CUTV News Radio Spotlights Retired Educator and Hypnotherapist Ruth Beatrice

Port St. Lucie, FL - Ruth Beatrice spent 38 years in elementary education, primarily as a first-grade teacher.

“I graduated high school in January of 1949,” recalls Beatrice. “My guidance counselors turned me in that direction because I had so many different experiences that would pertain to elementary education. At the time there was a shortage of teachers.”

Beatrice loved seeing the progress these kids made; everything she did was for them and to make learning more fun.

“I used to do a lot of activities with the kids,” says Beatrice. “When I would teach in Social Studies, it was a great opportunity to do some hands-on stuff. And I would have them make all kinds of crafts related to what we were studying.”

To instill a love of reading, Beatrice would have her students contribute something to a story. Their parents would type it up into a little book: on one side their story and then the other side would be a little picture to help them recall the story.

“They learned to read that way so much faster, because the story has more meaning to them. When they look at the pictures they had drawn, it helps them recall about what they have to read. And from their story we did all kinds of phonics things and we had them making out the beginning sounds and consonant sounds.”

Beatrice later used her experiences to co-author books on tutoring for the Partners at Learning Series from 1978 to 1979 and in 1983.

Also in 1980, Beatrice discovered hypnosis. Today she is a a certified clinical hypnotherapist.

“My sister-in-law introduced me to one of the programs for adults at the high school where she lived. It was called Self-Hypnosis,” recalls Beatrice. “In the summertime would do hypnosis full time because they were off from school. All hypnosis is self-hypnosis.”