Teacher's dedication to students extends beyond English classroom

Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Richard Daut, who serves as the senior class sponsor and directs the senior class play, this year had to play a character as well as direct when a cast member was unable to perform.

Never fear, Richard Daut will be returning to his Nevada High School classroom next fall.

He is not retiring just yet.

That is the answer Daut said he gives everyone who asks if he will retire now that he has been chosen as the Nevada R-5 Teacher of the Year.

For 20 years Richard Daut, Nevada R-5 2013 Teacher of the Year, has been education Nevada youth as well as helping them pay for college.

"It's still a lot of fun," said Daut, who has been teaching for 35 years. "I've been here 20 years."

Over the years, Daut said he has seen a lot of changes in the world, but not nearly as many in his students.

"The kids haven't changed a lot in 20 years. The world has changed a lot," Daut said.

Daut was nominated for Teacher of the Year by Kevin McKinley, Nevada's athletic director.

"I have known him since he came here 20 years ago," said McKinley, who nominated Daut for Teacher of the Year this spring.

This was the third nomination for Daut, who teaches senior English, dual enrollment English and freshman honors English.

McKinley said quite a few years ago, Daut took it upon himself to find a way to benefit as many college-bound students as he could through a senior class scholarship he started.

Daut conducts events throughout the year -- three or four meals and a silent auction -- to raise money for that fund.

He holds fundraising meals before football homecoming, matwarming for wrestling and courtwarming for basketball, McKinley said.

Daut does not ask for or receive any compensation from the district for the work he does on behalf of the scholarship fund.

"He does this out of the goodness of his heart," McKinley said. "He is the college prep English for seniors and this is his way of giving back to the kids."

Shirley Rainey, who recently retired as a counselor at Nevada High School, first knew Daut as a colleague at the high school and got to know him better through the Nevada R-5 Foundation, and nominated him for Teacher of the Year several years ago.

The foundation oversees a large and successful local scholarship program.

"He really, truly cares about his students," Rainey said. "Richard has been sponsoring the senior class scholarship for the past 17 years. He started one year after our inception (the R-5 Foundation). His efforts, which he said are due to parents and students work, have raised approximately $70,000.

"Besides the senior play, big cookie nights, barbecue and soup nights, he has sponsored national honor society and the senior class, along with graduation exercises and academic night award ceremony," Rainey said.

She said he keeps up with what students need to prepare for college, as well as the ever changing requirements for the dual enrollment program.

Rainey said Daut is devoted to his students and has a way of bringing all the seniors together as group, Rainey said.

He tries to make his class a fun time for his students, as well as a learning time, she said.

Daut grew up in St. Louis and spent a year at Washington University in St. Louis before transferring to Northeast Missouri State University, now Truman State, in Kirksville, Mo., where he earned his undergraduate degree in elementary education.

After graduating, he took a sixth-grade teaching job in Ottumwa, Iowa, where he taught all six subjects for two years -- including art. He did not understand why the district could not hire an art teacher.

He returned to school at Truman State and completed a master's degree in English.

His master's degree in hand Daut taught ninth-grade to 12th grade students English, speech and drama for one year in Cairo, Mo., in the north central part of the state.

"It was incredible," he said.

Next came 10 or 11 years at Alma, Mo.

"It was a real nice 1A school district, that couldn't do enough for its kids," he said. "I got a call from my first high school principal, Mr. Gretlein. He wanted me to come to Nevada,"

Debra Workman was leaving to go to Harrisonville and Daut was hired to fill the speech and drama position.

A couple of years later, Bruce Bunn, who taught senior English, retired and Daut moved into that position. About that same time the R-5 District was negotiating with UMKC to start a dual enrollment program and the district needed someone with a master's in English to teach the class.

"It's been a good match over the last 15 to 18 years," Daut said. "The kids get a jump start ... It's not unheard of to graduate with 30 hours of college credit."

Over the 20 years of his tenure with the Nevada district, Daut has had the opportunity to see several of his former students return to the district as teachers.

"It's neat to see kids I taught come back here as a teacher," he said, naming Diedre Bruce, Chris Holcomb, Andy Smith and Amyl Bishop, as some of his former students.

Chris Holcomb, now the assistant principal at the high school, said the writing skills he learned in Daut's senior English class helps him be able to do his job today. The are skills he did not really care about before he had that class.

"English was not a favorite thing of mine," Holcomb recalled.

Holcomb remembered one assignment to keep a poetry notebook with examples of 10 or 11 different types of poetry.

"He was able to teach me the different types of poetry and the effective way to write them," he said.

Holcomb said that he and four or five other farm students took Daut's theater production class during their junior year o keep from having to take something less desirable -- like choir or art -- for a fine art credit.

"We were the only group to ever have a two level set for a production," he said.

While Daut did not really know what to make of those agriculture students in his class, Holcomb said he did know if they said the set was safe for students to be on the second floor of the house, it was safe.

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