Watch a Tribute To Ken (QuickTime Required)

Ken Reavis passed away at 4:15 a.m., January 1st, 2001. Ken passed peacefully, surrounded by family and friends.

There was a gathering in celebration of Ken on Saturday, January 6, at Park City, Utah. This informal gathering in honor of Ken included his music, food, drink, and friends. Friends shared their favorite "Rev" stories.

About Ken
Ken, the Ed.D..
The passion and vision of one person . . .
Adopting a Difficult Youth in Your Heart . . .
On grandparenting . . .
Nobody is powerless . . .
What do kids remember?

A little bit about me . . .

“I grew up in Oregon. And my mother was from the South. So, basically, I grew up with Southern-type of cooking, and I do the cooking and the shopping in our home. Then I get to eat what I like to fix, and everything kind of comes out Southern when I fix it. Even if it’s an Oriental dish, it kind of comes out with that kind of flavor to it. And the other thing is, from growing up in Oregon, around logging and things, I have a Bonsai collection. And so on tough days I’ll get up in the morning and I’ll go out and take care of over a hundred trees. And some of them are like two to three hundred years old. And I’ll look at that three hundred year-old tree and say, ‘Hey, I can make it through today. It’s gonna be OK. This tree has survived all these years. There’s no problem. Today’s gonna be a piece of cake.’”

Ken, the Ed.D. . . .

Ken Reavis, Ed.D., a specialist for behavior disorders and discipline, had over 25 years of educational experience in the field as a classroom teacher, university professor, and administrator. His research, writing, and presentations focused on student management; discipline; school climate; noncompliance school assistance teams; and pre-referral strategies for teachers, administrators, resource personnel, and parents.

The passion and vision of one person . . .

“. . . a story of how the passion and vision of one person can change the lives of others and turn a dream into a reality.. . . It illustrates the power of one person’s vision to change not only that persons life, but the lives of many others. This power can be used by those who work with youth to change systems that do not help these youth become more resilient.

The ultimate test of an individual’s influence is that person’s ability to move down the spiral and connect with another person’s beliefs, intentions, and desired outcomes in a way that motivates that person to join the change effort.” (Ken, you passed the test!)

(From the article: If You Build It, They Will Come: A Nontraditional Approach for Systems Change, Reavis, et al.)

Adopting a Difficult Youth in Your Heart . . .

“Although building resilient settings is a collective matter, effective change occurs one person at a time. You can apply this principle by adopting a difficult youth in your heart. Simply select a difficult student and show him or her small acts of compassion and caring over the next month in ways that do not embarrass the student. This can be as subtle as:

· Saying hello.
· Smiling when you encounter the student.
· Having a conversation with the student.
· Recognizing an accomplishment of the student.
· Performing acts of courtesy toward the student, e.g., opening a door, picking up
something dropped).
· Praising the student in a meaningful way.
· Writing positive notes on the student’s papers.

Research on resilient youth has shown that the first step toward positive change in a child’s life is having contact with an available nurturing adult. This adult is often an educator. Adopting a difficult youth in your heart can be the first step toward resilient change in the youth you serve.”

On grandparenting . . .

“We have four children. And they’re all boys except for three of them. And we have five grandchildren. And I have learned why grandchildren and grandparents get along so well. They have a common enemy.”

Nobody is powerless . . .

“One of the things that I think is so powerful to us when we look at this issue. I travel a lot and I get to spend a lot of time in airports. And I attempt as I’m around, and I share this with you as a strategy for you yourself to learn, because I think we on-goingly find everyday ways of providing in-service to ourselves. And one of the things I kind of do is look for natural-occurring events to remind me of the right way and wrong way to deal with behavior and people. And I have kind of a practice of driving out, parking in long-term, getting on a bus, riding in, getting off the bus, checking my luggage, walking in, sitting down, and thinking about where I’m going. And I got off the bus in Salt Lake one day, and I’ve gotten to know these folks right well. And there was a guy in a three-piece suit just berating Charles for 20 years of lost luggage, buggered up luggage, handles torn off. And obviously Charles wasn’t responsible for this twenty years of lost luggage. But he was getting all of it. So, after the guy is finally yelling at him, ‘Well I hope this time the stuff gets there!’ And he storms off. And I walked up and I said, ‘Charles, I apologize for this guy’s behavior. No one, at this time of day, or at any time of day, should go through this kind of stuff. How do you deal with it?’ And he said, ‘Oh, Ken, it’s real simple. I’ve been doing this for 20 years. I know how to manage these situations.’ I said, ‘How do you?’ He said, “Well, in 45 minutes that guy gets on a plane for Chicago. In an hour his baggage goes to Tokyo.” I realized something very, very powerful that morning. There are no powerless people — no powerless people.”

What do kids remember?

“Kids do not always remember what we taught them. They always remember how we treated them. An extremely important thing to remember: 90% of learning occurs from modeled behavior. And a lot of our kids do not grow up with that kind of appropriate modeling at home. And I’ll end the talk with you making a point about that, as we finish. Hiam Ginot, who is a person that a lot of us have read some of his material, said that, ‘I’ve come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom. It is my personal approach that creates the climate, my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher I possess tremendous power to make a student’s life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate, humor, hurt, or heal. But in all situations it’s my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated and a student humanized or de-humanized.’ No matter how tough we believe these kids are, no matter how much at risk the population seems to be going to, we need to remember we are very powerful influences on kids. and we We have the second greatest amount of time with students from kindergarten through grade 12; we have 15,000 hours of time. And if we do things right during that 15,000 hours, I really do believe we have a powerful opportunity to off-set some of the other things that kids come to us with.”