What’s Your Life Lesson of the Day?

by Kelly Stonerock

“Mrs. Stonerock, What’s your Life Lesson of the day?” That was a common question that I was asked when I served as a Substitute Teacher in Goodrich Area Schools. I had homeschooled my own children for 15 years and I was looking for a way to keep an eye on my own kids as I transitioned them into our public school system. I ended up teaching Kindergarten through 12th grade for nearly 8 years. I loved teaching the kids. I still have kids come up to me, remembering the stone and the “fake” rock that I brought in to help them remember the name “stone” and “rock.” There were many surprised faces on the children when I asked them to catch my VERY REAL LOOKING rock, only to discover that it was really just made of foam. Recently, a former student declared, “I remember when you hit me right in the middle of my forehead with that rock.”

Among my fellow teachers, I was also known as the “bag lady.” Why? Well, I always brought in a black garbage bag that had a different type of real, stuffed animal in it. I started the class by letting the kids know that there was an animal in the bag and if they wanted to learn about it and see the animal, they must be on their best behavior. The students would manage the behavior of their fellow students for me. It was standard to have one student insist to another student, “Be quiet! I must know what’s in that bag.” I brought stuffed deer, bear, porcupines, minks, zebra hides, and even, a recently captured flying squirrel that my husband had obtained from our humane, animal removal company called, BATS and TRAPS. I would teach the students facts about the animals and then let them touch the fur or hide.

In addition to teaching academics, I always felt very strongly about also teaching real life lessons to the students. Many times, I would start my classes in middle school and high school with a brief life lesson. My lessons ranged from relational and spiritual to financial advice. I have helped them calculate the miles to school and back and the cost of gas, so that they could appreciate this investment by their parents. It was especially surprising to the school of choice students, whose parents traveled a fair distance to enroll them in Goodrich Schools. I taught them how to calculate 10%,15% and 20% so that they knew what type of services they should tip as young adults and how much they should tip. I remember teaching a cultural life lesson to a Middle School class during the week of Martin Luther King Day. I have never seen this before, in any class, but one by one each student stood up and gave me a standing ovation as I taught “Skin color was like comparing hair and eye color. It was just another facet that made us different from one another. We are all equal people, deserving of respect, we are just different in looks, history and personality and that’s what makes life interesting and fun.”

One of my favorite lessons was on relationships. I would pass on what my former Calvin University professor, Dr. Quentin Schultze, shared with me. “All of life boils down to your relationships: relationships with your family, friends, God and others.” Yep! I talked about God in our public school. I would encourage the students that “Our time and effort should be directed to growing those relationships and healing any broken relationships.” I had one student tell me that the “relationship” life lesson changed her life and led her to heal her relationship with her father.

I often shared many of my own financial lessons. I regret buying the one new car that I bought right out of college. Oh! The money that I would have saved had I just purchased a slightly used car. Now, every car for my family or for our company has been a used car or truck. I am also grateful that I learned the lesson about tithing, and I chose to give 10% of every gross paycheck back to God through my church and other ministries. I literally saw my own commissioned income grow each year after I decided to give back such a small portion of the money that I believed was given to me by God. Another financial lesson that I applied to my own life and shared with students came from my father-in-law, Gary. He always taught his kids to “Never go in debt over a depreciating item.” That means, do not take out a loan for something that loses value after you purchase it. Those items include cars, boats, makeup, clothes, toys, etc. So, what should you take out a loan for? In general, a home, some business expenses and an education are examples of appreciating items that will grow in value and help you make money in the future.

I am sure there are many more life lessons that I could share, but I hope that you learned one or two that you could apply to improve and help your own life. I know that you who are reading this article have plenty of life lessons of your own. I encourage you to start sharing them with the people that you know.

It is always better to learn a lesson from someone else than to learn the hard way through mistakes of your own. That’s the final “Life Lesson” from Mrs. Stonerock.

Kelly Stonerock was raised in Clarkston. She has been a resident of Goodrich for 29 years. She is presently the CEO of BatsAndTraps.com, an animal removal company that services Genesee County and it’s surrounding communities. Kelly has five children of her own and she raised three other children. She was featured on ABC’s television show, “Wife Swap” in 2005. Her episode is available on Hulu, Season 2: Episode 11.