Every Day And Every Way - The Replay!

This is a replay - a BEST OF if you will - of episode 10 from Season 1. It was our most downloaded episode so far. PLEASE share it with a friend and help us reach 500 downloads for this episode!

Former band director David Willson shares the transformative teaching philosophy that changed countless lives over a long career, including 32 years at Ole Miss. From humble beginnings in Jackson, Mississippi, Willson's journey reveals how music education became his pathway out of poverty and into a life of purpose.

He was our host, Dawn Beam's band director, and she proclaims that he was such an incredible leader, she would have followed him off the proverbial cliff!
 
 Willson candidly discusses how he revolutionized his teaching after discovering he was "tired of yelling at students." His turning point came when he found Dale Carnegie's "How to Stop Worrying and Start Living" at a thrift store for 25 cents—a book he read twice despite not being "a reader." This sparked the development of his signature "Every Day in Every Way" philosophy centered on goal-setting, positive reinforcement, and consistent enthusiasm.
 
 What sets Willson's approach apart is his deep empathy for students' circumstances. "You have no idea what that student has been through from the moment they woke up till they get to your classroom," he explains. This understanding led him to shift responsibility away from blaming students to examining his own teaching methods. When students struggled, Willson concluded, "I either didn't teach them exactly what I needed them to do or I didn't motivate them to want to do it."
 
As a university educator, Willson trained future band directors with practical tools rather than abstract theories. His mentorship extended beyond graduation, as he maintained relationships with former students, checking in on their progress and offering support. This dedication created a ripple effect, with Willson's influence reaching thousands of young musicians through his students, who went on to become educators themselves.
 
Willson's powerful closing thought serves as both a challenge and inspiration: "One person is going to be that pivotal moment in somebody else's life. Just one little word of encouragement, one arm around somebody, and just saying 'we're going to get this. I won't give up if you won't give up." His story reminds us that educators aren't just teaching subjects—they're shaping lives.

Join us for new episodes on the 1st and 15th of each month as we continue sharing stories of transformation from across Mississippi. Each story reminds us that when we contribute our unique gifts, Mississippi rises together.

Hope Mississippi's Mission: The sobering reality remains: one in four Mississippi children lives in poverty, and one in five experiences food insecurity. These statistics aren't just numbers—they're our collective challenge. Through these conversations, we discover that Mississippi's transformation occurs through individual commitments to mentor, encourage, and be present for others. The small acts of hope accumulate into the broader "miracles" we celebrate.

Transcript

Welcome to Hope Mississippi

SPEAKER_00 0:09

One and four kids live in poverty. One and five food prize.

SPEAKER_02 0:20

Build collaborations and build hope with those who are struggling.

SPEAKER_00 0:28

Hope Mississippi.

SPEAKER_03 0:36

Hello and welcome to another edition of Hope, Mississippi, where we talk about lots of positive things going on in Mississippi and also challenges and how to overcome those. And I'm Dawn Beam, and I could not be more happy than to have my former band director, David Wilson, here today. Mr. Wilson, tell everyone hello. Hello. Good morning. We are sitting in the band hall in at Ole Miss, where Mr. Wilson was the band director for over 25 years, right? 32. And we're not going to talk about how long ago it was that you were my band director.

SPEAKER_04 1:17

Uh 44 or five.

SPEAKER_03 1:21

Yes, it's it's been about 40-something years. But what I would tell anybody that about band is I highly recommend it, but you through band influenced my life more than any teacher I ever had, because you helped me to understand the importance of goal setting and then working every day in every way to accomplish those goals. And I will forever be grateful to you. Now, we last year, about this time, we're putting together a book called Every Day and Every Way, which was your memoirs.

David Wilson's Teaching Philosophy

SPEAKER_03 2:02

Tell us a little bit about that.

