“Think twice before you speak,
because your word and influence will plant the seed of either success or
failure in the mind of another”
-- Napoleon Hill
By Tommie Saylor
Kennedy High School Principal
This last week the world lost a
benevolent soul, Earl Buis. Earl was my ex-wife’s father. He passed away
Thursday night.
He was the epitome of the everyman kind
of guy – generous and hardworking, but quick to smile and offer you his hand. Back
when I was a young man dating his daughter, I made an effort to get to know Earl. Where I came from it was still
important to visit with your girlfriend’s father and gain his favor. So, I
visited Earl several times, sitting and talking with him, getting to know each
other. Then one day he took me outside to sit on the front porch, and told me
to go to his personal refrigerator he kept on the porch and grab a beer.
Earl had a house where the front
porch wrapped around two sides of the rather large, old-fashioned two-story
farmhouse, and on this porch Earl had a picnic table and a full sized
refrigerator. In this refrigerator Earl only kept one item, Pabst Blue Ribbon. I
kid you not, the entire refrigerator was packed from top to bottom with PBR. So,
being the typical teenaged country boy, I walked over to the refrigerator and
got a beer and brought it to Earl. He then told me to get one for myself. Not
wanting to disappoint my girlfriend’s father, I got myself a beer. I sat there
with Earl on his front porch and drank my very first beer, knowing that this
was his way of showing his acceptance of me as a proper suitor for his
daughter.
Over the years I learned a lot from
this old man. I learned the importance and power of kindness. I learned that
encouragement goes much further than belittlement, that praise creates paths to
new forms of success while berating shuts down minds and creativity, I learned that
the carrot is much more powerful than the stick.
Earl was able to teach me that one’s
job, career, or position in life was not as important as how hard one works,
that effort counts. Though many years later Earl’s daughter and I divorced, he
always remained kind toward me and I never forgot the lessons he taught a very
young man just starting
out in life.
We are all an amalgamation of efforts
from others. As we grow and become the adults that we are, many along the
way have placed great efforts into our development, into molding, prompting,
and pushing us in the right direction. We did not make this journey on our own,
without those who made this journey before us, we would not be who we are
today.
Occasionally we can remember those
who were most influential in our lives, sometimes without the person even
knowing that they had such an influence. We remember our favorite teachers,
pastors, friends, and those who lent a helping hand when we were down.
Be that person. Be the person that
someday one of your students will remember. Be the person that inspires a student
to chase their dreams. Be the hero in a future story where one of your students
tells their children how a teacher changed their life. Be the person that is
known to give more than they take. You have no idea how every effort, kind word
or a small gesture of kindness can influence a child’s life.
The power you possess is
overwhelming. You have the ability to mold the future of our society, and the
clay you work with sits before you in your classroom every day. Do not take
your duties lightly, the impact of your efforts is long lasting, life long, and
the one thing that can change a student’s entire world can be as simple as a
smile and a good morning.
I think this weekend I will go to the
store and buy a couple of PBRs and have a drink with my son (don’t worry, he is
24) in Earl’s memory and in the memory of all those who have made me the man I
am today.
Remember, their future is in our
hands. Making Kennedy the school of Choice. Excellence by design.
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