Teacher of the Year (Part 2 of 2)

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That's focusonthefamily.com slash seven traits. Today on Focus on the Family, you'll hear from Teacher of the Year Guy Dowd about a unique way to reach out to high school students. So you know what I do as a teacher?

I go to school a little early in the morning. Here's a desk. Here's where Sean sits. I sit down in Sean's desk, and I pray for Sean sitting in his desk.

And then when Sean comes walking down the hall, I can never think of him again in the same way. What a caring approach to teaching from Guy Dowd, and we're going to hear where he learned the importance of that kind of empathy on today's Focus on the Family. Your host is Focus President and author Jim Daly, and I'm John Fuller. Guy Dowd has a great heart for young people, and last time we heard how he was able to reach out to the lost and lonely teens that he encountered as a high school language arts teacher in Brainerd, Minnesota. Today we're going to hear about Guy's difficult childhood and how some caring teachers helped him turn the corner and begin to find purpose in his life. And we know there are many of those great encouraging teachers listening right now, and we want to say thank you for what you are doing for all of our children.

We really appreciate you. We sure do, and let me reintroduce Guy very quickly. He was named Teacher of the Year in 1986, and that honor was awarded by President Ronald Reagan, and here now is Guy Dowd speaking to a group of youth pastors on today's episode of Focus on the Family. I remember the first male teacher I ever had, Mr. Card. Walked into that sixth grade classroom and there was this guy, never seen a guy in the elementary school before except Mr. Hill, the custodian, and this guy was young.

He couldn't have been more than 70 or 80. And he came up to me and he grabbed my hand. He says, hi, I'm Norm Card. I'm going to be your teacher. Never had a teacher shake my hand before. I said, hi, I'm Guy Dowd. He says, oh yeah, I've heard of you.

I thought, oh no. But this guy was super. He was dynamic.

He was filled with energy. We'd go outside at recess. He'd play right along with us. We played touch football. He played with us.

And you know what? He, one time, he made me the captain of the team. And I got to pick the sides. I picked Mr. Card right away to be on my team. And Mr. Card was always the quarterback. And so he said, Guy, I want you to go out for a pass. Go down the left side, cut across, and I'll hit you with the bomb. He was going to throw the ball to me?

You mean he trusted me enough to throw the ball to me? All I'd ever been told to do before was, you block. You block. I was a nervous wreck as I lined up. Hot, hot. And Mr. Card goes back. And I'm running, running, running, just praying I wouldn't trip over my feet. And here comes Mr. Card's ball. And boy, he threw it hard right into my gut. And I caught it.

I didn't get very far with it after I caught it. Just lucky for those other kids, it was touch football. And Mr. Card would come into the school, and I had a haircut like Kirby Puckett.

My dad always cut my hair, so didn't need to go to a barber. And Mr. Card would come into class, and he'd go. And I'd shake it off, but I liked it. I liked Mr. Card. I thought he was everything that a father should be. I really looked up to him and emulated him.

He was my hero. And I didn't want to leave sixth grade. I didn't want to have to go across town to the big junior-senior high school with 125 kids in each grade.

Grade 7 through 12, all in one building, big school. And I stayed after school the last day, and I said, Mr. Card, do you think I'll be able to make it seventh grade? He says, I'll guy you'll do fine.

I wasn't so sure. Walking home that night, Steve Hall, my neighbor, who went on to be homecoming king, turned to me. He says, guy, he says, you're never going to make it in seventh grade. He'd heard me talking to Mr. Card.

I said, how come? I wanted to know what he knew. He says, you're going to have to run laps. Take Phi Ed. He knew I didn't like to run.

The only time I do it is when somebody's chasing me. But I also knew what else seventh grade Phi Ed class meant. It wasn't like sixth grade recess. In seventh grade Phi Ed, you had to take your clothes off. You had to change into Phi Ed clothes. You had to strip. All my life, my mother had said, hold your stomach in.

