Author Jonathan Friesen visited Craig on Wednesday, Feb. 7. In the morning he spoke to students, most of whom read his book in their English classes. In the afternoon he answered questions about the novel “Jerk, California” and his writing process during a small group session. Mr. Friesen lives in Minnesota. He is a husband and father of 3, an author of 8 books with another on the way, and a college professor of education. Pictured here is Mr. Friesen during his emotional presentation to Craig’s teaching staff after school on Tuesday, Feb. 6. He spoke about the importance of building connections with students.

Chaka Khan and Rufus created the funk hit “Tell Me Something Good” during the 1970s funk and soul craze. It was a love song with a great beat at the end of every lyric that would stick in your head. You know how that goes: it gets in your head and you end up saying it all day.

Do you ever feel like passionately begging someone to honestly “tell me something good”? 

It is nice and easy to list all the latest advances in electronics, health care, transportation and so many of the other benefits that the technical revolution has given to society. They are all remarkable and amazing achievements that have benefited so many people.

But beg someone to tell you something good about our institutions—like government, health care, education—and you might get an answer that is not so optimistic. The same might be true for how we deal with race relationships, poverty, crime and most importantly, how we treat one another. Telling something good about institutions or social issues is not as easy as finding some tech toy that gives us pleasure, entertains us or makes our life easier. 

It is a depressing thought that is a major contributor to the mental health issues so many of us are experiencing.

Last week our school hosted a guest speaker, Jonathan Friesen, who has authored many books, and some of them have won awards for excellence. His presentation to students centered around his experiences growing up with Tourette’s Syndrome, a disease that causes unnatural twitching movements. 

During that presentation and some time afterwards, something occurred to me: if anyone begged me to tell them something good, I could! I grew up with a kid who had Tourette’s Syndrome. He had it badly. If that kid I grew up with was a classmate in this school today, I am positive he would get treated so much better than the treatment my generation gave him. 

That’s a really good thing, and it shows how we have grown as a society. It’s a great reflection on this school for hosting Mr. Friesen, and it’s a great reflection on you as a student body that the thought came to me. Thanks for showing me something good!

Mr. Lansing teaches math at Craig. We thank him for sharing his insights about Mr. Friesen’s visit to Craig.