I'm Depressed

I just read the requests from Southern Reynolds County schools in Ellington (30+miles from the Taum Sauk plant) and Centerville Schools (a K-8 school at the county seat). I don't doubt that the need for most of the requests are real, but if these schools (and Lesterville) are in this bad of shape its real depressing. I would suggest to Southern Reynolds that "smart teachers" are more important than "smart boards". And to Centerville, all those "dies" are not going to make your students creative. In fact Lesterville has one of those systems and it not used very often. Teachers and administrators often think that one more piece of equipment will make their school great. What we need are creative teachers. I do understand that it is hard to keep up with technology, but I don't see any evidence that the current staff is trying to use what technology is already available.

I moved to Lesterville in 1983 , when my son was just starting 6th grade. I felt that he got about as good an education (except math) as he would have if we had stayed in Des Moines. But my son was lucky in that out of a graduating class of 19 (in 1990) five students went to four year colleges and they all graduated. That is a very high % for Lesterville. Its not that country kids are dumb, its that they don't know how to dream. My son has two cousins, one has an MBA and one is finishing his residency in OB/GYN. They both graduated from schools that encouraged them to dream. They also had parents that encouraged those dreams.

If you take the original Ameren/FERC agreement, probably the thing that would make the most difference in the "quality of life" of those people living near the Taum Sauk plant are the proposal for a medical clinic in Lesterville and a Community Center in conjunction with the fire department and the EMTs. Broadband would be great, especially for telemedicine, but it probably does not have the impact that improved medical care would have. Its obvious from seeing all the requests that rural Missouri is in great trouble. I imagine that rural everywhere is pretty much the same. We sure need some leadership with some innovative ideas.