I'd become pretty good at holding it in. And all of a sudden, everything I'd been holding in was going to be right out there. I worried about that all summer long. Maybe none of you had similar feelings. I'm sure some of you did. But I remember laying awake at night during the summer between sixth and seventh grade worrying about having to start seventh grade because I had a whole new school. I had to go to seven different classes rather than the same room all day long. I had to have all these different teachers. And most importantly, I had to take Phi Ed, and I had to change into Phi Ed clothes. I was a nervous wreck. I had anxiety.

I couldn't sleep some nights. Finally, the little note came home from the school. Here's the things your son will need for Phi Ed class.

Staples Cardinals, red and white, dynamite, onward Cardinals to victory. Need a pair of white gym shoes, white gym socks, red gym shorts, that other thing, and a white t-shirt. Or we didn't have any of those things.

So my mother went to Badger's department store and bought those things for me. Finally, the summer was over and the first day of Phi Ed class came. And to make matters even worse, I had a Phi Ed teacher who had just finished 22 years as a drill instructor in the Marine Corps. And it was his first year in education. And he was my seventh grade Phi Ed teacher. And he was my second year in education. And he was my third year in education.

And he was my seventh grade Phi Ed teacher. And he came into class and he said, all right, look, I am going to issue a lock. I am going to give you the combination to your lock. Should you forget the combination to your lock, I will write it across your forehead in magic marker.

Is that understood? And guess who forgot the combination? And I will tell you why in a minute. I didn't need to go out and run any laps to sweat. I mean, the perspiration was already pouring off of me. He says, all right, get changing your Phi Ed clothes on the double.

Here I am. I am a nervous wreck. I am reaching in my bag.

I am taking out my shoes and my shorts and my socks and my shirt. And that other thing, I have never seen one before. It said bike on the box. I took it out and I looked at it. Didn't look anything like a bike. I thought, what in the world do I do with this thing?

Should have played with it at home or something. I was too embarrassed to look over at Steve hall and see how he is putting his on. So I decided to tie in the previous learning.

The tag always goes in the back. How do you women know about that? Well, I know more and had it on. I knew something was wrong.

It was called a supporter. And for the life of me, I couldn't figure out what it was supporting. So now I'm looking over at Steve hall. Oh, that's how it goes. I'm too embarrassed to push it off all the way. I thought maybe I could just turn it around. Then as I'm turning it around, my fire teacher sees me. Hey, everyone, look at this.

He doesn't even know how to put on a jock strap. Oh, of course, everybody looked and everybody laughed. And I was ready to die inside. And somehow I made it through that hour if I had class about three laps behind and the last one back to the locker room. And the first thing I did is I went for the big white bowl. I was sick, physically sick. I had a high fever.

I was vomiting. I missed the next two weeks of school, literally ill, dreaded the thought of having to go back there. I went to church on Sundays. And I'd fired on Tuesdays, Thursdays, every other Friday. And if you go back and check my attendance record, I was sick an awful lot on Tuesdays, Thursdays, every other Friday. And I hated school.

I just wanted to get out of there. And then my sister, who had gotten kicked out of school, ran a red light one night. She was driving her friend's car and she was drunk and he was even drunker. And a car smashed into their side and her friend was killed.

He was the father of three little kids. My sister felt so guilty she tried killing herself. And she ended up in Fergus Falls State Hospital, 65 miles away from my hometown. Our car couldn't make it, so every other Sunday we borrowed my grandpa's car and we drove to Fergus Falls to visit my sister.

I'd get home on Sunday night. I'd go to school on Monday and I'd think, what does any of this have to do with anything? And it's often the same way we have programs and all these things. What really do they have to do unless we can relate them to the struggle going on inside kids? And they're there. That's why suicide ranks as high as it does as a leading, one of the leading killers of young people today and the loneliness and the alienation that they feel.

Even those who are seemingly so accepted by all of these groups, they're torn apart inside. I just couldn't wait to quit school. The counselor called me in. He says, guy, you're flunking all your classes. I said, yeah, well, I just want to quit school. He says, well, what would you do? I said, well, in the summer I help out around Haskins gas station.

I think I could probably get a job there pumping gas, changing tires. He says, well, you're not old enough to quit yet. Just hang in there. I had to go back to my seventh grade English class where I had Mrs. Maury. And Mrs. Maury was a taskmaster. Not only did she make us know the names of the Greek gods and goddesses, we had to know their Norwegian names as well. And I thought, what do any of these Greek gods and goddesses have to do with anything?