SPEAKER_04 2:03

It would take me the rest of my life to tell you about it, but uh when I first started teaching, I had no idea what I was doing. And I stumbled the first five years and I decided that I was tired of yelling at students and I had to find a different way. So after my first year of teaching at Columbus Caldwell, people that don't know what that means is Columbus, Mississippi had two high schools at that time. The traditional older school was Lehigh, and the newer suburban school was Caldwell, and that's where we were. That first year, I I fussed at kids and it kind of worked. I tried to motivate, I tried to be a clown, but I knew I needed more consistency, and I wanted the students to realize what we were doing and why we were doing it, and all I was doing was telling them what to do, and there was no understanding the why. And I I tried to quit teaching. I I literally did, and I found a book at a thrift store for a quarter called How to Stop Worrying and Start Living by Dale Carnegie. And I don't read. I read every bit of that book in a week and then I read it again. It was readable and understandable, and then I told this guy that worked for one of the big fundraising companies, and he said, Oh, we use motivation all the time, and he sent me some cassettes that I listened to, and I started trying to learn what to do to have some kind of ambition. In my childhood, I didn't know what it meant. I I was raised in blue-collar cynicism, you know, what do they do that for? It's time for the break. You know, I've I've got five minutes early, and five minutes I had to fake my ambition at first, and I still do to a certain degree, but I tried to get the students to understand what we were doing and why we were doing it, and the benefits for everybody. So if it was a goal and we listed the steps to overcome that goal and achieved it, it carried over to every single thing that we did in life, you know. So every goal was important. I just tried to write 'em down and sell the students on it and infuse it with enthusiasm. And you know, kids are kids, uh I still have a hard time staying motivated, but you had to talk about it, pat 'em on the back. And I realized that criticism to a student in front of their peers was just a failure of a teacher. And so if I could recognize two positives, issue the correction, and then I thank you. Uh I can tell you're working very hard, and I know that you care about doing a good job. Could you just move to your left a little bit? Johnny, move to your left. You know better than that. It was a long process, but I just learned that a goal, if a kid knew the goal and why. And if uh it was a positive reinforcement rather than negative, it went a lot further quicker.

SPEAKER_03 4:59

And so you came up with the idea of every day in every way helping kids every day to work toward a goal, and as they achieved it, then the next thing you knew they were setting setting a higher goal, right? Somewhat.

SPEAKER_04 5:14

I I I taught at the junior high school uh in another school, and we went to State Band Festival with a high school band. And on the way home, and it was a fight every day of the year, making them sit down, turn in stuff, abusing equipment. And we were coming home from State Band Festival, and the bus got stopped in a town for kids throwing stuff out of the windows. And it was one of the best bands of the week. And I went back the next day and people were bragging about how great the band was. And I told one of my friends, I said, you know, we fought that band every day this year. And we got stopped by the police. They were screaming on the bus on the way home. And he said, I said, it's it was a shame. And and my friend said, There's no reason for a band that good not to be good every day of the year. And it stuck with me. It stuck with me hard. And so when I got to Columbus and I started thinking about how I wanted to do things, I came up with that phrase every day and every way. And I lived it, you know. I didn't get in front of that band one day that I didn't have some kind of plan and just shaking with energy so that my enthusiasm motivated the students.

SPEAKER_03 6:32

Well, your enthusiasm was contagious. And I recall back those days, if you had marched us off a cliff, I would have gone right behind you. And and that's what folks need. They say that every kid needs one adult that believes in them. And you believed in us and helped us to believe in ourselves. And I think that's one thing that kids learn through extracurricular activities that you might not get the opportunity to learn in a classroom setting is the importance of that self-discipline and even the idea of achieving more together than you ever could by yourself. Some of the songs that we played were just phenomenal back in those days, and you helped us to know that we could do things that we never dreamed possible. Let's talk a little bit about how you went from helping young kids like me to you came to the university. How were you able to pass along those same skills of setting goals and working to achieve that to future educators?

