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I now know why you struck out. Beliefs in the area are grounded in realism, a libertarian, bootstrapping type of realism. Neither local leaders or citizens are going to follow some "pie in the sky" idea, at least not right away. And I question the thought process of someone who genuinely travels thousands of miles with some books and expects city leaders to alter a school system that is one of the best in the state. Now, if you articulated just exactly who the "gatekeepers" were and what exactly they did to you, that might lend credence to your assertions, but many of your assertions are just outlandish.
#1 "I believe we all should be able to live in mansions." Most people around here are very practical and will be turned off by such statements.
#2 "Tennessee happens to be the worst performing state, academically." Just inaccurate, harms credibility.
#3 "What I am saying is that the institutions we rely on for education -- our churches, our schools, our media -- are failing us because a few people at the top of these institutions make the decision to screen and censor information to the people." Churches in this area do immeasurable amounts of good. Kingsport Schools are widely known for thinking outside the box, trying new things, and doing so effectively. The media often supports politicians that are unpopular and calls out unscrupulous industries ... recently winning a Pulitzer for their efforts.
#4 You accuse the media of being divisive, but aren't you being divisive in pitting us against our local leadership? Further, you have not backed up your accusations with any facts.
#5 Using a word like "proletariat", is probably not a good idea due to its connection to Marxist Theory. Using such verbiage will be a death knell to whatever good you are trying to advance.
Do you realize that you can get up to an associates degree in Sullivan County with out paying a dime and with academic excellence this can be extended to a free bachelor's?
Do you realize that high speed internet is available to everyone in the TRI?
95% of my high school's graduates went on to post secondary education.
I can call or approach my local leaders any time I want to. Anyone can do this. In my experience, if you have a problem or express a concern you will at least receive a decent response. Further, being elected officials, I guarantee you they know when we are upset. Just ask David Davis (U.S. politician) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
If you are talking about the show that aired on TV about the poor appalachain kids, I saw it. Kingsport isn't neeearly like that. You are in the wrong place. However even if you do find these poor kids of Appalachia, don't expect them to take kindly to an outsider wanting to change what they grew up with. You may have more luck with the younger generation than the old.
Country people tend to be set in their ways !
Miller Perry (Sullivan Co. schools, Kingsport) won the National School Of Excellence award in 1988 ( and boy do they still push their kids HARD--trust me!!!!). We are doing 5th grade work in 4th grade, using cable internet in the classroom, making webcasts and podcasts,powerpoint presentations, etc. I have friends with kids in the other Sullivan Co. schools and it's the same for them.
I love the way of life here. I grew up a country girl and am proud to be one. This isn't the only area you will find good schools and bad, rich and poor all side by side. It's everywhere. I think Kingsport is getting TOO big for me...I often wish I could move out into the country.
I like the conservative values here, the religion, it's all part of why I call this place home. I think many of us feel the same or we would not be living here.
It may be corny (!) but these are some lyrics from one of my favorite songs. Justin Moore, Small Town USA
"A lot of people called it prison when I was growin up
But these are my roots and this is what I love
Cause everybody knows me and I know them
And I believe that's the way we were supposed to live
Wouldn't trade one single day here in small town USA
Around here we break our backs just to earn a buck
We never get ahead but we have enough
I watch people leave and then come right back
I never wanted any part of that
I'm proud to say that I love this place
Good ole small town USA
......
I wouldn't trade one single day
I'm proud to say i love this place
Give me an old dirt road and ill be just fine
Give me a Sunday morning that full of grace
A simple life and I'll be okay
Yeah I'll be okay
Here in small town USA
Oh yeah small town USA
Dear TNGal78,
Thank you for writing! I did not see the special on TV about Appalachia. I try to avoid television because it is so negative most of the time and while there are some good channels, cable is more money than I want to pay (in fact I do not even own a tv). I really "don't have a clue," as someone else had pointed out. I would love to learn more about Appalachia. I do know I loved the beautiful mountains. What kind of tree is that, that was blooming all along the highways between Kingsport and Charleston? The bright pink -- I took lots of photos; they were so pretty.
I love living in the country, too! I live in a very tiny town in Oregon, an old farm town. It is so great. Very quiet, off the beaten path. We have a population of 994.
I think you are right about the younger generation vs. the older. They want more opportunities, is all, which is probably more the result of the serious economic downturn than wanting change per se. We all have to survive.
Congratulations to Miller Perry! That's great. I hope they share their secrets to success.
