THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, May 26, 1996 TAG: 9605240211
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 03 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Ida Kay Jordan
LENGTH: 131 lines
A COMBINATION OF FATE and faith brought Billie Peace to teach in Portsmouth nine years ago.
``In my old age, I decided to take a year off to attend Regent University and study the Old Testament,'' says Peace, who was 57 then. ``I took a two-year course in one year, and I couldn't leave at the end of the summer in time to get back to Georgia for the school year.''
She needed money, she says, so she applied at schools in all the Hampton Roads cities.
``And, remarkably, they all offered me a job.''
Young Charles Bowens, then principal at Brighton Elementary, was the main factor in her decision to come to Portsmouth as a special-education teacher.
``He was a wonderful administrator, and there were so many children in that school who needed help,'' Peace says. And just incidentally, he also is a minister.
Actually, Peace had planned to go back to Georgia.
``I was going to stay one year, and then I got into it at Brighton and just kept staying another year and another. Then I decided I'd better stay here because I didn't think anyone would hire me at my age.''
After seven years at Brighton, Peace has been at Churchland Elementary for the past two years. At the close of this year, she says, she's going to retire and head home to Georgia.
Judging from testimonials Tuesday at a party given for her by the parents of children she's taught to read, she has made a solid impact at the Churchland school in a short time.
Mayor Gloria Webb came and proclaimed Billie Peace Day, and School Superintendent Richard Trumble called her ``the epitome of all of us who call ourselves teachers.''
But the kids and their parents said it best.
A 13-year-old said he ``struggled to read'' before Peace started working with him last March. She came in early, before her school day began, to help him.
``Since then I've learned to read and write and, thanks to her, I don't hate learning any more,'' the youngster read from a sheet of paper, on which he'd written his own thoughts. ``Without her, I wouldn't be able to read this to you today.''
A mother said her young son did not want to go to school.
``We didn't know why. He didn't know why. Then we found out he couldn't read. Now he does read, and he wants to come to school.''
The testimonials continued in that vein. Peace was pleased but a little embarrassed.
``I'm a background person, and I'm fortunate to be able to help.''
Her work history started in 1951, when she took a job as a home economics agent in Monroe County, Tenn., after graduating from Berry College in Mount Berry, Ga.
A year later, she switched to teaching, first home economics and then elementary grades in DeKalb County, Ga.
``Years ago, I was teaching a little boy who thought he couldn't read and I remember so well the moment when that child knew he could read,'' she says. ``That was the joy for me and I became addicted to it. I couldn't stop teaching these children who have reading problems.''
In fact, she says, ``In Room 2 of Churchland Elementary, we have a wonderful experience every day.''
``I thought I was in hog heaven at Brighton, where I had about 20 students a year,'' she says. ``But I think I must be getting better. This year I've gotten better results than ever before.''
Peace says she is convinced that the answer to improving education is not more money but ``a little integrity.''
``Many teachers just don't teach reading,'' she says. ``Seven years ago, Portsmouth bought the Cadillac of programs for teaching reading and offered teachers the opportunity to go to a local conference every year to learn how to teach it. But it was optional and not many of them have bothered to go.''
Using the programs, she can take a child from being a non-reader to the eight-grade level in 250 one-on-one sessions.
It's a matter of ``time and the willingness to sit down and do it.''
Peace says she was a classroom teacher for years and ``always worried about the children who couldn't read, but I didn't have time to give the individual attention without taking away from the whole class.''
Since 1968, Peace has been focused on special education, teaching or working as a consultant in Marietta, Cobb County, Gwinnett County, West Georgia College and Fort Stewart Dependent Schools. In addition, she spent a year working for the Georgia State Department of Education.
Her degree in Old Testament from Regent was a second master's degree; the first was from the University of Georgia in elementary education.
Peace is straight-forward and does not hesitate to offer constructive criticism of public education, saying that many people who ought to be teaching children to read are going to committee meetings and doing other things that have little to do with teaching.
``The public schools owe every child the ability to read,'' she says. ``I believe that, although I can't tell you how to do the job. You just have to feel it.''
But, she added, the city should require the use of the reading program that most teachers in Portsmouth have eschewed.
``The results are phenomenal,'' she says. ``It really works.''
Name: Billie R. Peace
Neighborhood: Works in Portsmouth, but lives in Chesapeake.
Number of years in Portsmouth: Nine years with public school system
Birthplace: De Kalb, Miss.
Birthdate: Dec. 15, 1929
Occupation: Churchland Elementary School teacher of children with learning disabilities
What job other than your own would you like? Teacher of Old Testament
Marital Status: Single
Children/grandchildren: Two daughters: Meredith Peace of Germantown, Md., and Rhonda Gill of Atlanta. Two grandchildren: Sarah and Brandon Gill.
Fondest childhood memory: Probably winning second place and $20 in an essay contest.
First concert: Can't remember
What song or book title best describes your life? ``Amazing Grace''
If you won the lottery, what's the very first thing you'd buy? Probably some furnishings and landscaping for my new retirement home on the water at Midway, Ga., near Savannah.
If you could trade places for just one day with anyone in the world, who would it be and why? I wouldn't trade places with anyone.
Biggest accomplishment: Learning to teach reading to children with severe reading problems. It has been a lifelong search and has taken much study, much work and much training - most of it in the Georgia school systems and universities.
Most embarrassing moment: There have been many, but I can't remember one.
If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? Lose weight
Perfect way to spend the day: Leisurely shopping and lunch with one of my daughters.
I can't resist: Wanting and trying to teach a child who needs help academically. I would like to teach them all but can teach only a few.
Favorite Portsmouth restaurant: All of those in Olde Towne
Biggest problem facing Portsmouth: Education, basic education
If you had three wishes for Portsmouth, what would they be? That the churches be filled and that integrity permeate our schools, government and business.
Other than its small-town atmosphere, what do you like about Portsmouth? Wonderful people and historical districts ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by MARK MITCHELL by CNB