Notice: Repairs on the Green Line. Expect Delays

Knox is solidly on the Bible Belt, not the gilded buckle exactly, but on the belt. There are several characteristics of local Christianity that have a strongly local flavor, such as a strong non-denominational urge. Several local churches even advertise themselves as such. I understand and sympathize with this urge to accept a wider range of religious belief. After all most Christians lay-people don’t get too worked up about the relative merits of the different baptism techniques like sprinkling, pouring (infusion), partial immersion, total submersion, immersion mixed with pouring, etc. These differences, which after all historically have caused and continue to cause schisms, do lend a bit of gravitas to Christian leaders. Without gravitas one wouldn’t be much of a leader, eh?

Anyway, back to the non-denominational urge. There have been many schisms of local churches. Curiously, sometimes even non-denominational churches have breakaway groups that form new churches. Historically, in the wider world, schisms are serious business involving torture and war. More recently major Christian schisms are more about television coverage and who gets the money. Locally these non-denominational schisms are much less serious affairs. What tends to happen is that a group of parishioners become unhappy with some aspect of their leader. It might be a perceived moral shortcoming, a doctrinal difference, or simply management disagreement. It is kind of odd that a doctrinal difference can arise in a non-denominational setting but it certainly does.

Sidetracked again! So let me get back to the non-denominational urge. Most local believers don’t really care about the fine print in their churches by-laws. They like and respect most Christians that believe and act more-or-less about the same as they do. The widespread use of marquee sign is a reflection of the kind of hazy and wispy doctrine with which local folks find comfort. Although the use of cute sayings on marquee signs is probably national in scope, Knox has embraced the practice. There are many interesting, sometimes inspirational, sometimes confusing, examples. If one were to just take photos of the stranger examples, it would be the basis for an amusing calendar.

A theologian or serious scholar of Christianity could have a field day exploring the doctrinaire implications of some of these signs. Several historical heresies have been unwittingly advocated (not, of course, the stranger stuff like Gnosticism). Not being either a theologian or serious scholar of Christianity, I can’t speak with much authority. I would like to ask you to ponder the example below.

You very well may somewhat indignantly ask, “Well, what’s wrong with that?” And my answer is, “I’m not certain, but it bothers me.” The saying, although, without a doubt, cute and quite suitable for innocent youngsters, seems more appropriate to the worship of nature goddesses like Demeter and Persephone, than the God of the Bible.

In any case it certainly isn’t any big deal. Just some of that local color.

An Outstanding Public Servant

......................Solon..........................

Sometimes our little city gets lucky. For 16 years Raymond C. Walton has guided the town of Knox. He was buried today. For these many years Mr. Walton has been the Clerk - Treasurer of Knox, Indiana. He executed the duties of his office with extraordinary skill. He demonstrated extraordinary competence. I know of no other public official that can rise to his standard of skill and competency. I wish all public officials would attempt to emulate the career of this great public official.

There is no reason that the average citizen of Knox has the foggiest notion as to what I am talking about. After all, Clerk - Treasurer of Knox, Indiana, isn’t very impressive sounding. Hell, being Mayor of Knox, Indiana certainly doesn’t cast a great shadow. So let me tell you a little about Ray Walton, Clerk – Treasurer. Ray knew where the money came from and where it went. That alone is a fairly big deal. I can assure you than many other cities have Clerk – Treasurers that don’t know that much. Beyond that Ray knew exactly what the rules were. He knew what needed to be spent. He knew what shouldn’t be spent. He knew what bonds were and how to use them correctly. He knew how a budget needed to be written. He knew how to wring every last cent out of the State that the City had coming.

But having the knowledge doesn’t mean that you have the skill to communicate that knowledge or the persuasive skill to convince the public officials in charge to behave wisely. Well Ray Walton had that skill. It was obvious that Ray had no ambition to be Mayor. It was also obvious that he had knowledge, not bullshit. This allowed Mayors to simply follow his advice without worrying about screw-ups or political competition. Ray made the Mayors look good. The department heads (police, streets, water) knew they could trust what he had to say. If he said cut back, they trusted that is what they had to do. They also knew that if they badly needed something, Ray would find a way.

Sadly the Starke County government has not had anyone of Ray’s stature. Stupid decisions have been made and there are short term and long-term bad consequences. We will see County government struggle for years to come.

There is a lot more that could be said about Raymond C. Walton as a fine example of a human being and a man. But I don’t do obituaries.

Under the Arches

Homo floresiensis, ancient hobbit-sized human species, lived 18,000 years ago on the remote Indonesian island of Flores.
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Today's trivia question to prepare you for the “Clash of Civilizations”.
How do you translate the latin "Homo sapiens".
Click here and Scoll down to "Interests" for the answer.
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In the little land of Shet (called Sheet in the South and Shitt by their neighbors) lived the delightfully mannish race called Halfsapiens (or in the common mouth-tongue, Bobbots) that devoted their days to drinking coffee through a large sugar cube held between their front teeth. As they sipped their favorite beverage (they called Koffee) (at 7:00, 10:00, Noon, 2:00, and 4:00) the Halfsapiens (or Bobbots)(That is what they called themselves!) would think very deep thoughts (of a philosophical sort) and after every sip of their Koffee would expound upon whatever philosophical topic happened to be up for discussion that particular Koffhour (7:00, 10:00, Noon, 2:00, and 4:00).

Koffhour at the home of Dildo Mortfin was a particular delight! At the end of Mortsfinis lane the household was famous for the quality of the philosophical discussions. Let’s listen! It’s 4:30 and the Koffee and the Koffhour is getting a little bitter! The famous philosopher SheetWhipe (from the River Whipe in the south of Shet) was visiting that afternoon, “As I have fabulously discovered, 2 negatives create a positive. However 2 positives do not create a negative!” “Yeah, Yeah.” muttered a tired and hungry Dildo. The Bobbots (knowing how to take a hint) began to make their departures (and not a moment too soon!).

The above delightful excerpt is from an unpublished anonymous manuscript that I inherited from my maiden Aunt Juniper. (It has been rumored that she was the first love of the British fantasy writer Tolkein. He typically cryptically called his adolescent infatuation Evergreen.) (In the family we called her Ginny) In any case, I have decided to publish this excerpt because it so reminds me of the coffee klutch at McDonalds. Those old and odd fellows drinking their senior coffees and philosophizing could easily be mistaken for Bobbots; don’t you think? Ah! What wondrous ponderous ratiocinations!
Next time you’re in Knox stop in on south Heaton Street for some cheap coffee and conversation! BTW: It's the best coffee in town.

Teacher Pay and Performance

There is an Anonymous comment on Problems with Merit from a North Judson reader that mentions that she (or he) was a finalist for last year’s Lily [sic] scholarship. She points out that the winners were hard working and deserving. That certainly needed to be said. So, thanks, Anonymous. Her school pride in North Judson’s performance is quite indicative of the attitude at North Judson that gives them such an advantage over Knox. Anonymous says, “I am from North Judson and we made up 5 of the 10 finalists from the county, not to mention our other winner from Judson in Pulaski County! Go Jays!” WOW. North Judson had 2 winners. I must say that they are getting nice results for their brightest students.

This begs the two questions, what is wrong with Knox and what is right with North Judson? I think that North Judson has made a concerted effort to nurture its brightest students. Their Academic Bowl program is high intensity with dedicated teacher and student efforts. I think North Judson makes an effort where Knox doesn’t. There are many opportunities at Knox to put together high impact programs in the sciences, arts and letters. However, these opportunities are not pursued.

