Dailey Poet
The Dailey Poet
October 14th, 2008
Dear Readers,
Yes, this is a first, for today I am leaving my poetic nature behind to write a “normal” article. The reason....I feel this subject is so important that I am not taking the chance that poetic license will not convey the full story. If you have followed my articles for the past couple of months you know that Seguin High School was my column territory.
First, let’s makes this perfectly clear – I was in no way directed to any specific students, teachers or classes, it was important to me to see the real SHS and I did. Principal David Gettig and Vice Principal Melinda Ingersoll gave me full reign to visit any class, teacher, or program. I roamed the halls (complete with Visitor’s Pass) freely and alone and never once did I see anything other than all American teenagers in a rush to get from class to class. The fact that I am 55 tells you I visited every restroom on campus and each one was clean and students I bumped into were polite and respectful.
It is IMPORTANT that everyone see that we have a great School System, Dr. Irene Garza, Mr. Gettig and Ms. Ingersoll really do care about each and every student, teacher and employee. We can make our Seguin ISD even better by respecting and appreciating what a great opportunity we have right here, to send our kids out into this world ready for a great future. Now, is every kid going to be a Doctor, of course not, we need all sorts of skills to make our community successful.
Now before I go on, please do not say to me “I don’t have any kids in school so why should I pay more in taxes?” My answer to you is because these kids are our future, not just their future, ours. In every facet of our lives we need our kids to come out the very best they can be and you bet that takes money.
In meeting these young people I am convinced that our future is in good hands. My random meetings were all over the board, from future lawyers, forensic scientists, Band Directors, Hair Stylist, Journalist to Neonatal RN’s.
Give this some thought:
For example, isn’t a really good hair cut necessary? Stop and think about that...I hate it when my hair is cut wonky. Seguin High School’s Sally Griewahn trains students before they graduate to be skilled hair dressers, is that cool or what? Betsy Flood and Travis McCulley are teaching kids to be twenty times more computer literate and prepared than I am right now. These students can go out in this world and make something of themselves, whether College bound or Tech School right from our own High School! Ponder this, the band kids, led by Mark Buley, they learn discipline and team work are those not traits that every employer wants for their staff?
ROTC, many of these students are going on into the military, Instructors Richard Gray, Mike Collier & Michael Thomas are the frontline in training these young people to serve and to protect our country, seems like to me that is one special program. The American Sign Language, incredible that High School students can learn a skill that literally can make a difference in people’s lives. The Lady Matadors Basketball team coached by Matt Smith, I envy these girls, they weren’t just athletic they were well spoken and driven to succeed.
I could go on and on, what I really really want you to see is that as a Community we need to get behind our schools, positive breeds positive and we have so much to be grateful for and there is more to come. Hopefully through my eyes you have met the wonderful Teachers and Administration that we have entrusted with our children.
During my multiple visits I asked many students what teacher influenced them the most and more than once the answer was Mr. David Fleming – so it seems only fitting to end my series with this remarkable teacher.
The comment that I heard most often about Mr. Fleming, from girls, he taught them more about being a lady and guys, how to be a man in life. That intrigued me because my English teacher taught me to stop staring at the cute football player next to me and that my grammar was crap! (Mr. Fleming, please don’t grade the punctuation on this) A class visit was a must...being the creative type, my first visit I was off on the time by an hour, a fortunate accident. Mr. Fleming was on his conference period, nifty! I really got to spend quality time with him. Mr. Fleming, tall, stately, white hair, goatee, vest, tie and boots, reminds me of a Southwestern Rancher. Mr. Fleming genuinely cares that students not only learn English, but life lessons as well. We had such an interesting conversation I was super sad when the bell rang and his next class began. David told me the story of the “wild” girl and the “pretty” girl, it made me feel much better about my spirited daughters.
I did return for English 4 Dual Credit, a Senior class of bright and articulate students. Mr. Fleming’s deep resonant voice read out loud E.E. Cummings “Anyone Lived in A Pretty How Town” (poetry of course!) Through this poem he did indeed teach life lessons to this group of young people that in a mere 3 months will be taking on the world.
The poem, Mr. Fleming pointed out was about having the courage to be different, manning up, stop whining on Facebook!
Mr. Fleming compared E.E. Cummings poems to a basketball trick shot an apropos metaphor. “Trick shots in basketball are missed 75% of the time, but when you make one it takes your breath away”, doesn’t every student in our district deserve a trick shot moment?
Mr. Fleming interspersed life lessons intertwined in the poetry so subtly that it caught me off guard, in one class I learned something about myself. An amazing experience overall! Mr. David Fleming, the kids were right, you truly are special.
Ending out this series on Seguin High School, if you take away anything from this perception is reality and from my perspective, reality is good!
“Let’s Get Random”
Brenda Moebus, is just a hoot! She is fun, spunky, cute and one heck of a cook! Brenda learned her cooking chops at none other than Seguin High School! Now Brenda’s award winning Sweet Potato Crunch is going to be on Dixie Grill’s menu! Bill Thompson, owner of Dixie Grill knows a winner when he sees one. Brenda is the Food Service Director for Windsor Nursing and Rehab Center so she knows how to cook for a crowd.
Brenda I still love your peach cobbler!
March 1st back to my regular schedule of the 1st Tuesday of the month and back to rhyme!
You never know where I’ll be, because there is a poem in everything, see you men watches next time.
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