SPEAKER_04 7:44

Well, you touch a lot of emotions up. You know, uh my father was not one to nurture, I can assure you that, and build a positive atmosphere fear. And if one person, like you just said, reaches a young person

Every Day in Every Way: Goal Setting

SPEAKER_04 8:00

as a mentor, says, You're capable of this, I see a lot of good in you, and I'm I I I had the teacher give up on me, and I knew that they did, most of them did, but she gave up on me bad. And I knew it, and I knew that I knew it. But I couldn't raise my hand and say, You don't care about me, you don't think that I can do anything, but you haven't taught me anything either. So I had three mentors in my life that came to me as a young man in the field, as you know, Mr. Cook, your next door neighbor, Dan Wright and Wilbur Smith, that actually were adults that believed in me and and told me that I could do it and gave me confidence and built me up. And I think everybody needs somebody that touches them on a certain day and gives them that spark to either turn their life around or to keep going through hurdles, you know. I got here and I found a man in some poor morale and disarray, and and the students that I were training for the future just had this esoteric vision of what was going to go on. And I remember the very first day of class, I called my chairman and said, Where is the book for this class? And he said, Mr. Wilson, this is a university. You teach that class the way you think it should be taught. And I hung up the phone and I just stared at the telephone and I said, Okay. I remember within two weeks of coming here, I wanted my tuition money back because I didn't know what I was doing. So I I taught him a little bit of vocation, a little bit of critical thinking. This is what you're gonna do before you get to your first student, and this is what you're gonna do the first day they walk in the classroom. How are you gonna talk to them? How are you gonna set the atmosphere? What are you gonna do with the first smartest? And really wrote it out and went over it with them. And when they got out into the teaching field, I s I called them and stayed with them. I mean, even if they were three hours away, I'd call them and say, How did you do beginner band today? Because you just can't learn everything in college that you're supposed to learn. There's 50% of your courses aren't in your course study or your field of study, and then 80% of those don't pertain to what you actually do in the workforce. I don't care if it's being a lawyer, a banker, whatever. You just learn principles and philosophy, but not what happens if somebody doesn't write the check or whatever. So I try to teach them the real world and and talk to them about motivating students, that if you don't have the room organized, and if you don't have a set of plans, if you don't have enthusiasm, and if they don't see that you know how to instruct good and give positive feedback, they're not gonna go with you. You know, they're just not. Um I've seen a lot of teachers out there, some of them are clowns, some of them are motivators, some of them are dictators, some of them are a combination of all. But the ones that make it, the students know that they're cared about.

SPEAKER_03 11:05

And your wise counsel helps when those teachers encounter trouble. It's great to have folks that you can call on wise counsel, and I know that those folks never forget your willingness to do that. Now you also did a beginner band book that helps them just to go by one, two, three that makes it easier. What else have you done to try to reach out? We talked about a podcast that you've done and some different things. Talk about that just a little that you keep giving.

SPEAKER_04 11:35

I'd like to do more. They call me. I've got a friend that recognized my work, and he's the one setting up the podcast on the books and trying to put it, I guess, in the social media that I don't really understand. I try to stay a little active, and I'd like to write another book about this is exactly what happened, and this is what I did from that experience as a teacher, instead of continuing to follow my face and yell

From Student to Mentor

SPEAKER_04 12:12

at students, this is what happened. And in an instructional basis, too, I finally learned that if a student didn't do what I asked or expected of them, I either didn't teach them exactly what I needed them to do, or I didn't motivate them to want to do it. So I tried to quit blaming the student for anything. Anything, even if they messed up badly. And I knew it wasn't anything to do with me, I would just look at them and say, I wish I could have motivated you not to want to do that. You know? And when you do that, it it takes the venom that some teachers have against students. You know, you don't care, do you? You don't know what the two houses of our state government are. How are you going to live as a city? You know, just constantly just talking back to us instead of, let me help you learn this, you know.