I would like to tell “what if” story. What if a veteran teacher from North Judson applied for a job at Knox. This teacher is interested in pursuing a new classroom opportunity that is available in Knox. It so happens that this same teacher is a driving force on the North Judson Academic Bowl team. Even if this was the most qualified candidate, and even though it would be well understood that this would be a great opportunity to improve our top-end academic performance, this teacher would not be hired. Why not? Because this teacher would be a veteran instructor and would have to be paid at the top of the scale. We don’t hire veteran instructors if we can avoid it. So that is one problem with Knox. If Knox really cared about this sort of thing we would be recruiting and hiring teachers with proven skills.

This brings up another comment from Lemuel's Mother made in response to Treating Teachers like Crap. The comment was about teacher pay. It is a widely held, rather common conservative viewpoint that paying teachers more money is either pointless or wasteful. I think it is evident that our school board holds closely to this viewpoint and the community, in large, agrees. The argument goes something like this: “Teachers have been getting pay increases and the student results haven’t been getting any better. Ergo, increased pay for teachers is a waste.” Underlying this argument is another widely held view that teachers really don’t do anything especially difficult. Hence, the claim, teachers could be replaced by housewives and nobody would notice a difference. If there is any truth to the above argument it is only because the administration makes it true. If the administration and school board does their job correctly, we do not have weak teachers. They are either not hired or are fired.

Adequate pay means that we are paying enough to attract and retain good teachers. When the school board lies and cheats in pay negotiations Knox ends up paying teachers less. (Treating Teachers like Crap). I suppose some in our community will cheer. That sort of overly cute behavior means that the best teachers will find employment elsewhere. We will be left with those teachers that can’t find employment elsewhere. The result will be a continuing decline in our school’s quality. Sad.

Make it a true merit scholarship

High school juniors take the SAT (formerly called the Scholastic Assessment Test) in Clemson, South Carolina. The test is designed to assess math and verbal abilities and is required of applicants to most colleges in the United States. Mary Ann Chastain/AP/Wide World Photos
The Official SAT Question of the Day™
A florist buys roses at $0.50 apiece and sells them for $1.00 apiece. If there are no other expenses, how many roses must be sold in order to make a profit of $300?
a)100 b)150 c)200 d)300 e)600

I know my griping about the Community Foundation Scholarship sounds like sour grapes. I admit that I have bitten into some of those unripe fruit of the vine from time to time. So this is my sour grapes disclaimer. OK, that being said, it is a good thing to have these fabulous scholarships available.

There are interesting social implications and unforeseen consequences that make a critical examination of the scholarships worthwhile. My last blog, Problems with Merit talked about potential pressures within the High School academic community to cheat, perhaps in ways destructive to other students, to win this huge prize. I don’t believe that this is an exaggeration. It is human nature to consciously or subconsciously favor your children, relatives and members of your social class. In any case I am certain that my readers can relate stories of their own about favoritism in the classroom. In keeping with my earlier theme of class and caste, I think it is obvious that this prize favors the middle class and could even encourage further middle class favoritism in the school.

Mind you, I don’t know the name of even one person on this scholarship selection committee. But there isn’t really a broad choice available. Ideally you would want wealthy philanthropists, university administrators, an African American activist, and some up and coming entrepreneurs. In other words, if this money is aimed at the middle class, you don’t want middle class people making the decision. They are too close to the spoils. In this case the Lilly Foundation represents the very wealthy philanthropist tossing a nice bone to the middle class. I suppose the Lilly foundation envisions the local upper crust properly representing the Lilly's intent, in other words, rich people granting a nice prize to some smart middle class kids. Here in Starke County the upper crust is very thin. The factory owners live elsewhere. There is no university, African American activists, or wealthy philanthropists. There is the odd rich farmer, and wealthy merchant. But mostly the pool for the selection committee is the usual upper middle class professions: lawyers, doctors, and teachers. They are very close to the potential recipients in many ways. I think too close. Certainly this isn’t a case of the rich handing out a prize to the middle class.

Of course I have a suggestion. Make the Community Foundation Lilly Scholarship a pure merit prize based entirely on objective criteria. A simple solution would be SAT scores. Everybody is equal: boys, girls, Knox students, and home-schoolers, even dropouts. Do you know that some really bright students are happily accepted to university without a high school diploma? No student would have reason to believe that they would be at any disadvantage due to coming from a “bad” family or having a powerful enemy. The only down side would be if more than 2 or 3 students had perfect SAT scores. But wouldn’t that be a great problem to have!

Problems with Merit

Eaton College, Berkshire. Drawn by J.M.W. Turner, R.A. Engraved by W. Radclyffe. 1831

Allow me to go back. The year was 1933. My father and his younger brother were in a preparatory school in England. His family was middle class but striving to rise. (Class was quite a real issue in those days in England). Private preparatory school was a difficult luxury for his family. It was well understood that the Cross boys needed to excel so as to qualify for one of the great English public schools (it is confusing but in England the term “public school” refers to a private school not funded by the state). The great hope was that by rising to the top my father could qualify for a merit scholarship to a top public school like Eaton College.

Unfortunately my father witnessed his brother receiving an undeserved and brutal beating from the hand of one of the teachers. My father intervened and was later somewhat vindicated by subsequent investigation. Although he was not expelled, his chances to be the top student were ended because the teacher in question had the power to block him and, in fact, did so.

~

I observed an incident at Knox High School about 10 years ago. A very bright and promising young man had just moved to town. He was confident and talented, gifted intellectually, musically and physically. His family background was strictly working class. No one in his family had gone to college. He got into a fight with a fellow student that happened to have a close relative in the high school administration. (This fight involved the attentions of a young lady.) This promising working class young man was expelled from school for a period of time, there was a mandatory reduction in his grades, and he lost his top position in the class. His rival suffered no similar setback and ended up as top student. The working class young man went into the military after high school. His rival with the well-placed relative went to college

If the Lilly Scholarships were available at that time, there is no doubt in my mind that the well-placed young man would have been a finalist and most likely a winner. He was top of his class, was from an “excellent” old-Knox family, and had ok SATs. His working class rival was 10 or 15 spots behind in class rank, had an expulsion record, and was from out of town. Even with better SATs, he would not have had a chance. In my opinion there was no doubt which of these students had the greatest merit, however it was not the student that ended up at college or would have ended up with a good chance at the fat scholarship.

This dynamic is still working in our school system. Only the potential $175,000 prize makes the dynamic even more brutal. All that it takes is one teacher or administrator that favors one student over another. Children of teachers and administrators are competing for this big fat cash award. Students from dubious family backgrounds are pretty easily eliminated from the competition. These students neither have the needed social skills to stay out of trouble nor have the needed connections to later get them out of trouble.

~

The Starke County Community Foundation Lilly Endowment Community Scholars award is a merit award.

Start kicking your kid’s butt now to win $175,000

...........Joan Miró i Ferrà, man Kicking Stone with Bird........
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Today's trivia question to prepare you for the “Clash of Civilizations”.

What is schmaltz?

Click here and Scoll down to "Interests" for the answer.

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The Lilly family has been generous. The wealth of Lilly Foundation is nearly unlimited. The Lilly foundation has financed Community Foundations across Indiana. That includes our Starke County Community Foundation. The pride and joy of the foundation is the Starke County Community Foundation Lilly Endowment Community Scholars. This is an astoundingly generous, 4-year full tuition scholarship to any Indiana College. The future value of this scholarship at Notre Dame is about $175,000. WOW!!! This is far and away the biggest thing that the Starke Foundation does. Some years they give away 3 of these!

