... always tell the truth.
Nancy Kaiser
Nancy Kaiser was in elementary school living on a farm in Wright County near Clarion when she learned a lesson she passed on throughout her career in teaching.
She thought back to a time when she broke a spring on a saw that her father had borrowed from a friend.
"My father was a strong disciplinarian and I was scared to death," she said. "I not only broke something that he was using, but it was a friend's. I was scared."
She contemplated not telling him, but figured once he found the broken spring, she would wind up in even more trouble. So the moment he pulled in the drive that afternoon, she ran up to his car.
"I remember it so clearly," she said. "I ran and told him, and I didn't get in trouble. It seemed to me that he respected the fact that I was honest and didn't lie to him, and it paid off. I always tried to tell my students and my children, too, not to lie because you have two problems, you're in double-trouble. It's best always to tell the truth. Even if you're going to get in trouble, it's better than getting in trouble twice - once for the deed and once for not telling the truth."
Kaiser started teaching as a 19-year-old in a two-room country school in Galt. She later spent 17 years staying at home to raise her four children before returning to teaching in 1982, splitting time as a special education teacher at Northeast Hamilton and Dows before arriving at West High in 1993.
She said she hasn't often told the story about breaking the spring on the saw, but the importance of telling the truth is a lesson she has stressed to her students.
"My father's reaction showed that he respected me because I was brave enough to tell him the truth," she said. "I tried to teach my students that people respect them if they were truthful, even if it seemed easier to lie."
— Andy Hamilton
