Her Story
Mitsuye Conover was born in a World War II internment camp in California, to a mother who was an American citizen and a father who was a registered legal alien. She spent the first three years of her life there. In her own words, she is one of a diminishing number of Japanese Americans who were held in the camps, and that history, she says, is the most influential factor in her becoming a teacher. “We must learn from the past!” is the line she draws from the letter she received from the White House in 1993, which apologized for the government’s treatment of Japanese Americans, and it is the idea at the center of her teaching of American history.
Her family spoke only Japanese at home, and she began learning English when she started school. She credits her first-grade teacher, Miss Genevieve Slade, who spent countless hours of her own time helping her overcome the language barrier, with giving her The Little Red Hen as motivation, and sending her a book every Christmas until her death. Years later, Conover used the same book to teach her younger brother to read. She earned a B.A. in social science from California State University at Long Beach in 1965, taught social studies and English in the Long Beach Unified School District until 1973, and has taught in the Bartlesville Public Schools since 1974, first in social studies, and later, from 1996, as the school’s Advanced Placement U.S. History teacher. Her master’s degree in school counseling came from Northeastern State University.
Her honors include Bartlesville Teacher of the Year and Oklahoma Teacher of the Year in 1999, and in 2000 she was one of four finalists for National Teacher of the Year, a distinction that brought her to the doorway of the Oval Office in May 2000. She was also named Oklahoma’s Ambassador of Teaching for 1999–2000 and inducted into the Mid-America Education Hall of Fame in 2000. Her nominator, Oklahoma State Superintendent Sandy Garrett, wrote that for 28 years Conover “has brought to life American History, Government and Social Studies for her students.”
Beyond the Classroom
One month into her first year at Bartlesville High School, Conover lost her only son, Sean, who was killed by a drunk driver as he was on his way home from college. It took many months for her to return to the classroom, where she taught students only two years younger than her son. She and her husband, Neal, then used his insurance policy as the seed money for the Sean David Conover Charitable Scholarship Foundation, which in its first four years provided more than $60,000 to graduating high school seniors continuing their education. She also serves as the Washington County coordinator of the Victim Impact Panel, a program for DUI offenders that she believes is one of the most effective efforts to prevent drunk driving.
She is also trained as a volunteer for the Literacy Council, after a man at her church asked whether she would teach him to read so that he could read to his grandson. In the classroom she brings the community in: guests have included Wilma Mankiller, the first woman chief of the Cherokee Nation, professors from Central State University and the University of Oklahoma, and “History Alive” performers portraying Harriet Beecher Stowe, Henry Ford, Eleanor Roosevelt and Jane Addams. She also founded the History Club, whose public performances have included a three-act play, and she has held membership in local, state and national teachers’ organizations continuously since 1965.
Philosophy Into Practice
Conover builds her classes on high standards and a student-centered atmosphere. She believes “students will rise to the level the teacher sets for them,” and that a teacher “is only as good as his or her materials.” That is why her classroom is, as her principal put it, “literally a small museum of American history,” filled with her own collection of World War I memorabilia, a complete set of McGuffey’s Readers, Horatio Alger books, period currency, newspapers, posters, clothing and sheet music. She has also written original plays on American history topics, with roles pitched to every ability level, so that each student feels pride in the part they play. One of them, on the Constitutional Convention, grew into a forty-minute production for the whole student body and an elementary school.
“If I am sure of anything, it is that students will rise to the level the teacher sets for them.”— from her essay, “Philosophy of Teaching”
“Each student must be convinced that not only do they have something to contribute, but that they need to contribute. When this is accomplished, they will want to contribute.”— from her essay, “Philosophy of Teaching”
In Her Own Words
“I have a fervor for teaching the history of our nation because I know what can go awry. I have a greater appreciation for the rights our citizens enjoy because I know first-hand the repercussions of losing those liberties.”— from her essay, “Getting to Know You”
“I am supremely and unabashedly proud that my students leave my classroom at the end of the school year quite a bit more patriotic than when they entered.”— from her essay, “Getting to Know You”
“I wanted each and every student to understand the joy of learning, the fascinating world that is opened up with each jewel of knowledge that is unveiled day by day.”— from her essay, “In the Classroom”
“A teacher, I have emphasized to them, cannot escape influencing a child. This is both an awesome and gratifying power. All children need a dream; teaching is the profession which makes it possible for students to realize those dreams. It is the noblest of endeavors.”— from her essay, “Educational Issues”
What Others Said
“Mitsuye Conover transforms a normal classroom into a stimulating interactive environment in which students connect the concepts of history to their personal lives and prior knowledge base.”— Rita Baird, Ed.D., Executive Director of Elementary Instruction, Bartlesville Public Schools
“However, Mitsuye has handled all of it with dignity and courage… Mitsuye always gets back up. If anyone deserves to be in the National Teachers Hall of Fame, Mitsuye Conover is that person.”— Debi S. Boyles, Ed.D., Principal, Bartlesville High School
“Though out all my years as an administrator I have never seen more enthusiasm, professional pride or academic preparation than Mitsuye.”— Earl W. Sears, Principal, Central Middle School
“No one devotes more time to the teaching profession than Mitsuye Conover. She’s always looking to improve her teaching methods to increase student learning. She always asks herself, ‘Are they learning?'”— Raylene Gootee, colleague
“Her class was an experience he has not forgotten and he considers her to be one of the teaching gems in his educational experiences from kindergarten through graduate school.”— Margaret S. Butler, colleague and parent of a student
“I truly believe it was Mitsuye’s influence that lit a fire in Nicole, fueling a desire to learn that burns even brighter three years later as sophomore in college.”— Ronald L. Trummler, parent of a student