"I Can't Take You Kids Anywhere!"

I guess I looked pretty young when I started teaching here back in 1994, so it came as no surprise that my students would often tease me good-naturedly about looking like them and blending in with the crowd. In particular, I remember bringing my speech team to contest one wintry Saturday and stopping at McDonald's on the way home for a bite to eat. Back in those days, if you brought a team in to eat the coaches received a complimentary meal. So I'm at the counter asking for my free meal, when Jake Hanson (who is now our county treasurer but at that time was a high school kid on my speech team) said loudly enough for the counter worker to hear, "Are you trying that speech coach thing just to get a free meal again, Keith?! " Of course I was embarrassed, but also greatly amused, and the team enjoyed a good laugh over it. It also serves as an early example of the topic of my message to you this month, and that is what good representatives our students are of this district's and this community's values. You may not know this, but it is not uncommon for our activities director, our superintendent, or me to receive an email or phone call from somebody commenting on our students' behavior following a game or some other event where our students have been out in the public eye . Contrary to the negative news about teenagers that we often see on television and online, our students receive compliments from these folks. Examples include a call we received this fall from a restaurant manager in Mason City telling us how polite and well-mannered our entire football team was when they ate there for team supper. And an email we received from the activities director of a school district at which we played football complimenting our athletes and our student spectators on how classy they conducted themselves. Or the parent who caught one of our board members at a volleyball game to what good sportsmanship they saw from our students in the stands and on the court. The sometimes overt and sometimes subtle ways we try to model good character here at school, and more importantly the way that the parents in the N-K district raise their children at home produce good results. Rather than thinking that, "I can't take these kids anywhere" I would be proud to take them everywhere.