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 |
 He works with kids at school
and at home
When Chris Payne comes home
from school, he can’t get away from the children. And he
doesn’t want to. In fact, he willingly spends almost 24 hours
a day with them.
In addition to his daily
classroom duties as a second grade teacher at Theodore
Roosevelt School, Payne also runs an after-school daycare
program called the Cool Care Club.
Since Payne,
or “Mr. Chris” as his kids call him, is a self-proclaimed big
kid, he enjoys the idea that is work hasn’t ended when he
leaves his full-time job.
Of course, he’ll
argue that both of these are full-time jobs. |
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“I never wanted a career where it was 9 to 5,”
he said. “It’s just not me.”
Earlier this year,
Mercury’s readers voted Payne one of the best teachers in the
city.
But if you ask him about what makes him
so loveable, he’ll just humbly shrug his shoulders and say, “I
grow with them.”
Payne started to grow with the
Child Development Center at Kansas State University in 1994.
Since then, he has tutored, taught art, and most recently went
on to teach third and then second grade.
What’s
his trick?
“I’m a very patient person,” he
said.
But he also has a love for the
children.
“Kids are always intrigued,” he said.
“What I like about the kids is that they can rediscover things
that adults just take for granted.”
And when
you’re with Mr. Chris, it’s all about discovery. The daycare
center alone, which is in Payne’s basement, contains a number
of activities, from the wall of puppets and a skeet-ball
machine, to several animals and the science
corner.
But Mr. Chris isn’t all fun and games.
It’s actually about learning, but in a non-traditional
sense.
“I get to do the stuff with the kids
that we don’t always get to do at school,” he said. “I always
feel really crunched for time at school.”
They
learn things like responsibility.
For this,
each child has one of several jobs, most of which involve
taking care of the various animals in the playroom. Payne has
turtles, hamsters, gerbils, a hedgehog and even an
iguana.
For doing their jobs, the children get
weekly allowances of blue and red construction paper dollar
bills. They then get to spend them at will in the daycare’s
store, a tall, green cabinet containing various odds and
ends.
He says the money is a concept the kids
can relate to.
It’s simple, he said, “if they
get in trouble, they owe me money.”
There’s
also a larger life lesson.
“It gives them an
appreciation for life,” he said, “and other
people.”
Plus, they gain some ownership in the
program.
Six-year-old Janae Horchem clearly
understands what Payne is trying to teach.
“We
all want to keep the animals safe,” she
said.
So kids from his class, and other
classrooms and schools, come to Mr. Chris’ house after school
to hang out. He also does an all-day summer daycare program
with similar activities.
While most teachers
can’t wait to have their summers off, Payne is raring to
go.
“By August, I’m about ready for school to
start again,” he said.
With the recent birth of
16-month-old son Caleb, and plans to become a foster parent to
a nine-year-old who has been coming to daycare for some time,
Payne said although he’s a big kid at heart, the adult
responsibilities are slowly creeping in.
But
that’s alright, he says, because as long as he’s got the kids
and the kids have him, he’ll be forever
young.
For information on the Cool Care Club,
call 587-8356.
You can reach Kathryn Combs by
phone at 776-1616, or by e-mail at kcombs@themercury.com |
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© 2000 The Manhattan
Mercury | |
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