This Teaching Tandem Goes Back a Long Way

SEAL BEACH — It was class picture day, so the 3- and 4-year-old preschoolers were all bows and ribbons and tucked-in shirts as they started the day as they always do: Reciting the works of William Shakespeare and Edgar Allan Poe.

“Who wrote the play ‘Romeo and Juliet?’ ” Barbara Evans asked the students sitting in a circle at her feet. “Willy! Willy Shakespeare!” was among the replies. “And what did he write?” Evans prompted.

“O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?” the boys and girls said without further adieu. “Parting is such sweet sorrow,” they continued, and then threw in some mock tears. The youngsters then moved on to a children’s version of “The Raven” and the beginning of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.

A small group of parents who stood watching it all said they still can’t believe their children can memorize so much. But they said they have no doubt it has something to do with the special magic between Miss Barbara and her teaching aide Joanie Evans--who is also Barbara’s mother.

“I don’t know how they do it, but they do it,” parent Kim Washburn said as she watched her 4-year-old daughter, Madison, in class.

Believed to be one of the only mother-and-daughter duos teaching in Orange County, Barbara and Joanie Evans dole out hugs, kisses and compliments each morning in a bright, sunny room at Under the Rainbow Pre-School, where the back wall is decorated with photos of past graduates who still keep in touch.

The Evanses admit their relationship is uncommon. They spend nearly 24 hours a day with each other, working together, living together, even carpooling and whiling away the weekend together.

And they say they can’t imagine having it any other way.

“She’s my best friend and I’m her best friend,” Joanie Evans said of her daughter. “That might sound weird to some people but that’s just the way it is.”

Even though they have worked together for seven years and have known each other a lifetime, they always manage to teach each other something new.

“I’ve gone to school, I’ve gotten the degrees, but some of the most important lessons I’ve learned come from watching my mother with the children,” Barbara Evans, 42, said during a break from helping the children make Mother’s Day gifts out of paper hearts and florescent paint. “There’s a teacher’s way of doing things and a mommy’s way of doing things, and a lot of times the mommy’s way is better.”

Barbara and Joanie Evans, 61, say one of the advantages of their easy, comfortable relationship is the ability to communicate without ever saying a word.

And in a room filled with squealing, squirming preschoolers, they take solace in the little silence they can offer each other. A pointed finger means its time to read “Piggy Takes a Dare.” A cocked head or a raised eyebrow means someone needs a hug--or has to go potty.

Chris Abouriali is one of the many parents who make up the Evanses’ devoted following. Her son Max graduated from their class and when it came time for her second son, Ross, to attend preschool, she insisted on placement with Miss Barbara and Miss Joanie.

“They are so creative and I think the kids really benefit from their close relationship,” Abouriali said after dropping her son off recently.

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Mother and daughter began working at the same preschool about 11 years ago, but in different classes. Then Barbara Evans needed a new teaching aide.

“We clicked from the start,” Joanie Evans said.

Their classroom styles differ dramatically. Miss Barbara is the disciplinarian. At her command, children scurry to “make like a box of pretzels” with their feet crossed in front of them and their hands tucked in their lap. Miss Joanie is the softy who has found that the best cure for tears is a Gummi Bear.

It was Joanie Evans who decided that a good way to memorize the months of the year would be with poems, stories and history lessons. Counting in Spanish marks May and Cinco de Mayo. A short version of the “Twelve Days of Christmas” recalls December.

“What did Martin Luther King Jr. say?” Miss Barbara asks “I have a dream!” And what was his dream? “For everyone to be friends,” the children respond. Then they recite the beginning of “Hiawatha,” a poem about a Native American hero.

The kids seem to get a kick out of knowing the Evanses are related--although sometimes it can be confusing. One day, Barbara Evans reprimanded a child for hitting someone. The youngster marched over to Joanie Evans and announced: “I’m mad at your mother!”

Joanie Evans says she has no plans for retirement. Working with children keeps her young, but most important it has helped her deal with the loss of her adult son, who was killed several years ago in a drunk-driving accident.

“I think if I quit I’d probably fall apart and age rapidly,” Joanie Evans said.

Mother and daughter bicker on occasion but quickly make up. “We don’t let things simmer,” Barbara Evans said.

“Sometimes she tells me she’s going to send me on a cruise that won’t return, but she’s just joking,” Joanie Evans said. “I think.”