They never even did exist. But it was this Mrs. Maury. She was a Christian. I didn't know it, particularly at that time.

She never said it. But she really loved me. And she didn't give up on me. She felt it was her job to teach me.

And if she couldn't succeed in teaching me, she'd failed. And Mrs. Maury motivated me by getting me involved in speech, extracurricular speech. And I went all the way to the finals of the region tournament in my first year as a seventh grader.

I couldn't wait for school to start in eighth grade. And in eighth grade, I ran into Heinrich Kapta. Heinrich was my eighth grade math teacher. He'd been a missionary to New Guinea. And he'd worked with pygmies. Dynamic Christian, Christian man who never overtly proselytized, but his faith was so evident.

It was so real. His life was one of compassion. His life was one of service. And Mr. Kapta led me to the Lord Jesus Christ in a real way. And Mr. Kapta later taught me a little poem. I'd rather see a sermon than hear one any day. I'd rather you walk with me than merely point the way.

The eye is a more ready pupil than ever was the ear. Good advice is often confusing, but example is always clear. And I became the, well, my eighth grade phy ed teacher was a super guy. He was fatter than I was. I couldn't do a pull-up, but he'd pat me on the butt. He'd say, good effort, guy, good effort.

Because he couldn't do one either. And he says, how would you like to help manage the junior high football team? I thought he wanted me to help coach. I became the manager of the football team, the basketball team, the track team, went on to become senior high manager, lettered in all three sports, got initiated into the Letterman's Club, had to go through an arduous ritual to this day. I'm not allowed to disclose what I had to do to become a member of the Letterman's Club.

Safety patrol. I ran for student council every year, never had to go to the Letterman's Club. I ran for student council every year, never got elected, but they always appointed me member at large.

President of the German club, president of the drama club, and when I was a senior, I was elected president of the future teachers of America Club. And I thought, boy, if I could be a teacher like Mr. Card, if I could be a teacher like Mrs. Maury, who I've since found out is just a dynamic Christian lady, who saw teaching as a way to put Christ's love in action, if I could be a teacher like Mr. Kopka. And on April 14th, 1986, I was humbled by being asked into the Oval Office to represent all of America's teachers and meet the President of the United States. And there he stood.

Walked into the Oval Office, and there he was, and he reached out and he grabbed my hand and he said, I saw you on Good Morning America this morning. And he reached into the vest pocket of his coat and he pulled out this copy of this poem written on a piece of his own personal stationery about the size of a note card, gold presidential seal, his name across the top, you know. And he said, I came across this poem a number of years ago. It's about the importance of teachers. And if you don't mind, I'd like to read it to you. And I said, oh, go ahead.

That's a lie. And the President looked at me, he says, this poem summarizes better than anything I've ever read how important teachers are in helping mold the lives of kids. And I'd like to read it for you. And he looked at me and he said, teachers, I hope you include yourselves, you are the molders of their dreams. The gods, little G, who build or crush their young beliefs of right or wrong. You are the spark that sets a flame the poet's hand or lights the flame of some great singer's song. You are the god of the young, the very young. You are the guardian of a million dreams. Your every smile or frown can heal or pierce a heart. Yours are a hundred lives, a thousand lives. Yours the pride of loving them and the sorrow too. Your patient work, your touch make you the gods of hope who fill their souls with dreams to make those dreams come true. And when he was finished reading it, our eyes met and there were tears coming down my cheeks.

The President had big tears in his eyes. Very warm, personable man. And he looked at me and he says, well, if you don't mind my chicken scratches, I wrote this off in kind of a hurry.

You can have this. His own handwriting. And I took it and I held it.

I stared at it. I just, his own handwriting. And I'd read two weeks earlier, his signature alone was worth $66. So I started counting up the words, you know, on a teacher's salary. You'd do the same thing on a youth minister's salary. But you know, the Apostle Paul writes that our life is a letter that people are reading.

