Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, October 11, 1994 TAG: 9410110118
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MELISSA DeVAUGHN
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Age: She won't say, but she's been retired for 15 years.
Family: Two grown children, John and Phyllis. Her husband, Ralph, who taught at Virginia Tech, is deceased.
Favorite reading: Travel books.
Hobbies: Being host to international students in her home; playing with her grandson, swimming and going to church
Most memorable teacher: Jane Macrum, a science teacher in high school. "She was always peppy and active and making things interesting," she said.
Hometown: Detroit, but she also lived in central Pennsylvania. She's lived in Blacksburg since 1956.
Most vivid school-age memory: "I had typhoid fever and I had to go to school with my head shaved," she said. She was 15 at the time.
In a small room at the corner of the kindergarten wing at Margaret Beeks Elementary, Beulah Kline patiently goes about the task of teaching International children how to speak English.
Kline, who taught in Montgomery County schools for more than 20 years before retiring in 1979, said even though she was no longer teaching, she still wanted to do something productive with her time. So each morning since she retired, Kline has returned to Margaret Beeks to help kindergarten, first- and second-graders perfect their English skills.
"Some people can work in the hospital and some people do other things, but I enjoy this," Kline said, as three Chinese boys walked into her "English as a Second Language" room. The boys, Allen Zhang, Tony Wang and Peng-Peng Fan, giggled and spoke Chinese to each other. None of them can speak a complete sentence in English.
Not yet, anyway.
"It's hard because some of them can't speak a word of English and it's even harder when they don't speak any English at home," Kline said. "But you just learn to be patient and repeat the same things over and over."
Kline also teaches her pupils by example.
"I take them to the lunchroom and show them a knife and a fork since many of them have never seen one," Kline said. "They have to know what things look like before learning to read about them."
Kline is modest about her accomplishments, but it is clear she is good at what she does.
Kline also is a "surrogate mother" of sorts to many international college students, hosting a monthly international dinner for those students. She is involved with activities at the Cranwell International Student Center in Blacksburg and has even visited many of her former "children" in India, Japan and Europe.
"In India, I went to a wedding of two former [Virginia Tech] students," Kline said. "And I visited the homes of five Japanese students when I went to Japan."
Kline said it is fulfilling to see the result of the work she does with International students.
"When they first come here, they're afraid because they sometimes don't even know their own name," she said. "But to see them grow up and change and adapt is very fulfilling. They learn to love it here."
by CNB