When John Kidd retired from product development in the athletics industry in January 2016, he was thinking about his wife.
Kathleen Kidd passed away in 2015. She had spent 22 years assisting the education staff at Kaposia Education Center in South St. Paul. โI wanted to see what she saw day to day, walk the same halls she walked,โ says John. Less than one month after retiring, he signed up with Minnesota Reading Corps and chose Kaposia as his home base. The programโs mission is for every child in Minnesota to be proficient in reading by third grade. This year, John is working with 12 students, grades kindergarten through third, in 20-minute sessions, three days a week. โThey gave me bankersโ hours this year,โ he laughs.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย When John and Kathleen married, John became a father to Kathleenโs 5-year-old son and 7-year-old special-needs daughter. He says he spent plenty of time helping the kids study throughout their school career, especially daughter Carol. He was able to transfer the patience he learned with his own kids to his work with Minnesota Reading Corps.
But itโs not just the students who benefit. John has had a lifelong dream of becoming a teacher. He graduated from St. Olaf College with a degree in art (more on that later) and theology. โThere werenโt a lot of opportunities to teach at that time, but education has always been key for me,โ says John.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Now that heโs in his fourth year with the program, John has watched first graders struggling to read grow into fifth graders with a high level of reading comprehension. โOne student went from reading 40 words per minute to 90 words by the end of last year,โ says John. โThis year, sheโs up to 117.โ
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย John calls his post-retirement gig a fun experience. By now, all of the students in the school, even those who donโt work with John, give a shout out to Mr. Kidd when they see him in the halls. โItโs like parenting without taking them home at night,โ John jokes. โIt keeps you young. I go home totally tired and thinking about how I can reach that one kid who just isnโt getting it, but itโs still a lot of fun. And itโs so necessary. Kids are suffering, even at the university level. They are arriving at college without the necessary writing skills because they come from a shorthand-texting culture. Thereโs a big need for more tutors to work with these kids.โ
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย When he isnโt changing the life of Minnesotaโs youth, John is a devout reader, frequently juggling three or four titles at the same time on his Kindle Fire. (During our conversation, he was caught up in The Book of Love by Kathleen McGowan.) John has also fallen back in love with painting. A student of da Vinciโs techniques, John says he promised himself when he retired that by the time he was 81, he would complete a painting. He converted part of his living room into a studio, and heโs working on a painting called โGreen Eyes.โ โIโm being very meticulous about it,โ he says. โJust like da Vinci.โ