"Innovating Education... Communities as Learning Laboratories"
17th Annual Southern Plains Conference
A Gathering of the Ogallala Commons

Saturday, February 11, 2006
Home Mercantile Building Nazareth, Texas

Sponsored by Ogallala Commons

Additional Sponsors: Peoples Bank - Nazareth, Happy State Bank, High Plains RC&D, CHS Foundation Southwest Collection / Special Collections Library at Texas Tech University, Home Mercantile, Inc.

Our Context

Southern Plains schools are anchors of community life... a legacy evolving from one-room school houses and growing into multi-million dollar facilities that are the biggest employer in town. But lately, rural education is struggling with some seemingly unsolvable problems: declining student populations, state financing shortfalls, low performance on standardized testing, and lack of adequate personnel and technology.

Education is clearly at a crossroads. Much of what worked in the past will not succeed in this new century. If public education and rural schools are to be catalysts for vibrant communities, innovations must take place at the community level. Establishing adult continuing education and life-long learning programs is a necessity, not a luxury. Place-based education and entrepreneurial courses are essential in helping youth to put down roots in their hometowns instead of fleeing after graduation. Self-reliant communities can empower themselves with educational programs that foster creative arts, local leadership, and economic development. Renewing the commonwealth of education is the objective or this conference and its workshops. Come and learn what can be done to further education... for you and for others!

(The following 13 pages contain four thought-provoking vignettes on education presented at the conference, plus a news story covering a workshop presentation on service learning projects by student from Hart High School.)

"Education in the Southern Plains: An Historical Sketch"

Presented at the 17th Annual Southern Plains Conference
Saturday, February 11, 2006 in Nazareth, TX

My presentation began with the Greeks and the notion that education consisted of the formal and the practical. I wanted to use this as a basis for giving a short discussion on the growth of formal education in the history of this area. I chose the person of Joseph Sherman (1858-1917) who had little formal education (perhaps 2 years) but had the great fortune in meeting Jim Loving. Loving gave him a marvelous practical education enabling him to become a rancher in his own right. He learned much from the example of the Loving family. Even though he had little formal education, Sherman read the Bible and Shakespeare. Sherman had come to admire formal education and certainly wanted his own children to have it.

From their ranch where Shallowater, TX is now located, the Sherman children were able to attend a one-room school taught by a remarkable woman, Mary Mahoney. When the family moved away to Gaines County he wanted the younger children to have the same quality education that Miss Mahoney had given the older ones. Thus he sent his eldest daughter, Mabel Sherman to the convent school taught by the Sisters of Mercy in Stanton, TX. Mabel in return taught at a small school called Sawyer Flat, between Lamesa and Seminole, TX.

But Mabel really wanted to move to town where the citizens were building schools. The high school was a matter of civic pride, and her middle daughter was the valedictorian of the class of 1936 at Seminole High. By this time school busses were summoning the kids in from the farms and ranches, and the one-room schools were slowly abandoned.

Today we can see how these efforts have borne fruit. Every town has its academy; every town has its Olympic stadium. The Greeks would have been impressed. We have come full circle.

The rural areas are now emptying out, and people continue to move into the towns and cities. A popular song once asked, "How are you gonna keep 'em down on the farm after they've seen Paree?" Something is lost in all of this. Farm and ranch life is a great teacher of practical things and is the source of much practical knowledge in our culture. The loss of this experience for our people has unknown consequences, but it can't be positive.

"Education as a Lifelong Odyssey"

by Shelley Armitage, Professor of English and Director of the Master's in Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of Texas-El Paso, El Paso, TX
Eamil:Ssarmitage@aol.com
Presented at the 17th Annual Southern Plains Conference
Saturday, February 11, 2006 in Nazareth, TX