This is a gigantic amount of money. How are the recipients chosen? After reading the Community Foundation’s web site and the web site of the Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship Program it seems that any local graduating Senior may apply. Not much information about the actual selection criteria was available. In 2003 they were more informative than years since. Here is a quote from the 2003 information: “The selection of nominees was done in two phases. During the first phase, students were scored on their application essay, their SAT scores, their GPA, curriculum difficulty, their school and community activities, work experience and letters of recommendation. Twelve students were selected to advance to the second or final phase. During the final phase, the students wrote an impromptu essay and interviewed with the Starke County Community Foundation Scholarship Committee.” The 2006 selection seems to indicate that the Independent Colleges of Indiana makes the final choice from the finalist pool. However information from prior years indicated that only the nominees and an alternate were sent to ICI. Other information on the site stated a somewhat different process. In any case, presumably ICI generally accepts the nominees named by the committee.

This type of scholarship is called a merit scholarship as opposed to a need scholarship. In the criteria there was no mention of student need as a factor. Since 2002 there have been 8 boys and 5 girls with 7 from North Judson, 2 from Knox, 3 from Oregon Davis, and 1 from the Indiana Academy. North Judson has done quite well. I would say that North Judson students tend to be better qualified because the school has a strong tradition of nurturing their most talented students. Their continuing success at in the Academic Bowl competition is proof of that.

I suggest that all Knox parents understand and then explain this program to their child. I think you should start at about age 5 and keep mentioning it. Tell them, “I expect you to win this!” Consider that there are only about 230 graduates in the pool. Only about 120 of these students even expect to go to college. ONLY 20 STUDENTS EVEN BOTHER APPLYING! In a good year 3 scholarships are awarded. Your child’s chance is 3 out of 20, 15% to win $175,000. And you don’t even have to scratch that awful silver/gray dust off a lottery ticket.

After studying the past winners, I can give you the best strategy:
1. Move to North Judson
2. Be Middle-Class. Being a teacher is good.
3. Avoid divorce and other conspicuous bad behavior.
4. Go to a mainstream Protestant Church and make sure that your kid is very active.

5. Make your kid volunteer at the nursing home.
6. Make sure your kid is popular; Student Body President is best.
7. Your kid’s Music and Sports successes are biggies.
8. Teach your kid to write an essay. Some schmaltz is good.
9. Teach you kid to say ma’am and sir.
10. Teach your kid to look adults in the eye.
11. Teach your kid not to mumble.
12. Your kid will need good grades (bummer).
13. Your kid will need good SATs (bummer).
14. Best Bet: Get to know people on the selection committee!

I suppose that you are wondering when I was going to start grousing about the program? Next time.

Caste and Class in the Classroom Part 3

Maestro Harrell plays Randy, an intelligent and enterprising student at a Baltimore public school, on "The Wire".

Today's trivia question to prepare you for the “Clash of Civilizations”.
According to Marxist theory, what is the “haute bourgeoisie”?
Click here and Scoll down to "Interests" for the answer.
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I received this letter recently. (Irrelevant material indicated by […] has been deleted.)

"[…] I attended Knox high school a little over a decade ago. While I currently reside in Illinois, my family still lives in Starke Co., Indiana. I found your site quite interesting on many different levels. […] I also found interesting is the income of Mr. Condon for being principal of Knox Sr. High School. You see, I am currently enrolled in college in Illinois, but while attending Knox Sr. High, I was forced to drop out of school. Mr. Condon didn't make exceptions to rules with students that have a lack of parents in their lives. Although I attended school every day, I was also late because I worked a full time job at a factory 2nd shift, and my friends would pick me up 5 miles out of town in the country and bring me to school. Therefore, with me raising myself, working full time and attending high school full time, I was tardy often. Nearly everyday he would call me to his office and give me the lecture of being on time. I explained my situation to him, but he didn't care. I wasn't his problem, nor were the other record number of dropouts in his first two years in term. Now I will get to the point. Seeing his salary as high as it is, I find it unfortunate that the state wastes so much money on someone that doesn't take the time to care about his students, and maybe try to work with them on their situations rather than sit back, collect the salary as it rolls in, and discipline students to show an effort of work ethic, an expressing the lack of better judgment."

This letter is an interesting confirmation of the ideas set forth in my earlier blogs Caste and Class in the Classroom Part 1 and Fixing the High School. Our dropout rate is, at least in part, a symptom of the disconnect between students legitimate needs and the administration’s apparent indifference to those needs. The administrations attitude is that the students must conform to the schedule and rules of the school. My reader here may very well ask, “ Well what is wrong with that? Shouldn’t students learn to be on time, conform to the schedule, conform to the rules?” in this blog I want to examine this very question.

One of the sub plots in HBO’s Peabody Award winning series, The Wire, is the abysmal inner city Baltimore public schools. It is fascinating that the teachers and administrators are depicted as skillful, intelligent, caring, and hardworking. Likewise students are shown to have intelligence and drive. In spite of the great personal qualities of the staff and the students it is nevertheless a terrible mess. Knox is in a similar state albeit not so strikingly severe. I think that Mr. Condon is skillful, intelligent, caring, and hardworking. But I also believe that he did a disservice to our letter writer and a great many other similarly situated students. A great many of our students don’t have the luxury of conforming to middle class expectations.

What are some of these middle class expectations? We assume that a student is financially supported. We assume that a student will be able to conform to the school’s schedule. We assume that a student will be able to catch the bus. These assumptions are all correct when we are dealing with a middle class family. But what about the student that is self-supporting and works the second shift and consequently is tardy every day? Survival is more important than not being tardy.

I suggest that our school needs to rethink the middle class assumptions that underlie the present system. Our letter writer is in college today, not because of our school, but in spite of our school.

Doesn’t it seem terrible that it is possible to make such a statement?

Tootsie Duvall plays Edward J. Tilghman Middle School assistant principal Marcia Donnelly on "The Wire."

Treating Teachers like Crap

One would hope that the Knox School Board could aspire to a level of honor equal to their mascot "The Redskins". Ironically the School Board demonstration of honor is more akin to that of "The Whiteskins", General Howard and the Government treaty-breakers.

The Knox teachers belong to a union that negotiates a contract with the School Board. The last agreement reached was for 2 years, last year and this year. The teacher’s accepted a very low pay increase: 1% increase the first year and no increase the second year. Given that the cost of living keeps increasing about 3% or 4 % per year this was a reduction in pay in constant dollars. There was a reason that the teachers accepted this poor pay package. The School Board pleads poverty and at that time the revenues were reduced and the budget was stressed. Perhaps you remember the local headlines? There was a few hundred thousand dollar decrease in revenues. The situation seemed dire so the teachers sacrificed.

The teachers’ negotiating team had seen this situation in the past. What happened in the past was that the missing money later showed up. So there was a clause added to the contract that specified that if the administrators later got a raise, then the teachers would get a matching percentage raise. Seems fair enough doesn’t it?

It turned out that extra money did appear. Of course there were not any headlines to correct the earlier headlines. So you never heard about that, did you? But suddenly there was a nice surplus. So the School Board decided that they really wanted to give the administrators a raise, but they really didn’t want to honor their agreement with the teachers. The answer was that the administrators all got an extra contribution into their 401k-retirement plan equal to 4.5% of their annual pay.

Now, I ask you, I this honest or honorable behavior? I think this is cheating, dishonest, and dishonorable. I suppose the School Board thinks that they have pulled off a clever deal. If so, their joy is that of the crook, the con artist or the thief. Is this the way that we want our School Board to represent us?

