Age is no barrier to fulfilling a lifelong ECEC dream: Mike Carter’s amazing story

Freya Lucas

Mar 16, 2023

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Children at The Blue Cottage early learning centre, in the New Zealand suburb of Pāpāmoa, Bay of Plenty have living proof that it’s never too late to fulfil a career dream. While many of the guesses as to their teacher’s age are wildly inaccurate (varying from 40 to 300 years old,) teacher Mike Carter is 86, and studying for his early childhood qualification.

“Age is just a number,” he told Stuff NZ. “But in fact young people and old people have a lot in common, in the way we see the world.”

Early childhood teaching is not Mr Carter’s first foray in education. He spent more than 40 years teaching high school mathematics before retiring to the Bay of Plenty with his partner. He soon got restless, and wanted to put his teaching skills to use, enrolling in an Open Polytechnic course in Early Childhood Teaching.

He has a number of transferable skills, and says that teaching, regardless of the age of the children you’re working with, is about knowing how to entertain children to gain their attention. Mr Carter was drawn to early childhood for its philosophies of play, and how deep learning can be found in playful experiences.

He’s been a hit with the children while on placement, with service owner Joanna Cantlon saying he is “like the pied piper”.

“The children follow him and love to gather as he plays the mouth organ and ukulele, and they all join in,” she said, adding that for many, it was a chance to deeply connect with a grandparent figure.

“Children might not have that older figure in their life, and it’s amazing to see the experiences they are having interacting together,” she continued. “It is unique. I was surprised to hear he was doing his training at such an age, but I think it’s great. The children and their families are just so happy to have him here.”

To read the original coverage of this story, please see here.

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