Meredith Hairston is executive director of the Tioronda Learning Center, a preschool at Christ Church United Methodist attended by generations of Beacon children. Her responses are excerpted from an interview for the Beaconites podcast.
What has been your path as an educator?
One of my early teaching jobs was at the Corlears School in New York City. My second day there was Sept. 11, 2001. After that year, I was broken as a teacher, so I went home to Vermont to sing “Kumbaya” and light candles. But I wasn’t done in New York City. I went back and took a job working at the Trinity Church preschool near Wall Street and later at The Episcopal School on the Upper East Side.
How did you come to Tioronda Learning Center?
I had my daughter in 2010 and we moved from Brooklyn to Beacon in 2013. I commuted to the city five days a week. It was a grind. I was introduced to Dina Wood, who was running Tioronda and had been for many years. She was a teacher there and a member of the church. Eventually she said, “You should have this.” I became director in 2019.
That was right before the pandemic. You seem to have a knack for starting new jobs just before the shit hits the fan.
Yeah, that’s kind of a thing. It seems to follow me around. I’m getting used to it.
What is the school’s history?
It started as a nursery school and parents’ co-op for the children of employees at the Texaco Research Center in Glenham. The community met on Tioronda Avenue and later moved to the church. We have photos from 1966 and its history probably stretches back well before that. Dina kept the original play-centered learning while adding skill-based learning. It was a structured program, helping those children become ready for the new pressures of kindergarten that even in her time were starting to happen. When I took over, I expanded the classroom space and added an additional room for small-group instruction, as well as for children who qualify for additional services. I hope that I’ve held onto the legacy and carried it on.
What downstream effects did the pandemic have on children’s development and socialization?
Every child is different, and every family is different, but collective angst is a big one. Anxiety took helicopter parenting to the next level. These things are still very much in our community and in these babies. And the lockdown-era affected behavior. How are children supposed to behave when they’re at grandma’s house? How are they supposed to behave when they’re at the grocery store? How about if they’re all in masks and you can’t see anything under their eyes? If people are deprived of social interaction, or if that’s mostly mediated through technology, we can expect some serious issues.
