appear her dreams of stardom have also panned out.
“Teaching is like that. You are on stage that whole time,” she says. “When you drop your students off for lunch, it can be five minutes later and they shout ‘Mrs. Harshman! Mrs. Harshman!’ I feel famous... So it’s our own paparazzi.
“In a way, that did come to fruition.”
This article was originally printed in the Spring 2026 edition of EmpowerEd Magazine.