Luau marks retirement
Teacher Ruth Conklin always ends the school year with a luau, celebrating her native Hawaii with students.
This year’s luau was her last as a sixth-grade teacher for 25 years in the same place, Centennial Middle School.
Conklin, 60, is retiring with plans to spend more time with her granddaughter and fulfill one dream – visiting every Major League Baseball park.
“There are 30,” Conklin said. “I’ve been to 10.”
She also hopes to visit kids at school occasionally because she enjoys them.
“I was in second grade when I was already pretending to teach,” said Conklin. “I love learning. I never thought about being anything else but a teacher. I love kids. I love their excitement.”
Now one of her daughters, Kellie Points, also teaches at Centennial.
Raised in Hawaii, Conklin has fond memories of growing up and of her mother stressing manners, which she tries to impart to her students.
Conklin also credits her parents for stressing education to her and two siblings. “They told us, ‘Learn all you can.’ They took us to Haleakala (mountain) in Hawaii because they wanted us to see snow, which was gritty ice, really.”
After a freshman year of college at the University of Hawaii, Conklin begged her parents to let her study on the mainland. She was accepted at Eastern Washington University and graduated in 1968.
The first time she traveled to Washington, she missed her flight from Seattle to Spokane. Conklin remembered her mother’s advice if she got into a jam.
“Before I left, my mom said, ‘As long as you have your mouth and some cash, you’ll figure something out.’ She was right.” Conklin eventually found a way to Spokane and has not strayed too far since.
After graduation, she taught a year in California and then two years in Hawaii where she met her husband, Tom, then in the military and from Chicago. After they married, they lived in Chicago for seven years, and Conklin took some years off from teaching while their two daughters were young. The family moved to Spokane in 1978.
In 1982, Conklin took a full-time teaching job at Park Junior High School, later renamed Centennial.
Her classes have included special education students mainstreamed into a traditional classroom. She has always taught sixth-graders, an age group that Conklin enjoys.
“I think it’s the perfect age,” she said. “They’re still babies in a way, but they want to be independent. I don’t call them babies.” With a smile, Conklin added. “I say that they’re my babies all the time.”
Her “babies” include students who are now adults, and several have returned to visit.
“When kids come back, I still call them my babies. That’s the best part for me, when they come back and tell me what they’re doing.”
Beyond core subjects, Conklin said she tries to teach her students about respect, manners and acceptance of others. “We all have things in common, and we all have things that make us different.”
“I tell parents that I’m very strict and old-fashioned. I believe in manners, respect and accountability. I’ll treat their kids like they’re my own.”
She also treats the children to the luau, which means students get to make leis and sample authentic foods: octopus, poi, pineapples, mangos and coconut pudding. Conklin only missed one year of the luaus when her mother died, and in previous years, her parents would ship beautiful flowers from the island.
“Every year, I share my Hawaiian heritage, some Japanese, too,” she said. “We study a little bit about Hawaii, and I bring food from the previous summer. I freeze it.”
“The kids have to finish their flower lei or they can’t come. No one ever missed it.”