Two Small Rural Schools Under Seige: an Oral History 1969-2012
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Georgia Southern University Digital Commons@Georgia Southern Electronic Theses and Dissertations Graduate Studies, Jack N. Averitt College of Summer 2013 Two Small Rural Schools Under Seige: An Oral History 1969-2012 Deborah Costlow Cartee Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/etd Part of the Curriculum and Instruction Commons, and the Elementary Education and Teaching Commons Recommended Citation Cartee, Deborah Costlow, "Two Small Rural Schools Under Seige: An Oral History 1969-2012" (2013). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 857. https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/etd/857 This dissertation (open access) is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate Studies, Jack N. Averitt College of at Digital Commons@Georgia Southern. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons@Georgia Southern. For more information, please contact [email protected]. TWO SMALL RURAL SCHOOLS UNDER SIEGE: AN ORAL HISTORY 1969-2012 by DEBORAH COSTLOW CARTEE (Under the Direction of Robert L. Lake) ABSTRACT This study is an oral history of the small rural community of Portal, Georgia, its two local schools, and its residents’ successful fight to keep these community schools. Guided by the theoretical framework of critical theory and the works of critical researchers, namely Paulo Freire (1998), Michael Apple (2006), Jean Anyon (2005), and Henry Giroux (2001), one purpose of this study was to discover what we can learn from the experiences of citizens in one small rural community who have been affected by consolidation. Since the account of the relationship between the Portal community and its hometown schools remains untold, another purpose was to produce a written record of some of the events from 1969, the year desegregation was enforced in Bulloch County, Georgia, to 2012, two years after the new Portal Middle High School was completed. The residents of Portal, Georgia, have struggled for nearly four decades to retain their neighborhood public schools citing these institutions as vital members in a partnership with this community. The recommended elimination of these schools was partly due to the small enrollment, limited funds, and perceived isolation from other schools in the Bulloch County district. It is how and why these schools, over time, came to be the disfavored, under-enrolled, and under-subsidized institutions they are today that was explored. The concepts of small size, closeness, and the experience of knowing 1 members of their community were repeatedly stressed by the participants as crucial positive characteristics of the schools and community. The analysis of contention between the Portal community and the members in the more influential areas of Bulloch County revealed an ownership attitude and a manner of condescension toward this community with a chief bias being economic discrimination that essentially linked the Portal children’s education to their parents’ income-tax brackets. The majority of the data was gathered through interviews with five women and three men, all key members of the community whose ages range from their early 30s through their early 70s: Sarah Greene, Ellen Hodges, Tracy Kirkland, Kate Mitchell, Jamie Young, Richard Emerson, William Etheridge, and Gerald Johnson (all names are pseudonyms). The stories were analyzed through a critical lens that examines power relationships and the influence of classism in society. INDEX WORDS: Classism, Critical Theory, Desegregation, Marginalization, Oral History, Ownership Society, Rural Schools, Sense of Place, School Consolidation, Schwab’s Four Commonplaces, Small Schools, and Social Bias 2 TWO SMALL RURAL SCHOOLS UNDER SIEGE: AN ORAL HISTORY 1969-2012 by DEBORAH COSTLOW CARTEE B.M., Georgia Southern College, 1979 M.Ed., Georgia Southern University, 2003 A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Georgia Southern University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF CURRICULUM STUDIES STATESBORO, GEORGIA 2013 3 © 2013 DEBORAH COSTLOW CARTEE All Rights Reserved 4 TWO SMALL RURAL SCHOOLS UNDER SIEGE: AN ORAL HISTORY 1969-2012 by DEBORAH COSTLOW CARTEE Major Professor: Robert L. Lake Committee: Ming Fang He Julie G. Maudlin Cordelia D. Zinskie Electronic Version Approved: July 2013 5 DEDICATION To Jackson, Addison, Greyson, Ellison, and Grandson No. 3 on the way...the five most beautiful reasons I have for continuing to learn and grow. I hope that each of you, in your own creatively indomitable way, will strive to achieve high levels of excellence in your education and professions. Most importantly, don’t just learn so you can make a living; learn so you can have a wonderfully abundant life full of service to others. 6 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. Isaiah 40:31 This dissertation was completed with the guidance and support of many individuals. First, I would like to convey my deepest appreciation to my husband, Stephen Cartee, whose love, support, and encouragement have been invaluable. Steve, I am grateful for your understanding (and the many trips with me at night to Henderson Library) during this doctoral journey. To my daughters and sons-in-law, Olivia and Travis Coley and Brittany and Michael Holsonback, thanks for your patience and love during this endeavor. Oh yes, and for the grandchildren, too. I plan on “hovering around” all of you a lot more now that I will have plenty of spare time to visit. To my mother-in- law, Jean Cartee, and my father-in-law, Joshua Cartee; PePa, I know that, just like you did on earth, you have continued these past two years to look after me and cheer me on from your heavenly “fishing spot.” Thank you both for believing in me and listening to me when I know you had other things you needed to be doing. To Meralyn Edenfield Smith, the sister I should have had, who has believed in me all along the way . thank you! Your patience and your never-ending encouragement were solace to a sometimes disheartened spirit. Dr. Robert Lake, my dissertation chair, you are a dedicated and inspiring educator and I value your guidance and advice and the steadfastness you have shown during this 7 long process. Thanks also for listening to my (and Steve’s) long meanderings about historical events I found interesting, the grandkids, and rock music – especially great guitarists. After all, we couldn’t talk dissertation all the time! Dr. Tracy Linderholm, thank you for listening to me with patience and respect and for helping advance my dissertation process. I thank my doctoral committee, Dr. Cordelia Zinskie, Dr. Ming Fang He, and Dr. Julie Maudlin for their knowledge, support, and constructive feedback. And finally, many thanks to the special individuals, parents, students, teachers, principals and school board members in the Portal community and surrounding areas in Bulloch County, who contributed to the success of this project by sharing their “Portal” stories. This study would not have been possible without your generosity of time, knowledge and spirit. I thank you for opening up and sharing your life experiences with me. 8 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................... 7 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Fighting Words: Amplifying Their Voices ...................................................... 12 What Does This Mean to Small Rural Communities? ...................................... 21 Our Vanishing Rural Capital ........................................................................... 24 The Ties That Bind ......................................................................................... 27 Purposes of the Study ...................................................................................... 33 Research Questions ......................................................................................... 35 Why Portal, Georgia, and Why Should We Care? ............................................ 35 2 LITERATURE REVIEW Introduction .................................................................................................... 39 The Right of Every Child ................................................................................ 41 What Characteristics Demarcate an Area as "Rural"? ...................................... 46 Critical Theory: Battling Power and the Overarching "ism" of Class ............... 52 Come Join Us: Consolidation and School Size ................................................ 65 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Introduction .................................................................................................... 81 Oral History: The Just Methodology................................................................ 83 The "Twin Cities" and the Portal of Today ...................................................... 86 Exemplary Oral Texts ..................................................................................... 94 Preparing to Collect the Tales of Battle Participants ........................................................................................... 102 9 Interview Processes .............................................................................. 108 Documents and Archived Data ...................................................................... 113 Meeting the Challenges