Retired teacher finally can enjoy carefree Labor Day

For the first time since 1973, Peggy Swyter of Hoffman Estates can celebrate Labor Day without having to worry about showing up for work before dawn on Tuesday.

The newly retired 61-year-old was just 19 when she began her career as a preschool teacher.

"Once I was the youngest, and then I was the oldest," says Swyter, whose last name is appropriately pronounced "sweeter."

"I have 42 years in those boxes," Swyter says, laughing and crying as she goes through memories from the hundreds of little children in her life.

One year, she had 18 preschoolers, and 16 of them were immigrants from Japan.

"None of them spoke English," says Swyter, who taught them how to say "help me" and use informal sign language to communicate. She made a breakthrough with her old record player and a 45 rpm vinyl of Elvis Presley singing "Hound Dog."

"Every child knew the 'Hound Dog' song. We played musical chairs to that," she says. She still has the drawings Nozomi and Ayumi gave her when they were 6 and 4. Now 20 and 18, they still keep in touch, and one of them will be teaching English in Japan.

Many of her former students would return to Swyter's classroom as adults and include Swyter and her husband, Bob, in their lives.

"We've been invited to weddings and graduation parties and baptisms," Swyter says. In some cases, she's taught the toddlers of parents whom she taught when they were toddlers.

"She's come full circle," says Bob Swyter, who retired a few years ago from his customer service job with NTN Bearing Corp. in Mount Prospect. The couple have two sons, Rob, 38, and Will, 34, and their first grandchild due in December.

Swyter has dealt with crises from bloody noses and bathroom accidents to broken bones and seizures. She's played roles in rescuing children from abuse and helped kids cope with everything life offers. One of her students, now 32 and living in a different state, would return every March.

"You know how you tell the children, 'It's OK, honey. Don't cry. Your mom will be back to get you soon'?" Swyter says. "She didn't come back. His mom dropped him off and she went home, had an aneurysm and died."

Swyter's love of children started as a child in Rolling Meadows. Her father, Jim Donehey, a meat cutter for Jewel, preached the importance of "a smile in every aisle." Her mom, Janet Donehey, was a registered nurse with seven sisters and three brothers.

"We had millions of cousins," remembers Swyter, who also helped take care of her younger brother, Jay-R, and her little sister, Maureen. "I baby-sat all my life. My mother was my teacher."

After her 1972 graduation from Forest View High School in Arlington Heights, Swyter took a job at Children's Center for Early Learning in a rural hamlet called Schaumburg. "When we first came here there was nothing," she remembers. "We had cows coming up to the window."

After earning her child development associate credential, Swyter worked as a teacher at the Children's Center until 1983, when she moved to another Schaumburg school called National Child Care - which became Daybridge Learning Center, which became Children's World Learning Center and now is KinderCare Learning Center.

"Peggy is an awesome teacher," says Barb Lockhart, 53, of Schaumburg, who teaches at the school. "I think the most important thing is Peggy loves them (the preschoolers). She taught them to take care of each other, bond and be responsible for each other."

Lockhart's children, Tyler, now 26, and Kayla, 24, were both among Swyter's preschoolers.

"Principals used to say, 'There is a special place in heaven for preschool teachers,'" says Sandy Cook, a principal who retired from District 54 in Schaumburg and now lives in South Elgin. Cook notes that Swyter "worked and worked" for much lower wages and without the pension and other benefits earned by public schoolteachers.

"She still considers my kids, hers," says Cook, whose daughter, Laurie, is 41 and whose son, Mike, is 40. "It was hard to go back to work, especially as a woman in those days. She provided peace of mind."

Swyter also is "very, very smart," Cook says. "She did a lot of things that were cutting edge."

Next month, Swyter will give a presentation to a group of preschool teachers in the state chapter of the National Association for the Education of Young Children.

"We have boxes and boxes of toilet paper tubes and peanut butter jars," Swyter says, nodding toward her garage. Those were necessary ingredients for science experiments and even a marble maze she attached to the wall.

"I tried to keep it homey and loving. It was never my classroom. It was our classroom and our toys and our games," she says. In addition to her formal rules about taking care of each other and items in the classroom, listening, resting quietly during rest time and having fun, Swyter says she also taught kids to question authority and be independent.

Now, she can take advantage of her own independence.

"I'm going to Septemberfest. But I'll get to stay and hear the bands this year," says Swyter, who couldn't stay out after dark on a school night when she was teaching. "I don't have any more school nights, I guess."