JENNIFER PERNEEL

Primary Lead Teacher

Mrs. Perneel couldn’t tell you when, in her childhood days in Morgan Hill, CA, she first discovered her love of learning, or even when she first learned to read; what she can tell you is that the love of learning is just part of her, and her mother would tell you that Jennifer ALWAYS had her nose in a book as a child. Her passion prompted her to pursue a B.S. in Child Development at Cal Poly, and top it off with a credential from Chapman University. Anyone who has met Jenn knows that she was meant to be a teacher! There was a time, however, when Jenn was not so certain about her teaching career. She was working in a local public school district and, finding herself discouraged, was just about ready to leave the world of teaching behind. That’s when she stumbled upon SLOCA. The blog (no website yet!) showed a school that was everything she had wanted to be a part of when she grew up. Jenn likes to say that SLOCA saved her teaching career. Since coming to SLOCA in 2006, Jenn has served in the roles of Primary Teacher, Lead Teacher (Primary and Friday Foundations), Level 1 and 2 Math Teacher, Primary Science (Track B) Teacher, and a proud SLOCA parent! Jenn’s reasons for loving Classical Education are many: the integration of beautiful books and history into the daily lives of her students; the fact that Classical Education believes young ones can, in fact, handle substantial content; that she is able to teach students HOW to think, not WHAT to think; she is able to spark something in every single one of her students through a literature story or piece of history; she could go on…! Outside of the classroom, Jenn focuses on being a mama to her two busy kids and wife to her husband of 14 years, cooking for family and friends, and she loves to read. Did we mention that yet?! Her 7 year old daughter, who just took up crocheting and sewing and is hopeful to teach Jenn as well. Jenn’s wishing her daughter better luck than her Home Ec. teacher had!