For Shiberlon Watson, the path to becoming a teacher — one that she’s still traveling — began close to home.

“I love my little siblings, and kids just make me happy,” said Watson, a Meridian High School junior. She’s in her second year at the Teacher Academy, a two-year program at the Ross Collins Career and Technical Center — part of the Meridian Public School District — for high school students in Meridian City and Lauderdale County public schools.

As part of the Teacher Academy’s program, high school students alongside students in Meridian Community College’s Early Childhood Education Technology Program to educate and care for a group of up to 14 pre-kindergartners, ages 3 to 5 years old. It’s a long-standing program that provides preschool and child care to families, as it enhances the education of prospective teachers.

It also contributes to a growing emphasis on early academic preparation for pre-kindergartners.

“When students hit kindergarten, if they haven’t already had some type of preschool, they’re already behind,” said Dianna Hughes, director of the Child Care Center at the Ross Collins Career and Technical Center. “Preschool is their base, the foundation of what they need. I just can’t imagine a child starting kindergarten without going to preschool anymore.

“Unless the parent is doing lessons at home with them,” she added, “they’ll start off behind.”

Hughes works with Robin Campbell, teacher assistant and director designee of the Child Care Center. The pre-kindergarten children, Hughes explained, have relatives who are Meridian Public School District employees.

“The first priority is that (their parents or grandparents) have to work for Meridian Public Schools,” she said.

For students who have decided to pursue teaching as a career — both in high school and at MCC — the Child Care Center creates a chance to apply their studies to actual teaching.

Leisa Shumaker, instructor for the Teacher Academy at the Ross Collins Career and Technical Center, noted the joys and also the challenges that arise once aspiring teachers begin working with actual children.

“Usually they just really enjoy it,” Shumaker said, observing that Hughes’ control of the classroom means discipline is not something the prospective teachers need to worry about as they strive to become comfortable with teaching. But the challenge of working with small children for the first time can still be daunting, and students may need time to adjust. Shumaker recalled one student who performed superbly in her academic work but found herself to be a bit shy, at first, with the children.

Some experience changed that.

“She’s very comfortable with the children (now),” she said. “I think she trusts herself to be able to interact.”

Shumaker said high school students go into the pre-kindergarten classroom in their first year to work on course preparation and other tasks, and then in the second year each class works directly with the preschool students one day a week. Sometimes, she said, the high school students will work together with MCC students.

Students from both MCC and the high schools notice just how perceptive, and how hungrily curious, the young children are.

“They pay attention to everything,” said LaNautica Warren, a student in MCC’s Early Childhood Education Technology Program.

“They’re like little sponges,” added Tabitha Scisson, a student in the same program.

A toddler’s tireless observation creates consequences for the teacher.

“You have to be careful what you do,” said Genesis Love. “It’s (also) good that they notice things because it lets you know they’re paying attention to what you’re doing.”

Love, too, is a student in MCC’s Early Childhood Education Technology Program.

Structured academic lessons form key parts of the work students do with the young children. On a recent morning, Warren was teaching the young children their numbers and also helping them to notice the sounds in numerical words such as “seven.”

Hughes, who has directed the Ross Collins Career and Technical Center Child Care Center since 2000, has seen a blossoming of academic emphasis on the program since her early years on the job. The changes, she explained, are part of a larger shift to more structured learning for pre-kindergarten children.

“It used to be a lot of babysitting and playing,” she said. “We still do the playing, but it’s more intentional now.”

One of the ways students learn is through centers, as they move from station to station exploring academic concepts and also — through dramatic play — taking on the roles of professionals such as doctors and cosmetologists.

Students who work with the children also mentioned their unbridled honesty.

“They have no filter,” said Cassandra Klutz, a Meridian High School junior. “They speak the honest truth, even if it’s hurtful at times.”

Adrianna Moore, also a Meridian High School junior, described the way she’s sometimes tempted to do the work for the children.

“It can be very hard not to do it for them,” she said, noting that at times she has to pull back from completing a task for the child.

The students who spoke about teaching on a recent morning did so with real enthusiasm — and that, said Hughes, is a prime quality for a profession that can be stressful and that also carries a modest salary.

“You really have to find someone with a genuine love for kids,” Hughes said.