The second semester of my undergraduate college education, I entered a basic English composition course to be handed a three-page xerox and told that this was a reading list which marked the well-read. In other words, to be an educated person we should have already read and mastered the books listed. You can imagine what was on the list. The predictable classics, The Odyssey, a virtual survey of philosophy, some psychology, and through time the literary classics. Most of us coming from the hinterlands of West Texas, the South Plains, and the panhandle, had an inkling but possibly had only seen the titles or, already victims of anthologies in the early 60s, had read portions only. I already knew I was not well-read and this trepidation tactic by our professor further reminded me of my ignorance. Years later when I was among some folks who no doubt mastered such lists-they were from Yale and Harvard--at a symposium on Women Artists and Writers of the Southwest, I was amazed to hear someone from the audience remark: "She knows her stuff. She was the only one who talked about blue-stem gramma grass and knew what she was talking about." My odyssey was not complete but it apparently was on the right track: knowing how to drive a tractor and recognize local plants ranked in some circles right up there with academizing the symbols of pueblo pottery.

Often in our country we think of education with a big "E"-as formal only, in structure and content: Montessori, public schools, higher education, behaviorial outcomes. Education in our news often suggests, beyond the criticism and seeming crisis and failure of these various systems, special training, getting an AA degree from community college, studying pre-law at an undergraduate university, or like my brother who is near retirement but thinks he can't afford it, getting an online degree at age 67 to be a nurse. Education is viewed as a necessary credential in this country, a practical thing, an aspect of class and power. But in my experience in over thirty years of teaching in universities and thus interacting with diverse students in places like Portugal, Hawaii, El Paso, Poland, and Eritrea, I am reminded constantly that education is a never-ending process involving learning not knowing. I was once told that learning is knowing how to ask the right questions. Education is a journey.

Today a particular image of this journey comes to mind. One of Armando, a student I had at U. of Texas at El Paso, leaning on the outer wall of the English building, reading Faust. I had had Armando in a class on literary criticism, and I knew his focus to be American literature. I also knew, because he had confided in me, that his favorite writers had been Malcom X, Martin Luther King, and Leonard Peltier, the incarcerated Native American whose guilt for the deaths of two FBI agents has never been fully proven. Armando had read the letters of men from prison because Armando himself had been a prisoner. Out after ten years at the tender age of 25, Armando is back in school wanting to be a teacher. When I notice the gang tattoo still visible deep in his scalp I see that he has made it a mark of wisdom somehow. (He had told me how he received no encouragement from the prison officials to complete his GED, only from his family.) Whether reading Faust or Elizabeth Bronte, Armando is a quester. He seeks, based on an experiential knowledge, that which prompts self-examination, critical thinking, connections, curiosity. He asks questions.

Barry Lopez has written and spoken many times about spiritual and cultural guides. Lopez, who has traveled in many unlikely places in the globe, says he always finds a local "guide," someone who knows the land, the people, the customs where he is. This guide is not the actor on a reality show nor the arm of tourism but rather an elder-someone perhaps like the Zapotecan guide I was fortunate to have at Monte Alban, the Mayan ruin outside Oaxaca. He gave the historic view of his ancestors rather than the canned, guidebook account of Mayan sacrifices and so-called superstitions. Lopez's ideal guide does not dispense formalized knowledge but rather a ritualized way of knowing of the kind we might find from a local Nazareth farmer as opposed to the Federal Agricultural representative.

We have to watch out what we call education, if we admit to these various ways of knowing. Such sources may surprise us. For years the accepted art historical view of quilts was that they not only were inferior, maybe not even folk art, and thus not worthy of study, but that in particular African American quilts were inferior to those made in the big house. In fact, most scholars and historians believed that the "inferior" slaves learned from the quilting techniques of the white mistress on the plantation. But new studies have revealed that Africans brought their genius for textile and handwork from Africa and that often it was they who influenced the resulting Euro-American quality of tailoring. This has caused a new sensitivity for so-called "Crazy Quilts," built of cast-off fabrics handed down to the slaves. Some quilts had imbedded designs which served as coded directions for the Underground Railroad as they were hung outside the houses. Other quilts contained some of the primary designs of original African textiles. I was delighted to discover in my great aunt and uncle's house in Vega a crazy quilt, made of cast-off fabrics from old discarded flannel suits and flour sack dresses. On the plains these quilts show the scrappiness and self-sufficiency that enabled pioneers to survive-and the inspiration for such quilts, a genius for surviving, came from the slaves. Toni Morrison in her "Rootedness, The Ancestor as Foundation" writes about such community in which the role of ancestor, which she notes is timeless, may be experienced, shared, passed, built upon.

