Junior achievement

Mequon, WI — Where Rivke Spalter works, everything is colorful and teeny weenie — chairs, sinks, tables — even the pairs of shoes lined up outside the playrooms. Spalter is the director of the Mequon Jewish Preschool, where love and joy are as plentiful as construction paper and singing lessons.

Spalter is an absolutely serene woman, though she has every reason not to be. Under her care at the preschool are 45 children, from infants to K-4 kids. She’s also mother to 10 children, eight girls and two boys ranging in age from 6 months to 19 years. She insists that “when I had just one child she took up my whole life. I think it has to do with how we divide our time.”

Knowing what families need makes her particularly sensitive to mothers who arrive in the morning feeling stressed or guilty, both common states of being for all moms. Spalter, teachers and staff greet parents and children at the door with hugs and soothing comments to help everyone get off to a good day. How does she do it?

Religion, family, friends and tradition are the answers for her accomplishments. Faith permeates her life. She lives among her family; her father is Rabbi Dovid Rapoport, head of the Agudas Achim Chabad congregation. Her brother and husband are also rabbis. Her parents started the preschool in a room of their house. And as a testament to its success, last September the preschool moved into its bright new building, part of The Joseph and Rebecca Peltz Center for Jewish Life. Rabbi Rapoport often walks through, obviously enjoying seeing the children.

Her parents came to Mequon in 1982; Spalter arrived a year later. She had graduated high school in Brooklyn, N.Y.; then spent a year in Israel. Her oldest daughter is there now. International moves are nothing new to Spalter. Until she was 7, the family lived in London. “I worked very hard to lose my British accent because I wanted to be like other kids,” she says, a little regretfully.

She and the school staff have definite ideas about what contemporary children and their parents need. They take their mission very seriously, because, as Spalter says, “We are educating children today to become tomorrow’s leaders.

”Children need to know and can be taught at an early age that there is a higher power that loves and cares for them and expects a lot from them,“ she says. ”They can be taught to be ethical and moral, and these are what will make them strong leaders.“ Don’t expect a stern regimen to instill these concepts; rather, Spalter takes the opposite approach. ”What we do is make every child feel special and unique. How beautiful and wonderful each child is! We know they can do anything if we nurture and give them positive direction. Children want to focus if they are given concrete things to do.“

Spalter and her staff don’t like using negative words. Instead of telling a child ”don’t hit“ they encourage him or her to ”touch nice.“ Spalter says, ”If a child is doing good, they don’t have time to do bad.“ The cumulative effect of feeling special and being good is that the children ”see how good it makes them feel and they like that feeling.“

Spalter has had a lot of experience in the classroom. Of course, she, the staff and the school are certified for what they do. In addition, Spalter taught Jewish subjects such as the Bible, history and Jewish law at Hillel Academy for 10 years. She also worked with very young children for two years in a Lubovitch nursery school.

Each class has age-appropriate learning, from the ABCs for the littlest to preparatory reading in K-4. The staff coordinates themed learning for each week. A science class might be organized around the story of Noah and the flood.

She says the terrible tragedy of Columbine High School in Colorado cemented her desire to help create an ideal learning situation. As she watched the reports of that incident she remembers thinking, ”I wish I could talk to those who were responsible. Why, how could this happen?“

If the atmosphere she has created at this preschool feels familiar, it should. Spalter would be most happy if you agree it is like going to Grandma’s house. ”Where else in the world do you feel more loved and secure than at her house?“ Spalter asks.

Walking through the school and peering into classrooms a visitor is overwhelmed by color, from closet doors to mats on the floor. Large windows let in the sun from the wooded area outside. Teachers are politely addressed in Hebrew as ”Morah“ and traditional folk songs in the same language are sung. That universal chant loved by kids everywhere, ”Peanut Butter/Jelly,“ is accompanied by energetic wiggling and giggling.

Spalter’s faith tells her that people are meant to serve God with joy. She sees God as being ”loving, caring and protective” and as far as is humanly possible, she intends to make the preschool a microcosm of those concepts.