THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, June 2, 1996 TAG: 9605310213
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 16 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ELIZABETH THIEL, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 63 lines
Thomas R. Conyers remembers the valedictorian who quit tutoring other students so she could join the basketball team. She wanted an athletic scholarship to college.
``She knew how things worked,'' said Conyers, a 65-year-old chemistry and physics teacher at Indian River High School. ``She said, `Have you ever heard of anyone getting a real scholarship for being smart?' ''
The girl got her scholarship; Conyers got a lesson in reality. It was one of many he learned during his 28 years of teaching in Chesapeake schools.
Conyers is among 50 educators who are ending their careers and heading into retirement this year. The school system sponsored a banquet for them last week.
The banquet is held every spring, to honor those who have dedicated their lives to children.
``These people have given, in some instances, decades and decades of service,'' said Tom Cupitt, the school system's spokesman. ``It's just our way to say thank you for a job well done.''
Each got a gold watch, with the school system's logo on the face, and a certificate.
Each also took home a more valuable gift - a compilation of memories.
``Your real rewards is when you have students come back and tell you they finished their master's degree because of you,'' said Conyers.
He took up teaching in the late 1960s, after a stint in the Navy.
His wife was working as a teacher also, so he figured they could afford for him to take on a low-paid profession.
``Two people teaching can make a living out of it, but one's tough,'' he said.
He's watched educational trends come and go. The kids kept him interested.
``You have so many of them every year who seem to come around, if you just pay enough attention to them,'' he said.
``They'll work, if you believe in them.''
Like Conyers, Isaiah L. Owens figures he did the right thing by devoting his career to schools.
Owens, 61, is an assistant principal at Western Branch High School.
He's been with the school system for 34 years, he said. His first job was as a social studies teacher at the old Crestwood High, the school reserved for black children in Norfolk County before integration.
He was promoted to assistant principal at Western Branch in 1975, and he's been there ever since.
``The hardest part of the job is trying to get students to understand how important it is to learn,'' Owens said. ``I guess it's their age. And also there are so many variables at home and the community that stand in the way of those things.''
Conyers had the same sentiments.
``The trouble often is they don't care,'' Conyers said. ``They don't see any purpose in it.''
The answer, he said, is for parents to spend more time with their children at home, showing them how important education is.
``When the parents don't seem to be interested in education, the kids don't see the importance either,'' he said. ``When they're little, you've got to read to 'em. I can always tell good parents, because the kids, you can teach them.'' ILLUSTRATION: Thomas R. Conyers
Chemistry and physics teacher by CNB