Theo Freeman, a RIDE driver and former Public Safety officer, is founding P.E.A.C.E Preschool in Middletown. The school will be housed in an 1872 Victorian mansion in the Wesleyan Hills area of Middletown, just south of campus.
This project is the natural next step for a man dedicated to Middletown.
“You know how they say to take out your home equity for a car or your dream house or a vacation or whatever? I did it to open a preschool,” Freeman said.
With P.E.A.C.E. Preschool, Freeman hopes to draw kids from all economic and cultural backgrounds. This is reflected in the name of the school, which is an acronym for “Proudly Educating All Children Equally.”
“If kids don’t learn each other’s cultures, they grow up and there’s animosity and fighting and that’s when you get gangs,” he said. “It’s important to get to the kids early, to make sure they have their basic motor skills and know their letters and numbers.”
Freeman has applied for non-profit status to be eligible for state and federal funding. He has also hired a director and a teacher and aims to wrap up the licensing process in a few weeks.
The school will employ the educational methods of Maria Montessori, which stress individualized education.
“She was Italy’s first female doctor, and she taught in the slums of Rome,” Freeman explained.
Freeman calls Montessori, along with his other heroes Gandhi, Bob Marley, and Mother Teresa, “lovers of society.” He aims to follow their example.
Freeman, age 40, is a single father of a seven-year-old and a 14-month-old. He is part of a parents’ association that lobbies for healthcare and childcare funding in Hartford, and also coaches his son’s football team.
Freeman has worked multiple jobs, each having a focus on community. He first started driving for the RIDE in 2001. Two years later, a spot opened up for a Public Safety officer position, which he took for two years before returning to his former job at the RIDE. In addition to his work on campus, Freeman is a mail collector for the post office and a security guard at Middlesex Hospital.
Freeman’s connection to the University dates back to 1976, when he moved to Middletown from Brooklyn, New York. He fondly remembers playing basketball on YMCA teams that were coached by University students, which was quite common in those days.
“It was fun, everybody played together, there was no animosity, no fighting,” he said.
Freeman also remembers being influenced by the University in other ways.
“We used to go to DKE when we were 16 or 17 to play the beer game with the football players,” he recalled.
In high school, Freeman participated in the University’s branch of Upward Bound, a government-funded college preparedness program. The program, which is still active on campus, was part of a youth support network that Freeman thinks has largely disappeared.
“As part of Upward Bound, we used to have a picnic every week for a different nationality,” Freeman explained. “Then when Reagan came in he started cutting those programs. And the lunches became every two weeks. And then every month. And then they got rid of them.”
Today, Freeman has optimistic, but realistic expectations about P.E.A.C.E.
“I can’t save the world, but I can save my life, and the lives of those around me. Maybe Middletown can be a better town, a model town,” he said.
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