Superintendent’s Chat

Richard McClements, Shonto Preparatory School

I grew up on a farm in Upstate New York. My hometown was Newport, which had about 1000 people. When I was a teenager, the place to go on a Friday and Saturday night was a bigger village called Herkimer. To me, Herkimer had it all. It had lots of shopping and a movie theatre. The main street was always busy, and it was quite beautiful. Even back then, the entire region was economically depressed. It seemed that everyone was poor, out of work, or working at a job that paid next to nothing. Herkimer didn’t exceed 10,000 people, but it represented to me the “rich side” of life. I thought that the homes were beyond description and so expensive I would never know what it would be like to be inside one. There were lots of pretty girls there, and everything seemed so sophisticated.

While visiting my mother this summer, I walked down the main street in Herkimer. It was such a shocking and painful experience. Herkimer is now one of the biggest eyesores you’ll ever see. Gone are the beautiful department stores, the classy shops, the movie theater, the jewelry stores, the drug stores. Now you find tattoos parlors, dollar stores that are closing, boarded up storefronts, ridiculous little holes in the wall that sell junk, and about 15 bars. The once classy restaurants, such as The General Herkimer or the Prospect House, are no longer. The people who hang out on that main street are poor and on the dole. I walked by a real estate agency and looked at the listings. The homes were selling dirt-cheap and most of us wouldn’t think of buying one – even at their current selling prices in the mid-60’s. Nobody in his right mind would now want to live in Herkimer. County music singer, Alan Jackson, had a song a couple of years ago entitled, “Little Man,” in which he describes how the Little Man (main street shop owners) across America has been driven out of business by the shopping malls. WalMart and Kmart have literally captured the market in Herkimer by selling greater variety and at a cheaper price.

Herkimer now represents to me those students who do not see the reality of the consequences of an inadequate education. I wish our schools had an operational crystal ball that would let each student look into his future 10, 15, and 30 years from now and see what that life is going to be like. Some would be scared to death to face the life they are going to lead. If you recall, I wrote a previous article, “Where you stand is determined by the choices you have made.” We are constantly telling students not to drop out of school. That doesn’t even begin to make a difference. We are deeply involved in a world economy. Factory after factory is closing. More and more foreigners are now providing services which we buy from them. Just as the small business owners in Herkimer could not compete with a giant corporations, the poorly educated American will not be able to measure up against those people around the world who are better educated and who will work for half the income. Our students have to be better educated and have a work ethic second to none or our nation is going to have more Herkimers and more people hanging out on those streets with no where to go and no money to spend.