I love the song! Thank you. It is not corny at all -- My author friend, which is what I origninally came to Kingsport to share, incorporated MUSIC just the way you did. It is in his books -- all kinds of music in the form of song titles and lyrics. He also put in references to movies, he has secret codes, puzzles, messages, etc. He was VERY creative. I call his hidden stuff "Easter eggs" because many authors hide them and call them that. He did not believe in education without music as a part of every subject. It is a great way to express what we can't say in words alone or to gain a deeper understanding by paying attention to the lyrics. In fact, he did not believe in education unless it was FUN. He shows, by example, how people can use music to learn about each other and to express themselves and even make it a game by hiding it within the text (although he also has many titles and lyrics that are not hidden, which was what drew me into finding all of his hidden stuff). He did not tell anyone he had hidden all of these things in his work and I did not discover them until after he passed away. I also love music and use it every chance I get. I love YouTube for that reason. You can embed music and it adds to the conversation.
Thank you for writing! Country living is great! I call myself a "country hick girl" because I was born and raised in the country -- a "valley girl," (corn valley). I just happened to love learning and so I keep getting more education, which I discovered is worthless, lol, which my author friend also had discovered as an Applachian, but he came up with some brilliant ways that make learning fun. I learned so much from him and I am still learning from all of the books he has left for us. I really miss him even though we only had contact online (I did get to meet him just before he died; I will be eternally grateful that I took the time to drive up to Canada when he was at a university in Western Canada).
I now know why you struck out. Beliefs in the area are grounded in realism, a libertarian, bootstrapping type of realism. Neither local leaders or citizens are going to follow some "pie in the sky" idea, at least not right away. And I question the thought process of someone who genuinely travels thousands of miles with some books and expects city leaders to alter a school system that is one of the best in the state. Now, if you articulated just exactly who the "gatekeepers" were and what exactly they did to you, that might lend credence to your assertions, but many of your assertions are just outlandish.
#1 "I believe we all should be able to live in mansions." Most people around here are very practical and will be turned off by such statements.
#2 "Tennessee happens to be the worst performing state, academically." Just inaccurate, harms credibility.
#3 "What I am saying is that the institutions we rely on for education -- our churches, our schools, our media -- are failing us because a few people at the top of these institutions make the decision to screen and censor information to the people." Churches in this area do immeasurable amounts of good. Kingsport Schools are widely known for thinking outside the box, trying new things, and doing so effectively. The media often supports politicians that are unpopular and calls out unscrupulous industries ... recently winning a Pulitzer for their efforts.
#4 You accuse the media of being divisive, but aren't you being divisive in pitting us against our local leadership? Further, you have not backed up your accusations with any facts.
#5 Using a word like "proletariat", is probably not a good idea due to its connection to Marxist Theory. Using such verbiage will be a death knell to whatever good you are trying to advance.
Do you realize that you can get up to an associates degree in Sullivan County with out paying a dime and with academic excellence this can be extended to a free bachelor's?
Do you realize that high speed internet is available to everyone in the TRI?
95% of my high school's graduates went on to post secondary education.
I can call or approach my local leaders any time I want to. Anyone can do this. In my experience, if you have a problem or express a concern you will at least receive a decent response. Further, being elected officials, I guarantee you they know when we are upset. Just ask David Davis (U.S. politician) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I really do not have time to respond thoroughly to someone who chooses to take word bytes and present them out of context. This is the strategy our media uses and is the very reason I do not have a television. We never get the complete picture. I really wish I had time to respond to each and every segment you have quoted, but I believe the people of Kingsport and elsewhere are smart enough to figure out they clearly do not have all of the information in your selected quotations and if they read my posts they will see the context and that I corrected myself if I made errors in any of my statements. I am not infallible and a mere human like everyone here.
I do thank you for providing the additional information. Yes, of course I knew that the tri-cities has high-speed internet. Kingsport is a city compared to my town (pop. 994) and we have high speed internet here. If you read my entries, I was specifically referring to small rural communities, and the fact that many people simply cannot afford high speed internet. As I also mentioned, billions of dollars are being invested by the government to remedy this.
It is fantastic that Sullivan County offers free higher education. How do they do it? It would be a great thing to share with other parts of the country where universities seem to think they have to keep raising tuition to outlandish amounts. I have had to go deeply in debt for my own education and probably won't live long enough to pay it all back.
Yes! Those are the trees! Thank you for the link for more info. I wonder if they would grow here; I will have to read the info in more detail. I am getting ready to plant trees on my property. In fact, my back yard is going to be what's called an "edible forest." It's a really great way to have all kinds of fruit and vegetables that grow together synergistically and requires little maintenance yet produces high yield. One of my neighbors is going to plant one in her back yard, too. She told me about it and knows someone who knows how to plan them out and has volunteered to help us with that part.
