Tag: Education
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New Arts Venues Energize Communities
We are always on the lookout for exciting new artistic and cultural initiatives and venues, so please let us know when you find one. New arts venues that we are very excited about include: Congratulations and good luck to all these new creative endeavors!
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A Look Into West Virginia’s Connectivity Challenges
The much-anticipated map of West Virginia’s broadband coverage developed by the Connect West Virginia organization, a subsidiary non-profit group of Connected Nation, in partnership with the state’s telecommunications vendors and with leadership from the Governor’s Office and volunteers, is now available. For the first time, many folks around the state can get a good idea…
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Time to Break the Vicious Cycle
A Charleston Daily Mail article today highlighted the fact that West Virginia has never been above 44th in the nation when it comes to the income of the average citizen. For the last 25 years, West Virginia has ranked 48th or 49th in per capita income. Why can’t West Virginia’s economy break through? The article…
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Golden Opportunity Missed?
We often talk about ways to attract, retain, and develop creative talent here in West Virginia. But how well are we doing? If this story is true, not well. Recently, a high profile position opened up and a person with a very bright future and innovative ideas was looked over. Perhaps because he was from…
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Pride and Prejudice
It can be a difficult thing, opening up old definitions and systems to new ways of respecting the wide range of human experience and identity. Kudos to the WV Legislature for moving forward with adding sexual orientation to the State Human Rights and Fair Housing Act. http://www.news-register.net/page/content.detail/id/41591.html?isap=1&nav=535 When relationships are between consenting adults, no one…
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Money is No Object
Money Is No Object From time to time, I hear rumbles that the concept of a creative community is, well,……perhaps the word is high falutin’. Somewhere along the line, creative thinking and wanting something beautiful and expressive became all mixed up with elitism. I have two simple examples of how profoundly off-base this idea is.…
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Lessons to Learn From Finland?
Did you hear about the school whose students rate the highest in the world in science and close to the top in math among the top 57 countries? And oh, by the way, assign very little homework, don’t have school uniforms, no “achievement award” programs like honor societies, very little standardized testing and wait until…
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Talent or Taxes? Where Should We Become Leaders?
If you were the Governor, or a leader in the Legislature, where would you place your bet for future economic development in West Virginia? Would you prioritize the development and recruitment of talented, highly-educated workers, researchers and teachers to build up our state’s brainpower, or take a much more aggressive whack at eliminating what are…
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Government’s Role in the New Economy
Whatever your opinion of government, whether you fall into the pure free-markets, “less is more” camp or the hands-on government camp, there should be one thing we all agree on: government has quite an influence on our state. With up to 52% of our state economy somehow connected to government spending (yes, the highest in…
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“Teach to Test” – not in the 21st Century.
State School Superintendent Steve Paine’s recognition that “we’ve relied too heavily on standardized tests to improve student performance” and that standardized tests like WESTEST are “not good as a tool to improve individual student achievement” (Daily Mail, Jan.2) is a welcome start to making education relevant again for students. Emphasizing fine arts, wellness, global awareness,…