And these people would rather see a sermon than hear one any day. And they look to each of us and each of us has the potential to be that molder of dreams. In closing, I just have to tell you this. If you were in my class at the end of 12 weeks, by the end of 12 weeks, you hopefully all would have gotten accustomed to giving me a hug when you leave the room every day.

Even real studly hockey players, by the end of 12 weeks, feel comfortable enough to give me a hug. And I tell these kids I love them. And rather than eating in the teacher's lounge, I always go sit in the school cafeteria. I pick out a different group of kids every day to sit with some I usually try to pick a table.

I don't know. I started that about nine years ago. I walk up to a group kids mind if I sit here. I've never had anybody tell me no, had some tables get up and totally leave.

Nobody ever said no. And now when I go in the cafeteria, Hamish dog, come sit with us, come sit with us. And you know what? I think some of the best teaching I do is at lunch, or sitting with them at a football, basketball, or hockey game. We just talk and all they're just anxious to open up. The things you hear about their families or mothers or dads or brothers or sisters, their boyfriends or girlfriends, know how they need that molder of dreams. Thank you for what you do.

God bless you, you molders of dreams. What an inspirational message from Teacher of the Year Guy Dowd on today's episode of Focus on the Family. John, I want to tell you, I have such great memories of caring adults that helped me along the way. One was Mrs. Bandy. She wasn't a teacher. She was the elementary school nurse. And of course, after I lost my mom and my dad, and I was in foster care, there were days when I just couldn't cope and I would walk out of that class and I'd go sit on a little sandhill in Morongo Valley Elementary School and just cry. And Mrs. Bandy would see me from her office. It tears me up now thinking about it. And she'd come out and sit next to me and put her arm around me and say, you know, everything's going to be okay.

And she just provided really simple comfort. And then in high school was Coach Paul Mora, who passed away not long ago. And he encouraged me in football and invited me to fellowship a Christian athletes camp where I accepted Jesus as my savior. Yeah, public school teacher.

What a huge impact he had on my life. And when a coach or a teacher or a school nurse does something like that, Jim, we know it's an answer to many parents' prayers. Our kids are going through a hard time. They're gonna hit that point in life, especially when they're teens, when they're looking for validation everywhere but inside the home. And we are so thankful for adults that step in at that critical time. That's true.

It's so typical for a teenager to stop listening to mom and dad and seek that validation, like you said, from other people. And we can pray that they'll have a teacher like Guy Dowd or another caring adult or coach or whoever that is in their lives. And as an update, Guy was a pastor for many years, but he has retired. He's in his early 60s now and has suffered a series of health challenges. And I know he would really welcome your prayers for healing. He needs a touch from the Lord in that regard. Please pray, too, for focus on the family. We rely on God's strength to continue to minister to families around the world. And if you would like to partner with us in ministry, please consider becoming a monthly donor.

That's the best way to help us. And when you make a monthly pledge of any amount, we'll send you the DVD featuring Guy Dowd called Moulder of Dreams. It has over 90 minutes of content, and it's just great.

If you prefer not to make that monthly commitment, we understand. We'll send you the DVD for a one-time gift of any amount. Yeah, and that DVD includes this entire presentation, plus some dramatized scenes of Guy in the Classroom with a group of students.

And it really is some great stuff. Get your copy of that DVD when you call 800, the letter A in the word family. Or you can donate online and request the Moulder of Dreams DVD.

We've got the link in the episode notes. And when you're online with us, be sure to check out our Alive to Thrive Suicide Prevention curriculum and help us spread the word about this free, really important resource. Next time, you'll hear how to help your child become more God-confident.

I think too many times we get stuck on the rules and the Bible stories, which are fascinating, all those Old Testament stories, David and Daniel and all those, but to help them develop that love relationship with the Lord, to teach them who God is. On behalf of Jim Daly and the entire team, thanks for listening to this Focus on the Family podcast. Take a moment, please. Give us a rating and then share about this episode with a friend. Thanks in advance. And I'm John Fuller inviting you back next time as we once again help you and your family thrive in Christ. With it, you can listen to the Focus on the Family broadcast, engage our social media, find a counselor, or make a donation, all on the Focus on the Family app. Download it today from the App Store or Google Play.