Let education burn brightly in Rowan-Salisbury schools
When we travel through the cities of our youth, my husband and I point out places of interest to our children. There are lots of changes, like pools being filled in and old schools renovated into condominiums for senior adults. Many parents in Rowan County have also seen changes to their childhood schools. Other structures have changed very little, but memories make the fabric of who we are.
I have an eighth-grade daughter at Knox and a younger son who can’t wait to get there. Yesterday, my daughter volunteered with friends at the school. This was not the first time she’s helped; she’s done it since becoming a student there. She’s seen CIS volunteers mentor, college students tutor, members of St. Johns and other churches brush-up on math skills to work with students and a friend’s mom taking time each week to meet with reading groups. Diverse elementary schools feed into Knox, which means creating a community in a short time. Our current administration looks for ways to encourage that; more than joining the PTA, band or athletic boosters, but also doing that and volunteering time throughout the year. Projects are created to meet the school’s needs and bring folks together, like a spring planting project combining efforts of students, teachers, parents and a local nursery. This continues next weekend when some garden art is added by students. We need to keep communication open so that past issues do not continue to define Knox.
William Yates said, “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” Things over the past several years at Knox, and in education generally, have lit a fire in many people. Let’s continue as a community to help education burn brightly for all children in Rowan County.
— Elaine Holden
Salisbury
Improvements help Knox
About 100 volunteers went to Knox Middle School to refurbish it a little. I think this is great. I am a rising sophomore at Salisbury High, but when I was at Knox, it was in bad shape. I also think the new principal seems very promising and appears to care about the school and students. I hope Knox will have a good 2011-2012 school year. The improvements at the school may increase the self-esteem of the students and improve their school performance.
— Joshua Lasker
Salisbury
UNC’s football scandal
Thirteen months ago, the NCAA alerted University of North Carolina of nine major rules infractions involving its football program. At that time, Chancellor Holden Thorp and Athletic Director Dick Baddour wisely avoided a knee-jerk rush to judgment of Coach Butch Davis and launched an extensive investigation that uncovered an academic impropriety which they reported to the NCAA. Last week, after 13 months of subpoenas, a lawsuit, three court appearances securing privileged correspondence and an NCAA investigation, Davis was fired after no evidence was found to directly link him to the NCAA violations.
We know very little about Thorp except that he is young and sends sophomoric emails from time to time. We know less about the UNC board members. Hopefully, neither was directly linked to the NCAA allegations.
We do know something about Davis. When he arrived, the UNC football program was in disarray. Since then, Davis has fought personal battles with the tenacity of Kay Yow and Jim Valvano. The NCAA did not deter him from his promise to bring excellence to UNC’s football program. Last year’s team will be long remembered for its tenacity in the face of withering adversity.
Davis kept his promise to the university not only in terms of wins and losses but also by instilling values his players will use long after football is over. In return, Thorp and the board dangled Davis for 13 months and then cut the rope. It’s not clear how the university’s image will benefit from their pious decision to hold Davis to higher standards of behavior than they require of themselves.
— Joe Exum
Snow Hill