How do small towns slow the brain drain?
The Wall Street Journal has reviewed a new book called "Hollowing Out the Middle" that may be of interest to Monroe Countians.
The book is written by husband and wife sociologists Patrick J. Carr and Maria J. Kefalas, who settled in an Iowa town of about 2,000 souls in Iowa (a little smaller than Forsyth) to examine small-town life. They report that in small-town America, fulfilling one's promise too often means leaving—and heading for the big city.
From the Journal's review:
The sharpest insight in "Hollowing Out the Middle" is that "small towns play an unwitting role in their own decline" by inculcating, in school and too often at home, the belief that fulfilling one's promise means leaving for the city lights or the manicured suburbs. The purpose of education today, as Kentucky poet-farmer Wendell Berry argues, is to train young people to leave home. And so, the authors note, "the investment the community has made in them becomes a boon for someplace else."
See the entire article here.
Can Forsyth and Monroe County do more to keep our brightest kids here at home? As the father of two children -- who are of course very bright :) -- I hope so. The key is good-paying jobs. And how do you create those? Successful private enterprise. Our community has plenty of government-sector jobs and we're thankful for those. But what can we do to attact industry, or to start our own successful enterprises? It's something we all should be thinking about.
The book is written by husband and wife sociologists Patrick J. Carr and Maria J. Kefalas, who settled in an Iowa town of about 2,000 souls in Iowa (a little smaller than Forsyth) to examine small-town life. They report that in small-town America, fulfilling one's promise too often means leaving—and heading for the big city.
From the Journal's review:
The sharpest insight in "Hollowing Out the Middle" is that "small towns play an unwitting role in their own decline" by inculcating, in school and too often at home, the belief that fulfilling one's promise means leaving for the city lights or the manicured suburbs. The purpose of education today, as Kentucky poet-farmer Wendell Berry argues, is to train young people to leave home. And so, the authors note, "the investment the community has made in them becomes a boon for someplace else."
See the entire article here.
Can Forsyth and Monroe County do more to keep our brightest kids here at home? As the father of two children -- who are of course very bright :) -- I hope so. The key is good-paying jobs. And how do you create those? Successful private enterprise. Our community has plenty of government-sector jobs and we're thankful for those. But what can we do to attact industry, or to start our own successful enterprises? It's something we all should be thinking about.
posted by Will Davis at
12:16 PM
To attract private industry we need to elect officials who are smart enough bring the industry here. Right now we don't have that.
I read in a Houston County Newspaper today that our county officials have already promised an unamed amount to Warner Robins for the GRAMP project. I think this is a good investment for there are a gret number of people, including myself, that do thrive in Monroe County, yet commute to work elsewhere. Does this count? I pay my taxes....