Editorials
The Jackson Herald
January 26, 2000
Legislature
should stay out of Bible fray
Should the Bible be taught
in public schools?
There are a lot of sincere people who believe there is nothing
wrong with Christian proselytizing in public schools. That feeling
is no doubt one reason three bills are pending in the Georgia
General Assembly to allow the Bible to be taught as history or
literature.
But no matter how well-meaning those intentions may be, these
bills are a distraction from the much bigger educational issues
facing the legislature. One suspects they are little more than
window dressing for this year's re-election campaigns.
The truth is, there is nothing in the law that currently prohibits
a teacher from using the Bible as a historical or literary document
in the classroom. Every English teacher should, for example,
point out to students that the 1613 Authorized Version of the
Bible, better known as the King James Version, had a profound
impact on the development of the English language. History teachers
should also acknowledge the profound role the spread of Christianity
had on the formation of what is popularly called Western Civilization.
But the legislation now before the legislature goes further than
those ideas by endorsing the idea of making the Bible itself
the topic of a single class. While there are no laws that specifically
prohibit them, such classes are generally not taught because
of the potential backlash from parents. School administrators
have stayed away from such courses because any study of a particular
religion, or religious document, involves unavoidable theological
debates. Such discussions always stir up parents who are sensitive
to religious indoctrination issues and lead to arguments over
how such courses should be taught.
But the big question for the legislature isn't indoctrination,
but rather, should that body be meddling so deeply into classroom
course content with legislation that prescribes a particular
course with a particular textbook? Moreover, should that body
seek to remedy a problem that doesn't exist, namely, that schools
could have already offered such courses, but have largely chosen
not to do so?
We believe the legislature should stay focused on the bigger
issues of education it has before it and not get sidetracked
by emotional debates and political grandstanding on such minor
matters.
Letter
The Jackson Herald
January 26, 2000
Appreciates
Adams' column on her uncle
Dear Editor:
After reading Virgil Adams' column last week, I feel like I should
do something that I was "supposed to" have done a long
time ago - tell him thank you. That plumber that Mr. Adams often
writes about and refers to was my uncle. Dennis Fouche was all
that Mr. Adams makes him out to be and more. We appreciate all
that he has done and continues to do to keep my uncle's memory
alive. While he will always be close to family and friends, I
wish more people could have known him and known what a wonderful
and unique person he was. Mr. Adams is making that possible through
his writing.
I hope that Mr. Adams knows how much Dennis loved being the focus
of his articles. In our family, it became a standing joke to
ask our big "celebrity" for his autograph. I remember
one chilly evening when Dennis showed up for a family chicken-mull
gathering. If my memory serves me right, Dennis was shirtless,
patting his stomach and claiming that he was having sympathy
symptoms from Lynn's pregnancy. He proceeded to flaunt his "Hollywood
status." Leave it to Dennis to always be the life of the
party. I wish now that I had gotten that autograph.
I'll never forget the first time that Dennis met my boyfriend,
who is now my husband. At the time, we had been dating for three
months, and it was the first time that Jason had met my extended
family. Of course, I had told Jason a little bit about each family
member, which includes 40+ people. For almost everybody, one
or two words immediately came to mind to describe them. Then,
I came to Dennis, and I was speechless. Finding the right words
to describe him was not an easy task. Thoughtful, compassionate,
energetic - yes, but these words alone just didn't seem to come
close to capturing the real Dennis. I finally ended up telling
Jason that you just have to "experience" Dennis to
know him. Fortunately, Jason was able to do that for a couple
of years. Their first meeting consisted of Dennis telling Jason
that now that he was with me, he was stuck here in Jackson County
and we might as well get married, get land from Daddy, build
a house and let him do the plumbing for free. I'm sure Dennis
would have done that, if he'd been here two years later, when
his prediction came true. Even though Dennis was not physically
present at my wedding, our memorial candle to him burned bright
throughout the entire ceremony.
Since words alone can't come close to portraying Dennis, we share
the numerous memories and stories that we have collected over
the years. They help us to keep Dennis close and to tell others
about him, especially one very special young man named "Dino,"
Dennis' son. Dino (nicknamed by his father before he was born)
will certainly know what kind of man his father was. We will
help Dino "experience" his father through the priceless
memories we have of him. Dino is almost 2 years old. Soon he
will be old enough to understand the stories of a man who wore
a paper pirate's hat in a Panama City restaurant to keep his
nieces and nephews from being afraid of the costumed waiters,
a man who made a mission every year out of hiding the Easter
prize egg so well that not even adults could find it, and a man
who would make a house call to rescue kittens from a lint hose.
