By John Blanchard
DeSoto has led the way in Pre-K (kindergarten) teaching and was first in making it a part of the education of children, beginning at the age of four. It may have helped some mothers keep their sanity as well. We credit Mary Alice Brasher as the first to take on the job, which proved little ones are like sponge at that age. When Ol’ Digging reached six, Brother Harry pushed me through the door where some 30 new faces scared me and “they” said I cried. Maybe. Miss Cleveland taught both first and second grades and became a life-long friend. By the second grade, the girl who kissed me on the cheek at six and John Earle became near inseparable as we graded first grader papers. Miss Cleveland wanted the two of us to skip the third grade. That was before they met Mama Blanchard and when we enrolled in the third as the finest teacher who ever entered a classroom.