SPEAKER_03 13:00

Well, that humility and caring, it permeates the way you teach band and and music. And I know that you have touched many lives from that. We talked about the book that you did about basics, and if we've got any folks out there that are planning to be a band director, you certainly want that beginner band book to help you. Beyond that, I helped you write your memoirs, and that's called Every Day in Every Way. It can be purchased on Amazon. And let's talk a little bit about that because I knew you as a band director, but I got to walk through your life. Let's talk just a little bit about where you came from and how you were able to understand the difficulties other kids went through because of your own experience.

SPEAKER_04 13:57

Amen. Um I tell my students uh early on, you have no idea what that student has been through from the moment they woke up to they get to your classroom. You don't have a clue if it's a single parent, if the kid had to wake up on their own, or if they come in matching Mercedes to school with their parents. You don't know if they've had a friendship issue or they go to first period and they say you didn't do your homework, you don't care about this class, do you? You're gonna wish you did. They go to second period, why don't you ever get your assignment done on time third period? And by the time they get to you, band is an elective. It costs money to buy an instrument. You have to march outside in the extreme weather elements, and if there's not some kind of benefit other than just having an elective, they're not gonna stay with you. And in band, you need them for the entire six or seven years there in grade school that you start them in. So I knew that you had to hold on to them, and you did that through goal setting, positive feedback, and good instruct. A student is the smartest supercomputer on earth and they can tell you two things quickly. Does this person's instruction make sense and understandable and do I buy it? And do they care about me? And you can't disguise it. They just know it. So I tried to through my preparation I spent some time at night getting ready so that I wouldn't fail. I had a fear of failure as well, but uh I just prepared a great deal and uh used my stupid sense of energy and crazy personality to try to get it across to them.

SPEAKER_03 15:44

Oh, you most definitely have a crazy personality. Ben was always a laugh, lots of fun, and I think laughter's a good medicine, takes a lot of the stress away.

SPEAKER_04 15:53

It does. Uh when a student sees a teacher has a personality, I don't care what it is. I went to the grocery store, oh, you go to the grocery store or just something that it brings commonality to the student and the the teacher at the same time helps helps the atmosphere in that classroom a great deal. I knew that it had to be enjoyable. And when you're marching outside in Mississippi and the temperature's near a hundred, and you got a 38-pound tuba on your back and gotta say, do it again, do it again, and why are we doing it again? And it's just brutal. I I realized real quick, I didn't like being in that heat either, you know. And to ask them to do that, I I remember the first day at College High School. It's funny how tea uh students can teach the teacher a lot of times. And it was the first cool morning, like let's say 70. And I was going, Where have you been? It's a different band. And some student raised their hand and said, Mr. Wilson, it's only sixty-eight degrees out here. And it hit me like a ton of bricks. You know, 'cause when it's ninety degrees, even if you're the fittest person on earth, it's hard to do it. You know. Anyway, I empathy for what those kids go through and knowing that something could have touched that kid in a negative way that morning, that you just kind of have to walk dedically. And I knew that every student that walked in that band room was different and had a different button to push, and you just had to search what kind of button and how to push it, and whatever you had to do it.

SPEAKER_03 17:33

Let's talk about the music. When you were in college, you were in Uncle Sam's band as well as the old Miss band, but talk a little bit about the music, some of your favorite performances that you experienced

Music Performances and Memories

SPEAKER_03 17:46

as a participant as well as a d band director.

SPEAKER_04 17:50

Well, I wasn't that great of a player, but I was fortunate enough to be asked to be in a in a horn rock and roll band called Uncle Sam. And uh I absolutely loved it. I tell people all the time I'd sell all my teaching career and my marriage and everything else to go back and play again, which is not true, but it was just to stand in a band and create that kind of energy and fun, it was just fantastic. Uh, and I remember early on we played at a frat party at Vanderbilt, and the people liked it so much they passed the hat and asked us to play a second hour. And when you got the crowd, and and I just remember it to this day, it was just one of the most eclectic nights of my life. And as a high school band director, there was some things that we did. I know the year that we played Russian Christmas music at Calwell High School, it just it brought the house down, you know. And then the year that we went to to uh Death State and won everything that they had over there, when probably shouldn't have. Because we were competing with bigger bands and bands from what I'd call more affluent uh makeup.

