The attitudes to me are always interesting. Many of the comments already expressed, the premise that rural kids are largely by nature unappreciative and unwilling to seek out educational opportunities, would be taboo if expressed about urban minorities. How many countless articles have we seen written about the challenges and struggles of urban minorities to attend elite institutions? It seems no one is ever doing enough about the situation. Here is one, actually well and thoughtfully written article on the same issue but the wrong class. Ho hum. No one cares. Nothing to see here.
As well stated in the article, disdain toward rural people is indeed the last acceptable form of prejudice in elite circles.
Anyone who cares about the state of real discourse in America, rather than just trying to control it, should take this article very seriously.
Regarding the why bother with college when you can just work on the farm. Farming is a complex business. UW-Madison’s Agriculture and Life Sciences college has degrees pertinent to that. It also offers “short courses” which would appeal to those wanting specific knowledge. Those choosing to remain in farming likely will choose additional education but not all will choose a four year degree.
I wonder how many other states’ higher education- colleges/universities have programs and degrees specifically aimed at the agricultural niche. Anyone familiar?
My guess would be most of them. Purdue, Iowa State, Ohio State, etc. were founded to teach agriculture and science/engineering. Land gant schools were formed to promote the best agricultural practices to grow the country’s economy.
How about other states? Anyone? Or do they ignore this aspect of educating their residents? I am proud of my home state’s past approaches to education.
I was gown kid but I’ve always appreciated that I grew up in a small town with classmates whose backgrounds were different from mine. It bothers me that farm families in Wisconsin and presumably other states are struggling financially and that students in rural school districts might face barriers to education and employment that their peers in the suburbs and cities don’t.
@rosered55 I’m like your opposite–grew up urban, lived for many years in Madison, now in rural Wisconsin! I like it here better in many ways, but there are stark differences in high school my kids attend vs the ones they would have attended had we not moved.
There are divisions everywhere of course. Kids who are growing up in poor rural communities may not be at any more risk than poor urban kids, but the sense of abandonment is palpable. And Wisconsin has historically done a good job of reaching out to rural communities, although support for that seems to be fading–can’t say more without getting political.
“the premise that rural kids are largely by nature unappreciative and unwilling to seek out educational opportunities, would be taboo if expressed about urban minorities.”
It has never been against the law anywhere in the United States to teach rural white kids how to read. Or to admit them to any public or private university. No one’s ever been lynched for encouraging a white kid to go to college. No government official has ever stood in a schoolhouse door to keep them out. Or kidnapped them from their families and forced them into boarding schools where they were beaten for speaking their own language.
The white Christian farm communities of Iowa have been free and self-governing since they were settled. Iowa’s schools were founded by and for rural white Christians. They are and always have been run by people from those same communities. So this really isn’t the same problem as trying to get minority kids to buy into a white system that has erased and excluded them for centuries.
I support educating everybody everywhere. But you’re trying to make an apples-to-apples argument when we’re looking at apples and elephants.
Another factor is that a lot of kids don’t want to leave home. That is where friends/family are and it’s their comfort zone. There are also kids here in suburban DC (NoVA) who feel the same , but they can attend a nearby university, come home every weekend and then get a job in the area after graduation. But in a rural area it’s hard to get that job unless the degree is in teaching or healthcare. It’s even hard to get an engineering job. Both my Dad and my FIL worked as engineers for manufacturing companies - those companies/factories are long gone. My oldest child has an English degree and a good job, but she lives in a large city. She would not have that opportunity in a rural area. Likewise, my S will graduate in a few months with an International Studies degree and has a job lined up with a Big 4 consulting firm. Again, not a job available in a rural community.
I get that there is more to college than just getting a job, but a lot of these communities have gotten considerably poorer than they were a few decades back. Even with FA, it’s likely these kids would end up with a lot of debt to get a degree that likely will not benefit them financially. Unless the student is willing to leave the area they just don’ see it as worth it.
We live in a rural, depressed area where the high school graduation rate is 83% and the AP participation rate is 7% (and only 25% pass). We send our kids to private school. The oldest child goes to one about an hour away in another county in an affluent area.