Knox : Average Teacher Salary: $44,200
Kankakee Valley: Average Teacher Salary: $49,200
North Judson: 2006-07 Average Teacher Salary: $44,900
Oregon-Davis: Average Teacher Salary: $42,700
Winamac: Average Teacher Salary: $44,772
LaPorte: Average Teacher Salary: $47,200
Plymouth: Average Teacher Salary: $48,300
Valparaiso: Average Teacher Salary: $53,400

The only school in our area that has worse pay for teachers is the truly pathetic Oregon-Davis. Also O-D is the only school with a worse Real Graduation Rate than Knox. (See earlier blog, How’s the High School Doing? The 800 pound gorilla.) If a really sharp teacher wants a job, would they accept a job at Knox, or Plymouth, or Valparaiso?

It is interesting to break down the elementary, middle and high school pay differences.
Averages by school:
High School: Salary: $40,113 Age: 40
Middle School: Salary: $42,693 Age 42
Elementary School: Salary: $45,154 Age 45
As you can see the High School has a problem with teacher retention.

The salary information for school administration is not available on the web. I have emailed klane@doe.state.in.us for this public information. I will post this information ASAP.

Here is the information that I requested from the state:
Kimberly Knott $89,500
James Condon $82,232
August Gappa $67,036
Glenn Barnes $58,900
Joseph Carey $74,000
Stephen Cronk $74,420
David Miller $64,999

Caste and Class in the Classroom Part 2

...................... The SUPERBOWL in 1922 ....................
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Today's trivial trivia question.
1869 was a first for what 2 American sports?
Click here and Scoll down to "Interests" for the answer.
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How middle-class identity holds down the performance of our school, resulting in low SAT scores and poor college attendance.

From time to time exceptional individuals apply for teaching positions at Knox. Often the applicant is the spouse of a professional or manager recently transferred to this region. The applicant may have been “Teacher of the Year” in a prominent suburban school or have some other professional distinction. Personally, I lust for that sort of teacher for our students. However, it is sad but true, these teachers generally don’t get hired. If they make it past the initial hiring obstacles (difficult for any teacher with experience) they often get shot down in the final stages in staff-review. This is a committee composed of peer teachers that makes and reviews hiring recommendations for the Principals. The comment most often heard is, “They wouldn’t like it here.” or “They wouldn’t be comfortable here.”(See note below)* Of course what is really meant is “We wouldn’t be comfortable with somebody that outstanding working in the classroom next-door.”

Knox schools have an unofficial hire-local policy. That is another way of saying hire someone with the same class identity to which we now hold. A Knox High School graduate will generally be shown hiring preference. Well, OK, let’s be honest, they will have to get in line behind the families of the School Board. But in any case, newly hired teachers are generally well within the local comfort zone. The outstanding applicant from Barrington, Illinois isn’t going to compete strongly against this hire-locals attitude. Ironically, here we see middle-class bias morph into a sort of self-destructive “caste-like” behavior of a minority lower class. The Knox middle class isn’t very self-confidant, suspecting they might be “out-classed”.

By embracing insular and mediocre middle-class values, Knox High School has become very comfortable with mediocre performance: mediocre performance from the educational professionals due to lack of competition, lack of decent examples of professional excellence, weak administrative leadership, and a school board hostile to teachers: also, mediocre performance from the students given weak academic challenges, low expectations, and a lack of decent examples of academic excellence.

Parents are also discouraged from higher expectations for their children. If their child wanted to apply to a prestigious Ivy League college, neighbors and friends would accuse the family of elitism, of trying to be superior. They would be told: Indiana schools are certainly good enough, if not even better. Of course, Notre Dame’s the best. Those Eastern schools are dangerous, liberal places where your child will get all sorts of wrong ideas. It seems odd that in any dusty, destitute village in Africa, a parent would say that their ultimate dream for their child would be to go to Harvard, Yale, or Princeton. Yet in Knox these places are somehow undesirable. That is the irony of Knox’s embrace of the “good enough”.

Watch for upcoming Blog on “Treating Teachers like Crap”.

*(Note) This so-called reasoning is nearly identical to the governmental board’s I described earlier in On the History of the Negro in Knox Part 5 when the board declined to interview a professional candidate because they “might” be African American.

Caste and Class in the Classroom Part 1

Today's trivia question to prepare you for the “Clash of Civilizations”.
What is creole language?
Click here and Scoll down to "Interests" for the answer.
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I have been discussing the low graduation / dropout rate and the low college attendance / low SAT score problems. The subject of this blog is the closely related concepts of caste and class and the negative impact of caste and class on Knox’s educational environment especially the dropout rate.

We ordinarily associate caste problems with India and don’t consider this to be an issue in America. John Uzo Ogbu described “caste-like” behavior in black students as a major factor in educational underachievement. Ogbu described a phenomenon he called "oppositional identity" to the mainstream culture. Oppositional identity is a fancy set of words for what might be called a “chip on the shoulder” or “pride” or “inferiority complex”. Caste-like behavior is common among certain lower socioeconomic groups in Knox and is a big factor in dropping out.

In 1950 we would have easily recognized caste-like behavior patterns among the recent Appalachian transplants, AKA hillbillies* (see comment 4 below). The Appalachian students brought cultural attitudes to school that got them in trouble and often caused them to drop out. Attitudes like low academic confidence, anti-intellectualism, and distain for mainline cultural values. Low academic confidence combined with “southern pride” and we ended up “with a chip on the shoulder” or "oppositional identity to the mainstream culture”. These students had difficulty getting along socially and academically. We have the same sort of problem today. However it is no longer an easily identified set of Appalachian transplants with a distinctive dialect. There is a more diverse and ethnically complex socioeconomic set that exhibits the same caste-like, self-destructive behavioral patterns that we had to deal with in the 1950s.

Caste-like behavior is a problem of self-identity. Of course there is not an actual caste structure in Knox or in our schools. Using the word caste is only useful insofar as it accurately describes how a sub-cultural group’s attitudes hinder their advancement in mainstream society.

While there is no caste system in Knox there most certainly is a class system. Class behavior goes the other direction. Class behavior by the cultural mainstream is directed against those same students that exhibit caste-like behaviors. This creates a non-virtuous cycle that exacerbates the caste problem. There is a tendency to identify students as being from “good families” or “bad families”. Judgment is based upon little clues like non-vaccination, non-payment of book rental, free lunch participation, and prior family history with the school. There is, at a minimum, a subconscious tendency to more readily accept poor performance from a difficult student from a “bad family”.

I have received two interesting comments to my earlier blog, “How’s the High School Doing? Bright Kids. Middle Class Kids.” One comment praised the school because their children have done quite nicely. The other comment bitterly condemned the school for not caring for their children on the basis of class. This illustrates the great fault line that runs down the middle of our school. I believe this is the most significant contributor to the dropout problem. Our school has been run as a middle class sanctuary. The values of the middle class may be worthwhile and even, at times, virtuous. The challenge is to recognize that the students in our school system don’t all hold these values, yet still give them a decent education.

Incidentally, John Uzo Ogbu is the fellow that pushed for Ebonics, the classroom use of African American Vernacular English. I know how hilarious our community finds the idea of Ebonics. We also wouldn’t think of taking off school on M. L. King day. Nor would we consider getting rid of the “Redskins” mascot. Thus, our middle-class demonstrates our own caste-like behavior. As I am a member of this class I will say that “We” hold ourselves back. Our own middle class "oppositional identity" with its attendant self-destruction is in full bloom. My next blog: "Caste and Class in the Classroom Part 2", how middle class identity holds down the performance of our school, resulting in low SAT scores and poor college attendance.