These may seem like minor suggestions of what we can learn from others in a world driven by economies and competition, but the truth is such forgotten or ignored knowledge-simply because of forms of knowledge or attitudes about people-may hold the hope for problem-solving, equability, expansion of ourselves, our souls, our communities. Near Machu Pichu agricultural archaeologists are studying irrigation methods of these peoples for ideas which would serve contemporary communities today.

What odyssey are we on? I believe that movement helps inform an openness, a curiosity, a receptivity to learning new things throughout our lives. But such movement may be inner as well as outwardly physical. I am talking about the movement of recognition, of realization.

I've been far luckier than I deserve in the many experiences I have had as a result of my "learning" travels, for example on Fulbrights, which appear to be "travel." Once in Poland with a British couple who had befriended me, we traveled by train and then with a local citizen to the almost forgotten death camp, Treblinka. Unlike Auschwitz or Dachau, Treblinka is not a tourist destination. We had to cast around with our limited Polish to find someone who would drive us and then pick us up out among the abandoned pines which still hide the black glass biers where up to 1000 Jews were burned a day. I thought I had experienced something in that silence when I returned--white tennis shoes now gray because these almost sixty years later ash from the burnings still fills the road. But no. The next night, attending the Russian ballet company's presentation of the "Red Giselle," I happened to sit next to a Polish gentleman-or so I thought. When we started talking he said he was an American, but had been born in Warsaw. When he asked me about myself, as I described the Fulbright I was on and remarked that yesterday I had had this experience at Treblinka, he remarked, "Yes, I know. I escaped from Treblinka as a small boy."

When a student of mine, Donna Tanigawa, argued that she should be allowed to write her thesis at U. of Hawaii partially in her local Hawaiian Creole, I realized I had been caught in the middle of a political argument about culture, language, knowledge-academic correctness. The history of the Hawaiian islands in regard to US colonization and the actual overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy informs this kind of demand in Hawaii today. Pidgin English became the lingua franca of the new and old immigrants, of men and women denied formal education who could only communicate on the plantations in a creole combining their original languages. By proudly using a vernacular language formerly seen as a mark of ignorance or inferiority, Donna was making a statement about the integrity--culturally rich knowledge of these lives. Today as Hawaiian Pidgin is used in the very successful and informative local literature in Hawaii, published and highly regarded in the U.S. and beyond, the values, habits, and wisdom of cultures speak again.

Can we listen? It may seem that I am suggesting that education may be life-long only with the happenstance of travel or work in various fields, regions, places. Even so, difference may not be the byproduct of such experiences as much as commonalities. For those of us raised on the llano estacado, what seems to some still "the Great American Desert,"--flat, boring, empty--may be full of voices, stories, valuable experiences waiting to be heard. On my father's and grandfather's farm in the panhandle, northwest of Vega, I have walked basically the same roadways, old water courses, and short grass prairie since childhood in what I have described as "A Habit of Landscape." What happens in our normal lives when we go over the same ground day after day? Can something edifying be found there? Something new? Some new way of seeing, understanding? For me that has been the question as I once jogged now more sedately walk these plains. Can we look at the same thing day after day finding it an education? Someone has said creativity is looking at one thing and seeing another.

What I am suggesting is this: there is still ancestral knowledge. But we must listen to find it. And the ancestors may not appear to be our own.

Within our communities as well there are guides. But we must look to find them. And if we look and listen long enough we may realize that we, too, are guides and that a community's shared knowledge is gathered, passed, is the unending odyssey.

