Press coverage

The Power of One

By Kelly Cupp
The Winchester Star
November 7, 2003

Handing out money to a group of sixth-graders may be the best way to grab their attention.

That’s exactly what Stephen Sroka did this week at Winchester’s Daniel Morgan Middle School. Sroka, based in Ohio, travels across the country speaking to students on the perils of bad decisions. He said he gears each speech to the students’ grade level and maturity. He also talked this week to students at Handley High School and gave a presentation to parents.

While he talks frankly to high schoolers about drugs and sex, his presentation to the sixth-graders was based on the power of one.

In Daniel Morgan Middle School’s Little Theater, Sroka stood before a full house of chatty, squirmy kids. “I know it’s tough being your age,” he said, explaining they are no longer elementary students but not yet adults.

Parents tell students they have to act like adults, but then don’t treat them like they are, Sroka said.

He said he understood that it’s tough for the students to keep attending school when they have a lot going on in their lives. “Who here is having a bad day?” he asked the group. Many raised their hands, and Sroka selected a girl near the front of the audience. He took a $5 bill from his pocket and asked if she would like to have it. He crumpled the money and stomped on it, then asked her if she still wanted the cash. The answer being yes, Sroka said she was right. Like the student, no matter what happened to the money, it never lost its value.

“It’s about respect ... respecting yourself, respecting others.” Sroka said that when people dump on the students, the children need to “shake it off and take a step up.”

In each school he visits, Sroka said, there are students who are constantly bullied and teased. “This is a cruel age. People make fun of other people.” He told the students they need to be the ones to stand up and stop the bullying. “If people call you names, that’s really how they feel about themselves,”Sroka explained.