Dave Weber brings motivation to local schools

PORT CLINTON – More than 700 educators and administrators flocked to the Performing Arts Center at Port Clinton High School on Thursday to hear words of encouragement and inspiration from Dave Weber.

Weber is an author and motivational speaker who tours the country with one goal in mind: To show people how to be the best they can be.

While at the PAC, Weber explained the seven “me’s” someone is. He said this is key to ensure people show more than a fake smile or fake compassion.

Tying his point to education, Weber said what people say and how they say it can affect outcomes of people.

One example he gave came from a young boy he mentors and acts as father figure to. The boy is being raised by a single mother, and every chance he gets, he is always at Weber’s house.

“He came home one day asking for notebook paper, he was so excited to write a paper,” said Weber. “He sat down and 90 minutes he wrote. It was a great paper, it was a wonderful story.

“I saw his mom the next day and said ‘Wasn’t that an amazing paper?’ She said it was,” Weber continued. “I said ‘He was so exited when he left the house.’

“She said “too bad that didn’t last. He was so excited when I woke him, he was too excited to eat. He was the first one on the bus and the first off. She (teacher) scooped the paper out his hands, and I don’t where her head was.”

The teacher looked at the paper and was upset the boy’s name was not in the correct corner of the page. Weber said this teacher chose not to look at the paper and lashed out at him for a simple error. He said when the teacher did that, she crushed his potential of ever becoming a writer.

She tossed his paper towards her desk, and three of the sheets went on the floor, his mother told Weber. Weber said he saw the kid walking down the street going to play. He said the boy said the incident was alright because he must not have been a good writer anyway.

The teacher made an impact that day on the young boy, but not a positive one. Whether she was dealing with a personal issue or had a negative conversation before she walked into the classroom, Weber will never know.

“It dawned on me, the world may have just lost the next William Shakespeare. Why? Because a little boy just got a crystal clear image that you can’t write,” Weber said. “I don’t think that’s what she meant to say, do you? The trouble is, I don’t think she thought about what she was saying. There lies the problem.”

He said there is learning without a significant relationship. He said often teachers are the people a student most connects with because they see those people more than some family members.

“Our words can crush and kill the spirit of a colleague,” he said. “I’ve seen words crush and kill the spirit of offensive lines, marching bands, marriages, churches and neighborhoods. Words are powerful.”

Weber said not all words are negative.

One example of the impact of words as a positive came with his dad, Butch Weber. When he was growing up, his dad would deliver newspapers in Cleveland.

He and his mother lived in an attic and had one heater and one electrical outlet. Each day, he said his dad woke up and delivered the papers.

His mother said break — which was a glass of hot chocolate — was only earned if he finished his route in a certain time. He said that was the negative use of words.

The positive spin came when his dad came to the door of one of his customers. A woman answered and began talking to him. She asked if he was the person responsible for putting the paper on her welcome mat during a blizzard the week prior.

His dad said yes. The woman used positive reinforcement, because even if he did not throw the paper to the mat, he would begin after their conversation.

He encouraged the group to be positive and upbeat when talking to students. This is what Weber calls “the me I want to be.”

He said people fight with that concept all the time. Sometimes a person takes anger out on people and sometimes they give a false projection that everything is fine when it really is not.

“The tongue is the most powerful muscle in the body,” he said. “It weighs so little, yet no one can hold it.”

Words can fuel emotion. When someone is having bad day, kind words can go a long way toward cheering him or her up. Something as simple as apologizing for a fight with a loved one is often overlooked. That is a good way to build walls and erode relationships, Weber said.

Weber said there is a 3,500-year-old quote that he uses to sum up the power of the tongue.

“Each month I collect quotes,” he said. “My favorite, from the wisdom of King Solomon, ‘Words of life or words of death are in the power of the tongue. Those who love it will eat its fruit.’”

CShoup@gannett.com

419-734-7504

Twitter:@CraigShoupNH