"Education: Overcoming Life's Obstacles"
By Tony A. Martinez, Masters student, Hereford, TX
Email: tony@go-herd.com
Presented at the 17th Annual Southern Plains Conference
Saturday, February 11, 2006 in Nazareth, TX

Hello, it's good to be here with everyone today. I would like to share with everyone my educational journey. Not only to tell my story, but also to share a perspective of education that might have been different from some of you here today. My name is Tony Martinez, I am a graduate student attending WTAMU. WT, in conjunction with University of Texas in Arlington, is giving me the opportunity to achieve a master's degree in Social Work. My educational career started in 1994. I call it a career because I have been doing it for so many years. At the time I was married to my wife Rosa and we had a two year old son: Ronnie. I was 28 years old then. Now most of you know, and some of you have experienced the challenges involved in being an older student with a family trying to begin a college career and hold down a full time job. Those challenges are pretty evident I think. The challenges I want to share with you today are more subtle, they are buried deeper beneath the surface. I think the bigger benefit to this conference would be to examine the question: why did it take me so many years to start college? I remember two stories when I was growing up. The first was sitting with my mom in the living room, and talking about life when I grow up. She said someday you will stand in a room and tell people about the challenges I faced in education! No, really she said, "When you grow up you need to go to college." I remember responding to her the way little kids do, and I said, "So I can get a good job... right mom?" I realize now that my mother didn't have a realistic ideal about what college was. Neither of my parents graduated from high school. She knew from the attitude of the time that education was important. Only she didn't have a real first hand knowledge about what it would take for her son to complete college. She did know it was important but she didn't know how to make something so important become reality. In school I reflected that same attitude in my approach to school work. I tried to get good grades, but I don't know how much I was really learning. Or why it was important to learn. I only knew that I needed to get good grades so that I could go to college someday. Now I know that speaks to cultural influence in my life, and I believe that my culture was a big challenge in my education. Neither of my parents had graduated high school, and how could they really teach me ownership of an ideal, that they had no successful experience with? Now it seems that with advanced education that some cycle can and should be broken.

When I was over half way into achieving my bachelors degree I found myself talking about the educational future of my children to a friend. I remember telling them about my dreams for my son. I said, "When Ronnie grows up I hope he graduates from WT, and becomes a teacher, maybe a coach." These are perfectly honorable professions, but I realized something: I was capping my son before he even reached the second grade. I was putting limitations on how successful he could actually become. I realized that I did not look at my son, and see a Governor of Texas, or a Harvard graduate. I was not even capable of having dreams of such magnitude. I have to admit that if I had not been blessed with the wonderful gift of advanced education, I don't think my mind would have been open enough to combat that type of mind set. What kind of challenges would I be putting into my son's life if I had not had that awareness? The second memory is one of my senior year, and myself actually thinking about college, and asking myself, "Why do I need to go to college for, what can college actually teach me that I don't already know? How to work better math problems? How to structure sentences with more ability?" I know the reason I thought that way, is because I was missing a bridge in my mind. A bridge that would help me to understand that college was not just an extension of high school, but an institution that would enlighten me, and shape my mind to greater understanding of my chosen profession. When I help my children with their homework now, I help them to learn why they need to be able to add fractions. I help them to learn that they need a greater understanding of the world, and that can be given to them through education. I know we can all relate to barriers in education like money, and time, but I ask you: have you really ever considered the barriers on education placed by attitude? Barriers placed in education by lack of experience? If I was to offer one thing that would help to combat these problems, it would be to share with students a bigger picture. Help kids and people touch a more real world where the things we ask them to learn make more sense. Where the things we ask them to learn make common sense. Help youth and others by being a bridge that can open a pathway through obstacles and barriers, making a lifetime of education a reality.

Summary of "Community Education: A Different Set of Benchmarks"
By Bill Thompson, Lamb County Judge, Littlefield, TX
Email: wthompson@nts-online.net
Presented at the 17th Annual Southern Plains Conference
Saturday, February 11, 2006 in Nazareth, TX

The following suggestions would serve as important benchmarks for community education:

1. Communities should exercise greater scrutiny over election of school boards.

a. School board members should have knowledge, understanding, and vision.

b. Be wary of candidates with personal agendas.

2. Schools should insure that gate receipts at sports events are not the determining factor on what is offered and taught in the school.

a. Schools must first identify the aptitudes of their students.

b. Schools must then fund the development of such aptitudes.

