Supt. Bob Trover's wall of fame at Tamaroa Grade School

In Tamaroa Grade School Superintendent Bob Trover's world, students shouldn't be sent to the principal's office to be punished.

They should come there to be encouraged and lifted up. Their young lives should be celebrated. It should be a place where student problems are solved, not notched in a file folder of offenses,

Nearby on his desk, a quote from Abraham Lincoln: "A child is a person who is going to carry on what you have started. He is going to sit where you are sitting and, when you are gone, attend those things which you think are important. You may adopt all the policies you please, but how they are carried out depends on him. He will assume control of your cities, states and nations. He is going to move in ad take over your churches, schools, universities and corporations. The fate of humanity is his hands."

That is what motivates Bob to fill his walls every day with every crayon drawing, every poem, every thank you note and every "A+ Good Job" paper that kids want to bring to him.

It is his "Wall of Fame."

It's his giant refrigerator with a thousand magnets where the art work and school pictures of your children and grandchildren have a place of honor.

It is wonderfully claustrophobic as the student keepsakes cover all four 10-foot high walls in his office and recently have spilled out of his office to the wall outside his door.

There are a handful of things that hang from the ceiling, as well.

He remembers how the wall started and the first student's offering. "I tell students I want you to come here. I try to help them instead of punish them."

Bob was the superintendent in the K through Grade 8 school of 117 students and 16 staff members for nine years and is back in his fourth year as interim superintendent.

"I think we have a plan for next year," says Bob, who at age 58 has a 36-year career in education.

As an administrator, there is some method to his madness and although a little unorthodox he can be all-caring and all-business at the same time.

Day-in and day-out he is concerned about his staff, the building, curriculum and student grades. He worries about the future of state education funding and he thinks about the viability of a proposed 1 percent facilities sales tax being proposed for the entire county by the Du Quoin Board of Education.

"We would only get a small part of that." But, in-between, his door is always open and either the tape dispenser or the thumb tacks are within easy reach to post the latest student success story on one of the walls.

Everyone from Congressman Jerry Costello to office of education and regional superintendent personnel have seen his jaw-dropping collection of keepsakes, part of a life well-lived.

His wife of 20 years, Marleis, is also an educator and school superintendent.

Bob hopes to finally retire within the year and, no doubt, the keepsakes will be picked from the wall and placed in a box (a very large box) with his other memories.

At this late date and near retirement, if there is any thought that his collection is a safety hazard you'll have to deal with a publisher who buys paper in half-ton rolls and ink by the barrel.

But, God help you if you draw the short straw and have to pick the tape off these historic walls.