Moving To NWA, Looking for a little direction.

[Gallbaro]

As a parent myself I just have to say this. If it is your goal to educate your child and culture them then most of Arkansas, including NWA are not productive to that end point. If you have a child educated in this state there is a very good chance they will not have the means to leave this state.

If that is what you want I am not judging you at all, just giving my opinion of what the school system here provides.

If you want that country feel where you are completely reliant on your car for anything then keep in mind NWA is not by any means big while they call themselves cities I view them as towns and villages, a 10 minute drive east or west will get you out in the country quick enough.

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by Gallbaro

As a parent myself I just have to say this. If it is your goal to educate your child and culture them then most of Arkansas, including NWA are not productive to that end point. If you have a child educated in this state there is a very good chance they will not have the means to leave this state.

If that is what you want I am not judging you at all, just giving my opinion of what the school system here provides.

If you want that country feel where you are completely reliant on your car for anything then keep in mind NWA is not by any means big while they call themselves cities I view them as towns and villages, a 10 minute drive east or west will get you out in the country quick enough.

What a bunch of hog wash!!! There are some very good schools in NW AR not to mention not every child will grow up to be a doctor or engineer. There are many professions like the ones the OP has that do not call for the best education...

Our old dentist in Dallas area was born and raised in AR and got his education in Fayetteville. Our granddaughter just graduated from AR..

NIta

[AndysMommy88]

First of all, I have to say this. I grew up in a very small town in Texas and some people would say the same thing about that town, but a lot of it has to do with the parenting the child has, how motivated one is to learn and what they are capable of as individuals. I feel that I'm very smart and have never had any problem getting a job, I was even capable to leave that small town to venture on to bigger and better things. And sometimes you can learn more through life experiences rather than education, and if a teacher has too many students to tend to, each one isn't able to get that one-on-one time they may need, no matter how great the school is. My child is my first priority, him being the only reason I want to move to a small/safe town in the first place. Thank you for the concern but I'm sure there are some smart kids coming from the schools in the area.

[NOEM1226]

Originally Posted by Gallbaro

As a parent myself I just have to say this. If it is your goal to educate your child and culture them then most of Arkansas, including NWA are not productive to that end point. If you have a child educated in this state there is a very good chance they will not have the means to leave this state.

If that is what you want I am not judging you at all, just giving my opinion of what the school system here provides.

If you want that country feel where you are completely reliant on your car for anything then keep in mind NWA is not by any means big while they call themselves cities I view them as towns and villages, a 10 minute drive east or west will get you out in the country quick enough.

Yes, I wish we had a public transportation system and were a little less reliant on our vehicles-However, I disagree completely with the rest of your post.

There are plenty of Arkansas natives who are sucessfull, productive and cultured. Some of them still reside here and some of them have "found the means to leave".

If an Arkansas resident finds the public school system inadequate- there are private options that might better meet their needs. PLENTY of states/big cities have public schools that struggle more than ours- it does not render the entire STATE incapable of producing productive citizens.Are there more "sophisticated" regions?- sure maybe-but you sure did sterotype all Arkansans into the "simple" bag.

And for people with blue collar professions such as the OP- I would reccomend living here. The cost of living would allow them a better quality of life.

My finace is a physcian (who went to k-12 in Arkansas-both public & private ) - and he choses to call this home!

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by AndysMommy88

First of all, I have to say this. I grew up in a very small town in Texas and some people would say the same thing about that town, but a lot of it has to do with the parenting the child has, how motivated one is to learn and what they are capable of as individuals. I feel that I'm very smart and have never had any problem getting a job, I was even capable to leave that small town to venture on to bigger and better things. And sometimes you can learn more through life experiences rather than education, and if a teacher has too many students to tend to, each one isn't able to get that one-on-one time they may need, no matter how great the school is. My child is my first priority, him being the only reason I want to move to a small/safe town in the first place. Thank you for the concern but I'm sure there are some smart kids coming from the schools in the area.

you have it right on..

Nita

[Luvvarkansas]

Originally Posted by Gallbaro

As a parent myself I just have to say this. If it is your goal to educate your child and culture them ....

"Culture" them? You make it sound like growing germs in a petri dish!

Your comments are just too too snooty.

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by Luvvarkansas

"Culture" them? You make it sound like growing germs in a petri dish!

Your comments are just too too snooty.

yep, we all know the word "culture" is a verb, right???

[Stormcrow73]

Originally Posted by Luvvarkansas

"Culture" them? You make it sound like growing germs in a petri dish!

Your comments are just too too snooty.

LOL, those comments just oozed regiocentric prejudice.

<sarcasm>I guess with my education from a tiny subpar Arkansas school I was never actually able to get a college education and leave the state to design and build spacecraft and science instruments. It's just in my imagination.</sarcasm>

[rackensack]

Originally Posted by Gallbaro

As a parent myself I just have to say this. If it is your goal to educate your child and culture them then most of Arkansas, including NWA are not productive to that end point. If you have a child educated in this state there is a very good chance they will not have the means to leave this state.

Just had to say it, huh? Couldn't you have said it a bit more articulately, or were you demonstrating the limitations of an Arkansas education?

I attended schools in Clarendon, Jasper, Harrison, Fayetteville, and Harrisburg between kindergarten and twelfth grade. Fayetteville was head and shoulders above the rest, and Harrisburg easily the worst, but smart kids with solid parents will generally do well wherever they are -- the only other National Merit Scholarship Finalist Harrisburg had ever produced graduated from Hendrix three years before me with a double major in English and Chemistry, got a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Duke, and went on to a long and successful career as a pharmaceutical research chemist in the New Jersey area. Besides getting a bachelor's degree from Hendrix myself, I left the state to study at Harvard and Emory Universities, before changing direction from academia to the business world; I've been in the software/technology industry for twenty years now.

A handful of anecdotal examples isn't conclusive proof, of course, but most of the kids I knew who didn't get a decent education in Arkansas public schools wouldn't have done so had you dropped them into Philips Andover with a full scholarship and a crate of #2 pencils. They weren't very bright, weren't very motivated, or had parents who just didn't care. A lot of smart contemporaries of mine stayed in Arkansas, but generally by choice, not because they had no other options.

You know, it always amazes me how people don't seem to get that the U.S. became the most scientifically and intellectually formidable country on the planet (at least for a time in the 20th century) with the majority of the populace educated in one-room schoolhouses, rural shacks with not enough books and certainly no technology and with teacher-to-student ratios that would cause apoplexy in most parents today. It didn't happen because of the schools, it happened because of people -- parents and students alike -- who believed that an education was important if they wanted to live a successful life, and who acted on that belief.

Yes, good schools can make a positive difference, and good teachers even more so, but they're not able to do much with indifferent raw materials. And they generally won't destroy good material, no matter how bad they are.

[RogMar]

Originally Posted by Luvvarkansas

"Culture" them? You make it sound like growing germs in a petri dish!

Your comments are just too too snooty.

Heh......

"Orbra...yer pretty cultured".

"What'd you call me, Rog?"

"Cultured, Orbra.....cultured".

<eye's get real slitty>

"I like you, hoss....and I appreciate the bourbon..but you call me that again and yer gonna be spittin' teeth".