BHS 2005 graduates revisit the class where

school started.

Most kids have their last day of kindergarten when they are 5 or 6, but Jan Colby’s kindergartners have their last day as 17- and 18-year-olds.

And what the high school seniors remember from kindergarten isn’t their ABCs.

“They remembered how they were treated, (and) ‘Mrs. Colby liked me,’” Colby said. “They remembered the ambiance, the comfortableness.”

Thirteen former kindergarten classmates went back to Blakely Elementary School for a day this spring for the “Last Day of Kindergarten” with Colby, who has taught kindergarten there for 15 years.

“It was fun to see everyone there,” BHS senior Skadi Von Reis said. “Everyone looked sort of giddy.”

For Jesse Burk-Rafel, the nervousness of going back to kindergarten 12 years later quickly disappeared in the energy of the classroom.

“You see these kids and you know you were them once, being just as crazy, temperamental and all those great things,” Burk-Rafel said. “It was amazing to see kids who haven’t been ‘corrupted’ by education, learning to be nice, sharing, looking up to older people. It’s so genuine, it’s just personality.”

The seniors came early to school that day and participated in activities through lunch. Each student paired up with one or two kindergartners for the morning’s activities.

The kindergartners were thoroughly impressed by the “really big kids,” who included a rock musician – a member of the local rock group Gruff Mummies.

Interestingly, Colby said, her former students still had the same interests they had as 5-year-olds.

Von Reis was one of three “horse girls” in Colby’s kindergarten 12 years ago. All three still ride, and one is going to an equestrian college. Former block-builders still gravitated to the blocks with a kindergarten partner, and the artists headed for the crafts corner.

“They are who they are at 5,” Colby said. “They just get bigger.”

Burk-Rafel – who remembers the best part of kindergarten as “going out to recess” – was paired with kindergartner Thomas Crowley, who he described as “amazingly smart, kind of like me, a little (bit) of a show-off.”

“The thing that surprised me about the little ones was how comfortable they were,” Colby said. “The seniors were helping them be comfortable,” making sure that everyone was included in activities.

Her former students were similarly impressed with their younger counterparts.

“They were reading books and things about being peaceful, having a strong sense of self,” Von Reis said. “Mrs. Colby has such an affect on them, you can tell they’re absorbing it.

“Kids were beginning to be aware of other’s feelings. These first morals about accepting people and not being rude was cultivated at this stage.”

Burk-Rafel, a high school athlete, played basketball with Crowley and three other kindergartners at recess and realized what he himself had learned in kindergarten.

“It’s different with kids than when you’re playing with parents. At recess, you learn team aspects, and that there’s a time to shoot and not,” Burk-Rafel said. “In 12 years, I never thought that it was from kindergarten that I learned team play and sportsmanship.”

Seeing Crowley with Burk-Rafel, the other boys chimed, “I want to play with the big kid!”

Burk-Rafel said he could see the youngster struggle, as he had 12 years before: wanting to be the center of attention, but also knowing that Mrs. Colby had taught him to include others.

“I realized how essential (that struggle) is to our growth as people,” he said.

Seed planted

The idea of a last day of kindergarten came to Colby when her first Bainbridge Island class was still in second grade.

At her son’s high school graduation, the assistant superintendant said, “Today is one of the two most important days in your public schooling. The first special day was when you walked into your kindergarten door and met your kindergarten teacher for your first experience in school. The second is now as you are leaving the high school door to go out into the world.”

“I feel very privileged but responsible to have this first year (of their schooling),” Colby said. “It’s important to have this first year be very meaningful and positive because it sets the tone for how they feel about school.”

This year marks her third class to return. Some came back even though they now go to school in North Kitsap.

For the older kids, the visit is like doing one last bit of community service, Colby said, and for the younger kids, it’s a day to get a little extra attention.

“Their enthusiasm and attitude towards the little ones was something I hadn’t expected,” Colby said.

“You haven’t lived until you’ve seen 18-year-olds painting at child-sized easels right along side 5-year-olds or 6-foot young men trying to squeeze into kindergarten-size chairs to draw with little ones and trying to look comfortable,” Colby wrote after her first class returned in 2003.

As much as the seniors’ visit gave the kindergartners plenty to talk about for months after, the seniors came away richer, too.

“These last two years, I’ve questioned a lot and wondered if the education is adequate,” Von Reis said, “but I go back and see how wonderful it is, and it replenished my faith in education.”