CLASS ACT: READING, WRITING AND ROLE MODELS; BOOKINS SETS EXAMPLE FOR STUDENTS

Lawrence Brookins takes his teaching and his coaching seriously, which is why he's even got junior high principal Gerald Richards calling him by his nickname of choice: the art coach.

"Some people have a negative stereotype about coaches, and unfortunately, there are coaches who have perpetuated that myth," said the Cape Girardeau Junior High art teacher, who also coaches high school football and track and field. "I take personal offense because I believe the two terms are synonymous."

Brookins, whose wife also works in the district, said it's not possible to coach without teaching, and the animation many coaches use when they instruct their teams is useful in the classroom.

"When I'm teaching, I'm motivating, and the same goes for when I'm coaching," he said. "So much is going through the minds of these young people, you sometimes even have to add some drama into the mix, because kids remember that kind of thing."

Brookins is in his freshman year in the Cape Girardeau public schools, but he is a 20-year veteran educator. He has previously taught in mid- and northern Missouri schools, but he said kids are the same all over.

"Some young folks don't have a clue about what's going on," he said. "They have been watching too much TV or something. But there are always going to be good ones and bad ones."

Brookins said he believes part of a teacher's role is to make personal contact with students. Many students need something or somebody, he said, and maybe one teacher can relate to a student in a way that another teacher hasn't been able to. Teachers are definitely role models, he said.

"Sometimes I'll do my best relating as the class is leaving, when a student is more relaxed," he said. "Parents would be very surprised with a lot of the things kids say outside of their homes, and sometimes we use those comments as a way to teach a student something."

Brookins said one example of this occurred when a student told him he didn't act anything like the student's father had said black people acted.

"That became to me a teachable moment," Brookins said, "when I could relate something to the student without dragging his parents down."

Brookins said he enjoys teaching and coaching, which is why he has stayed in education even though he could have made more money in another profession. Men and women become educators for the principle, he said, because it definitely isn't for the money.

"It's just too easy to make more money doing something else, which is probably why a lot of men and women are choosing other professions," he said. "I think I'm doing what my God intended me to do, and at least for now, I really enjoy doing it. For me, it works."