Since 1996, T.R. Simmons kindergarten teacher Erin Daughdrill has poured her heart and soul into her students. Along the way, there are a few things the students have taught her, too.

Play fair. Put things back where you found them. Clean up your messes. Don’t take things that aren’t yours. Apologize when you hurt somebody. Wash your hands before you eat.

These are just a few lessons listed by author Robert Fulghum in his 1986 essay All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. Erin Daughdrill thinks often of Fulghum's essay and has leaned into it daily for the last 27 years as a kindergarten teacher at T.R. Simmons Elementary School in Jasper.

Erin grew up in the Smith Lake community, spending countless hours of her youth lining up her dolls and stuffed animals and treating them as pupils in her imaginary classroom. To her parents, there was never a doubt that Erin would become a teacher, and as she continued to grow up and enjoy all the parts of going to school and being a student, that certainty became Erin's as well. 

After graduating from Walker High School and briefly attending The University of Alabama, Erin graduated from The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) with her degree in early childhood education. Following the receipt of her degree, the opportunity of a lifetime landed in her hands.

"I wanted to teach kindergarten more than anything, but at the time I was ready to start teaching, kindergarten positions were few and far between. Those were jobs for seasoned teachers, and once they had them, they didn't leave. So, I had essentially made up my mind that I wouldn't be in a kindergarten classroom anytime soon," she recalls. "But one day I got a phone call letting me know that there was a kindergarten position opening up at T.R. Simmons. My jaw hit the floor. I had done my student teaching in first grade at T.R. and completely fell for the school, and teaching kindergarten there would be a dream."

Over the weeks that followed, things fell into place, stars aligned, and Erin's dream came true. She stepped into her classroom at T.R. Simmons in the fall of 1996, joining a team of three experienced kindergarten teachers—Jackie Parker, Chesteen White, and Judy Lollar—who took her under their wings and taught her the ropes of what being a kindergarten teacher truly entails.

"There's of course the curriculum element to what we do, and that's very important, but life skills and concepts like the ones in All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten make up just as much or more of what we teach these children daily,” she says. “To be able to adequately teach those things, I had to learn from people who knew it better than me. My whole career has consisted of me learning from others to become a better teacher, and that has never changed."

Erin’s favorite part of her job is seeing the transformation a student experiences between the first day of school and the last. Some come to her not even knowing the letters of the alphabet, but by the time they head to first grade, they can read through the likes of Dr. Seuss’s The Cat in the Hat without any hesitation. Working with the children to hone those skills brings about great satisfaction and a sense of pride to Erin.

Erin continued her education at UAB and attained a master’s degree in early childhood education in 2002.

Ever the learner, Erin still feels she learns more from her students than they do from her.

“Twenty-seven-years-worth of students have taught me unconditional love. If I’m having a bad day or things just aren’t going well, a hug from a student or a ‘Mrs. Daughdrill I love it when you read to us, can we please read one more book?’ makes all the difference. That’s when I realize how impactful my role as a teacher truly is, but more importantly how their role as students helped me become a better teacher!”

Now, as she has become one of T.R.’s more seasoned team members, Erin understands exactly why teachers stay in Kindergarten for so long. They, too, are learning all they really need to know. 78