There, my D is the poor country relation. In the area we live, we are the snobs. We can’t win either way.
I’m another Wisconsin kid but was a ‘townie.’ The farm kids who came to our hs were not poor and in fact a few were very wealthy. Our city only had 2 traffic lights when I was young, but had about 4 by the time I graduated from high school. Because of the University we had interesting speakers, concerts, lecturers come to town. We had a community orchestra and band, art festivals, a film festival and two radio stations.
Everyone who went to college went instate, about half to the UW in our town, and the rest to other campuses around the state. A few athletes went to MN schools with reciprocity. I can remember about 5 students total from my class who went OOS, one to St. Olaf, one to UF. My sister, who is three years older, went to Middlebury and two of her classmates to MIT and Harvard. We weren’t students who had no other choices but the children of doctors and lawyers and college professors. We wanted to stay in Wisconsin. My two friends who are doctors went to UW Madison. I agree that the guidance counselor (just one for 1800 kids!) focuse
Probably all or most of them. For example, in California, you can find agriculture, forestry, and natural resource majors in CPSLO, CPP, CSUC, CSUFresno, CSUStanislaus, HSU, UCB, and UCD.
Someone in this thread mentioned that many rural students are out of reasonable commuting range of a state university (and probably even a community college in many cases). That can push costs beyond affordability due to living expenses at the school if they are not covered by financial aid (and many states’ in-state financial aid is already quite limited and may not be sufficient even for students commuting from their parents’ places). It can also limit the option of part time attendance while working (on the farm or other job in a rural area).
However, high speed internet is less available in rural areas than urban areas, so watching video lectures of online courses may be difficult for some rural students.
You might be surprised to learn that mail is not delivered by Pony Express in rural areas. There are satelites and other modern inventions. If necessarily, they can plug into a phone line.
The regional focus of the article aside, only a small fraction of people in rural areas work in agriculture, mining or forestry. Less than 10%. Service and manufacturing industries employ far more people.
Not all rural areas are made up mostly of farmers. The small town I grew up in had a lot of farmland owned by just a small handful of farmers. The majority of people were employed by a few larger businesses and the rest by either small business or commuter up to an hour (60 miles each way commute, not a city commute that takes long because of traffic).
For reference, small town has only one blinking red light at the only 4 way stop in town. Less than 70 kids per graduating class when I was there, I think it’s gotten smaller since. No APs at all, we did have less than 5 available dual enrollment class options for seniors.
Aside from not being able to commute, I think a lot of kids (and adults) have a fear of city life. And to someone from a very small town, even the smallest cities many of you here on CC scoff at and consider too small and “rural” seem like scary, dangerous places. The city can seem very overwhelming to many rural 18 year olds.
I think it is more the socioeconomic status than the “ruralness” that is at play. There is a mass of very wealthy families tucked away living in a rather simpler life on rural land by choice. Also when talking about rural, especially in the Midwest it is difficult to send kids far afield when some of the very best colleges and universities are a day drive or less away.
Rural kids can get in trouble just like urban kids but less kids within an arms reach creates a pretty diverse and inclusive K-12 environment and in my opinion less bullying and cliques that happen in large urban schools and then there is the social aspects of the church which can be a substitute social influencer.
I also think the options for post high school can be more varied. Dad owns the well digging company…kids take over. The local excavator or home builder or local tax accountant, the tree farm, the auto body shop…the list is endless. Whether the kid goes to college or not there can be a living sitting there waiting for them. If anything in my opinion it is more difficult for young rural females and those are the ones that may leave the area.
My kids didn’t “fear” urban areas so much as they disliked the light pollution, the constant smell of exhaust and buildings that blocked the sky and limit their visits to cities to “fun weekends.”
My middle is a “grower.” Part of his day in a lab, part in an office in front of a computer and part out in the fields and greenhouses and makes a very good living and it is not the pot industry lol although we joke he could get incredibly wealthy if it were legalized in the state.
There is no “one size fits all” rural for young people. Just as not all urban kids are poor, black and live in the ghetto.