02/23/2000 - THOMAS WYDELLA – staff
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I can think of no adult who better personifies the
personal values Ragan’s Wall is intended to promote than Buck. For over 15 years, Buck has come to school each afternoon and many evenings not only to do his job but to be an important part of the lives of our students. He gets to know kids and shows an interest in their lives and their successes. He puts his own brand of grandfatherly pressure on kids who need to do more to be successful in school and to develop socially acceptable behavior and gives positive feedback and encouragement to those who put forth the effort and to others who already are. |
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He knows what it takes to do well in life and has a wonderful knack for figuring out the right way to approach each student, whether it’s with his gruff side or his warm side or his humorous side or a combination of the three. He’s been sort of a surrogate grandpa to hundreds of kids (including my own) and he has created his own traditions with tootsie rolls and change for vending machines, and custom-made trophies carefully manufactured in his woodshop. These traditions have become as much a part of the culture of this school as anything we do here. Buck gets to know your name, and when you see him ten years later, he still remembers it. He has his finger on the pulse of our students, and they have no better friend.
