FEBRUARY, 18, 2000
Good or poor the choices are yours comic says
By Cathy Willoughby
Staff Writer
Good choices, poor choices ... they are all your choices.
That was a message brought home with laughter at Lakota East Elementary Thursday afternoon. Dr. Mike Thomson, author of two books, a consultant to the national "Character Counts'' program, and star of his own Public Broadcasting Service 10-part television special, "In Search of Character,'' spoke to the children about life's choices.
Also known as a comedian, he has performed with others, such as Robin Williams and Carrot Top. He flavored his talk with humorous sketches of life, both his, and that of adolescents in general.
"I came into your school, and I just love this building,'' Thomson told the fifth and sixth graders. "I saw the girls walking in the halls, and they are looking and whispering to each other, saying, 'There are guys here,' and the fifth and sixth grade guys, they are looking at the girls, and going like this. ...''
At that, he depicted a stallion, snorting and pawing at the ground with one of his legs. After being greeted with roars of laughter, Thomson told them what he hoped to accomplish there that day.
"How many of you would like to learn from me,'' he asked. "How to get Mom and Dad off your back, how many would like to have more money in their pockets and how many would like to get their teacher off their back.''
He said there are three things that if they possessed could change their lives. They are power, control and choices.
"How many of you have heard this from Mom and Dad,'' he said. "Get up there this instant, I have had it with you, and no more phone, stereo, Nintendo or Sega. ...''
He said there is always that child who says, "So ... whatever ... go ahead and ground me,'' he said. That was a choice.
He entertained them with several humorous accounts of his family life, from his son's birth to fights in the back seat of the station wagon with his brother. He told the students that when they get to a certain age, Mom and Dad aren't there anymore to help them make decisions.
"When you are in the fifth and sixth grade, things change for you,'' Thomson said. "You realize that life is a smorgasbord, from this day forward.''
"What is your first reaction when you are at one of those food places, where they just have a boatload of food,'' he asked them. "It's just, gimmee, gimmee, until someone tells you to slow down, not take as much. In life, you might have a bucket with tobacco, one with marijuana, another with alcohol. There will be one that says, come on, you can lie. You were taught to tell the truth, but wait, you can be mean to people. But you can choose to be nice to people. As I stand here, I am worried about your choices.''
With a student volunteer, Thomson illustrated the consequences of good, or poor choices. He told the boy to place on his finger a rubber band that was attached to a fishing line and pole. "When you make good choices, you earn things,'' Thomson said. He asked the boy questions and when he responded correctly that his decisions to do his homework, behave in school, etc., were his choices, he was rewarded with stage props, including a plastic stereo, pink car, and sneakers.
"Now the last thing I want to do as a parent is to be on your back about these things,'' he said. "Character is when you make good choices when no one is watching you.''
He told the youths that trust is something that is given based on the choices that they demonstrate.
He told the boy that he received a call from the principal, and he had one word to say to him, that he was outstanding ... out standing in front of the school and wouldn't come in.
Every time Thomson told of a bad choice the boy had made, the fishing line was reeled in closer to him. "Remember, that if you do this, you are choosing to lose the privilege of athletics, to be grounded, have detention, do jail time, those are all consequences of poor choices,'' he said.
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