Fixing the High School.

Knox High School, it’s broken. How could it be fixed? Fixes must come from the top; that’s the School Board. However, it is dubious that our School Board is even aware of the extent to which Knox High School is malfunctioning. For years the board has been given fictitious management reports. The fundamental challenge for every board that oversees a large and complex enterprise is to get accurate reports from your management. The information flowing to the School Board is carefully managed. Of course management panders to the biases and ignorance of the board members. When one Board Member has a big interest is cheerleading, you can be sure that there will be a steady diet of positive cheerleading reports. When Board Members are interested in doing insurance business with the school corporation, they will be kept happy. If a School Board Member’s wife needs a job, the administration will find a place. No Board Member wants to rock the boat because they are having such a nice smooth ride. This insures a happy and stupid Board of Trustees. And this is exactly what we have.

So the most important element in fixing the school is to shake up the School Board. This is the voter’s responsibility. Given that there are years remaining on the elected terms of the School Board, the changes needed seem both distant and problematic. Quite frankly, it is a distressing situation. The only hope is that the Board really cares about what is going on at the school and wants make things better. And, happily, that happens to be a legitimate hope because I believe that the School Board truly wants to do a good job. Feel-good reports and pandering to their narrow interests have sidetracked them, but that can change.

What the Board needs to do: The Board needs to educate themselves as to what constitutes excellence in education. Then they need to establish clear goals for the administration. So as not to be too vague, let me put this more concretely. There are 2 big problems, the dropout rate and the graduate’s pursuit and success at attaining a college education.

The Board needs to address the dropout rate by demanding clear and honest reporting on the actual extent of the problem. Then the Board needs to demand the development of programs that will reduce the dropout rate. Then the Board needs to see genuine improvement. If the present administration is not capable of improving the dropout situation, they will need to seek out different administrators. We will need to see different sorts of academic and consoling programs in the high school. The reasons for dropping out will need to be addressed and not, like today, by a shrug and a “good bye, good riddance”.

The Board also needs to address the SAT score/pursuit of a college education problem. The same logical approach needs to be taken as with the dropout problem. Administration needs to be focused on the problem. In some ways the problems are identical. Improving the quality of education will eliminate some of the dropouts. However, there will need to be two very different approaches to truly get some real improvement. Improving SAT scores will mean that the classrooms need to change in ways that are different from what is needed for reducing the dropout rate. A traditional high quality academic environment is appropriate for improving college attendance and SATs. There will need to be some non-traditional programs for retaining the dropouts.
As I re-read my effort above I kind of feel like puking. The stuff of this blog is truly a clutch of clichéd claptrap. It is however a necessary foundation for what is to follow. So please bear with me. In any case, I don’t think that we can really go wrong trying to underestimate the intelligence of the School Board. I promise that my next blog on this subject will be more worthy of my readers. Please stay tuned for “Caste and Class in the Classroom” and “Treating Teachers like Crap”.

How’s the High School Doing? Bright Kids. Middle Class Kids.

How’s the High School Doing? Bright Kids. Middle Class Kids.

So we have seen that the not-so-bright and not-so-middle-class kids tend to drop out of school. If 43% of the 9th grade class will be gone by graduation that means that the brightest and best kids are left. (At least one would suppose.) Knox High School is really a sort of magnet school for the middle class or at least it is an anti-magnet school for the lower class. With this self-sorted graduating class those that are left should be primarily college bound. According to the Indiana Department of education 45% of our graduates are pursuing a college education. Well I think that is pretty poor considering the dropout rate. 45% of the 57% that graduate go on to college. In other words about 1 out of 4 of our 9th graders have ended up starting college.

Only 44% of our 12th Graders take the SAT. Our average SAT score is 967. That is about the 40% percentile nationwide. 1,000 is considered the average score. When you consider the fact that less than half of the 12th graders take the test, these are terrible results. These scores pretty well explain why so few Knox High School students are college bound. They simply are not sufficiently educated to either get into college or succeed if they get there.

I am going to take it as a given that our high school’s job is to educate the students. I think that the SAT figures speak very clearly to the core problem. Knox High School is not providing a decent education for the students that decide to graduate. I have shown in an earlier blog that we are not providing an education for the less fortunate when we have so many drop out. It also seems that we are not providing an education for the more fortunate either.

The focus of the School Board should be on these core problems. These are fundamental educational issues. The School Board is at fault for not paying attention. They have not paid sufficient attention to the quality of our High School. The have not paid sufficient attention to the prevention of dropouts. Our community is being cheated. We pay our taxes. The Board has not made good use of these tax dollars.

My apology for Oath of Office Part 2

There have been a couple of comments posted regarding my blog of January 8th “The Oath of Office Part 2”. I thank those that commented for correcting my errors in fact and judgment. They are correct, “the Knox School Board is in violation of nothing for ignoring a ruling of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.” I apologize for my ignorance.

They are not correct, however, when they say, “what happens in any other [federal court] circuit means absolutely nothing here.” A prudent person in a position of public trust does pay attention to the direction of court rulings (if for no other reason to maintain a watchful stance). The arguments in this case seem reasonable and the ruling seems quite likely to be upheld and become the law of the land. Why wouldn’t a prudent person pay attention?

I cannot agree with the implied statement that the ACLU does not protect our freedoms. Perhaps what the one commenter doesn’t like about the ACLU is that they fight for the rights of Nazis, Communists, anarchists, terrorists, Pentecostal snake-handlers, child rapists, pornographers, strip clubs, and all sorts of other very unpleasant citizens. They also fight for children’s rights to pray in school and for the right of churches to conduct their religious meetings as they see fit and for the right of you and I to petition our government. The ACLU has done more for you and I than they might imagine. Without the ACLU we would be in a country with much different freedoms than we enjoy today. Someday they may find that a governmental agency wants to take their house or business or freedom and they may need to find out the hard way that the only friend they have left in the world is the ACLU.
Perhaps you like the fact that our school board ignores the constitutional principal prohibiting the establishment of religion. If you do it is most likely because you agree with their particular religious views. If that is the case then you are simply a proponent of a particular religion and not in favor of other people’s religious freedom. Sadly, if other people don’t have religious freedom, neither do you. You only have the illusion of freedom because you happen to agree with the current powers that be.

How is the High School Doing? Are the students just stupid?

Why do so many high school students fail to graduate?
If a student drops out of high school, he or she must be stupid, right? Well, no. Nationwide 88% of dropouts had passing grades. Most people, including teenagers, do what they must do to survive. Even if those choices seem destructive there is usually a reason behind the choice. (That’s not to say it’s a perfectly logical choice.) I am going to assume that every high school student knows that their prospects in life are greatly reduced when they don’t graduate. High school dropouts are 72% more likely to be unemployed compared to graduates. (U.S. Dept of Labor) I think that every kid contemplating dropping out of school knows that. I don’t think there are many kids that want to be failures and plan to be failures.

If our school board wants to admit that there is a problem and do something about it then the first thing they must do is talk to the dropouts. Find out why are they not getting a diploma. I think the answers will be things like, economic necessity; serious problems with getting along with teachers and students; and some students have fallen behind and feel like hopeless failures. These students don’t need a 1950’s style “high school experience”. They don’t care about school spirit, the marching band, the cheerleading squad and the basketball team. They need a path that they can follow to survive and hopefully there will be a high school diploma on that path. However, only when the school listens to those students can the school then provide a program that can fit their needs.

