Entry #5: A need to expand Southwest Star's
experiential curriculum to the middle grades


Okabena, MN -- Our fears have been realized. Instead of wanting to pack and head on to our next state, our two middle schoolers have decided that they would like to stay right here and finish the school year at Southwest Star Concept School. Besides all but destroying our " research team" approach to the trip, that would make our already hefty phone bill astronomical!

So, reluctantly, we will pile back into Eeyore and press onward to the east coast. With us will go a lasting impression of what small town life can be and how a school can survive and thrive with the help of many.

However, I find myself wondering how things will be several years from now after a few more residents leave, after the paint fades on the school's new addition and after the farm economy has a few more years in the doldrums.

Luckily, I'm not the only one thinking of the future. From Principal Steve McCormick to retired resident Don Steen, the desire to see kids succeed leads them to look to the future. Thus, they continue to meet in collaborative groups like the school's curriculum committee. Six of the ten members I met were from the community which encourages diversified viewpoints and a sharing of the load. With the school's curriculum largely in place, their efforts can turn to sharpening exactly what is taught and how it is delivered.

One area of concern I have is how they can better spread the experiential theme and community involvement throughout the seventh and eighth grade curriculum and even to the lower grades. I found the most exciting classes (from the point of view of students and staff) were limited to grades 9-12. I'm looking forward to Monday where I will see the introductory horticulture class landscape a local resident's yard. But would like to see this type of real-life application earlier. Perhaps, as this occurs, the school will draw larger numbers of students into the lower grades.

Another committee I observed came about through a grant from Reducing Rural Violence. They have been working on goals which include administering a survey profiling their youth, using developmental assets identified by the Search Institute of Minneapolis. In fact, one side trip we took included a visit to the Institute and a chance to meet Nancy Tellett-Royce, community liaison for Search. After reading their materials for years, it was exciting to actually BE there!

If you haven't discovered Search's 40-asset model or been exposed to their extensive research on youth, I invite you to visit their web site and see just what they are doing with SO many communities and schools. With assistance from Search and other organizations, Southwest Star should be able to further improve the experiences for their students.

My final thought about the future focuses on the people of this community. While people are a renewable resource, it is easy for key individuals to "burn out." As I see it, one solution is to constantly find ways to invite or even reinvite members of the community to participate. Heron Lake and Okabena, like most towns, have many talented citizens who want to be needed and are willing to contribute.

In fact, these great people are joining together for a going-away potluck for our family. After all their new friends have said "good bye," the boys will have to come with us!!

[Read Corrine Lee's e-mail home to her friends about leaving Okabena.]

Next up, a 1500-mile journey from midwest to east coast. We will take a week off from writing and talk to you again from Taunton, MA.

Darrell


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Darrell at the Search Institute

Photo by Corrine Lee

Excerpt from Corrine's
E-mail to friends back home

October 6 -- We left Okabena and, of course, I was in tears. Those of you who know me know that's not hard to do. The boys received sweatshirts and honorary letters for being in cross country. They thought that was cool. They did not throw a parade as we left. They were wonderful people, though, and we all left a little piece of our heart there.

We gave them a evergreen tree for the garden in front of the school to symbolize friendship. We left just in time, since two days later they had five inches of snow. As we leave I hear among us some of the Minnesota accent. Ian pops up with rawd (road) and Tyler is saying hawkey (hockey). I hear it in myself as well. Onward we go. We have left the plains behind, gone are the corn and soy and into rolling hills. We are seeing more and more color.

We have gone through the Alleghenies. Boy, we were way up there. The bikes keep threatening to jump off the bike rack from all the bumps. The theme of this week is broken dishes and wrong turns. Some of these roads have dips that have blown open the doors in the trailer sending the cooking tray from the microwave crashing to the floor, along with some of the mugs in the dish cupboard.

We were really looking forward to seeing the Crayola factory. You might like to know that they are on their 110-billionth crayon since its opening. I bet you thought that we would be seeing a real factory, but NOOOOO -- we might steal their secrets and sell them to a foreign country. The companies now set up simulated factories and lure you in, for a fee. It's not for me; I want to see the real thing. We have found this situation more than once now, and I am sure touring factories is a thing of the past.

More later,

Corrine