What I guess is bothering me most is that you come in here with obvious problems regarding our media, politicians, and even churches; yet when pressed for specifics, you give us vague allegations of censorship. What exact change are you hoping to promote? And what exactly did "the gatekeepers" do to you that was wrong, immoral, or incendiary?
I will tell you what I AM for regarding education...
This is what I'm for....
I am all for improving the "special needs" programs in our schools and/or getting more help for children with adhd/add problems and other learning difficulties.
I will sit and agree with you all day long that these "special" kids need different ways of learning and different styles of teaching. That is why a lot of parents homeschool their special needs children.
My daughter is slow at Math and she has adhd. Now she's smart ! Very smart ! She just takes quite a bit longer to grasp what is being taught and she needs breaks to be out of her seat and up doing things....hard for her to sit all day long.
We are feeling like she's left behind even though she gets "resource" for Math. They teach different things in resource than what the regular class is doing then she's still tested in both classes. What is the point in that ?!
She was recently kept in from playtime for 3 days in a row because she had 3 printouts of missing work and didn't follow the "proper procedure" for requesting additional copies. Even though she has an IEP that states she gets reminders about the rules/procedures (due to ADHD), help organizing, etc........they took her playtime away. She had asked for the work verbally, but had not written a note and put it on the teachers desk to ask for it which apparently is the "proper" procedure.
So not only did she have to sit out playtime for 3 days....she wasn't doing the missing work in playtime because of the "note" she didn't write. Even though the teacher knew of the exact work that was missing, she didn't give it to her. My kid sat inside on 3 pretty days and read her library book/doodled on paper.
Kids with ADHD neeeeedddddd playtime !
There is no room in public schools (at least from my experience) for kids that learn in a different style and I will give you credit for trying to change that, IF that is one of the things on your agenda.
In summation, you wanted free publicity and are angry because you didn't get it. You wanted to save the good people of Kingsport from their poor educational system but didn't do the research to realize that their system is actually pretty darn good, yet you are working on your doctorate.
Heh.
Next time, you might want to try where Bill O. volunteered. Berea, Kentucky is really your target area; but be careful. We may be hearing about you from the corporate-controlled capitalist-pig media. The folks in Berea don't have a sliver of the patience that the good people of Kingsport exhibit.
I have found, over the years, that the more I shut my mouth and open my ears the more wisdom I gather.
It appears GloriaGrace is getting a quick education on the culture and people of East Tennessee. We, the people, support and defend one another. We care what goes on from the Tri-cities to Knoxville, to Chatanooga and to the Cumberland Plateau, When good news happens in any one of these communities, we all rejoice and believe me there is plenty of good news. When storm clouds build over our areas, we all pray everyone will be safe. It's just the way it is.
Tennesse is my newly adopted state. I am thrilled to be here in Kingsport and have no trouble blending into the culture. The culture and people are what brought me to this area. I have no doubt that I could be comfortable living in any of the areas mentioned above. Each of these towns & cities are beautiful in their own unique way. In fact, many of us spend a lot of time travelling from one area to another and yes, we are always welcomed.
I am all for improving the "special needs" programs in our schools and/or getting more help for children with adhd/add problems and other learning difficulties.
I will sit and agree with you all day long that these "special" kids need different ways of learning and different styles of teaching. That is why a lot of parents homeschool their special needs children.
My daughter is slow at Math and she has adhd. Now she's smart ! Very smart ! She just takes quite a bit longer to grasp what is being taught and she needs breaks to be out of her seat and up doing things....hard for her to sit all day long.
We are feeling like she's left behind even though she gets "resource" for Math. They teach different things in resource than what the regular class is doing then she's still tested in both classes. What is the point in that ?!
She was recently kept in from playtime for 3 days in a row because she had 3 printouts of missing work and didn't follow the "proper procedure" for requesting additional copies. Even though she has an IEP that states she gets reminders about the rules/procedures (due to ADHD), help organizing, etc........they took her playtime away. She had asked for the work verbally, but had not written a note and put it on the teachers desk to ask for it which apparently is the "proper" procedure.
So not only did she have to sit out playtime for 3 days....she wasn't doing the missing work in playtime because of the "note" she didn't write. Even though the teacher knew of the exact work that was missing, she didn't give it to her. My kid sat inside on 3 pretty days and read her library book/doodled on paper.
Kids with ADHD neeeeedddddd playtime !
There is no room in public schools (at least from my experience) for kids that learn in a different style and I will give you credit for trying to change that, IF that is one of the things on your agenda.
