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Why’s this place boring?
August 19th, 2010 by Mike Knutson
Deb Marquart immediately captured my attention on Monday at the Midwest Rural Assembly. During her keynote presentation “Reimaging Place,” she explained to the audience that she left her hometown of Napoleon in rural North Dakota as a teenager because it was boring. As she wrote a book about it as an adult, however, she discovered it was anything but boring.
The statement raised an interesting idea: Do young people need to write a book in order to appreciate their hometowns?
Although that question is a bit out there, it might not be as farfetched as one might think. I’ve actually witnessed first-hand how young people can develop a connection to their community through writing activities.
The Value of Place Based Education
Back in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Mary Stangohr, a talented English teacher at Howard H.S. (SD) embedded place based education in her classroom. In one of her units of study, Mary had her students read Broken Heartland by Osha Grey Davison, a book detailing the impact of industrial agriculture on rural communities.
Whether they agreed with the author’s assessment or not, the book connected with most students because they could see similar trends in agriculture happening around them. In some cases, it connected on an emotional level as some students saw how these changes impacted their parent’s farms, businesses, and places of employment. It even opened the door for young people to talk to adults about issues that seldom get discussed.
But Mary didn’t end the project with reading the book. She brought in a community historian who shared engaging stories about growing up in the community. She took students on field trips to places like to Vilas, SD where students were able to visually experience what life was like in a town back in the 1920-30 before its population shrunk from 400-500 to 19 people today. And then as a capstone, she required students to write a paper or produce a multimedia project that shared what they had learned.
I’m not sure if student’s scores on the grammar section of mandatory testing increased as a result of the project. But I’m positive that the activity encouraged them to dig in and connect more deeply to the subject, and that certainly made them better writers.
It’s more than good learning
Beyond the value of helping students become better writers, the project had another impact; Mary’s students came to understand their community better, and I think in many cases, to develop a deeper emotional connection to their hometown.
In her own way, this is what Marquart shared with her audience at the Midwest Rural Assembly. She grew up in her rural North Dakota community without knowing much about it. Sure, she knew the people who lived there. She knew they worked hard to eke out a living. But she didn’t know the personal stories that made her community rich.
Without those stories, it’s easy for any place to appear boring.
Photo Credit: National Rural Assembly – Flickr (Shawn Poyter – permission granted)
Tags: Howard SD, midwest rural assembly, youth engagement
Posted in Community Development, Gen Y, Rural | Comments (
3 )
August 19th, 2010 at 3:05 pm
Debra’s book, The Horizontal World: Growing Up Wild in the Middle of Nowhere, was given to me by my mother when I left for college, and it was given to her by another, and so on. It struck me on so many cords and matched up to that point in my life step-to-step, but, mostly, it started to kindle an interest in my “home” and what that meant to my future. It helped me to better understand the place I am from and my connection to that place. When I started writing a few pieces for this blog I began to formulate my own thoughts on why I felt so attached to this place. While I didn’t write a book, it did help in many ways.
I would definitely advocate for both reading Debra’s book and everyone, no matter if you are in school or not, write an essay about the place you are in or from to help better define that place. You might be surprised at what you find.
October 11th, 2010 at 1:52 am
You raised the question “Do young people need to write a book in order to appreciate their hometowns?” I thought I would share a bit of my story with you. I moved back to my small NW Iowa town after finishing college this summer because I felt as a graduated economics student, it was my duty to save our floundering economy. I’ll admit the idea of moving home didn’t sound like a particularly fun idea, but it had to be done, so I gritted my teeth and did it. Once I was home I began to visit with members of the local historical society and started learning about our county’s past. It has inspired me to write a book and do some more research. As a direct result of this research, I can now proudly say “I am glad to have roots here.”
October 11th, 2010 at 4:46 am
Jared,
That’s awesome. Thanks for sharing. I think we can learn a lot from your perspective, so I hope you will continue to post comments here!