3. Stress the teaching of problem-solving.

4. Stress over-preparation and in-depth study.

5. Establish a mentoring program that engages senior citizens.

a. Retirees should be encouraged to publish what they know about their respective fields.

b. The published material should be placed in the local library.

6. Ensure that students learn to be introspective.

7. Hire star teachers in order to produce star pupils.

8. Remember that there are no inferior jobs.

HHS students featured panelists at Southern Plains Conference

News story written by Jim Steiert (jsteiert@wtrt.net) Published in the February 24th edition of The Hart Beat

Five Hart High School students and their advisor were featured panelists who spoke on their successful and exemplary efforts within Hart during a workshop on Community Leadership and Service Learning at the 17th annual Southern Plains Conference February 11, in Nazareth.

The conference, a gathering of the Ogallala Commons, focused on rural education under the theme "Innovative Education...Communities as Learning Laboratories." Students Jayme Flores, Yvette Carrasco, Amber Guzman, Kyle Johnson and Olivia Vega were joined by HHS Spanish teacher and Student Council Advisor Mark Castillo in a workshop presentation on their success in building leadership skills while serving their community. Hart High School's Student Council has garnered Sweepstakes Awards from the Texas Association of Student Councils for its efforts in community service, pride and patriotism, drug awareness and energy conservation within the school system. During the Nazareth session Hart students spoke on their involvement with Preparing America's Youth Day (PAYDAY), a project spanning 20 years within Hart schools, as well as the HHS Student Council's efforts toward a Senior Citizens' Prom and the school-wide Christmas Angels project as leadership and community bridge-building opportunities. "We all look forward to the PAYDAY program as something fun that we all enjoy. While it's fun, students are also learning to look upward for their goals. We hear about careers and life choices that can help us set goals," said Jayme Flores, HHS junior. On PAYDAY, usually held in November, HHS Student Council members perform a skit to kick off the day's activities for Hart Junior High and Hart High School. Students can then choose among six different sessions led by a multitude of volunteer presenters from varied careers. Topics range widely and often include presentations on healthy lifestyle choices, responsibility and career opportunities.

"We want to reach out to other organizations within the community as much as possible. One way has been by calling on the Hart Lions Club to help us by preparing a hamburger lunch for students during PAYDAY," said Flores. HHS Student Council members are hoping to stage another Senior Citizens Prom after their first, held in 2005, proved a resounding success.

"Our idea was to hold an event that would express our thanks to older citizens for the legacy that they have left our community. We staged an elaborate, dress-up event, complete with full prom decoration, tons of balloons, photographers, everything. Through this event we called on the kids at Hart High to provide leadership and service, and they stepped up. It was an opportunity to let the kids get to know the older people in our community," Kyle Johnson, HHS senior, explained. "This was a real community outreach effort. We had 65 or 70 people come that night. It was such a pleasure to see senior residents dance and smile and have a great time. We got so many thank-yous," he added.

Several of the student panel members also commented on taking advantage of the opportunity to provide service to the community through the Christmas Angels project.

Christmas Angels involves faculty members in its application at Hart High School and the community as a whole through the remainder of the school system. "I thought that I was less-fortunate doing without a cell phone, but working with the Christmas Angels project made me see things a lot differently," said Yvette Carrasco, HHS junior.

"It was an eye opener to see people in need in your own town. I remember lying on my bed, seeing all the clothes in my closet and thinking I should be giving some of those away instead of feeling sorry for myself because I didn't have a cell phone. Christmas Angels has helped many of us at Hart High to realize it's important to do community service. The Angels project teaches you to give," Carrasco said. Through the project, Hart High students are involved in purchasing and delivering clothing and special gift items for anonymous, needy students. "To see the happiness that this project created made me feel really good inside," said Olivia Vega, HHS senior.

Mark Castillo, 13-year HHS Spanish teacher and Student Council sponsor, addressed the workshop audience on the importance of communities calling on youngsters to provide leadership and service. "Such projects let the kids get to know the people in their community and build appreciation for what they have. It's an important part of anyone's future to give back to their own community. Everyone should experience something like this. It builds self-confidence in the students, the community gets to know its kids, and the process encourages community involvement in the schools," said Castillo.