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Recently I went on a long car trip across the east and the midwest. We made a special point to stay off the freeways and traveled on mostly two lane highways through lots of small towns far from any larger metro areas. As we drove through the small towns one thing that hit me was how depressed many of the small towns in America were. Lots ofempty store fronts, most of the downtowns were boarded up and lots of homes that needed a serious coat of paint. I suspect the towns residents were poor, working class people who were not educated past High School.
How are the schools in these small towns in comparison to the rough inner city schools of the big cities? Anyone experience living and teaching in SUPER RURAL Small town blue collar America?
Last edited by The Outcast; 08-20-2010 at 02:32 PM..
Recently I went on a long car trip across the east and the midwest. We made a special point to stay off the freeways and traveled on mostly two lane highways through lots of small towns far from any larger metro areas. As we drove through the small towns one thing that hit me was how depressed many of the small towns in America were. Lots ofempty store fronts, most of the downtowns were boarded up and lots of homes that needed a serious coat of paint. I suspect the towns residents were poor, working class people who were n ot educated past High School.
How are the schools in these small towns in comparison to the rough inner city schools of the big cities? Anyone experience living and teaching in SUPER RURAL Small town blue collar America?
Just because the town looks dead and empty to you, that does not mean they are uneducated people that are living there? It's a small town. There is not a lot of jobs in small towns like it used to be, unless you are a farmer maybe.
Our "super rural" schools have smart boards, interactive video, and on-line curriculum. Our elementary schools have COLLEGE week when students talk about their favorite colleges and what kind of career they think they would like to have. Everyday in my class there is at least 5-15 minutes of conversation centered on graduation and having a career. We are doing international studies as part of our school having a sister school in South America. We have had students and staff at our school that represents over 14 countries and 25 states.
Not sure where the notion of I suspect the towns residents were poor, working class people who were not educated past High School comes from?
Working class DOES NOT = poor...or UNEDUCATED....
I get the impression the "rural" townsfolk tend to resent the life outta folks who come in to enlighten 'em and show 'em the way to educational salvation..
Most Rural town lack jobs, There main export is there kids, From what I've read, and seen most Rural town, support there school, and the kids get a good education, move on to college or into the work force. But the town are hurting as the kids leave to find work, they never get back. The population start to go down, There are less people to buy the stuff so the stores close.
Let's be careful about jumping on the OP; I'm sure he/she didn't mean any harm by the last statement. I can see how that might rub some folks the wrong way, though.
Anyway, to answer your question as objectively as I can...the good, the bad, and the ugly.
The Ugly: Small-town America is obviously a completely different lifestyle that what you are used to. However, many of the problems still exist, but on a broader scale. For example, drugs, sex, alcohol, poverty, etc. Instead of it being concentrated in a few areas of the city, in small town America the problems are spread out, affecting a large area and lots of people. Also, certain STD's run rampant and problems abound.
The Bad: Jobs are very hard to be found in the town. Many people work in larger cities, often driving an hour + to find work. As flyonpa mentioned, many graduating HS students go off to college and are never seen again, stripping the town of its "smarts" and having sort of a brain drain effect.
Unfortunately, some of the stereotype is true. 50% of our students go to college; 10% of the town's residents hold a bachelor's degree or higher. However, the blue-collar mantra does not mean that the town's residents are necessarily prejudiced, stupid, uneducated, etc. If you need anything fixed (and I mean anything), you don't have to call a repair guy to get it done, which is really nice.
The Good: Cost of living is extremely cheap. My wife and I are currently renting a 3-bedroom, 2-bathroom house with a very nice kitchen for $450/month plus utilities. We have a huge backyard, jacuzzi, too. We enjoy high-speed Internet, HDTV, and many of the modern conveniences found in a large city. Everyone knows everyone, which means you've got lots of eyes all around the town when you go on vacation, for example.
I currently teach HS in a town of 1,200 in western Illinois. This would certainly be a town that you might have driven through. Sure it has its problems, but I would venture to say that the unemployment rate right now is lower than many suburban areas in the country...thanks to the ag-related industry.
Just because there aren't any businesses in town doesn't mean the PEOPLE are uneducated. Most of those towns are frequented by the farmers in the area, most of whom (at least in our area) have college degrees and are actually very wealthy. You also find a lot of people that live in those towns that work in larger towns in the area, again, highly educated just want to live in a small town. One of our friends is from a town of 200 people, he got 4 majors and 3 minors for his undergrad, has 2 Master's Degrees and 2 PhD's.
