Celebrating Betty Wheeler: KinderCare's longest-serving teacher

At 6 o’clock this morning, Betty Wheeler opened the doors at Telegraph Road KinderCare in Alexandria, Va., just as she has every morning for the past 41 years.

Wheeler, a prekindergarten teacher, is the longest-serving teacher across Knowledge Universe’s brands.

“I’ve worked in childcare for almost fifty years and I’ve loved every minute of it,” she said. “I’ve been here this whole time, and I’ve done it all.”

Cook, driver, janitor, regardless the task, Wheeler has always been a teacher at heart, educating hundreds of children and mentoring fellow teachers along the way.

Over 50 years ago, she and her husband, a minister, opened their first childcare center in their church. As the demand grew, they branched out, building more centers in the community.

“There was a need at our church for child care, and a desire for learning opportunities,” said Wheeler. “Where we’re from, mom and dad both go to work and need care for their children.”

At Telegraph Road Wheeler ran the show. In 1974, KinderCare bought the center, and made sure to keep her.

“She never misses a day, ever,” said Kathy Owens, Wheeler’s center director. “She’s the best prekindergarten teacher I’ve ever seen.”

Wheeler is best known for her creative curriculum enrichments. One particularly snowy winter day, when the children couldn’t go outside, Wheeler brought in a blue tarp and set it down on the floor.

“The kids built a ‘fire’ out of sticks and tissue paper, and ‘skated’ on the tarp in their socks,” said Owens. “I’ve never seen excitement from kids like that in any other classroom.”

When teaching sight words, Wheeler assigns each child a word and has them wear the word as a necklace. All day, the children refer to each other as the sight words instead of each other’s names.

“She just has it,” said Owens. “Parents can’t wait to have their child in her class.”

Parents at the Telegraph Road center laud Wheeler’s teaching and are impressed with how prepared they are for Kindergarten.

The Muterperl family credits Wheeler with helping their boys get ready for kindergarten. “Noah and Joshua both have learned so much from you and we appreciate how independent they became through the experiences in your class,” the Muterperl family said.

Wheeler is such a fixture in this community, KinderCare alum are always coming back.

“There’s a boy who lives in Hawaii now, but when he comes back to visit the area, he makes a point of visiting KinderCare, too,” said Wheeler. “Former children will visit when they have a day off from school or over the summer.”

Memories can blur together over time, but the daily moments remain a source of motivation. Each new day Wheeler said she looks forward to hearing what the children in her classroom are going to say next.

“They say such funny and dramatic things,” she said. “I write down what the children say through the year, and at the end I set up a photo gallery for the parents with pictures of what we’ve done and the funny quotes.” It’s a family favorite.

And even though Wheeler just celebrated her 81st birthday, she says she has no plans to retire.

“I love being with children,” said Wheeler. “When you have a three-year-old class, you have to be three. When you have a five-year-old class, you have to be five. When they’re here you see them grow and develop, and I really love being a part of that.”