One of Petal High School’s most beloved teachers will soon return to his old classroom for “Coffee with Coach” and “Class with Coach,” two events hosted by the Petal Education Foundation that will reunite Coach Si Thompson with former students and other acquaintances to benefit the foundation.
Coffee with Coach, which will be held from 2-3 p.m. March 7 in Thompson’s former classroom at the high school, will give attendees the chance to enjoy coffee and have a little one-on-one time with Thompson, who began teaching AP History at the high school in 1994 before retiring approximately three years ago. Each attendee of that event will receive a retro-style coffee mug with Thompson’s autograph.
“We thought about all the great components of Coach’s life here at the Petal School District,” said Leahne Lightsey, executive director of the Petal Education Foundation. “One of the things that kids remember most is that he drank that black coffee and taught, and they became lovers of coffee.
“So that was a time – particularly if you came to his office early or stayed late – for some one-on-one good life coaching that he did, and of course he helped you with your assignments and all of your educational situations, quite frankly. So we thought that would be kind of a neat time for alumni to come back and have a little more intimate circle of folks, and enjoy that cup of coffee and catch up a little bit.”
The Class with Coach, formally titled “At This Point in Time” – or even more formally, “The Dialectical Evolution from Economic Capitalism through Marxist Material Socialism and the Advent of the ‘General Will’” – will be held from 3-5:30 p.m. the same day in the high school’s Black Box Theater.
“It’s going to be interactive, and I know that’s what the kids are wanting because (in his class), he wanted discussion, he wanted your point of view, all of that,” Lightsey said. “I don’t want that title (of the lecture) to intimidate anybody, because he can take the most in-depth concept and put it out there where you understand, and I think that’s why the kids love him so much.
“(My children) had him, and so many of my friends had children in his class, that we said ‘Oh my gosh, if we could just sit in his room for one day, how much we would learn.’ If we would have had that type of experience with a teacher, we would have learned all the geography and history. Everybody grew to love him.”
Tickets are $50 for Class with Coach, or $125 for both Class with Coach and Coffee with Coach. Tickets can be purchased at https://squ.re/38BO1AL, with all proceeds going to the Petal Education Foundation.
Coffee with Coach can accommodate 30 participants, while Class with Coach can hold 100.
“We’re always trying to fundraise, and we do pretty well with all the areas like scholarships, mini-grants, Excel By 5, athletics and fine arts,” Lightsey said. “But operations always needs a boost, so with a little bit of prompting, Coach agreed to do this. The response so far has been pretty good.”
The Petal Education Foundation was organized in 1987 with the goal of enhancing the quality of education in the Petal School District by providing private funding to have a positive impact on the district’s schools.
For more information on the foundation or its events, call Lightsey at (601) 325-8139.