SPEAKER_03 19:02

We were po folks at Caldwell.

SPEAKER_04 19:04

That's right. And for us to do what we did, I look back now and it was a feat, and I'm really proud of it. And it Clinton, I had some s the same type moments uh when I played advanced pieces of literature and it owns the same way. It's hard with forty-something years of teaching to remember the exact ones, but um the best thing is when the kids know it. You know, when they when they know it and they know that they know it, uh it's fun. And they also know when it's not good. But I'm just very fortunate. And that's the thing that that book that you encouraged me to write, it reminded me I should have stopped along the way and embraced that moment more.

SPEAKER_03 19:50

Sometimes when you're so busy in the moment trying to get everything right, and by the time it all is together by the stress of it all, you don't really enjoy the significance of it. But boy did we bring joy to not only uh it was joyful playing, knowing that we did our very best, but it was great that other people listening enjoyed that as well. It's a just a combination of giving and receiving at the same time.

SPEAKER_04 20:19

You said it better than I've ever said it. I was so engaged in just getting the music right, getting the students where they were supposed to be. And then when it's over, even though they announced whatever they announced, I was so exhausted that okay, let me just get home, lay on the bed, you know. So you're you're right. Instead of stopping, go, God, you know what I just did with these kids? You know, it's it's a m a miracle. That's not gonna make the national news, you know, you're not gonna get rich doing it. But there's a lot of people in business that can't touch what good teachers get. Right. Helping people and watching their students do more than you could ever imagine. Some of the my most successful teachers in the field are those that when they were in college you go. They'll be lucky to get out and yeah. But they didn't give up and they kept doing what they had to do until they learned their own way. I didn't try to make anybody a David Wilson clone, but I tried to teach them enough that give them a basic fundamental start so that if they use my methods, they could have success and then build their own style above that.

SPEAKER_03 21:34

Now the shows I'm I'm reminded of so many great shows, both in high school, but also, oh miss, you just really it was an entertaining thing for for the crowd. Tell a little bit about what all went into that for you.

SPEAKER_04 21:50

Agony. I I I listened to tunes and try to come up nowadays it's a theme. You create a theme the day in the life of a boy where they wake up a little smell. I didn't do that. I just played what I'd call energetic music that people could tap their foot to and enjoy a lot of rock and roll and jazz. But I listened to a lot of recordings and tried to pick something that I enjoyed. I knew the crowd would enjoy. You don't in my opinion, if you lose your crowd, you're hurting yourself. Not politically, but public support. And I got here, I found the same thing, and I just tried to play something that the quote, the crowd, first of all, recognized, could pat their foot to, and they enjoyed it. And tried to find good arrangers. I used the same arranger for years, Steve Barnett. He was he wrote our music almost all of it in Columbus here in at Clinton. He was my assistant here for five years, great guy.

SPEAKER_03 22:49

Let's talk about some of the students that you taught. I know some have gone on to be famous players. Mention a f just throw a few names out. Drop a few names.

SPEAKER_04 23:22

Instead of riding around his pickup truck acting cool, he was in a practice room. Not only did he have some talent, he worked his heart out. He was ate up with it, and he's kept his composure. Every time I've seen him since, he doesn't seem to have any arrogancy. I mean, he's got confidence, of course, but um he's made it big. I had a student that did a couple of years as a trumpet player, Kevin Lyons, with the Atlanta Symphony, and people locally playing in the local symphonies and whatever, but I wasn't here to make musicians as much as band directors. And I've had some award-winning high school band directors and some to go on to community college and universities.

