We’re Still Out Here Stopping the Exodus Bob Pest
Most talented students in small towns become disenchanted at age 15 or 16. To quote the average “A student” in any rural high school, “There’s nothing to do here.” In all fairness, there is a lot of truth to this complaint. Small towns generally lack the resources to construct and sustain live music venues, movie theaters, bowling alleys, or art galleries. High schools may offer occasional movie screenings, touring art exhibits, or touring bands, but school events lack the “grown up” feeling that bright, impatient teens are seeking. When I was a similarly frustrated teenager in Wheeling, West Virginia a local civic group purchased an old train station and turned it into the “Depot Dance Hall” for teens. It was open every Friday and Saturday evening and open to students from all of the area schools. I ultimately left my home town to attend college on an academic scholarship in Pennsylvania, but my last two years of high school were much more tolerable and I made many friends from other schools at the dance hall. While nobody wants to discourage students from attending the best possible college or urge them to turn down scholarships to “stay at home,” students with good memories of their high school years and a network of friends at home feel more connected to their communities and are more likely to consider returning after they complete their education. The “Stayers” and “Returners” also frequently appreciate cultural or recreational opportunities and become involved themselves in creating and maintaining similar activities for their children. Some communities have taken more aggressive approaches, offering free land to students with desirable skills who return after college. In Hollowing Out the Middle, authors Patrick Carr and Maria Kefalas point to the example of Ellsworth County, Iowa. The county offers land, free utility hook-ups, a waiver of the building permit fee, a family golf pass, and a family swimming-pool pass. It also offers a “down payment” assistance program for families who enroll their children in public schools and commit to keep them there for at
least three years. Families are given $1,000 for the first child and $250 for each subsequent child enrolled. Other communities have embraced the “economic gardening” approach. This approach focuses on a come back/give back approach. The strategy is to engage youth by encouraging supporting their ideas for improving the community and providing an incentive for staying or returning to participate fully in the growth and advancement of their home town, using their own ideas. We are all more likely to live in a community that we helped to shape, that recognizes our contributions, and that provides us with opportunities to grow, flourish, and leave our signature. Of course, staying or returning also depends upon available, well paying, and satisfying employment. Rural communities that are redefining themselves and retooling to participate in the “green economy,” the “field to table movement,” and new, emerging technologies are more likely to attract the “Achievers” than rumors of a new plant. In the final analysis, communities must recognize and play to their strengths if they expect their talented youth to start families, build homes, start new businesses, and become civic leaders. Small towns that learn and develop innovative ways to both plug the rural brain drain and nurture the young people who remain at home can look to the future with pride, optimism, and confidence that a bright future lays ahead. N
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