Off The Record
Coach Goes Viral Online For This One Act Of Kindness During Kids’ Basketball Game
Teachers are among the most valuable members of society, but they are also among the least compensated.
It takes a particular kind of person to spend their lives teaching, mentoring, and guiding the next generation.
There are many examples of professors who have gone out of their way to assist their students.
For example, Jonathan Oliver, a physical education teacher at WG Nunn Elementary School in Valdosta, Georgia, was recently honored for a selfless gesture he performed while coaching a basketball game for a group of kindergarteners.
When a student sought help from him, he was more than delighted to provide it.
Oliver, the basketball coach for the kindergarteners on Kristen Paulk’s squad, went into action when Paulk asked for help tying her hair up in a ponytail.
Oliver bent down to little Kristen’s level by kneeling on a basketball and appeared focused as he secured her locks out of her eyes. However, he was being recorded without even realizing it.
One of the elementary school’s teachers, Kandice Anderson, caught the coach’s kind act on camera; she later uploaded the video to YouTube, where it was met with widespread praise.
The video’s title was “When your job goes beyond teaching!” and it quickly went viral.
After the clip made its way there, Good Morning America approached the 34-year-old father of three.
“It was shocking to me that it got that much attention because we all do it,” Oliver Good Morning America, adding that he didn’t realize he was being filmed.
“We [teachers] want to make them feel like they’re at home and that they enjoy being here,” he added. “We try to love on them as much as possible. To me, it was just a ponytail.”
The doting coach revealed that Kristen had requested for his assistance with putting a ponytail in her hair for a basketball game, and while he usually helps his daughter style her hair, he was at a loss for anything beyond that.
“It was a good thing she asked for a ponytail. Anything else, I’d say, ‘You better ask your mom,’” he joked.
Miyah Cleckley, Kristen’s mother, told the outlet that the video struck her deeply and that she knows her daughter is in good hands whenever she is with him. “I always know that Kristen is in very good hands with him. I thought it was really cute because her father he does their hair a lot. We have five girls and one son so when I’m working he has to pick up the weight of doing their hair.”
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There are countless examples of educators going the extra mile for their kids, and this is just one of them. They are heroes, for sure.
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