Craig Howley
Appalachian Collaborative Center
for Learning, Assessment, and Instruction in Mathematics
Co-Director, Research Initiative
Ohio University
Phone: 740-593-9869
Email: howleyc@ohio.edu
Homepage: http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~howleyc/howleyc.htm
I've written about, studied, and lived in rural places. We now farm 80 acres in
Appalachian Ohio, where we raise a small variety of crops and animals.
Culture, politics, economics, and history concern me. I wish schools were better
at promoting “the life of the mind” (whatever that is; finding out is part of the
adventure) among everyone. And I think there are reasons they don't, but these
reasons constitute more than just inattention or foolishness. Culture, politics,
economics, and history suggest reasons.
Literature (fiction) may be a much better guide to true education in rural places
than the sorts of poor studies we educationists sponsor. Check out Wallace
Stegner's Second Growth (circa 1947) or Annie Proulx's The Shipping News
(1993) and even E.M. Forster's Howards End (1910). These folks have
preserved something we have tried desperately to abandon, but can't actually
escape. The wonder is that, though these books (and many more) treat the
dilemmas of rural life, they also deal with the idea of a true education more
universally. Now, that's fun because it's not easy. In particular, novels don't lend
themselves to translations as cookbooks.
Teaching well is the most difficult work in the world. We make a great mistake
with attempts to make it easy or happy. Happiness is not a worthy aim for
education, nor is getting and holding a good job.
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