Thank you for writing. That is defnitely on my agenda. I have four children and every one of them was diagnosed with ADHD. And one of my daughters also has "Autism" along with numerous other learning issues that especially pop up in educational environments that are trying to mold all children the same way. My heart goes out to you and your daughter. I am so sorry that the teacher is not understanding how important it is to follow the IEP. I had to pull my daughter out and homeschool her until she chose to return as a freshman in high school, which turned out to be huge disaster. Not only did the schools not follow her IEP, the head of the special ed department purposely antagonized my daughter, punishing and humiliating her for things that were not even her fault, thus making things intolerable. My daughter ended up in the hospital seven or eight time due to the anxiety it caused her. With autism, they can get into a "fight or flight" mode and she chose flight. It scared me to death because she would just take off running into the streets, not paying attention to cars, etc. I found a good attorney and we basically won (we "settled" because I did not want to put my daughter through additional stress with courts). The experience set her back and basically undid all of her learning progress she had made the past few years I had worked with her (with autism, stress can cause them to regress). Where we live now, the schools are more relaxed, but the teachers still ignore her IEP. Fortunately, she is doing so much better now as she has gotten older and has learned other ways of learning that work for her. She's going to be fine. It is taking her a little longer to finish high school and we are both OK with that. The school wanted to give her a "modified diploma," and we said "no way." If it takes her another, year so what? She is actually learning now and making progress socially -- and she can take more interesting classes her last year.
Yes, I do totally relate to special needs kids. From my experience with teaching, raising children, and researching, ALL children can benefit from the measures that are added to the IEPs. Why not let other children benefit and at the same time, we don't have to call these "special accommodations." And instruction should be differentiated (eg. not all children need to learn exactly the same things!)
As an example of a "special accommodation," one measure is to provide written handouts (notes) of lectures. My daughter cannot write fast enough and then she misses much of the lecture. It is such a simple thing to provide all children with notes (and maybe extra space so they can fill in with more information). Some teachers are good about this, but why can't all teachers see the value in this? Often the teachers who do not provide notes for the entire class, do not bother to provide notes for my daughter even though it is on her IEP. There have been numerous research studies that show all children learn better if they have notes for lectures. It makes it easier for them to listen to the lecture without having to focus on taking down so many notes. This works in college, too.
You brought up playtime. Playtime is needed by all children as well. There is so much focus on the standardized tests that recess has been reduced or eliminated in schools across the U.S. to the detriment of learning as well as social development.
There are many other examples of "accommodations" that all children would benefit from and that are put into IEPs and too often ignored; I will not say always. Some teachers are very conscientious about following IEPs. However, frpm my own personal experience, I can tell you it is a rare teacher who follows them like they should.
I believe that the greater focus on these tests that the No Child Left Behind Act forces on states just takes too much time from the real process of education. They do not measure what they claim to measure (knowledge) -- many of them are just indications of how well students have memorized random pieces of information. That is not learning. Another way the standardized tests fail is that they are not tested and validated. There are very complex statistical analyses that must be completed to validate standardized tests. Many states do not go through this process and they change the tests on a whim -- if they change the educational standards, the tests have to be changed. Students become guinea pigs. This is a very sloppy methodology for something that has such high stakes and importance for students, schools, teachers, administrators, school districts, and states. However, there is already so much money put into developing, administering, tracking, teaching to, etc. for these tests that there is little if any money for validating the tests. And so, children are damaged because these tests are supposed to mean something. I have done a lot of research on this very issue. Teaching to a test invalidates the results. There are ways to address the standards by engaging the students in real and meaningful learning. If schools would take the focus OFF the tests and spend more time letting students learn instead of memorize, the test scores would go up -- and this goes for IQ tests as well. IQ is not some fixed number. When I homeschooled my daughter, I still had her take the tests, but I minimized their significance. She improved dramatically, and not only that, her IQ score rose significantly as well.
Take the tests, IQ scores, etc. with a grain of salt. About the only thing they are good for is to get accommodations -- if we can actually get them for our children (it is so often a battle). Yes, if children are put into a resource room, the work there is generally too easy and then it sets them up for more failure on the standardized test (although on paper, according to the special ed departments progress can be shown). I am referring to your daughter's math instruction.
The bottom line is that, due to the No Child Left Behind Act, schools in America are focusing their time and attention on passing tests that do not represent learning. Because we are not focused on true education and learning, students who are not so good (or interested in) memorizing are not doing so well. I will note here that Albert Einstein was not keen about memorizing. He did not believe in wasting his brain power (my words). He just felt it was a waste of time to memorize something you use infrequently. If you really need to know it, you can look it up. We are in a great position to do that with the Internet. And so I question how much real learning is going on in the classrooms across America. The national tests, which have been validated and thus, provide some indication, show that the US is falling further behind in comparison to other countries.
Last edited by GloriaGrace; 04-26-2010 at 04:00 PM..
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I will tell you what I AM for regarding education...