Idea:
Design a special high school program that focuses only of getting a diploma. The school day might be 5 hours. 2 or 3 different shifts would be available. No extracurricular activities, no homeroom, no electives, no homework, no grading periods, no semesters, no grades, no science labs, no breakfast, no lunch. There would be heavy emphasis on remedial work. This is not college prep. This is aimed at those students that want to get the diploma with none of the usual high school social stuff. I think that many kids that drop out of high school cannot make good use of the so called “high school experience”. So just offer a program that is bare-bones education. Work would be a self-paced series of exercises and reading in a study hall setting with teachers available as needed for individual attention. The goal would be only to satisfy the requirements for graduation.

Admittedly, this idea is sort of far fetched. But if a student needed to go to work to save his family, he or she could do that and still have a way to get a diploma. Taking a month off would not have any penalty. The student would simply continue where they left off. Some students can’t tolerate the social aspects of an 800-student population high school. This program would have 50 or 75 students per shift.

In any case, the low graduation rate is destructive to our community and country. Our school board needs to address and solve this problem. Business as usual will not suffice.

How’s the High School Doing? The 800 pound gorilla.

Today's trivia question to prepare you for the “Clash of Civilizations”.

What does raison D'être mean ?

Raison D'être is a French phrase which roughly translates as "reason to be". When used within the English language, it means "the basic reason to exist".....

First a wee bit of history. The raison D'être for free universal public education (public school) was delineated in the 1840s by the common-school reform movement. It was argued that common schooling (free universal public education) could create good citizens, unite society and prevent crime and reduce poverty. I think that the Knox High School Graduation Rate demonstrates a failure of our High School to live up to this essential raison D'être.

The reason for my pessimistic view is the Graduation Rate. I think that the official rate of 72% is overstated. We graduated 102 in 2005-2006. The enrollment in 9th Grade in 2002-2003 was 179. 102 divided by 179 equals 57%. That is the simplest way to examine graduation rate. The expected response from the education bean counters would be: Well that doesn’t account for kids moving out, or home schooling, or going to Culver Academy, etc., etc. But kids move back in, kids go from home school back to public school, and kids drop out of Culver Academy. Enrollment system-wide hasn’t fluctuated more than about 1% the past 5 years. In 2002-2003 we had 2,032 enrolled. In 2006-2007 we have 2,039 enrolled. There isn’t much net movement in and out. I think that our Real Graduation Rate is 57%.

The most oft cited reason (excuse) for our poor performance is poverty. The measure that is most often used is Free Lunch statistics. Here are some comparative statistics. The set of figures on the right of the lines below are the 9th Grade 2002-2003 enrollment divided by the 2005/2006 graduates. I call that the Real Graduation Rate (RGR)

Knox........ 72% grad 37% Free Lunch

.................102/179 = 57% RGR
N Judson. 73% grad 25% Free Lunch

..................94/126 = 74% RGR
O.D.......... 68% grad 23% Free Lunch

..................30/55 = 55% RGR
Plymouth.. 81% grad 23% Free Lunch

..................218/252 = 86% RGR
Winamac.. 86% grad 18% Free Lunch

..................105/115 = 87% RGR

North Judson, Winamac, and Plymouth get the honesty award. Their Real Graduation rate is very close to their official rate. Knox and Oregon Davis get the fibber award for having a much worse Real Graduation rate than their official rate. The poverty reason for poor graduation rates is statistically supported. Knox has a very high Free Lunch rate. (There are interesting little tidbits in the little chart. Compare Plymouth and O.D. with the identical Free Lunch programs.)

But let’s get back on the issue. How is Knox High School doing? With a Real Graduation Rate of 57% (or for that matter, even a 72% official rate) our school is a disaster. Those non-graduates will be highly likely to be on public assistance. They will be highly likely to be criminals. They will be highly likely to contribute to local societal disintegration. Poverty may be a cause of the problem but not an excuse. The school has not made a concerted effort to address this problem. By concerted I mean from the top to the bottom. That means that the School Board is where the solution must start.

I think that this is an overwhelmingly serious problem at Knox High School. The mission and reason for the school’s existence is to create decent and educated citizens. In this mission we are failing. This is a problem that should be addressed at every School Board meeting. Administrators should consider it to be their number one problem. But our School Board does not seem to even recognize that there is a problem. That is THE problem! There is an 800 pound gorilla in the room, but no one notices.

...an example of the word raison D'être...

How’s the High School Doing?

Diogenes 1860 by Jean Leon Gerome 1824-1904 Walters Art Museum (United States)

Today's trivia question to prepare you for the “Clash of Civilizations”.
Who was Diogenes of Sinope?

Diogenes "the Cynic", Greek philosopher, was born about 412 BC. Legend says that he would search the streets of Athens in full daylight with a lantern, “searching for an honest man”. Diagenes was the first “performance” artist. See fascinating entry at Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diogenes_of_Sinope ........

How’s the High School Doing?

For those readers that want a quick summary and don’t want to wade through my sometimes turbid, often turgid, prose, the answer is Crappy!

The word lie (falsehood, fiction, falsity, fib) is so ugly, it is always regretful to use it. To call someone a liar really questions the core of an individual’s integrity. However there is a tendency among administrative educational professionals (especially Superintendents of Schools) to spin the truth to a degree that a plain thinking sort of person might suspect a lie. When nationwide thousands of educational professionals all agree to spin together I guess each individual is no longer considered a liar. So, thank God, I don’t have to call anybody a liar.

For years Knox, Indiana, and US high schools have been systematically fibbing about the graduation rates. The mathematical formula used in prior years was so absurd that it must have been devised for the sole purpose to hide the actual numbers. For example, Knox usually had a 9th grade enrollment of near 200 and a graduating class of 120 or so. It didn’t take a genius to figure that 60% of the students were going somewhere besides the graduation ceremony. Yet Knox routinely has claimed an 85% or even 90% graduation rate. The old way of figuring the dropout rate was so astoundingly bogus that it had become a national scandal. So now the Departments of Education have a new way of figuring the rate and now claim a 72.3% graduation rate at Knox.

So how’s Knox High School doing? Comparatively speaking that is? (That’s the kindest way to look at things.) Compared to the rest of the State of Indiana, we are deep, down and bad. 56% of Indiana high schools had 80% or greater graduation rates compared to our 72% rate. And when it comes to those that do graduate, 45% of Knox graduates pursued a college education (2005-2006) whereas the Indiana state average was 75%. (Caveat: these college education figures are suspect and have not been reformed and revised in the same way the graduation rates have been brought up to date.) But, even given the parenthetic caveat, we seem to be doing quite poorly in the category of sending our kids off to college. Less than 1/3 of our high school 9th graders will pursue a college education. And here’s an ugly little surprise. It isn’t teenage pregnancy that is driving up the dropout rate. The male student graduation rate was 66%, female 79%.

I think this is a disaster. I don’t want to take the space and time here demonstrate how much it costs our society to have so many failures and ignorant citizens coming our of our schools. Our school board blithely continues to worry about cheerleading, band and sports. When an enterprise is failing you can ignore it or you can try to do something about it.

Here is a list of the School Board Members:
Mike Yankauskas Term Ends: 2010-12-31
Jerry Fletcher Term Ends: 2008-12-31
Mary Lynn Ritchie Term Ends: 2010-12-31
Linda Belork Term Ends: 2010-12-31
Gary Dulin Term Ends: 2008-12-31
Richard Masson Term Ends: 2008-12-31
Harold Welter Term Ends: 2008-12-31

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Some charming examples of Diogenes in contempory culture:

Mudd Memorial Hall of Philosophy, UCLA, 1928 Ralph Carlin Flewelling

Diogenes Lantern (Calochortus amabalis) northern California mountain wildflower

The Oath of Office Part 2

Bill of Rights: Engrossed Bill of Rights, September 25, 1789; General Records of the United States Government; Record Group 11; National Archives.

