"Saving" McDowell

[Hacker 82]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/teachers-union-leads-effort-that-aims-to-turn-around-west-virginia-school-system/2011/12/14/gIQA5pxywO_story_2.html

 

Just finished reading this and would be curious as to other's thoughts. I will hold my comments for a while.

[deuceswild 15]

I have no ties to the area but it's painfully close to home to be in the situation it's in. I've lost hope for surrounding areas who aren't even half as bad as McDowell is described. Very steep climb and very daunting tasks lie ahead for those who care about the future of that county.

[hokie07 11]

Sad story, and my heart goes out for the kids. But fighting this is akin to taking a knife to a gun battle. You won't produce results in the classroom until you can clean up the home life really. Impossible? Not at all. Improbable? Absolutely.

[Guest The Variable]

Sad story, and my heart goes out for the kids. But fighting this is akin to taking a knife to a gun battle. You won't produce results in the classroom until you can clean up the home life really. Impossible? Not at all. Improbable? Absolutely.

 

+ This.

 

It starts at home.

[GMan 3,569]

Sad story, and my heart goes out for the kids. But fighting this is akin to taking a knife to a gun battle. You won't produce results in the classroom until you can clean up the home life really. Impossible? Not at all. Improbable? Absolutely.

 

You can't help those that don't want to be helped. You can't give a person a job if a) they don't want to work, or, b) they can't pass a drug test.

 

I hate to say it but McDowell County is a lost cause. The only way to be saved from it is to leave. There isn't enough money, or time, or people willing to make a difference over there. McDowell is a cancer that will only spread to neighboring counties...sadly, Mingo, Wyoming, Mercer, Tazewell, and Buchanan counties are already feeling its affects...

[RoughRider97 10]

I lived over 17 years in McDowell County, having last lived there in 2009. I left the Iaeger area and moved to find a job and more oppurtunity. I agree with most of what other people have said here. There is a cycle of Poverty there and it does start at home, most of the parents dont care and have lost hope, and their kids follow suit. There are people that care and there is success in some circumstances. But to characterize McDowell County as a cancer spreading to other counties that has to be the most ignorant thing I have ever heard anyone say. There is poverty in Bluefield Hill(both sides), Montcalm, Lashmeet, Nemours, Matoaka, Princeton, Mullens, Itmann, Simon, Glen Rogers, Glen Fork, Hurley, Whitewood, and on and on, I've seen it first hand. Did McDowell County spread its cancer to these areas? Any area that you find high unemployment, low income, substandard housing, water, and infrastructure your goin to find poverty, drugs, hopelessness, and despair. Kids in poor economic areas are always going to have lower test scores than more well to do areas, thats always been the case.