One of the areas in which school districts are evaluated is the dropout rate of the district. Recent studies have indicated that our state ranks 47th in the nation in our high school dropout rate. We graduate about 61% of our students. The dropout rate is a major cause for concern.
My mom taught school for 30 years. Seventeen of those years were at Plainview, Louisiana, and 13 of them were at Hornbeck, Louisiana. In those 30 years, she taught a lot of students. One of those students was Wingate Dowden.
In Mom’s latter years, whenever Wingate would see her in a crowd, he would always tell this story. After beginning his senior year of high school, Wingate decided that he would drop out of school and get a job. He envisioned getting rich quick. In making this decision, he had not consulted with Mom.
According to Wingate, about a week after his decision to drop out of school, he was down in the field pulling corn. He looked up and saw Mrs. Jones coming. She made her way down into the cornfield and, after speaking to Wingate, came right to the point. Her point was that she thought he had made a big mistake in dropping out of school. He was too smart and too talented not to complete his high school education. She wanted to see him back in her class the next morning. Having delivered her message, she left the cornfield and left Wingate to do some serious thinking about his future.
The next morning Wingate was back in school. He was back to stay. He finished his senior year and graduated. He served a couple of years in the army and then came home to go to work for the Louisiana State Police. He retired from the force as a lieutenant. Whenever he saw Mom anywhere, he would always tell the story about her coming to the cornfield to get him.
Mom was always embarrassed by the attention. She would often say, “I think Wingate has added a good bit to that story. I had three small boys then, and I don’t think I had the time to go down into the cornfield to talk to Wingate.” Whether that detail was true or not, she never denied the fact that she did everything in her power to encourage him and to keep him from dropping out of school. She said, “He just had too much going for him to drop out of school and not reach his potential.”
The dropout problem is one that plagues not only our schools but also our churches. The key ingredient in improving the dropout rate in both is to have a lot of people who care and who will offer a word of encouragement. Maybe you could be that person this week.
Wingate and Mom have both gone on to heaven now. Wingate will probably tell the story there if he can get some folks to listen. Mom will probably be embarrassed and quibble about some details. Neither of them will question the life-changing importance of offering a word of encouragement.
