2007 National Rural Education Essay Contest Winners
Winners included three students from Missouri
Posted
December 02, 2007
The three winners from Missouri were: Abigail Wheeler (Adair Co. R-II) Middle School First Place: Michelle Wright (Santa Fe R-X) High School First Place; and Danica Jo McLain (North Harrison R-III) High School Runner-up.
Following are copies of their essays.
Middle/Junior
High School Winner
"My Cool Rural School"
By Abigail Wheeler, Eighth Grade
Adair County R-II, Brashear, Missouri
"Bee," this is the sound of my alarm when I get up in the
morning to go to school. There are many things I like about our
school. Some of the things I like are the multitude of friends, the
individual attention that you receive, and the extracurricular
activities.
The first reason I like this school is because of the many
friendships you take away from at our school everyone gets along,
and everyone is friends. We all like and enjoy each others company
and spending time together. It's nice to have friends in other
grades as well older and younger. I think this way because you have
a wider variety of age groups and being friend with them all has
its benefits.
A second reason I like our school is because of the individual
attention I receive. Then I have a problem or need help
understanding something, I can usually spend one on one time by
myself or with another teacher. I consider myself a good group
worker but when I need help with something its easier, and helps me
learn more if I'm alone with the teacher.
A third and final advantage to being a small school is the extra
curricular activities they offer. These activities include:
basketball, softball, track, art club, and FBLA. I enjoy this
because with having a little number of people who attend, you have
a better chance to participate in these activities. Another thing I
enjoy about the extra activities is being able to do it with your
friends. When your on a team or in a club and everyone is friends,
you tend to get along better and get things done.
A multitude of friends, individual attention, and extracurricular
activities are only a few of the many reasons I enjoy being apart
of a small rural school.
High School
Winner
"My Rural School"
By Michelle Wright, 12th Grade
Santa Fe High School, Alma, Missouri
I quickly dart in the large double red doors to escape the cold.
The principal sees me while entering his office and greets me by
name. I continue down the hall, pausing as I see some artwork on
the wall. I can quickly pick out my younger sister's and some other
lower classmen's by their style. I ditch my bag by my locker, greet
some teachers standing in the corner of the hall, and then go sit
with some friends at a cafeteria table. This is the goal of rural
schools, the sense of family.
I love my classes. I walk to Chemistry II where, since there are
only six of us, we do all kinds of cool experiments, like
distilling Cherry Coke. Also the teacher is always doing research
to answer questions we have. I go to pre-calculus where I am the
only student in the class, so we can cover the topics quickly and
even cover other things that interest me, like statistics. Last
year in Business Technology III, there were only a couple of
students so we designed computer jobs for the faculty and
community. In English, we were able to eat traditional English
Christmas food, and the teacher would proofread anything I had to
write for any other class. I love my small classes because of the
personal attention, depth of learning, and pace. I can achieve to
satisfy my inquisitiveness.
After noon, I drive to a nearby town to attend college classes.
This is one of the many opportunities I have been offered by my
rural school. I have also been able to take an AP class and achieve
a five on the test, take dual credit in my high school classes, and
take online classes. I took physics and Spanish III through The
Missouri Virtual School last year and gained a lot of experience
using different technology. I will graduate from high school with
32 college credits that will transfer to a state university.
After college classes, I drive back to school for club activities
and sporting events. Being involved in many things is just normal
at a rural school. I have gained so many experiences from being so
involved: how to do ballet from dance team, how to handle a camera
from yearbook, how to run a concession stand from math club. The
most important is that I have found a career and won several
national trophies through FBLA. At a large school, I would have
missed out on all but one of those.
I now leave my second home, my school, and my second family, my
teachers. This spring I'll graduate and head to a large state
university. I'll be okay because of the solid foundation of
knowledge, experience, problem solving skills, and, most
importantly, support that my rural school gave me. Faculty that
knows everyone's name, individual attention, in depth learning,
college prep opportunities, many organizations, and teachers that
really care characterize my school. It's the perfect education,
it's my rural school.
NREA High
School Essay Runner-Up
"How My Rural School Has Change in the Past 25 Years"
By Danica Jo McLain, 11th Grade
North Harrison R-III, Eagleville, Missouri
When you grow up in rural area, oftentimes your school becomes your
second home. In such an environment, it is easy to forget how much
a school changes. People focus on how much students have grown and
relationships have changed, but without the growth of the school,
student growth wouldn't be possible.
Twenty-five years ago, in 1982, the school was a completely
different building. What is now our high school parking lot used to
be the elementary wing. Our halls have been remodeled, our
classrooms have changed, and the playground has moved. Curricula
are getting stricter because college is being suggested more often
as an option after graduation. With this new curriculum, there is
substantial use of technology that students in 1982 wouldn't have
even dreamt about.
There were computers twenty-five years ago, but the functions of
them were limited. Internet use was not a necessity like it is
today, and students did not have access to search engines, like
Google and EbscoHost, where finding information literally takes
seconds instead of hours. Visual display programs such as Photoshop
and PowerPoint were not available, so creativity in school displays
was limited. The yearbook staff had to print photos and design the
pages by hand instead of electronically. Students did not take dual
credit classes online or through ITV (Interactive Television)
either. For me, it is difficult to imagine my class schedule
without these tools because I am taking an online sociology class
for college credit, and my Spanish class is over ITV.
Technology has changed drastically even in the past ten years. When
I was in elementary, I recall using computer programs such as math
games and Microsoft Word to develop skills for what was viewed as
rapidly changing technology back then. Today, that seems
preposterous since my school now has a computer lab with nineteen
computers, a business room with another nineteen computer, three
EMINTS rooms, a recently upgraded library with five computers,
three rooms with Smart Boards (FACS, Algebra, and Business), and an
ITV room that usually offers a fully day's worth of classes.
As more advances are made in technology, it is an almost certainty
that my school will change with it. Being open to experience is
important is everybody's lives, and if my school continues to be
open-minded to change, then the students will be better off because
of it. I believe that North Harrison takes pride in the addition of
new technology because it pushes our students at an even younger
age to learn new skills that will prepare them for a constantly
changing world.