We appreciate Mr. Adams' giving us more wonderful stories of
Dennis, and we thank him for helping us to help Dino "experience"
his father.
Sincerely,
Diane Mergele
Jefferson
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Column
By Mike
Buffington
January 26, 2000
Attendance
policy is needed
The proposal to limit the number of non-district students in
the Jefferson City School System is a much-needed policy for
its growing classrooms. It also marks a historic turning point
for the system because the current open door atmosphere dates
back to a variety of political and social decisions made in the
early 1950s up through the 1980s.
For many years, the city system has had an open door policy of
accepting any student no matter where they lived. That wasn't
a problem when the system needed students to fill its facilities
and to make maximum use of state funds.
But the area's growth in the last few years has the elementary
school bursting and has pushed the system toward building a new
middle school. Because it is a city school system, Jefferson
must accept students who live inside the city, but it does not
have to accept those who live outside the town. With space starting
to become a premium, it just makes sense to limit access to those
who live out of the city limits of Jefferson.
To many, that may seem like a simple solution that should have
been done a couple of years ago. But the move has been slow to
come because of the long history between the city system and
students who lived outside the town. Here's the nutshell version
of what is a complex history:
In the early 1950s, the state launched an education reform effort
that resulted in the consolidation of most small community schools
into larger systems. A part of that also dealt with the then-segregated
schools of the South. In 1952, the Jefferson City system and
the Jackson County system entered into a 25-year contract that
assigned all black students to the county school system and in
return, the city system would educate white county students who
lived near Jefferson, but outside the city limits. The move was
done so Jefferson could qualify for additional state funding
under the new reform program. (In 1954, a similar contract was
done between the county and the City of Commerce School System.)
In short, starting in the early 1950s, white students who lived
in rural Jackson County near Jefferson were bused by the county
system to Jefferson.
By 1970, the federal courts had gotten entangled in the local
schools as desegregation took place. One part of the 1970 court
order mandated that the old 1952 contract between Jefferson and
Jackson County be extended for an additional 20 years so that
Jefferson could qualify for state funds to house the influx of
black students. The court created an attendance area around Jefferson
for those county students. Although that contract was never executed
officially, both systems continued to operate as though it had
been done and the county continued to bus students to Jefferson
city schools.
By 1980, this complex entanglement between the systems led to
a series of lawsuits. By that time, the county school system
had moved its high school from Braselton to Jefferson and had
begun to accept students who lived in the court-created Jefferson
attendance area. The county and city school systems swapped lawsuits
and in 1981, the court said the attendance would be left up to
the two local board to work out. Fearing an exodus of students,
Jefferson adopted a policy which said that students living within
the old attendance area would be forced to go to Jefferson City
schools even if they lived outside the city.
That forced attendance angered many parents who paid taxes into
the county school system, but were required to send their children
to Jefferson. In 1985, the court ruled that the forced attendance
could no longer take place and freedom of choice was granted
to those county students.
So what does all of that have to do with the current out-of-district
attendance policy being considered by the Jefferson Board of
Education?
Simply this: Because of the long history of contracts and court
orders, several generations of students who lived outside the
city limits of Jefferson were educated in the Jefferson City
School System. Many alumni of those years still have close ties
to the city school system, even though they live outside the
town. So while the Jefferson city system doesn't have a legal
obligation to educate the children or grandchildren of those
people, it does feel a sense of responsibility to those children
because of the long-standing relationships.
So the proposed policy change is more than just an attendance
rules, it is a shift in the priorities of the Jefferson City
School System. Growth pressures have forced the system to attempt
to balance those historic relationships with the more pressing
obligations to city students and taxpayers.
The Jackson County School System had a similar problem a few
years ago and decided to close its doors to all out-of-district
students. But as time has shown, that was an over-reaction which
now plagues the Jackson County Board of Education.
Jefferson must be fair to its own taxpayers, of course, but it
cannot simply walk away from a decades-old relationship with
non-district students.
Hopefully, this proposed policy will balance the complex interests
at stake in the city's schools by closing the door a little without
slamming it shut for good.
Mike Buffington is editor of The Jackson Herald.
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