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Poverty and education

I have recently reconnected with an elementary school classmate on Facebook. Facebook is amazing for that. He and I both attended a tiny elementary school in Creston, IL. Creston is a village in the middle of acres and acres and miles and miles of corn and soybean and hay fields. At the time we attended Creston Elementary School (1965-1974) Creston had a population of about 300 people. There was a gas station, a bar/restaurant, a few churches, a grocery store/butcher shop/post office, a hardware store, and a grain elevator along the train tracks. The entire town was 1 mile X 1 mile.

 

Creston Elementary School served the children of the Village of Creston and the children of the surrounding farmers from miles and miles away. There were 9 grades .... K-8 with one class of students per grade. I remember sometimes having a music teacher, and I think we had a PE teacher/Coach. I know we had an awesome Basketball Team while we were there. A lot of people wore several hats.

 

The class that my friend, John, and I were in usually averaged around 22 students. In this class we had the mentally handicapped kid, the physically handicapped kid, the bully, the obese kids, the neglected kids, the spoiled kids, the poor and the, at best, middle class were well represented. There were Protestants and Catholics and probably some unbelievers. We weren't very racially diverse .... no Blacks or Hispanics .... but we had our own categories to "diversify" people. We had the Swedes and the Poles and the Norwegians and the Germans .... of these, the Poles were the "low man". Lots of Polack jokes. (I heard the very same jokes told later .... but here in Texas they are called Aggie Jokes!) One student was 1/2 Japanese .... so was he Asian? In fact he is John, the friend I have reconnected with on Facebook.

 

Trust me .... when there isn't color available to separate people into sub-groups, there are plenty of other ways ... and children know best how to do that. In hindsight, I think we were all poor ... but there are levels of poverty. Many of us, myself included, came from the surrounding farms. Many of the farms were family owned and operated. The land itself was very valuable but demanded a lot of hard work for months and months with often only a single payout once a year when crops were harvested and sold. Many of the farms (mine included) also raised animals for breeding or meat purposes .... cattle, sheep, pigs, chickens, etc. On paper, there was wealth ... our plates were usually full .... our pockets, not so much.

 

There were no big cities for people to drive to daily for work. Chicago was 90 miles away, and only 2-lane highways (maybe 4-lane at times) to get there. People didn't do that. Creston's tax base must have been minimal. We didn't have police or fire departments. We depended on the county to supply a lot of our services. But we did have a school.

 

Creston Elementary School couldn't have had a very large budget. Yet John and I were talking on Facebook about what an outstanding education we received from that tiny farming community school. We learned to read and write and do arithmetic like pros. We learned science and history and government well. K-8th grade we had the same 20-22 classmates and many of us were highly competative with each other. We all wanted the high grade ... the top score ... the A-honor roll. Competiton was encouraged and success was rewarded with our name in the newspaper on the A-Honor Roll list. Athletics were also encouraged and a major source of entertainment for the town. We competed against other small elementary schools in other farming communities, Kings, Esmond, Steward, Lee, Lindenwood come to mind. Competiton ruled and often Creston came out on top. That was our world.

 

For High School all of the rural elementary schools fed into a central High School in Rochelle, IL, Rochelle Township High School. We joined students from the city of Rochelle with their big Rochelle Jr. High background. Amazingly, the village/farmers kids were often able to hold their own in the bigger class of 270 or so students. 50-75% of the top 10% of the students in our graduating class of 1978 were students who rode buses from the farming communities to get to school. All of my best friends took 4 years of Math and 4 years of Science as well as the English and History and 2 years of Language. All of my best friends went on to college ... some to a local 2 year school ... others to 4 year colleges and universities all over the country. There was never a question in my mind of whether or not I would go to college. It was expected and accepted. I had classmates who eventually went to work for NASA .... who became Doctors .... who became Lawyers ... who became Nurses and Teachers and Systems Analysts and CPAs. Very few of us returned to the farms we grew up on, even if our families still owned them .... there wasn't enough income from a farm to support the whole family and their families.

 

Now I am approaching 50 years of age and I am looking at the state of public education today and my friend John and I were both wondering .... How did we get such fine educations?? Did we live elite lives with lots of elite money supporting our educations? I don't think so. Were our teachers the best of the best? Probably not ... although we learned a lot from them. Were our facilities State of the Art? Certainly not. Did we have all the available technology? Well ... I do remember a reel-to-reel movie projector which worked ... sometimes!! I think there might have been an over head projector .... but certainly not one in each classroom.    

 

Since John and I were in school, technology has grown by leaps and bounds.  Per student funding has increased by leaps and bounds.  Yet standardized test scores and graduation rates have plummeted.   Why?  What happened between the 1960's and now? 

 

I think I know the answer .... I think you do, too.   I wonder if I dare write about it.