Tag: Education

  • Education Track Leader 2008: Tim McClung


    Let me introduce you to the Education Track Leader for the Create WV Conference this year. Gang, this is Tim McClung … Tim, this is the Create WV posse. (Tim says hi) The Education Track was popular last year and we all think it is going to be even better this year. Tim calls it…

  • We Are…A Creative Community!


    In Huntington Vaughn Grisham, a sociology professor and director of the McLean Institute for Community Development at the University of Mississippi, lead a community planning session at Marshall University’s Memorial Student Center that attracted over 60 citizens. The topic? Huntington’s future and how to engage young people in the development of it. From the Huntington…

  • Pushing Back on Cultural Bias Against Academic Attainment


    We’ve heard several people comment over the last several months about a perceived bias against education in our great state. The basic recounting goes like this: The bias manifests itself in other ways, such as resistance to teacher pay raises (“they already make more than most of us, and they get the summers off!”). I…

  • 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!

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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.…

  • 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…