We are Marion County High School

[OLD PIRATE]

You are right on the money there Bro. OP.....

 

Old Pirate is rather sure that counterfit $20.00 bill OP was hung with said at the bottom "JASPER EDITION"

OP has gotta run that 3:30 whistle is about to blow.

[PurpleGrad]

Old Pirate is rather sure that counterfit $20.00 bill OP was hung with said at the bottom "JASPER EDITION"

OP has gotta run that 3:30 whistle is about to blow.

 

 

If that's the case, you know it had to come from SP or Whitwell.... otherwise it would have said "MARION COUNTY EDITION" at the bottom..... /roflol.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":roflol:" border="0" alt="roflol.gif" /> We don't have trouble calling you guys "South Pittsburg High School" or "Whitwell High School", so you shouldn't have difficulty calling us "Marion County High School".... Besides, the closest "Jasper High School" is in Jasper, IN...

[OLD PIRATE]

If that's the case, you know it had to come from SP or Whitwell.... otherwise it would have said "MARION COUNTY EDITION" at the bottom..... /roflol.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":roflol:" border="0" alt="roflol.gif" /> We don't have trouble calling you guys "South Pittsburg High School" or "Whitwell High School", so you shouldn't have difficulty calling us "Marion County High School".... Besides, the closest "Jasper High School" is in Jasper, IN...

 

Now-now PG, surely you know where those counterfit $20.00 bills come from.

SP makes skillets. Just take your credit for your accomplishments and smile. OP says rumor is...........their is another "1" coming jasper's way real soon. Maybe 1 less bed available at that MARION COUNTY JAIL.. But we all know how talk is around those beauty shops and is not ALWAYS correct. Keep listening............... storm a brewing TBC

[Bill#49]

Now-now PG, surely you know where those counterfit $20.00 bills come from.

SP makes skillets. Just take your credit for your accomplishments and smile. OP says rumor is...........their is another "1" coming jasper's way real soon. Maybe 1 less bed available at that MARION COUNTY JAIL.. But we all know how talk is around those beauty shops and is not ALWAYS correct. Keep listening............... storm a brewing TBC

 

 

 

Yes a transplant I am for the last 20 years. No I do not know all the history between South Pittsburg and Marion County High School. I didn't want to ruffle your do-rag "old pirate". Where would they put a new South Pittsburg High School if one was built? What if this county got together and put this new gym, new air conditioning, new carpet, renovating old schools, (ie you STILL have an old school at Jasper Middle and South Pittsburg High) into one or two brand new schools. I know it will not ever happen in my lifetime but who are we kidding. All the jealousy between the schools in Marion County. Our kids go to college to take remedial classes instead of being prepared to take college level courses. Why? Because we only offer the bare necessities in our three high schools in this county. We cannot offer all the advanced classes in our schools because we do not have the number of kids in each of the three to offer them. Why? Because we are jealous of what one school might get over the other. We do the best we can with what we got. We could do better if this county and all the other small counties in this state would come to the realization that we are cheating our kids and their futures by living in the past instead of looking to their future. It all boils down to what happens on the football fields of these three schools. People in this county are blind to what we should be doing as educators, preparing these kids for the future. We hide behind sports and pride in our small communities to keep from doing what we know would be better. Offer these kids a first rate education so they can compete in a global economy instead of flipping hamburgers in Kimball. A mom and dad with 2 kids trying to make it on a high school education in this world is going to be left behind very quickly. My mom raised 4 kids without dear ole dad being around. She was a high school drop-out and we made it but it was tough. That was 30 years ago. In today's world it is a lot tougher for a single mom of 4 to do it. Without a proper education it is almost impossible to compete in a global economy like we have now. Jobs are disappearing faster and faster from this country. You better offer a world-class education if you are going to compete or you will be asking all those foreigners if they want fries with that!!

[Bill#49]

Now-now PG, surely you know where those counterfit $20.00 bills come from.

SP makes skillets. Just take your credit for your accomplishments and smile. OP says rumor is...........their is another "1" coming jasper's way real soon. Maybe 1 less bed available at that MARION COUNTY JAIL.. But we all know how talk is around those beauty shops and is not ALWAYS correct. Keep listening............... storm a brewing TBC

 

 

The transplant wanted to add something else about the oldest continous rivalry in Tennessee.

