There’s a lot to be said for just “showing up.” Chuck Mead, the keynote speaker at the annual Community Education Breakfast on Friday, had a lot of fun playing down his accomplishments as a student in the Lawrence school district. Mead, the lead singer for the Grammy-nominated band BR549, remembered his school days more for his disruptive antics than for his academic prowess.

But, he said, “I showed up. That’s where all my friends were!”

While he was showing up in school, he got more involved in music, which helped carry him into his current career. And, along the way, he said, he picked up some other lessons. Not all of them had to do with academics. In fact, it seemed that most of the lessons he remembered from his school days were lessons about life – things like manners and not letting other people down.

“I learned a whole lot by just showing up, and I was allowed to participate in what I was interested in,” he told the group.

Mead’s entertaining talk was just one feature of an event that should leave everyone in attendance feeling good about Lawrence schools. A special focus of this year’s education breakfast was the accomplishments of students in the arts. The Free State High School and Lawrence High School pep bands filled the banquet room with horns and percussion.

Thirteen outstanding students were introduced by Superintendent Randy Weseman, who detailed their accomplishments in visual arts, theater, music and film. The talents these students already have displayed make it likely, as Weseman noted, that one of those students may be the featured speaker at the breakfast not too many years down the road.

Some of the students who were introduced also had great academic accomplishments, but Mead and the breakfast program were a reminder of how important the arts are to a school’s curriculum. For some students, they may provide the springboard for a career, for others they may foster a hobby or just greater appreciation of the arts.

And for some, they keep them “showing up,” which is the first step to learning just about anything.