American Kindergarten: Dispatches From the First Year of School

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Susan Engel’s new book, American Kindergarten: Dispatches From the First Year of School tells the stories of 15 kindergarten classrooms, spread across the country. She describes the six promises classrooms make to their children, as well as the different ways teachers keep and sometimes break those promises. She’ll talk about why she undertook this multi-year project, what surprised her along the way, and what people often don’t know about five-year-old children. 

Susan’s love of the East End knows no bounds, she grew up in Sagaponack, and all of her K-12 schooling happened there. She went to the Sagaponack school,  where her stepfather went before her and her little sister went after her. She met her first true love in kindergarten at the John Marshall School in East Hampton, which she describes in the book. When she was seven her mother Tinka Topping helped start The Hampton Day School, which she and her sisters all attended. As a teenager she ran a summer camp, for children (with Stacey Fredericks) called 'Small Potatoes. Many years later, she, her mother, her sister Kathy Engel, and her brother-in-law Jon Snow, were all part of the group that started the Hayground School. She relishes the chance to talk about this beloved project at the Bridgehampton Museum, which celebrates the history of her childhood home.