DMN: Sending Thanks for Making a Difference

DMN Feature Article
Sunday, December 3, 2006

The Colony: Former student thanks principal who never lost faith in her

By MIKKI KIRBY / Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News

A comment from a former principal changed the course of the girl's life. Years later, she sent out an e-mail trying to find him.
The comment was a simple gesture from a man who believed in a group of kids that some had given up on. Dawn Kelley-Jordy was one of those kids.
Now she wanted to find Clint Mosely and thank him.
"He made an impression on me that took a while to get through my stubborn brain. He said if I set my mind to it, I could do anything well," she wrote.
She sent an e-mail to The Dallas Morning News asking for help in contacting Mr. Mosely. The two had crossed paths at the Lewisville Learning Center in 1992. Mr. Mosely spent two years as principal there, overseeing a group of at-risk youth.
Mr. Mosely printed the e-mail and filed it along with others he has collected over the years.
"This is what has kept me doing what I do," said the assistant principal at The Colony High School. "It's the best morale boost for a teacher or an educator to know you made a difference."
He explained that while it's often a thankless job, people are teachers because they want to make a difference in the lives of others. It's an innate quality educators possess. Receiving a thank-you every once in a while is what it's about, he said.
Mr. Mosely has spent the past 28 years as an educator in the Lewisville school district, the last 14 at The Colony High School.
He began his career as a teacher at Hedrick Elementary School before transferring to Marcus High School when it opened in 1981 in Flower Mound.
After a five-year stint as the principal at DeLay Middle School, he took the position at the Lewisville Learning Center. According to its Web site, the center is for students at risk of not graduating from high school.
"My time there was very rewarding," Mr. Mosely said. "I made the decision to take the position because I wanted to experience that kind of environment."
The Colony High School principal Becky MacDonald said Mr. Mosely never passes judgment and takes time to listen to students.
"He talks and jokes with our students, but he also keeps them in line. There's a lot of security in structure," she said. "He was probably disciplining his former student as he encouraged her."
The e-mail notes that Mrs. Kelley-Jordy will graduate from the Nursing Department at Murray State College in Oklahoma in 2008.
"Not all teachers or principals get the recognition they deserve, so I wanted to say thank you to all teachers and principals, especially Mr. Mosely," the e-mail continued. "Thank you for believing in us. Without people like you having the heart to deal with some of us 'hard cases,' we would be lost in the wind."
Mikki Kirby is a Dallas freelance writer.