After my visit and researching the demographics of the community, I was able to develop my understanding of the community’s role in children’s education. The community has a huge impact on the school and the school’s results. From the moment I entered Thorntown, I noticed the extreme lack of diversity among its residents. Thorntown is 99.1% Caucasian and that can have huge effects on the classroom. Students who don’t experience people of other cultures, ethnicities, and backgrounds tend to lack an open-mind about the practices and traditions that occur in everyday life. On the other hand, establishing community in the classroom through similarities can truly allow for students to feel a certain bond with their peers. Furthermore, I only noticed two Catholic Churches and one Presbyterian Church. Through this observation and previous knowledge, I can conclude that Thorntown’s community is very traditional in the sense that almost all of the community consists of White Catholics.
My research directed me to the economic situation regarding Thorntown. The average income is $38,950. This number is accurate while observing the expenses a family must concern about. The average family size is about 3.1 people and the average cost per home is about $90,000. The only schools within 5 miles of the city are public schools. The unemployment rate in Thorntown is below the state average. The number of college students living in Thorntown is well below the state average. All of these factors are a result of Thorntown’s socioeconomic status. Families can only afford smaller houses, which consequences from small families. In addition, students attend public education and try to earn their college degree.
I noticed Thorntown had a downtown area that lasted about 150 yards. Unfortunately, there were abandoned shops, one bank, one library, no museums, no art centers, two gas stations, and one huge fountain named after Anson Mills, the founder of El Paso, Texas.
I focused my research on Western Boone Jr./Sr. High School (WeBo, for short) that was founded in 1973. It includes grades 7-12 and the enrollment number for 2012 was 899 students. I was able to find the improvement plan on the website and it described the administration’s great efforts to increase attendance from the students. WeBo has just recently been ranked 1,971 out of 21,776 schools nationwide for outstanding test scores. U.S. News awarded WeBo with a silver medal in January of 2012 in their Best High Schools rankings. Western Boone Jr./Sr. High School was also named an Academic Four Star School. Students take tests such as the following: ISTEP, PSAT, PLAN, and SAT/ACT.
Here is the WeBo belief statement:
“Western Boone Junior-Senior High School values and embraces quality instruction while incorporating best practices and an effective curriculum aligned to the state standards within our school. We also value community resources and use those resources available to us as a means to develop our students into independent, responsible, and diverse citizens.”
The Western Boone Jr./Sr. High Schools devote their practices to making sure their students are well-rounded individuals. Based on the philosophies we have learned, I would say that WeBo has a strong idea of what they want their students learning. It is both a combination of passing the cultural baton and reconstructing society. The school year is separated into grade levels and semesters. This says much about their philosophy as a school. I believe they practice essentialism, where they model academic virtues as the center of the classroom, social reconstructionism, where they look to better the future, and progressivism, where they look to integrate a flexible study of academic subjects.