The other 364 days, when Kinczel isn’t playing around wearing Groucho glasses, an opera cape and a paper hat while portraying Haman in Temple Beth Abraham’s Purim play, she’s a teacher at the congregation’s Gan Avraham nursery school who has wowed a generation of parents with her patience, enthusiasm and extraordinary intuition.
The congregation honored Kinczel today for her 20 years at Gan Avraham — an especially weighty feat considering turnover among early childhood educators hovers at around 40 to 60 percent a year.
“When I first became a parent over 14 years ago, it was Ellie that I turned to. Not that she’s grandmotherly — don’t ever think that!” said Barbara Ogman, Gan Avraham’s director from 1982 to 2000, who hired Kinczel two decades ago.
“She’s unbelievably intuitive, and able to meet the needs of individual kids as well as kids in the group setting. She’s able to remove her ego from the educational setting so that she can really meet the needs of the kids and families she works with. And she’s not judgmental. She has strong opinions but she can take a step back and say, ‘This isn’t how I’d do it, but that’s the way this mom does it, and that’s OK.’
“She’s nurturing to adults and children, and I think that’s really unusual.”
The childhood memories of more than 320 kids — and, after two decades, adults — are intertwined with Kinczel’s songs, games and knock-knock jokes.
“I remember making the challah…and the monkey bars in the playground. All the memories I have of everything that happened there, they’re not fading,” said Rachel Bernstein, 18, a former Gan Avraham nursery-schooler and a sophomore at the University of Pennsylvania.
Kinczel “was always around; she was so enthusiastic and always able to bring the kids a little more happiness. She has so many memories with me — she got the call at the preschool when my sister was born. She was there for that. Those first years have so much in them, and it’s so great talking to her.”
In the 20 years since she took up her current post, Kinczel said more and more people have realized that early childhood education specialists are not babysitters but teachers. She remains a firm advocate of the benefits of early childhood education — and adequate compensation for preschool teachers.
But Kinczel’s motivation to stick with early childhood education is simple — it’s the kids.
“They’re all so unique and so incredibly wonderful to be with. And I feel the field is important, it’s really important that kids have the experience of preschool,” said Kinczel, Gan Avraham’s co-director since Ogman’s departure.
“The kids are just alive and love to learn and love to be here, and that’s a nice environment to work with. And I like to work with the other teachers who are interested in the same things I am. I’m always learning from other people and questioning what I do. Is there a better way to do something? Or, is there a different way? It doesn’t need to be better”
Gan Avraham’s staff and parents point to Kinczel’s willingness to learn and her desire of exploring the world of early childhood education.
“She’s always involved in continuing her education, always taking classes and reading new materials. Both of my girls had a great time with her as a teacher and still love to see her. They go up to her and say hello, they consider her a friend,” said Alice Hale, a Beth Abraham congregant and mother of two young Gan Avraham graduates.
“She’s given me a completely different perspective on preschool education. There’s a lot more to it than just taking care of little kids.”
Kinczel is also a keen observer of children who has assuaged the fears of many young parents that, yes, their young one was behaving perfectly normally for his or her age. Or, in an instance where a child is afflicted with a social disorder or other such condition, she is often the first to note it.
“I think she sees things the rest of us miss,” said Ann Levine, a mother of two Gan Avraham students.
“People slap labels on kids, but that isn’t how she approaches it at all. What makes Ellie different, I think, is her ability to see underneath the language and actions of children and come up with really practical guidance for both children and parents.”
Since the early 1990s, Kinczel has acted as a mentor teacher, training students from local junior colleges who assist in her classrooms. Sometimes, a former Gan Avraham student may drop in and help as well.
Meeting a young adult she once helped onto the monkey bars is “very gratifying. It’s very exciting when they remember me,” she said. “I hope that I made some little impact, maybe gave them something they can carry throughout their lives.”