Esther Stewart

Junior Kindergarten

Esther Stewart teaches Jr. Kindergarten. She started at USJ 12 years ago as a prekindergarten assistant and has been the lead teacher in the classroom for the last seven years.

Teaching is her second career. She became a teacher to have more time with her children after spending many years in retail merchandising.

Her philosophy in her classroom, she says, can be summed up with a famous quote of William Butler Yeats: "Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." Mrs. Stewart's students know that her classroom is her home away from home – the second most favorite place in her life.

She was recognized this year as being among Who's Who in American Teachers.

She has a bachelors degree from the University of Mississippi. Mrs. Stewart and her husband, Lee, have two teen-age boys, William and Jonathon. They've been married for 22 years.

E-mail Esther Stewart