Chaidyn Young-Haynes
palmettoreport@gmail.com

(Rock Hill, S.C.) — A school that helps train future teachers at Winthrop University celebrated its 130th anniversary last month, making it the longest running lab-school of its kind in the country, according to the university.

Winthrop held a celebration at the Macfeat Early Childhood Laboratory School on April 25, which included former Macfeat students and parents and Winthrop alumni, faculty and staff.

“I was so excited when I saw the invitation and I thought ‘wow I get to go back and see maybe some of the kids that were there,’” said Tammy Taylor, a former teaching assistant at Macfeat.

The school provides Winthrop graduate and undergraduate students an opportunity to work as teaching assistants, while working towards their degrees.

“One of my greatest passions in life is teaching kids,” said Cam Pendergrass, a Winthrop elementary education major and teaching assistant at Macfeat.

“I worked here for three of the four years that I was a student at Winthrop, so Macfeat is very near and dear to my heart,” Taylor said.

The school also serves as a research site for faculty and students, from various university departments, who are able to “spend time in Macfeat observing, participating and interacting positively with the children,” according to the school’s website.

“The teachers are engaged in research with university faculty in determining what best practices in certain areas and so those kind of opportunities exist for university faculty and the College of Education and others,” said Dr. Jennie Rakestraw, retired dean of the College of Education, in a video posted to social media about the anniversary.

“Then it invites for the children the opportunity to see others learning by doing research and one of the things the children do is they are learning by doing and experiencing,” Rakestraw said.

The event drew many people with ties to the school.

“I love the fact that you all are celebrating the 130 years that Macfeat has been in existence,” said Dr. Sheka Houston, an administrator and former principal with the Chester County School District.

“Both of my daughters go their start here in the preschool setting at Macfeat,” Houston said. “Being a parent during that time when they were really small, I was very nervous about sending my children into school, so I was happy that Macfeat offered such a great environment for them.”

Jackie McFadden, dean of the Dacus Library and Pettus Archives and Special Collections, said her ties to the school go back nearly 100 years.

“My connection to Macfeat is through my father; he graduated from the kindergarten in 1932 and graduated from the Winthrop training school in 1943,” McFadden said. “I’m glad that we’re celebrating the history of Winthrop and the Macfeat Kindergarten.”

Another Macfeat alum who returned to campus was George Land, who was the first African-American student to attend the school.

“Macfeat did a really good job of welcoming me here,” Land said. “I entered (Macfeat) in 1967 as a nursery schooler and this is where I made my home for two years.”

However, he said there were some challenges as the first Black student.

“Obviously it was the 60s and the names that I was called were sort of free flowing at the time. People used terrible language and I know that there were parents that didn’t really want to send their kids to school with me,” he said. “So that was a hardship, trying to understand what it is about me that’s so different and possibly uncomfortable and I had to learn that at an early age.”

Despite the hardships, Land said he still had a positive experience at Macfeat.

“It’s amazing that it’s the longest continuous nursery school program in the country. It was always a bit ahead of its time and in terms of integrating, even during those times. The things that they were doing at Macfeat were special, which is why my parents wanted me to attend, because they were educators too,” he said.

“It’s just amazing that it’s still here and we’re in the same gym that we used to play dodgeball in 50 years ago, 60 years ago. It’s just amazing.”

* Joseph Kasko contributed to this report.