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Liz Broderick / Soaks little sponges with knowledge

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MIKE SIEGEL / THE SEATTLE TIMES

If everything you really need to know is learned in kindergarten, the good news is that there are dedicated public servants like Liz Broderick to teach it. Sometimes her students at Seattle's Maple Elementary not only don't know how to tie their shoes, they don't know English.

By February, they often know both.

"Five- and 6-year-olds are so full of wonder and so open to everything," the kindergarten teacher says. "They're like little sponges in how much they absorb. You get to see this incredible growth."

Broderick, 57, didn't start teaching until age 50, after an early career in the cruise industry. She stayed at home to raise her own three kids while her husband worked at Washington Mutual, and then she got her teaching degree. "I've always reinvented myself — we baby boomers are good at that."

The Seattle native never wanted to teach in any other city. She joined an open-plan Beacon Hill elementary where three kindergarten classes share a sometimes clamorous space of 75 kids, a proverbial melting pot of colors, languages, cultures and abilities. Out of it come little Americans, stamped forever by the teacher who introduces them to school.

"We're living in a very anxious culture," Broderick notes, and kindergarten is no longer play and nap. At Maple it is a full day that includes reading, P.E., art, an hour of math, and even science: The students explore three science "kits" each year.

Parents can be as bewildered as the kids by the latest trends: "invented spelling" or "computational fluency." How to get the moppets ready? "Read, read, read to your children. Do outdoor play. And be careful with video games or TV." But don't be uptight, thinking every 5-year-old has to aim at the Ivy League. "Relax and let them learn."

The pace is just as tough on teachers: child evaluation, paperwork, committees, continuing education. "We have summers off, but the district finds a way to fill them. I think we're underpaid and overworked."

Still, Broderick thrives, and the payoff is when kids hug her. "It's very joyful. They love you. They blow me away every day. I think I'll be teaching until I'm 70. It keeps you young."