Past Marion County vs. South Pittsburg scores

[OLD PIRATE]

Yes a transplant I am for the last 20 years. No I do not know all the history between South Pittsburg and Marion County High School. I didn't want to ruffle your do-rag "old pirate". Where would they put a new South Pittsburg High School if one was built? What if this county got together and put this new gym, new air conditioning, new carpet, renovating old schools, (ie you STILL have an old school at Jasper Middle and South Pittsburg High) into one or two brand new schools. I know it will not ever happen in my lifetime but who are we kidding. All the jealousy between the schools in Marion County. Our kids go to college to take remedial classes instead of being prepared to take college level courses. Why? Because we only offer the bare necessities in our three high schools in this county. We cannot offer all the advanced classes in our schools because we do not have the number of kids in each of the three to offer them. Why? Because we are jealous of what one school might get over the other. We do the best we can with what we got. We could do better if this county and all the other small counties in this state would come to the realization that we are cheating our kids and their futures by living in the past instead of looking to their future. It all boils down to what happens on the football fields of these three schools. People in this county are blind to what we should be doing as educators, preparing these kids for the future. We hide behind sports and pride in our small communities to keep from doing what we know would be better. Offer these kids a first rate education so they can compete in a global economy instead of flipping hamburgers in Kimball. A mom and dad with 2 kids trying to make it on a high school education in this world is going to be left behind very quickly. My mom raised 4 kids without dear ole dad being around. She was a high school drop-out and we made it but it was tough. That was 30 years ago. In today's world it is a lot tougher for a single mom of 4 to do it. Without a proper education it is almost impossible to compete in a global economy like we have now. Jobs are disappearing faster and faster from this country. You better offer a world-class education if you are going to compete or you will be asking all those foreigners if they want fries with that!!

 

Bill, Old Pirate agrees with point the kids need the best education possible. That said, the teachers pay is no where close to what it needs to be. Tenn has lost a huge amount of their better teachers to bordering states and privates. OP says not all teachers do the best job teaching. OP feels the kids have become too much like cattle, herded thru. This the parents fault also. The basics to education is still what it was in OP's time. Not sure the kids are getting the basics. You have obviously played sports and are fully aware that the basics are the foundation there also.Poor basics=problems with performance.

Good job with the warrior vs pirates info.New SPHS? OP don't think that will ever come to pass unless the existing one was destroyed.Then it would probably be rebuilt on existing property like it was when the old school burnt in early 60s.

OP needs a long fishing trip. Old issues are yesterday's headline. See you here in July unless something worth talking about occurs.

[PurpleGrad]

I agree Bill... I think consolidation is what is best for our students. But, there are too many "adults" who have grown up with the rivalry between the three towns and they will never let it happen. Sports, specifically football, rules this county and until education becomes a priority, we'll be content to pump out very athletic burger flippers.

[OLD PIRATE]

I agree Bill... I think consolidation is what is best for our students. But, there are too many "adults" who have grown up with the rivalry between the three towns and they will never let it happen. Sports, specifically football, rules this county and until education becomes a priority, we'll be content to pump out very athletic burger flippers.

 

PG, Old Pirate is rather sure you're a teacher/coach from past post comments. Question for you and the consolidation supporters.

1. How would you feel if the school was built north of whitwell ?

2. Built south of jasper in kimball or along the new hwy by passing SP?

3. How would you feel being a father or mom of a student/athlete that could NEVER get the chance to paricpate in the sport they loved.

EX: Baseball team could possibly have 15 players. That would be ok since jasper has the most talent now........ However SP has the #s that will change that in the next few years. It would be safe to say from what OP has heard, whitwell and jasper could not combine a team that would likely be better than the SP middle school had this past year. Therefore swinging it towards SP kids.

Do think that is what is best for the kids?

OP wonders.... how many kids play football for the warriors or tigers that simply would not hit the field except to practice if currently combined with the talent SP has now. The same would be true for the SP kids against the warriors baseball team.

There would be a lot walking the streets & worse.

Old Pirate is sometimes crusty... but the kids is what it is about.

Perhaps you wish you had played a certain sport or you know many who wished they had. Plenty of regrets along the fences and in the stands.

Simple solution, if you you are a teacher or administrator do your part to see the kids get the quality time in the class room. OP knows fully well that our schools have adminstrators/teachers that choose..........

not to be the educators.........they are paid to be. Fact is they don't get paid enough, true. However that is an excuse rather than answer to our kids educations.

OP says find answers/solutions within the system.

Traveling to Califirnia in a vw beetle will get you there.

Traveling to California in a Hummer just makes you look better along the way.

[zonepirate]

 

I agree Bill... I think consolidation is what is best for our students. But, there are too many "adults" who have grown up with the rivalry between the three towns and they will never let it happen. Sports, specifically football, rules this county and until education becomes a priority, we'll be content to pump out very athletic burger flippers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not sure about Jasper but I was pleasantly surprised at the number (over half) of the kids from South Pittsburg getting scholarships including 4 athletic scholarships. We also have several students/athletes going into trade programs including several also on scholarship. Not everyone is cut out for college. I have seen what happens at bigger schools after a consolidation...it is not all positive. I really don't think that consolidation is the only way to improve schools. Having an administration committed to constantly striving to improve is the key in any school large or small.

