Ekstasis

austinkleon:

New book talks about rural brain drain. Was just talking to my dad about this the other day:

Small towns traditionally put all their efforts behind the smart students (whom the authors label “Achievers”), pushing them out to four-year universities in cities, where they are much more likely to succeed and, unfortunately for the town, much more likely to stay. Students who are less accomplished or driven are given little support, but they are also the ones who are most likely to remain in their small towns post-graduation. In order to make sure these kids succeed, and thus benefit the community, the authors argue, they need to be better trained in areas such as computer technology, health care, sustainable agriculture, and green energy, areas geared toward the modern global economy.

…We flee our hometowns because they’re unbearable. In the process, we (so to speak) leave the inmates to run the asylum; we leave the bigots and the idiots as the only game in town. It’s true that better education and job training can help address many of the problems in rural America, but those remedies can’t fix the basic problem, a cultural rather than logistical one.