{"id":3455,"date":"2021-09-07T18:21:08","date_gmt":"2021-09-07T18:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/?p=3455"},"modified":"2025-12-10T11:13:50","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T16:13:50","slug":"love-the-minds-of-our-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/2021\/09\/07\/love-the-minds-of-our-students\/","title":{"rendered":"Love the Minds of Our Students"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"3455\" class=\"elementor elementor-3455\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-29b972da elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"29b972da\" data-element_type=\"section\" data-e-type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-329e09a9\" data-id=\"329e09a9\" data-element_type=\"column\" data-e-type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-454e6682 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"454e6682\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p><em>Richard Paige<\/em> &#8212; It was fitting that on a day where the Indianapolis Association of Wabash Men hosted its Leadership Breakfast with a presentation that spotlighted effective leadership of K-12 education in a changing world, most of the audience was there to honor a teacher.<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/wp:paragraph --><!-- wp:paragraph --><\/p>\n<p>As the IAWM bestowed its Man of the Year award Thursday on Dr. David Blix \u201970, one of Wabash\u2019s most beloved teachers used the words of a classmate \u2013 and perhaps the College\u2019s most revered teacher \u2013 to pinpoint his thoughts.<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/wp:paragraph --><!-- wp:paragraph --><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen I started teaching at Wabash I was filled with great anxiety about what to do and how to proceed<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3457\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3457\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-3457 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/09\/Blix_IAWM_120A1908-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"photo of David Blix '70\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/09\/Blix_IAWM_120A1908-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/09\/Blix_IAWM_120A1908.jpg 370w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3457\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Associate Professor of Religion David Blix &#8217;70.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>and I got some advice from my friend and colleague Bill Placher \u201970,\u201d Blix started. \u201cBill said to me one day, \u2018if you can come to love the minds of our students, then you will be able to be a teacher.\u2019<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/wp:paragraph --><!-- wp:paragraph --><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201c<\/strong>I took that to heart, and I\u2019d like to think that over the years I have been able to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/wp:paragraph --><!-- wp:paragraph --><\/p>\n<p>Marcus Manges \u201910, Regional President of Accelerent, agreed with the sentiment as he presented Blix with the award. \u201cProfessor Blix is always imparting wisdom for life and cares deeply for his students, both current and former. In my mind, you could give this award to him every single year.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/wp:paragraph --><!-- wp:paragraph --><\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, the Associate Professor of Religion\u2019s remarks were brief. He had to hustle back to campus to teach.<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/wp:paragraph --><!-- wp:paragraph --><\/p>\n<p>Blix was among an impressive group of speakers, including Dr. Katie Jenner, Indiana Secretary of Education; Jim Williams \u201988, Muncie Community Schools School Board President; and Scott Bess, Head of School, Purdue Polytechnic High School.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3458\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3458\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-3458 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/09\/IAWM_Breakfast-300x95.jpg\" alt=\"photo of Jenner, Williams, and Bess\" width=\"300\" height=\"95\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/09\/IAWM_Breakfast-300x95.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/09\/IAWM_Breakfast.jpg 475w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3458\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Featured speakers at the Indiana Association of Wabash Men 2021 Leadership Breakfast were (from left) Jenner, Williams, and Bess.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Richard Paige &#8212; It was fitting that on a day where the Indianapolis Association of Wabash Men hosted its Leadership Breakfast with a presentation that spotlighted effective leadership of K-12 education in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"w_featured_image_url":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/09\/Blix_IAWM_120A1908.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3455"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3455\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3818,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3455\/revisions\/3818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}