Friday, April 27, 2007
I am from a small farm town in south central Kansas that could hardly fill Budig 110. There were 27 people in my graduating class. About a half of them went to college and the rest of them stayed in Norwich to take over their families’ farms. My high school offered no AP credits. I had the same teacher for English, math, social science and science all four years of high school.
Because of this I grew up thinking that I lacked the proper education and knowledge to make it at a big-time university.
nutgraf
In Norwich, you cannot skip classes and you cannot turn in assignments late. If you do, your teacher will ask you, your sister whom they teach later in the day or your best friend where you are or why you’re slacking. This close inspection taught me to be responsible.
But as I end my sophomore year at the University of Kansas, I now know that my small town taught me more than I realized.
Norwich taught me to be friendly and polite. Not everyone here is a snob or cold-hearted, but back home everyone waves or smiles as you drive by. People stop to ask how you are doing or how your family is. Here people do not seem to be as sincere and people rarely smile as you pass them on the sidewalk.
I also learned how to have fun doing nothing. Norwich does not have a Wal-Mart or even a McDonalds. We don’t have a stop light, most of our city roads are dirt and we lost our post office and grocery store. The lack of entertainment forced my friends and me to find a way to have fun doing nothing and to appreciate the things we did have.
We would drive up to the Farmer’s Co-op, the tallest structure in town, where wheat is weighed, and weigh our cars. We would sit around a field watching stars and talk about our hopes and fears. We learned how to connect with people in a time when technology puts up barriers between true connections. As corny as it sounds, we learned to appreciate things like friends and family.
My high school also gave me an excellent education. Although from my description it may seem below average, my teachers taught important values. My largest class had 25 students, but most averaged about 10. Small numbers allowed teachers to pay close attention to each one of us and it allowed me to speak my mind. It’s intimidating to raise your hand in Budig 120 but in a class of 10 you don’t even need to raise your hand — you just participate.
In Norwich, you cannot skip classes and you cannot turn in assignments late. If you do, your teacher will ask you, your sister whom they teach later in the day or your best friend where you are or why you’re slacking. This close inspection taught me to be responsible. I got into the habit of turning in my assignments on time and attending class regularly.
So before “cultured” people make a wisecrack about how small town kids “don’t know anything,” think about how our backgrounds have taught us to be hard-working, friendly and responsible. We may not have grown up with the best of everything, but we grew up appreciating what we have.
Chelsea Magruder is a Norwich sophomore in journalism and English.
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