All Pawtucket All The Time

            ATTLEBORO – Forty-two years after giving “birth” to a new school, Martha Jackson of Attleboro has decided to leave the “nest.”

            Jackson, who established the Community Kindergarten in 1967 – which has since evolved into Dayspring Christian Academy – recently announced she has stepped down as a teacher at the school after more than four decades of service.

            “It’s time,” Jackson said recently during an interview in her preschool class room at DCA. “Dayspring has been in my heart since its beginning and I will never forget it.”

            And neither will the thousands of students – past and present – whose lives she has touched during the past four decades. Jackson has become the school’s iconic figure and her influence on its growth and development is literally immeasurable.

            “Dayspring Christian Academy exists today because of Martha Jackson,” said Headmaster Frank Rydwansky. “She has a remarkably giving heart and is always looking to help others.”

            Robert Lavallee, DCA’s Spiritual Life Director, was a student at the school years ago and echoed Rydwansky’s sentiments.

            “Martha Jackson has been an inspiration to students at this school for decades and is an example of true Godly leadership,” Lavallee said. “Her drive and determination exemplifies what it means to be a servant.”

            Jackson earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in elementary education from Valley Forge Bible College in Pennsylvania and later married Pastor David V. Jackson. The couple was based in Newport, R.I., until 1966 when Pastor Jackson accepted a position at the South Attleboro Assembly of God.

            “I have three children and the youngest was ready for kindergarten, but Attleboro offered no public kindergarten programs at the time,” Martha Jackson said. “I suggested to my husband that I could start a kindergarten in the church building, which was then less than 10 years old, but he advised me against it at the time.

            “The next year, however, I met with the church board and its members agreed to let me start a kindergarten at the church. That’s how the Community Kindergarten began with 20 children.”

            The following year, Jackson expanded the program to include preschool-aged children and changed its name to the Community Kindergarten and Preschool. She worked as a teacher in the school as well as its director until September 1981 when the school expanded to include older children.

            “It was getting to be too much for me, being both a teacher and a director,” Jackson said. “I decided to step down as director and to remain exclusively as a teacher.”

            Community Kindergarten and Preschool changed its name to Dayspring Christian Academy and today services more than 350 students in preschool through Grade 8. According to Jackson, the new school name was derived from the Bible.

            “In Scripture, Dayspring is another name for Jesus Christ,” she said. “What better name than that for a Christian school?”

            Jackson said she was always a strict disciplinarian as a teacher, but found plenty of opportunities to develop strong relationships with students. Stressing that to maintain control of a classroom required a combination of setting rules and defining consequences, she still managed to nurture affection and respect.

            “A student a few years ago told me, ‘Mrs. Jackson, all the kids say you are tough on the outside, but we know you are soft on the inside,’” Jackson said.

            Jackson also said that she consider today’s students to be “more alert academically” than their predecessors.

            “Students today have access to computers, television and other forms of media and their vocabulary and interests have expanded,” she said. “I think they have more knowledge of the world and awareness of what is going on than students did in the past.”

            DCA was initially housed in the former church building when a new church building was constructed in the early 1980s, but moved into its new facilities – a multi-purpose building shared by the school and church – in 2001. Pastor Jackson had retired as church leader two years earlier, but Martha Jackson said she saw no reason to follow suit.

            “What would I do all day if I wasn’t teaching?” she asked rhetorically. “I need to be able to do things, to stay occupied, or I might go crazy.”

            However, with retirement now looming (although the possibility of continuing to serve DCA as a substitute teacher is not out of the question), Jackson conceded that she and her husband may travel for pleasure and to visit family members in the years ahead.

            On May 29, DCA inducted Jackson into his fledgling chapter of the National Junior Honor Society as an Honorary Member.

            “Martha Jackson is the reason we are here tonight,” Rydwansky said at the time. “Without her efforts, this school would never have existed and she has taught countless students over the past four decades. Martha Jackson is truly the mother of Dayspring Christian Academy.”

            And “mother” is now ready to leave the nest.