JOHN DAY – A 1979 graduate of Grant Union High School has joined six others on the school’s Wall of Fame.

Mark Seals, who holds a doctorate in education from Purdue University, was in town for the May 27 GUHS academic awards ceremony, where he accepted the new position of honor and gave the keynote address. Wall of Famers are Grant Union grads who have gone on to accomplish extraordinary things.

While the evening highlighted the scholastic achievements of the students, Seals emphasized the importance of reaching beyond academic success to make values such as the ethic of care, relationships and integrity a high priority for life.

Seals, who is the department of education chair and associate professor at Alma College in Michigan, noted that some special teachers, his wife and his faith in God all helped him get where he is today.

In high school, his skills were meager, he said. However, teachers such as Art Thunell, his baseball coach, and Roger Ediger, his eighth-grade science teacher, helped him. And it wasn’t just the content of what they taught, but their “ethic of care.”

He recalled how, when he was having a bad day at school, Ediger placed his hand on his shoulder and talked with him.

His 78-page dissertation highlighted Ediger and the power of caring relationships in effective teaching.

Seals shared one of his favorite quotes by Haim Ginott:

“I’ve come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom. My personal approach creates the climate. My daily mood makes the weather. As a teacher I possess a tremendous power to make a child’s life miserable or joyous. I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated and a child humanized or dehumanized.”

Effective teachers, he said, know their students and know them as a person first.

Seals pointed out that today’s students are competing globally. China and India “have more honor kids that we have kids, period,” he said.

He asked the students in the audience, “How are you going to be different?”

He encouraged them to become experts in their fields, but to remember that technical skill means nothing without the guidance of a moral compass.

“We don’t need anymore Saddam Husseins in the world,” he added.

He asked students, “What are you going to want people to say of you? … Live your life toward that goal.

“Serve generously, live faithfully and believe in yourself.”