Just because there aren't any businesses in town doesn't mean the PEOPLE are uneducated. Most of those towns are frequented by the farmers in the area, most of whom (at least in our area) have college degrees and are actually very wealthy. You also find a lot of people that live in those towns that work in larger towns in the area, again, highly educated just want to live in a small town. One of our friends is from a town of 200 people, he got 4 majors and 3 minors for his undergrad, has 2 Master's Degrees and 2 PhD's.
I doubt the type of town you are describing is the type of town the OP mentioned ( many boarded up buildings, many places needing paint )
Yes, those towns can be found in rural Minnesota ( you may have to go farther than golfgal's area) .
In those areas, the OP is correct.
The kids that get educated move the heck out and a few that don't stay and try to get the few minimum wage jobs that exist there.
At night, as 40 year olds, they sit in the bar and recall that touchdown pass they caught 22 years earlier.
Yes, golfgal, there is rural towns that the OP described and the only people living in those towns that went farther than high school might be the owners of the few business places that are not boarded up.
I am not offended by the OP's remarks.
There are towns like that in Minnesota and across the nation.
The Minneapolis Tribune did an article on some of them a few years ago.
The kids who were going to college stated they were not returning.
The boys who weren't going to college stated they hoped they could get hired at one of 2 places---------a rendering plant or a beef packing plant that employs many Hispanics and has a high turnover of employees.
I've been through towns like the OP is talking about. It seems to me, that unless a kid is leaving the town, he has no -reason- to have a higher education. Townies in rural areas like that don't -need- to get a Masters Degree, unless it's in agriculture or animal husbandry. They have different types of priorities. They, meaning, the ones who intend to stay in the rural town and not seek their future elsewhere. Not they, meaning everyone who is raised in the town. The ones who stay, don't need the higher education. Not only do they not need it, but their time is needed to maintain what they have, which usually means going to work instead of going to college - not after it, not in addition to it.
It doesn't make them less intelligent, but it does shift their education to things more practical and geared to their lifestyle. So "intellectuals" who have Liberal Arts degrees and went to work in big offices in the city might not see that these people are intelligent, but then, those intellectuals wouldn't know the first thing about the proper nitrogen content of soil for raising corn, or how best to get rid of aphids off tomato plants, or why their dappled gelding keeps lowering his neck when he runs.
Rural people aren't less smart, or less intelligent - or even less educated, necessarily. They're just smart, intelligent, and educated in things us suburban and urban people are totally ignorant about, because we don't have a particular need to know about those things, since we don't live in that part of our country and only drive past their towns and wonder if they're educated
Like anywhere schools are no better than the parents that send their kids there.
It's troubling that some many parents seem to have bought into the idea the primary responsibility for educating their children belongs to the public school system. It doesn't.
I am sure teachers can recount countless stories of kindergarten students who can't count to 10, don't know their ABC's and some that can't even identify colors; to know the difference between green and red.
Poor and educated are not mutually exclusive and a college degree doesn't define educated.
It's up to the parents to provide an education. Have we forgotten for the first five to six years of live the parents are the primary educators? What has happened to our education system is most battles are lost before the 6 year old enters the school doors the for the first time.
I don't care how good of a teacher you are if I sent you my 6 year old kid who couldn't count to 5, who didn't know the difference between Red and Black and the Latin alphabet might has well be ancient Aramaic your job of teaching my kid is going to be 12 frustrating years of pure hell.
The battle is won or lost long before the teacher and student meet for the very first time.
//Rant My disgust and hatred of television can not be overestimated.
Like a parasitic worm television bores into the brains of little children robbing them of their ability to think and learn. Television is the killer of children.
You can be poor and not allow television into the home. Television is the mind killer and a minor child has little reason reason to ever sit in front of the boob tube which is called boob tube for a reason. Save the $80/month cable bill in a 3% savings vehicle and in 18 years you'll have $22,876.94 which should be enough for two years of community college. Actually you would have more because as inflation hits... as cost of cable goes up... yeah. //Rant
There's a wonderful place where you can get books and other educational material for free and that's the public library. Parents should go there and go often. Three or four times a week, allow your child to learn to read given the right challenging environment their ability to learn at age 4 and 5 will astound you.
Even poor towns and counties have libraries and if yours is one of those that could be better than why don't you volunteer some of your time to make it so?
Darn it, I hate threads like this it reminded me of the damage television does and now I'll spend the rest of the day just pissed off.
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