Mary Hall Prout was born in San Francisco in 1921. Her father was a newspaperman who owned the Gilroy Dispatch, but her family felt the effects of the Great Depression when their house was foreclosed by the bank. By the start of the war, she had begun studying to become a teacher, first through a community college before completing her studies at San Jose State University. A job opportunity soon brought her to Richmond, California where she became a teacher (and soon head teacher) for schools in the Richmond Childcare Development Centers. Her oral history details her experiences working with young children – from the evolving theories and methods of pedagogy to the actual day-to-day experiences of a teacher in the context of a changing community. The interview also points to the operational, social, and economic problems facing the teachers – including the challenges inherent to unionization.