Morgan County, TN

Students in Morgan County, Tenn., aren’t just reading important books—they’re writing them.

Their latest creation is a volume titled The Legend Continues – Oakdale, Tennessee: Its Past and People. Students of Vera Scarbrough’s English V class in the K-12 Oakdale School spent three years interviewing elderly citizens, transcribing tapes, researching old documents, editing stories, and laying out the pages of what will soon be an honest-to-goodness, 104-page hardback book.

Throughout the publishing process, the kids—grades 9 through 12—discovered events and people connected to their town that had been forgotten by all but the eldest inhabitants. Scarbrough says class sessions sometimes erupted in cheers when a particular discovery revealed a past more distinguished than any of them had guessed, such as the time in 1936 when Franklin Delano Roosevelt came to town for a campaign speech followed by students serenading him with a round of For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow.

Previous works from the class include Bridging the School and Community: A K-12 Student-designed Curriculum Guide, and Oakdale: 1880 to the Present, now in its third printing.

The elective class, which complements traditional required English classes, was funded with part of a grant from the Rural School and Community Trust (formerly the Annenberg Rural Challenge). The grants are designed to help rural students and teachers connect with their communities through “place-based learning.”

Edd Diden, principal of Wartburg Central High School, explains: “If (students) interview their great-great-grandmother and talk about what life was like during the period of World War II and they write an essay about that for the English class, not only have they learned grammar and how to put a paper together, they’ve also made a great cross-generational connection with someone they may not have been to see in six months. You can’t evaluate that on a standardized test.”

The Rural Trust, a nonprofit educational organization based in Washington, D.C., solicited applications from schools across the country, eventually giving grants to 700 in 35 states. Three schools in Morgan County received nearly $350,000 over three years (ending Dec. 2001): Oakdale, Wartburg Central, and Coalfield School. Together, they formed The Walden’s Ridge Foundation to get the most from the windfall. In addition to funding their own approved projects—including the creation of outdoor classrooms, nature trails, amphitheaters, heritage and drug awareness events, teacher training projects, and more—the organization decided to do something perhaps even more extraordinary. It decided to share.

“If you do (apply for) a grant and you get money, you usually think, ‘Well, this is my money; nobody else can touch it,’” Diden says. “But a really interesting collaboration occurred where we were able to set aside some money to give minigrants to the other schools who weren’t involved initially. We think the impact has been huge.”

Petros-Joyner, one of four county schools benefiting from the minigrants, was able to purchase 25 sets of binoculars, several water testing kits, and other materials to help the kids study water ecology, weather, and other aspects of science.

“I just think it’s wonderful that there are people out there who are willing to financially support rural schools,” says Sally Ward, a fourth-grade teacher there. “We do have a very large percentage of students who come from the lower income (brackets), and any assistance we can get to help their education is greatly appreciated.”

Teachers themselves also have prospered. “It has helped us see that other things are out there that we can go for and that people in the community are willing to do whatever we ask of them,” says Mona Justice, an English and drama teacher at Coalfield. “It has also inspired teachers to get outside our comfort zones and do things differently.”

Those changes include teachers becoming a “guide on the side” rather than the traditional “sage on the stage.” They allow students some authority over designing their own educational agendas—a successful approach, they say.

Test scores in his region have improved, but Diden’s also excited that the community-centered approach seems to be producing not just better students, but also better people who are more interested and concerned about the world around them.

Valerie Helton, a 17-year-old senior at Oakdale, is one example. When she leaves her hometown of 350 this fall to attend college, she plans to implement some of the service projects she helped devise at Oakdale, including a veterans’ appreciation day and an Earth Day program, in her new community.

The impact multiplies.

Kara Carden is a regular American Profile contributor.

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