The author grew up as an Illinois farm girl, born in 1922. Both her mother and her grandmother had been teachers trained in Froebelian progressive education methods, and both knew the value of building on children's interests. At about age 9, she became interested in butterflies and made her own museum, including rocks, butterflies, and insects she collected and labeled. Her mother encouraged this kind of learning, following her lead toward increased levels of reading. She was in charge of her learning for those early years. In this article, the author shares the influence of her mother and grandmother in her profession as a teacher and discusses her idea on fostering individuality and valuing uniformity particularly in early childhood education. Questions and answers related to the author and the field of early childhood education are presented. (Contains a list of books by the author.)