A Green Shoots Nominee From Rush, Kentucky

OS admits to a certain grumpy relationship with academia.  He's always loved learning, and been impatient and abrasive with schools.  College days were not fun, and when he graduated, he drove out of town and didn't bother to look back.

On the other hand, there are people, a lot of them who live in the South, who think that colleges are somehow inherently evil, places where 'Commanihsts' and other low-lifes lie in wait to corrupt the morals and characters of their children.

Really, those people exist. OS knows a few, and has no patience with them. They sabotage their children's lives, especially the lives of their daughters. Usually, they do it in the name of some perverted version of Christianity.

They breed tragedy.

Then, along comes a story like this one.

Monica Marks, who grew up around a lot of people described in the paragraph above, is heading to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar.  She hails from Rush, Kentucky (near Ashland, which sits in the mountains on the West Virginia border). Neither her mom or dad graduated high school, and went to a church that 'discourages pursuit of a college degree', as the article politely states.

In other words, her Dad looked the local church culture in the eye and said, 'Hell, no! This kid is going to college, and I'm gonna do what it takes to get her there and beyond!'

Monica escaped. And her story may give a few other kids the courage to do the same.  No one in that part of Kentucky will be able to claim that 'it just can't be done', 'cuz Monica went and did it! The preachers will rant, and the parents of the girls who dropped out of school at sixteen to start having babies will gossip and fume.

Let 'em. Monica escaped!

Undoubtedly, Monica will teach, for at least thirty years. And write. And mentor kids like the kids she grew up with. She has the potential to affect thousands upon thousands of lives for the good.

Kudos to Monica, her high school, and the University of Louisville. 'They all done real good', to use the local dialect.

But the Green Shoots nomination goes to Jesse Marks, who supplied his girl with books, and supported her in her quest by selling janitorial supplies,  and didn't care what the local fundamentalists thought of him.

His courage will bear fruit for the entire century.

A Good Guy Finishes First

It's a long way from Waverly, Tennessee to Interlochen Arts Academy, especially as a transfer student attending for his senior year.

It took a special kind of moxie for Jake Rychen to achieve this, and this morning marked his graduation from the Academy.

This August, he begins his trumpet studies with the fabulous Michael Tunnel at the University of Louisville.

There is a world full of bad news out there, things that make us cringe, things that make us look to the future with real concern.

Then there are kids like Jake, who (with our support and encouragement) may yet turn the culture back in a good direction.

Kudos to Jake, his family, Interlochen and U of L for this morning's moment of inspiration.

And, a special shout-out to The Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, who sends an examiner to his part of the world twice a year to hear students. Those exams provide a path to the outside world for kids like Jake, who exercise the ambition to prepare to the rigorous standards of ABRSM exams.

We all have a few bucks to donate, even in a recession.

Interlochen and U of L School of Music belong on the list.