Today's trivia question to prepare you for the “Clash of Civilizations”.
What is the Establishment Clause?
The First Amendment of the United States Constitution, part of the Bill of Rights, contains this clause, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion", known as the Establishment Clause............ .

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On December 16, 2006 United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled that the Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana, School Board acted improperly by promoting their own sectarian religious beliefs during meetings.

From the ACLU Press release:
“The appeals court upheld the district court finding that the school board had improperly recited sectarian prayers during meetings. Prior to the appeal, both the school board and the ACLU recognized that the school board’s prayer practice fell outside of the 1971 Supreme Court decision in Lemon v. Kurtzman, which held that government action must have a secular purpose, neither advance nor inhibit religion, and not become excessively entangled with religion. However, in filing its appeal, the school board argued that its actions fell under the protection of a 1983 Supreme Court case, Marsh v. Chambers. The Marsh case allows a legislative exception for non-sectarian, non-proselytizing prayers.
Today’s ruling rejected the argument that the prayers were non-sectarian, and instead found that they “aggressively advocate[d] Christianity.” But the court avoided dealing with the central issue of whether school boards in general fall under the Marsh exception.”

Well. There is absolutely no difference between the activities of the Knox Community School Board and the activities of the Tangipahoa Parish, School Board. The Knox School Board policy is to invite a Christian preacher to deliver a prayer to start every public board-meeting meeting. This recent court decision makes it quite clear that sectarian (Christian) prayer is not allowed. The Knox School Board is clearly in violation of the law. If they choose not to suspend the prayer policy, they will be in violation of their oath of office.

The Indiana School Board Oath:
"I solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support the Constitution of the United States of America, the Constitution of the State of Indiana, and the laws of the United States and the State of Indiana. I will faithfully execute the duties of my office as a member of this governing body, so help me God."

Members of the School Board have religious freedom. Members of the Board are free to kneel and pray any time they so desire, even during a School-Board meeting. The ACLU has fought for their religious freedom to do just that. The ACLU has fought for the right of Christian students to distribute Christian literature at the school. The ACLU has fought for the right of students to conduct prayer meeting at their schools.

Why is it that our school board insists upon this prayer policy that was of dubious legality from its inception? I am not inclined to give the board the benefit of the doubt. I do not believe that the board’s motivation was spiritual, or even Christian. I believe that they wanted to prove their radical right-wing credentials. They wanted to proclaim that they didn’t care what the courts of the land rule; they were going to defy the law. This is self-indulgent, sanctimonious, crap that has nothing whatsoever to do with the education of our students. Well it is now abundantly clear that they are in violation of the law. They are now criminals. I doubt that they care. They are most likely quite proud of themselves.

The Oath of Office Part 1

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (left) Administers the House oath to Keith Ellison as his wife holds The Holy Quran. The Library of Congress’ division of rare books and special collections made the Quran available to Ellison for January 4 ceremony at the Capitol Hill. The oath was administered by the new Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

This is the time of year our newly elected officials swear the oath of office. It can vary but it usually runs about like the Indiana School Board Oath:
"I solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support the Constitution of the United States of America, the Constitution of the State of Indiana, and the laws of the United States and the State of Indiana. I will faithfully execute the duties of my office as a member of this governing body, so help me God."

We need to be careful as to what we admire. We admire men and women of conscience. We admire men and women of duty, serving their fellow man. It does sometimes happen that conscience and duty are in conflict. Former Starke County Commissioner Kevin Kroft loudly bragged that he voted his conscience when his conscience was in conflict with the law. If he felt the law was wrong, he voted his beliefs in disregard of the law. He bragged that the voters put him in office for exactly that reason. (The issue was solid waste, his particular Bogyman.) Although Kevin Kroft happens to be a right- wing, self-proclaimed conservative, this sort of elevation of conscience over law is hardly limited to the right wing. Governmental officials across the political spectrum act the same way, generally with great pride, a puffing of the chest, at their courage and strength of conviction. Often the voters regard this behavior as admirable and agree.

Yes, civil disobedience is often admirable. At times it has proven essential for the preservation of American greatness. There is a great tradition of civil disobedience in America. Throughout US history there have been great waves of illegal political protest that changed the course of our history and often-helped preserve important American freedoms. The Underground Railroad is a wonderful example of courageous civil disobedience that helped preserve our nation’s great tradition of freedom.

However, when a public official takes office, he takes an Oath of Office. Elected officials and appointed officials must be sworn in to take office. That Oath is not a meaningless ritual. The Oath is a cornerstone of our system of government. The point of being in office is to change those laws with which you disagree not to disregard them. When you disobey the law against your sworn oath, you are not a hero, nor are you brave. You are a fool and a criminal and are dangerous. Our Republic means nothing when public officials feel they are above the law.

A suggested New Year Resolution

Frontispiece from The Songs of Experience by William Blake

Happy New Year!

Today's trivia question to prepare you for the “Clash of Civilizations”.

Who was William Blake?

William Blake (November 28, 1757 – August 12, 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognized during his lifetime, his work is today considered seminal and significant in the history of both poetry and the visual arts. He has often been credited as being the most spiritual writer of his time. From Wikipedia........

A suggested New Year Resolution: Take a college course. Post secondary education has never been more accessible to Knox residents. Education is a unique asset. Come what may, divorce or bankruptcy, your education is always yours. Below are some programs that are relatively inexpensive, are easy to take, and are offer credits good towards graduation at Indiana Universities.

The College program closest to Knox is Ancilla College in Donaldson less than 20 miles away. Ancilla is a liberal arts junior college with a Catholic religious tradition in an ecumenical climate. Ancilla emphasizes personal attention to its students within small, supportive classes. The college is fully nationally accredited. 2 year Associate degrees are offered in Arts, Science, Liberal Studies, and Science in Nursing. There is also a 3 year Registered Nursing program. Ancilla has articulation agreements with 13 regional colleges and universities including Ball State, Indiana State, Indiana University South Bend, Purdue University North Central, and Valparaiso University. Costs are about $10,000 per year. A full range of financial aid packages is available. Those graduating from High school this year should start the application process now. March 10 is one early deadline for financial aid from Ancilla College Grants. http://www.ancilla.edu/

Learn at home at your own pace. Enroll at any time. Earn top quality college credits. Indiana University offers 190 plus Undergraduate courses that you can take at home. An example would be: Economics > E201Introduction to Microeconomics (3 credits, total cost $620.00). Take only one course just for the fun of it. Some courses are online, some are correspondence. It is even possible to get a Bachelors of Arts in General Studies (120 credit hours). These are very high-quality courses that are fully transferable to all Indiana University Campuses. The cost for a 30 credit hour year is about $7,000. This is a genuine bargain for those students with the self-discipline to work at home. Regular financial aid is not available, however veterans’ and National Guard programs do apply. http://scs.indiana.edu/pdf/ispcatalog.pdf

Ball State offers a similar program with 100 courses available to undergraduates: http://www.bsu.edu/distance/independent/

On the History of the Negro in Knox Part 5

Today's trivia question to prepare you for the “Clash of Civilizations”.
What is the “ethic of reciprocity”?

