Let Me Tell You About Kids

Thank goodness it's finally summer. It has been a heck of a spring.

You see, I am a teacher in Salina and news hasn't been very good in the press for our school district in general and my school in particular.

For a while it seemed I couldn't go anywhere without someone asking my opinion of the minor tragedies of our students arrested on drug charges or a coach I don't know personally at anouther school convicted of felonies in another state.

Other times a person will be sitting next to me at a restaurant and begin with "You know, kids today. . ." Then he begins a long litany about the violence, foul language, music and bad fashion that our students seemingly embrace. i settle in and bear it as best I can, never telling him that the animals he is referring to are my pupils.

I have a choice, though. I can accept this man's view as fact and agree that our younger generation is going "to hell in a handbasket," as he says. And I can watch the local news and read any newspaper and find plenty of support for this position.

There seem to be a lot of kids who have, for whatever reason, given in to drugs and instant gratification in the forms of impersonal sex, theft, vandalism, drugs and alcohol. Some end up attempting suicide. I also see many students in my clases committing the most mortal of sins in my opinion -- accepting mediocrity from themselves and their peers.

As Keven Klin's character says in the movie "Grand Canyon," "there seem to be so many ways to bit it these days."

But I choose to get through by seeking the other side. I got a letter today asking for funds toward a plaque to honor James Matson, a former student of mine who died of cancer. Ther will be a dedication ceremony Sunday at the ball diamond named in his honor.

Two students from South High School got together and chose to remember their firend in a positive way. Seeking nothing for themselves, Bobby Powell and Ryan Nitz persuaded the city comission to narrowly agree to allow the naming of the north field at the East Crawford Recreation Area for a person they loved and respected, a positive example to our youth.

James Matson was a good student and an avid, almost voracious, reader of current events. he came to my English class early to tell me his opinions of the day's editorials in the Journal. He is the only student I knew who had a favorite columnist (Anna Quindlen). James also had a great memory for jokes and seemed to know every line of dialogue from his favorite TV show, "Cheers."

I also knew James as an athlete. he was a competitior whose fire burned hot. James loved to be a position to win the game. he always wanted the ball whether in the post in basketball or on the mound in baseball. Win or lose though, after a game he wanted to be with his teammates and then with the young fans on the court or the diamond.

He was one of the few ghigh school athletes I've ever seen whom kids came up to and asked to sign their program or their ball. he had that kind of charisma. There was something about James Matson that instinctively told kids it was OK to come up and toalk to him. and I know from talking to James, he never took his role as a model to youngsters lightly.

When I think of our kids today, I choose to look to people like Bobby Powell, Ryan Nitz and James Matson and many, many others like them.

No, I don't worry too much about our youth today. In their hands, this world will be OK.

----The Salina Journal (July 14, 1995)