My Hattiesburg

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1. Apparently there are many “Personal Problems in the Lamar County Government.

   As for the Lamar Co. school board… What should we expect from the likes of Swann whose obvious philosophy is Rule & Regulation first the Student last. Those who cater to his Vision of Totalitarianism are congruent with a broader and more diabolical Admistrator-centered philosophy.

   Just to remind those who may not know; Totalitarianism is a political system in which the citizen is totally subject to state authority in all aspects of day-to-day life. Government controls education. Adolph Hitler was one of the more infamous supporter’s of this philosophy.

   Comment by Thomas Mann — April 2, 2005 #

2. Since Lamar Co. is a part of West Hattiesburg, perhaps Mann’s comment may be relevant. Looking at the whole scope of his issue these are concerns that should be addressed for the area as a whole. Perhaps there is a reason Mississippi lags behind in the education of its children.

   Surely, the commitment to school as community, and community as arena for participation, assuming responsibility, and self-determination, does not accept that schools should be directed by governments. Most schools are not. Governments, even where democratically elected, can be unresponsive to the evolving needs of individual schools each with its unique and changing population. Governmental control should indeed be questioned, and government directed educational programs should to be seen as more responsive to political expedience than to the needs of the individual child; and after all, it is individual children and not undifferentiated masses that most educators and parents feel are being educated.
   Many people feel they would become more decent human beings by working in a non-hierarchical way with each other and caring for each other. The hidden power structures in schooling and the implications of that structure are powerfully illustrate that changing the traditional structure of authority and submission in schools, and eliminating the training in uncritical acceptance normally found in schools are essential to addressing the social injustices that plague the undeveloped nations and the under classes in the developed areas of these countries.
   The respect for the individual inherent in such a decentralized democracy, where people are not seen as part of a social or economic system, is linked to the religiosity. Every child needs to be seen as an expression of, an arena for, or an entity containing the sacred, and must be recognized and treated as such. If education is a process of discovery and uncovering, and every child was unique; how can the traditional educational judging of children be anything other than inherently wrong? How could a child be a slow learner if he is learning at a pace that was right for him? How could a child be disruptive if he was doing what he was interested in rather than what others wanted him to do, or were those others not in fact disrupting him? If a child doesn’t learn through words and numbers, is he unintelligent or can he be learning through other intelligences? Maybe, just maybe, - some children who are poor at words and numbers are never the less geniuses and terribly short changed, if not brutalized, by traditional education.

   Comment by Josef Konrad — April 3, 2005 #

3. It aint none of yalls damn businis what goes on in this county!

   Comment by Bubba — April 10, 2005 #

4. Hi ! Your site is very interesting. Thank you.

   Comment by Neo — March 16, 2006 #

5. Hi ! Your site is very interesting. Thank you.

   Comment by Sasha — March 16, 2006 #

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