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Joyce Coomer: Education without cosmetics A story of her father's excellent education, achieved in austere settings. By Joyce Coomer Personal commentary Ninety-seven years ago, at age fourteen, my father dropped out of high school because he could get a driver's license and go to work. I have his high school report cards and most of his grades were A's. I consider my father to be one of the most intelligent and highly-educated people I've ever known. He read widely, on everyday and esoteric topics, and was knowledgeable in many areas. I have several photographs taken in WV, where my father grew up, and I can't say that in any of the photographs the area is what could be called picturesque, Landscaping, if any, was either nonexistent or minimal. Lawns weren't meticulously mown, nor were trees trimmed into the lollipop shapes one of my grade school teachers told us not to use when drawing trees. My father could solve algebra problems that my Algebra II teacher couldn't even tell her students how to begin to solve. He took typing classes in high school and told me that the typewriters used in typing class had no letters on the keyboards; there was a chart of a typewriter keyboard above the blackboard so everyone learned to type by looking at the chart. While I have no photographs of the high school in Leckie, I can only assume that the school was heated by either a coal-fed furnace, or by coal stoves in the classrooms as Leckie was a coal mining town. I doubt there was landscaping around the school grounds and also doubt there were any expansive signs at the entrance to the school grounds. During my school years in Adair County, landscaping of school grounds was basically nonexistent and I don't remember ever hearing any mention of landscaping needing to be done. Which brings me to the point of this discourse . . .there is no way, at any time, that neatness or beautification of the school grounds should be seen to equate with the quality of the education the students are acquiring. The education of the students is the only reason schools exist, and it doesn't matter if those schools are unheated lean-tos or the Oxford campus . . . education should be the first and foremost aim, not beautification. As a business owner, I am more interested in whether or not high school graduates can fill out an employment application, correctly and neatly, and with correct usage of the English language. (If I lived in Mexico or France, that requirement would be correct usage of Spanish or French.) If I were a representative of a large corporation looking for places to build a factory, I would not be interested in how presentable the school grounds were in a given area, I would be concerned with how well students of the schools could perform in the work place, and would even consider giving a test of my own to see if the education level, not the landscaping, met my needs. I commend the three school board members who voted according to their consciences, not according to cosmetic criteria. - Joyce M. Coomer This story was posted on 2015-09-19 09:58:55
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George Kolbenschlag: Where are elected officials on school leadership? Prudence Westholm Hutchison identifies Mitzi Bault's old photo Debbie Nobles: Wants list of educational accomplishments Victory Community Church starting new Bible Study 20 Sep 2015 General Election 2015: Absentee voting now open Adair Fiscal Court to meet in Special Called session 22 Sep 2015 Says Alan Reed has brought real change to Adair County Failure to renew A.W. Reed contract a gross error in judgment 29th Corps Annual Volunteer Lakeshore Cleanup is 19 Sep 2015 Ralph Waggener: Alan Reed has done more than any superintendent View even more articles in topic News |
 
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