Bettie B. Youngs is an author, counselor, consultant with a PhD in education. She was a teacher of the year, lecturers internationally, and has contributed pieces to the popular, well-known Chicken Soup for the Soul books.

She hails for our neighboring community of Eagle Grove and returns to our area for her class reunion this weekend. Youngs will be speaking at Clarion's Heartland Museum on Saturday afternoon.

A friend loaned me one of her books, Values from the Heartland, to read. We don't get too many authors and people doing book signings in our area, so we will be blessed.

One of the chapters in Values from the Heartland recounts some of her childhood memories of country school and laments the eventual closing of all rural schools in Iowa.

She bullet points about thirty things she learned as part of her country school days. I am sharing a handful of them:

* Pulling your weight maintains friendships and is good for your self-esteem;

* Charity happens to people in pairs. One gives and one receives;

* Handicapped people are people with a different set of gifts;

* In serving others, you also serve yourself;

* It takes every able body to make up a good team of baseball, or whatever---a group, a family, an organization;

* It's easier to learn when the teacher respects the learner;

* It's better to teach children than to teach subjects;

* Winning is about cooperation; cooperation results in winning;

* It is easier to concentrate after physical exercise;

* Mrs. Hood (her teacher) was right when she said, 'You always miss 100 per cent of the shots you don't take.'

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