The ethic of reciprocity or "The Golden Rule" is a fundamental moral principle found in virtually all major religions and cultures, which simply means "treat others as you would like to be treated." It is arguably the most essential basis for the modern concept of human rights. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia...............

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I have heard it said many times that Knox is a Christian town. Well it is true that there are a lot of people go to church. Well it is true that they say their prayers before each school board meeting. Well it is true that there is a crèche on the courthouse lawn in December. If that adds up, then OK, we are a Christian town. But there is that pesky little “Golden Rule”. Without the “Golden Rule” we are not a Christian town.

Matthew 22.36-40 "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?" Jesus said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets."

Knox is white; that is the situation today.
Knox is white because of our racist history and because of continuing racism.

African Americans do not live or work in Knox. The few exceptions prove the rule. We have an African American Postmaster. There are African American foster children and adopted children in the schools. There are no African American teachers, fire fighters, policemen, or librarians. There are no African Americans working in Walgreens, CVS, or 5 Star. Basically, when locals do the hiring, the hiring is white. If the Federal government does the hiring, then an African American has a fair chance.

I don’t believe that an African American family would be shown any cooperation by the realtors in Knox. I don’t believe that the school board would consider hiring an African American administrator or approve the hiring of an African American teacher. The local Realtors don’t display the Equal Housing Emblem do they? The school doesn’t celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. day, do they? These are messages that say, “stay out” to African Americans.

Recently a local governmental board decided not to interview a very well qualified applicant for an administrative position because the applicant “seemed” to be African American from their employment history. Their so-called reasoning was that it was a waste of the applicant’s time to interview. An African American professional would not want to work or live in Knox. This seemed like an odd statement in light of the fact that that person had bothered to apply for the job!

Note on the usage of the words Negro. The word Negro is often considered offensive. I use it here to reference historic and scholarly documents and in order to capture the archaic flavor of life in Knox.

On the History of the Negro in Knox Part 4

........Photo: King in Chicago in February 1966........

Am I crossing a dangerous line by writing about race in Knox? Of course I am. Am I saying anything that anybody doesn’t know already? Probably not. I suppose someone may very well ask, “Then why write about it? Why drag this stuff up? Aren’t you just making Knox look bad?” I write about it because Knox is my subject, my home, and this is a BIG part of Knox, then and now. And be aware that I am not making Knox look bad. The racists in Knox are the ones that make Knox look bad. Change is coming to Knox, perhaps more quickly than we can guess. Continued racial intolerance will hurt Knox’s citizens’ prospects for happiness and prosperity.

The 1960’s and 1970’s still are close enough in time to cause some discomfort. Knox, like so many other towns and cities in America, didn’t tolerate any blacks in town after dark. Black workers pass through town and maybe even have a job in town, but they had better not try to live here. Ugly? Yes indeed.

The great national social changes resulting from the civil rights struggles of the 1960’s had little or no impact in Knox. Certainly Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Nobel Prize in 1964 garnered no particular attention. Who knew or cared that King moved into the Chicago slums in 1966? But when the Chicago Freedom Movement (CFO) pressed to cross the residential racial lines in Chicago neighborhoods some howling was heard. At Bessie’ Restaurant in Knox, on weekends the Bass Lake cottage owners coming in from Chicago’s South side let anybody and everybody know their thoughts on the matter. In the late 60’s the race riots and the burning neighborhoods 80 miles away on Chicago’s south and west sides were cause to reinforce the fear that things were going to Hell.

I have heard a story from the 1970’s of a Black State Trooper and his family locating in Knox for a short time. The unsubstantiated story is that the volunteer fire department had made it clear that they would not be putting out any fires at that household. I have no idea if this is a true story. But the widespread acceptance of such a story is certainly an illustration of the background against which a black family could decide about locating in Knox. In the early 1970’s I witnessed a college coed home on vacation accompanied by her black dormitory roommate walking down the sidewalk in downtown Knox with little kids running behind them yelling, “nigger, nigger, nigger”.

In that same era, there was a devastating plant closing in Knox when Rockwell International left Knox. The plant was vacant and Knox badly needed to get a new industry located in the building. The principals of a black-owned industrial company came to Knox to inspect the site and check out the town. At the aforementioned Bessie’s Restaurant I overheard a prominent realtor bragging that he told these black industrialists that there were no homes for sale in Knox.

It is clear that the 1960’s and 1970’s were a horrible, perhaps impossible, time to be black in Knox. The blame doesn’t simply fall on the lower social-economic classes, the so-called rednecks. A leading citizen, a prominent realtor, was confident enough in the total acceptance of his racism to openly brag about it, in public, to his peers. He was essentially making sure that a new factory with black owners did not locate in Knox. This was a time of recession and high unemployment. Having a new industrial plant in Knox would have been a most-welcome development. I am totally certain that I would rather have as neighbors the owners of that prospective factory than that piece-of-work realtor and his accepting buddies at Bessie’s Restaurant.


Note on the usage of the words Negro and nigger. The word Negro is often considered offensive. I use it here to reference historic and scholarly documents and in order to capture the archaic flavor of life in Knox. The word nigger is always considered offensive; it is only used here because it is a quote from actual racist abuse. Please forgive any offense this may cause.

On the History of the Negro in Knox Part 3

Room Six, 1906, Knox High School, had 2 Black Students
Please click on the photo to have a closer look. I think a story could be written about the young man and young lady in question simply from studying this picture. The young man stands apart from the group, carefully choosing a background to enhance his appearance. He is very well dressed and is the only student with a hat. The young lady presses against the teacher and nearly fades into the background. Note the class clown next to our nearly invisible young lady. We could say that the young black man upstages the entire class and makes this a photographic moment just about him. The young black woman couldn’t be more invisible.

Today's trivia question to prepare you for the “Clash of Civilizations”.
What is the xenophobia?Fear or hatred of strangers, people from other countries, or of anything that is strange or foreign. From dictionary.com......................

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What historical forces made Knox an all-white city? Indiana is an historically xenophobic state, perhaps more so than any other state in the union. From Indiana’s earliest days legal, political and social forces joined to keep out all sort of racial, cultural, and religious differences. So to a strong degree we simply reflect our State’s sorry-ass intolerant history. Although Indiana was a so-called “free” territory most of the early black residents of Indiana were essentially slaves. To the small degree that free blacks did live in early Indiana, they generally lived along the Underground Railroad routes where Quakers or other religious groups protected those fleeing slavery. As we established in Part 2 of this little series, Knox did not have an Underground Railroad or a friendly Quaker settlement. So there were no friendly, racially tolerant institutions in Knox to moderate the intolerant tone of the state.

In the early 20th century Knox was a Ku Klux Klan stronghold. In spite of that fact, several Jews and quite a few Catholics came to Knox and thrived. So it is a bit of a puzzle as to why no blacks came to Knox and endured. I have heard that there were isolated black families in rural Knox up to the 1940s. I have not been able to verify this fact. Perhaps a reader can help. A search a 1906 Sandbur yearbook from Knox High School revealed 2 identifiably black children. None could be found in the 1919 Sandbur.


One of the bright spots in Knox’s history is the conduct of our native son, Henry F Schricker. In 1949, during his 2nd term as Governor, Schricker signed House Bill No. 242, abolishing segregation and discrimination in public schools, colleges and universities. You can see Gov. Schricker’s prominent signature at the top of the bill just below the signature of the Speaker of the House.

Of course Knox had no black population to segregate so this bill was rather meaningless in its effect on Knox.
Note on the usage of the word Negro. The word is often considered offensive. I use it here to reference historic and scholarly documents and in order to capture the archaic flavor of life in Knox.