SPEAKER_03 24:05

You know, it's amazing to me the math of all of that. You help one individual, then they go help hundreds and hundreds of more. So there's no telling the impact that your life has had. And as one of your former students, I can't tell you how much I appreciate that. When we talk about Mississippi, you started out in Jackson, Mississippi as a

How Band Changed Wilson's Life

SPEAKER_03 24:34

young man from a struggling family. Your daddy worked hard, your mom was not there. And through your discipline, band certainly had a huge impact of pulling you from that to where you are today. Talk a little bit about that, how band changed your life.

SPEAKER_04 24:55

Not all of us come from an environment where the dad comes out and pitches the ball with you and have a basketball goal, and you have the money to join group sports or the ability to join group sports. Um my dad raised a sister and myself in late fifties and early sixties, and and he had several brothers and sisters that urged him to get us in some kind of activity. And one of his brothers had a bunch of kids in band. So he bought my sister a what I call a pawn shop cornet, and she joined band one year, and the next year she was in eighth grade, and I joined the junior high band in seventh grade, and he said, She'll play that horn in the eighth grade band, and you'll play it in the seventh, and that's how we chose instruments. Now, uh when I just went to band kinda, I don't I didn't take it very seriously, and then I started kind of practicing a little bit, but it forced me, since we didn't go to church and I didn't have a civic group to to be part of a group when I didn't want to be part of a group. I was just gonna be that loner that went and worked as an associate mechanic at the service station or something. It forced me to be in some kind of civic organization and have civic responsibility. You know, the band couldn't make it as well without me, and I certainly couldn't be a band by myself. I tried to quit band in the ninth grade, and uh, it's in my book, and my dad was in a car shifting the car from first to second gear, and he had a cigar in his mouth, and I said, Dad, I'm I'm gonna quit band. And he took the cigar out and he said, Boy, you are too young to make that decision, and he shifted to third, and we never discussed it again. Now that that's not gonna happen in today's society, but I don't know, I don't know if I would have even finished high school. So I got caught up into and our high school band was okay, but it wasn't stellar, not at all. And but just being in the camaraderie and fitting in and working toward even though we didn't talk about goal setting, but working towards a common mean with your peers, you know, it's just like any other organization, people volunteer for, habitat for your for humanity, some church group, some civic group. You just get such a, I guess, sense of belonging and reward. So I got caught up in it, my junior year especially, and I started working hard. In my senior year, I was elected band captain. There's only like 60 kids in my high school band, but it taught me with leadership comes some rewards and some criticism too. The first time you make one decision, who do you think you are? And I'm I'm just doing my job, you know. My high school band director was good friends with the band director at On Miss, and he had him down to rehearse the band one Thursday night, and my dad showed up to rehearsal and said, What the heck's he doing here? I thought I was in trouble. Well, so he said, Get your horn boy, and I went in there and to audition. It was a joke. He wanted me to play some five-star solo that I didn't know, and I just played some solo I had in the jazz band. It was about seven notes, the sounds of silence. But the next thing I know, I'm standing in the financial aid line at O Miss. It could have been Notre Dame or UCLA. I just didn't know because I qualified for financial aid. And I was motivated not to go back home and live in that God foreseen negative environment. And I was scared that I would go to Vietnam like I saw one of my cousins get shot up pretty bad and high it so I just knew I had to keep my grades up. And when I got to college, I struggled in my reading courses. If it was science or something that or math, I did fine. But reading, comprehension, and writing, it goes back to that teacher that gave up on me. And now that I I don't I wasn't one of those prolific people, but I had 17, 18 articles. I did probably 85 workshops away from here, even at the national level or international level. But and three books. And now that same teacher gave up on me, I'd like to say, show me yours.

