From left: Lynn Clewis, Debbie Taylor, Angela Watkins and Susan Perkins at Discovery Place Kids Rockingham.
                                 Ana Corral | Richmond Daily Journal

From left: Lynn Clewis, Debbie Taylor, Angela Watkins and Susan Perkins at Discovery Place Kids Rockingham.

Ana Corral | Richmond Daily Journal

ROCKINGHAM — Discovery Place Kids Rockingham is a magical place for the children of Richmond County — where fun and science come together to create lasting memories and spark curiosity. Behind all the learning and laughter is a team of retired and active educators who help bring the museum to life.

“I knew I could not go home, sit and do nothing. The lady that was a director was a friend of mine. I worked in a gym and I said ‘do you have a space for a volunteer?’ I’ll read a story — anything, just something to do to not be at home all day or working at the other place I was working. So I came and she said ‘how about an on-call job?’ And to me, an on-call job sounds like a substitute teacher, so I was like no, I won’t do that. Then she called me back and said ‘how about a part-time job,’ well, part time turned into full-time turned into operations manager almost nine years later. I was retired for two months,” said Susan Perkins, a retired high school art teacher and now operations manager at the museum.

Many of the retired teachers at the museum didn’t plan to go back to work, but they felt like they still had something to give.

“When it comes, then you think to yourself, ‘now what?’” said Debbie Taylor, a former kindergarten teacher who now works as a facilitator at the museum.

Lynn Clewis, who taught high school English, was retired for over a decade before she joined the team. It started with a walk and a talk with Taylor.

“I was retired for 12 years and enjoyed that time, but then I talked to Debbie — I taught Debbie and we’ve been friends forever. We were walking and talking, ‘wonder where we can find a part-time job?’ One morning, we stopped by here and Angela was looking for some people. She sent our names in, my name came up first so I think it was the next week that they were interviewing me from Charlotte,” said Clewis.

Taylor got hired just two weeks later. Together, they said, “We have been here four years.”

Angela Watkins, former principal and now director of Discovery Place Kids Rockingham, says retirement doesn’t mean the end of doing what you love.

“I think the basic thing, like Debbie said, when you retire, you still have to have purpose in life. Because our passion is working with children, then that’s really our purpose, and in retirement, what better way to serve that purpose than in an environment like this?” said Watkins.

Taylor believes the heart for teaching never really fades.

“I don’t think that ever ends. I just think you have that passion for children and really it’s a privilege to work here— to be able to see children and make friendships. We’ve made some friendships not just with our team, but with the people that come into the museum,” said Taylor.

Watkins added that one of the best parts of the job is watching the kids grow up right before their eyes.

“We’ve had the opportunity to watch them grow. We’ve all been here for about four years, so we had kids that came in here as arm babies and now they’re four year olds, or we’ve had two year olds come in and now they’re six year olds. It’s just unexpected because at school we see the kids every day, but we don’t often get to see them later in life or see them grow like that and here we literally watch our guests grow,” said Watkins.

Working at the museum has also opened up new interests.

“Mine comes through science, which I never thought I would enjoy. That was the farthest thing from my mind because I taught English and I’m not science and math oriented, except I have become more science oriented. I absolutely love working with the little children on science experiments. They are awed by what happens— you please them with whatever you do and it is fulfilling,” said Clewis.

Perkins said it wasn’t just science that was new — it was dancing in front of a crowd, too.

“I think the scariest thing was having to do the Big Fun dance party for the first time by yourself. A chicken dance in front of all those grown ups. Now I think it’s fun, I don’t mind the Big Fun,” said Perkins.

The museum’s way of teaching is different from a classroom. Kids get to explore, mess up and try again without pressure.

“As you can imagine, the education system is in a formal environment and to some extent it really has to be a formal setting, but here, the museum is an informal learning environment. It’s kind of the things that you couldn’t do in teaching with all the hands-on and letting kids take a risk and make mistakes. As Miss Frizzle said, take chances and get messy. Standing back and letting them do it and putting yourself into the situation is needed to guide them and encourage them— not to tell them what to do. For me, the informal learning environment was a stretch of what we’re used to, but it’s just such a rewarding thing to watch, support and just be there to see,” said Watkins.

Clewis noted that watching kids gain confidence in their own abilities is one of the most rewarding parts of the job.

“I really love to see the children gain confidence. I watch the little climbing wall over here quite a bit and I love to watch the ones who struggle in the beginning, but before they leave that day, they are climbing that wall fast. It just shows that it is something that they have learned, they learned well and they basically did it on their own. It gives them more self-confidence in what they can do,” said Clewis.

Taylor said the team she works with now feels like a family, even though they come from different backgrounds and ages.

“We have a bond with this team. It’s probably different, you have that bond with that person and your grade level—like in kindergarten, I was very close to people that were teaching kindergarten, and so I had a bond with them. But here, it’s all ages. I’m much older than some of them in their 20s, but I have a good relationship with them and I love working with them and they make me laugh. In some ways, they keep me young too,” said Taylor.

Clewis said the museum gives kids a break from school pressure, and the freedom to just enjoy learning.

“The children that are already in school, when they’re here, they don’t have to worry about ‘is somebody not going to like this? Am I going to get a good grade or a bad grade? Because we tell them everything is beautiful and we do our best to reinforce whatever they’re doing. In a way, we’re an emotional support to them too,” said Clewis.

Taylor said the museum helps bring out the strengths in every child.

“We all have different strengths. I think the museum can build on those strengths — there are children who do great building with Legos. We had a child in here, five years old who told me he was making the Titanic. He wanted part of it to look like it was coming out of the water. To be thinking like that as a five year old, that’s impressive,” said Taylor.

Even for the staff, the learning never stops.

“I learned you’re never too old to learn something new or try something that scares you. When I came here, I said if I ever do the fire tornado experiment, you will know I’m feeling very confident, and there I was one day lighting chemicals on fire,” said Taylor.

Watkins said even though their jobs at the museum are different from teaching in a school, there are still some similarities.

“We’ve all had to come outside of our box. There’s a lot of similarities, but a lot of differences in what you do here and what we did on our previous careers,” said Watkins.

For Watkins and her team, it also comes down to giving back to the place that raised them.

“All of us have been a part of this community since birth, and so all of us were born and raised in this community and we have a great love for our community and a passion to add to our community in a positive manner. We’ve ran into so many guests that come in here and say ‘how do you all have this in your small community and how do we get one?’ The city and the county leaders have been so supportive of us and what we do here. I think that it helps that we do have that love and passion to be a part of our community,” said Watkins.

Reach Ana Corral at [email protected]