It’s quite a lot of fun talking to Robert Traner-McDermott. You can actually see the two worlds with which he’s involved through the way he dresses and interacts.
He’s been an early-education teacher since 1987 as well as the lead singer of the popular band Tequila Mockingbird. So he sports a traditional '60s haircut with glasses, a tattoo, and shoes that light up as he walks. Every summer, he also runs a Summer Venture School Program where he teaches kids outside the structure of the classroom; one day they’ll go strawberry picking and the next they’ll go to the Summer Solstice workshop to help build floats.
When he was getting his education degree in preschool and early childhood education, he was the only man in a class of 54 women. “I always knew I didn’t want children of my own,” explains Robert, whose wife also agreed not to have kids. “I’ve raised over 1,000 children. I’ve dedicated my life to taking care of the children that are already here.”