SPEAKER_03 29:15

Right. I shouldn't I shouldn't be that Well, we're wrapping up here, but I want to give you an opportunity to speak just a little bit to the parents along the way. I know in high school there were some pe some parents that were friends, parents that had a huge impact on you. And then three mentors that took some time for you, and it was because of their investment in your life that you were able to invest in lots of other folks. Why don't you call out a few names of those sweet folks?

SPEAKER_04 29:48

I was scared to death of parents. I'm talking just shaking because they reminded me of mine. And I thought they were all just gonna be brutal. And the longer that I taught and I saw what parents would do for their kids because they were enthusiastic about something, uh, just overwhelmed me what they would do. The one that comes to mind the most is George Hill House. Anytime the Baptist church door was open at East End, she was there. She did stuff for the she was the secretary, treasurer of the or secretary of the Ban Bistri Club for four years. She rebuilt uniforms, she worked on the fundraising committee, she she just did so much stuff. And I came on Wayne West and oh gosh, uh Rod Adams. And then I got to Carolyn, I mean, she was a city council lady, went to your church. S Celia Jones, was that her name?

SPEAKER_03 30:54

Celia Jones was her d her daughter. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 30:58

And when I got to Clinton, Bert Douglas is dead. He did a lot. Charlie Saul,

The Power of Parental Support

SPEAKER_04 31:05

I uh uh David Nolan's mother, I can't remember her name, but what they did and how hard they worked. I mean uh Merle Taggett, Taggart, who just ran the concession booth at O Miss I mean at Columbus Caldwell, killed himself, you know. He r and he drove a Fried Olay truck. And he was starting on Thursday afternoon and filling that truck with stuff and going over to that concession stand, making sure you had twenty workers, and I'd go up there at halftime and I just it was it was a business. I mean, they worked their hearts out. But they did it because their students liked it. You know. And I was just dang lucky that three people uh grabbed me. One of them was Gary Cook, the finest band director in the state at the time, in my opinion. And he just asked me one day at a music store if I had a recording of my band, and I know that Mr. Dan Wright sicked him on me, and he owned the music store, and he saw a lot of good in me, and I didn't trust him because my high school band director said he was a crook, and I thought he was a crook. But he slowly came through the door and became just like a father figure to me. And then Wilbur Smith, I rode ripped. They were my three main mentors. But I I was smart enough or insecure enough to know that I couldn't do it by myself. And I ended every class I ever had with this. There's only two things it takes to be successful, be a good band rector. One is you gotta learn how to motivate and discipline kids at the same time in your own personality, whether it be the quiet type, the motivator, or whatever. And then the second thing is just whatever you don't know, somebody does. And if you'll ask questions and listen, you can learn what to do, filter it through your own brain and personality, and then spit it back out for to benefit you. But there's so many people out there that, quote, don't want to be saved, unquote, that you could write it down in your own blood, hand it to them, and they just won't even read it, and they keep making the same mistake. And it's sad because they're teachers are like surgeons. They're working on somebody's life. And if they be make a blunder, they don't kill them, but kids quit, you know, or they give up in it could be just an English class, and they just give up. You don't give up on kids. You're you're you're a surgeon and you're working on their life, and you want to keep them alive.

SPEAKER_03 33:46

Well, you certainly invested in lots of folks, including me, and did not give up, and we're forever grateful. And to the folks out there listening to this, we want them to be encouraged to step up. Whether your kids are in band and you need to help support that, there's joy in serving and in seeing something like a band accomplish great things. We're all here because somebody else invested in us, and it's important that we give back, and you can accomplish great things when you work together.

SPEAKER_04 34:24

One person is gonna be that pivotal moment in somebody else's life. Just one little word of encouragement, one arm around somebody, and just saying, we're gonna get this. I won't give up if you won't give up.

SPEAKER_03 34:40

That's what Hope Mississippi is all about. Encouraging folks to step out there. Hope you'll tune in again, and I know you'll take a lot of positive things from this podcast today. Thank you so much, Mr. Wilson. I love you dearly.