 |
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| January 12, 2006 | |||
|
|||
Student Jordan Miller sits with Tadd Nyland, son of Pastor Nancy Nyland, in Atkinson's new Library. |
|||
Over the past few days, our group has had the chance to visit both a high school in town and what is known as a country school or one room schoolhouse, which generally includes students in kindergarten through eighth grade. West Holt High School in Atkinson has a student population of about 170 students, while the country school currently serves nine students, who will most likely come to town to attend West Holt when they reach high school age. As would be expected, there are similarities and differences between both schools, but what struck me at both locations is the importance that is placed on all types of schools in a rural community. In conversations with several people during my time here in Nebraska, I have learned that a small town's school is one of its most important features. A town's school educates its young people, of course, but it also provides the town with many other benefits. A school gives a town a sense of identity and a common place around which to gather. The entire town rallies around its school, supporting its programs and events. Most people in the town attend the school's sporting events, not just those who are in high school themselves or have family members who are. The school helps a town to remember what it has been and where it is going. It provides both grounding in the past and hope for the future. |
|||
 |
|||
| The Rural Immersion class stands on the main scale at the Atkinson Livestock Auction. Altogether, we weighed 1980 lbs. (Photo: Larry Poessnecker) | |||
If a town's school is too small to survive on its own and is in danger of having to consolidate with another town's school, both places will fight to keep their own schools, and when that is not possible, will agonize over how to keep each town's integrity in the location of the school and the choice of the school mascot. |
|||
|
|||
|
|||
|
|||
Dan Olson talks with the Rural Immersion class about galvanizing, a process through which metal is made resistant to corrosion. The zinc tank at Olson Industries' galvanizing plant contains 500 tons of molten metal, held near 840 degrees Fahrenheit by natural gas burners.
Students Emily McGinley and Sarah Trone Garriott
stand on top of a combine
at the Rentschler farm in Atkinson. The family farms
3500 acres of land, growing soybeans, corn, and popcorn. Leon and his sons, Mike,
Steve, and Rick work along
with Leon's brother Randy and Randy's son, Brian, to
operate the farm.
Mike runs a corn and
soybean seed business out of this building.| Return to Journal Home Page | Go to Next Entry|
