HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) --With drop out rates higher than they should be many are struggling to relate the importance of staying in school to students.

However, one motivational speaker is using a compelling message, common sense and the simple truth to raise graduation rates.

"All of you won't be brain surgeons, engineers, aircraft pilots, but there are so many things you can do to make a good living," Dr. Shelley Stewart said.

Stewart told Huntington Middle schoolers the choice to stay in school and learn is there own.

A choice he said he made many years ago as an Alabama child living in poverty, crime and abuse.

Stewart said he didn't believe he could do anything. He said his first grade teacher made a difference in his life with just a few simple words.

"She said, Boy, if you learn to read, if you have an education, you can become anything you want to be," Stewart said.

Stewart told the students that learning to read set a foundation that had him marching for civil rights with Dr. Martin Luther King, becoming a legendary radio personality, a major corporate CEO and a national don't drop out crusader.

"He tells us to go to school and study and get our education and you can be anything you want to be if you can read and write," Anastasia Miller said.

"Children need the truth - they will listen to the truth instead of political rhetoric," said Stewart.

This old school crusader said the simple things teach the greatest lessons.