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Squeezing toothpaste to deal with differences
CANFIELD
A crowded gym of Canfield Village Middle School students sat open-mouthed and wide-eyed as guest speaker David Kohout kicked off the school year with a serious speech.
Principal Judd Rubin introduced Kohout, whose presentation is called “Talk is Cheap, The Message Isn’t.” His platform is that there is a reason for each of the students’ lives.
“A few weeks ago we lost another student in this community [from another school] who decided it was too hard to keep going to school because kids were being mean to her,” Kohout said. “Either you’re part of the problem or you’re part of the solution. ... Choices equal consequences and before you get old you have to make good choices to get there.”
Kohout told students to embrace what sets them apart from others by initiating a competition of toothpaste-tube squeezing between two students whom Rubin deemed the strongest in the school.
Sixth-grade students Ben Slanker and Sophie Dundix raced to squeeze out all of the toothpaste before the other did, using their different strengths.
Once both students squeezed the tubes empty, Kohout instructed them to finish the competition by putting all of the paste back in the tube.
With much confusion, the activity concluded with a lesson about choices, consequences and the irreversible inevitability of both.
A message on the back of Kohout’s business cards reads: “I’d rather build boys and girls than rebuild men and women.”
“What we’re standing in is the presence of greatness. And the sad part is, some of these kids have no idea it’s even in them,” Kohout said.
He said the goal of the presentation was to help students’ “light bulbs” go off by giving them examples to help them see how great they all are – even if they are different.
“Socrates said, ‘I can’t make you learn, but I can make you think,’” Kohout said. “I’m after that. That’s all I want to do.”
Superintendent Alex Geordan said he was glad the presentation stressed a positive attitude no matter what.
“We believe that students need to listen to and respect one another, understand differences and have positive communications,” he said. “We have no tolerance for mistreating each other, and we believe this was a fantastic message for our middle-school students to hear the very first week.”