When I was asked to write a column of wisdom (and I hope a little humor) for the Pinecrest Tribune, I almost fainted.

What, I repeated to myself 610 times, like a yoga mantra, could a humble kindergarten teacher from St. Thomas Episcopal Parish School have to say to the people of Pinecrest? And then I thought… "Wow! Only 500 words…But I have so much to say." Things I whisper to my incredible mothers in the hallway and my beautiful classroom every single day. Things such as "You are young, I am old. You have gravity on your side, but I have perspective. You have enormous cars, but I have gigantic vision."

You are standing at my door having spent fewer than 365 days with one five year old…I have been blessed with three jewels of my very own and 24 unforgettable years in the kindergarten classroom — life’s truest laboratory. Listen carefully, here comes some wisdom. If Carl Menninger, the Silver Bentley of child psychology and founder of the noted Menninger Clinic, was correct when he said, "treat a child with violence and anger and he will in turn treat his society in the same fashion, ergo a delinquent. Sue Nichols says, tell your St. Thomas kindergarten children they are jewels in their mother’s crowns and the sparkle in their father’s eyes and the very joy of their teacher’s existence, and the world’s "children of paradise." They believe it. And they will be benevolent and caring leaders of tomorrow. And in case you haven’t noticed, let me be the first to tell you we presently have about as many honest well-centered leaders in the "American Paradise" as Arizona has Magnolia trees.

If my kindergartners are the children of paradise — then the families in which they live, yours — are the families of paradise. How do I know this? I watch you, from room 108’s big beautiful windows. The top of the World Trade Center does not have the real windows of the world, I do. I see some of you rushing madly, parking all over our well manicured green grass, ignoring our honorable 6^th grade safety patrol, stepping through my kindergarten class’ butterfly garden at break neck speed and rushing madly up to the door while the rest of us are putting away our book bags and lunch boxes, and homework folders and whispering words like "awesome" and "wow" and "cowabunga" while we gaze proudly at our art work and our life under-the-sea project. At the same time, I watch some of my life heroes like Ileana Ros-Lehtinen dressed for the 9:50 flight to Washington, walking her daughter to my door with the warmth in her body language that says, "Patty, you and your sister are the joy of my existence." Then they stop and look for their favorite butterflies — and instead of ignoring our hardworking safety patrol leader, Ileana stops to shake one small boy’s hand and say "Job well done young man. Keep it up!"

She helps Patty with her lunch box, notices her papier-mache apple on our family tree and stays to pledge the flag as though it was her number one priority of the day. While we walk off toward Chapel, where we start our day thanking God for all our earthly blessings, I happen to turn and see Ileana doing a 140-yard dash, that would have broken any Olympic record, toward a waiting car that will take her off to a bag breakfast on a smelly airplane, while she reads her 200-page brief of what is going on in our Capitol that day.

And I am left sitting on the polished wooden pews I watched being built while I played jacks on North Kendall Drive in 1953 — long before you, my reader, were even born. Yes, I sit on that bench surrounded with all the love and hope and adoration that comes from being five.

Sue Nichols, born and raised in Miami-Dade County and has 24 years experience with kindergarten classrooms.