[Bill#49]

 

 

 

 

 

Not sure about Jasper but I was pleasantly surprised at the number (over half) of the kids from South Pittsburg getting scholarships including 4 athletic scholarships. We also have several students/athletes going into trade programs including several also on scholarship. Not everyone is cut out for college. I have seen what happens at bigger schools after a consolidation...it is not all positive. I really don't think that consolidation is the only way to improve schools. Having an administration committed to constantly striving to improve is the key in any school large or small.

 

 

What happens to those kids getting scholarships once they get to the university? Marion County, South Pittsburg, and Whitwell have had several kids receive scholarships, athletic and academic, over the last twenty years that I have been a part of the most beautiful valley in Tennessee. How many of them have stayed until they graduated?

 

9.5 percent of the entire population of the County of Marion has a 4 year degree from a universtiy. 9.5 PERCENT!! That is a ridiculous number. I would dare say that if you take all the teachers out of that percent you would have less than one percent. High paying jobs do not come to places with 9.5 percent of the population graduating from a university.

 

According to 2000 United States National Census,

http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/47/47115.html

Bachelor's degree or higher, pct of persons age 25+, 2000 Census - 9.5% in Marion County 19.6% for all of Tennessee.

 

Like I said in my earlier post, we offer a good, basic education but no more. No Advanced Placement classes are offered at any of the three schools in Marion County. We do not prepare the vast number of kids in our schools for college level classes. They are overwhelmed when they take that academic or athletic scholarship and go to their chosen university and then they drop out and work in a factory or a service oriented job. We need these type of workers, do not get me wrong, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with these. But if we offered and prepared these kids for university classes you would see a dramatic shift in that 9.5 percent of the population with a Bachelors' Degree number.

 

I dare say if you asked any of my kids that have taken my classes over the years what type of teacher I am. Vast number of them would say that I worked them hard and we were at it every day. I always tell my kids they can have two off days a week, Saturday and Sunday. The other five days we work. I am giving them the basics, nothing advanced. Why because I have 9 weeks per semester to teach Economics and 9 weeks per semester to teach US Government. No time for advanced items. I work every day as hard as I can in that classroom but I run out f time for anything extra.

 

I don't know if consolidation is the answer or not but I do know 9.5 percent of Marion County's population has a 4 year university degree the way we are doing it now. I could care less where they put the school. If they put it in South Pittsburg, Kimball, Jasper, Monteagle or Whitwell as long as we offered classes that prepared these kids for schools beyond that high school. I am not hung up on the small town pride thing that so many on this board and in the different parts of this county is. We should all have pride in our kids and their accomplishments!! Could we not have the same pride in those same kids no matter where they were going to school?

 

Our guidance counselor said that, if I am not mistaken, that are kids at Marion County High School received over 300 thousand dollars in scholarships. GREAT JOB FOLKS!! This is not including two different types of scholarships that are not awarded until after high school graduation.

[PurpleGrad]

Like Bill.... I wouldn't care where they built a new school. Yes, I know that there are pros and cons to consolidation. You can look around our area and see where it has worked and where it hasn't. The key to consolidation being successful is to have the right administrators and educators as well as having positive, proactive community and family support. I think that as a whole, the Marion County School System has very good administrators and educators (take away a few bad apples) but where our consolidation efforts would fall short would be in the community and family support. There is too much entrenched bitterness among the "adults" of our county to ever foster a possitive attitude towards a consolidated system. The students wouldn't care... heck they are all friends, hang out together, date each other, etc. as it is now.... this whole hatred thing doesn't occur until after they graduate. People at MCHS are jealous of SP's football success now... People of SP were jealous of MCHS's success when we were dominate under KC... People of whitwell are jealous of the success of both of the other schools.... Both of the other schools are jealous of Whitwell's recent success in softball.... It's a never ending cycle but it is the "adults" who can't deal with it.

 

The faculty of each school is doing the best that they can but it is not enough... they just barely get to teach the basics. Even for kids who have no desire to go to college, their learning opportunity is limited with our current set up. If a kid from MC or SP want to take construction or drafting, what do they have to do? Answer, drive to Whitwell. If a student from Whitwell or SP wants to take welding, what do they have to do? Answer, drive to Jasper. How can we say that it is in our students best interest to have them traveling between schools every day? How many students from MC, SP and WHS travel over to Chatt. State their Senior year to take college level math and english classes, simply because we don't have the means to provide those classes for them? What do SP students do if they want to take Physics? What do MCHS students do if they want to take a high math than pre-calc? To satisfy state requirements, all students have to have two credits in a foreign language.... what do our students do if they happen to want to take something other than Spanish? How many art classes are offered in our three high schools?

 

Look at your larger schools and what they provide, including more vocational class opportunities, more advanced placement classes, and more arts and sciences classes. Tell me that we aren't cheating our students... but hey, little Johnny is getting to play football and some day, he can sit there drawing unemployment or wellfare checks and talk about the good ole' days when his team beat MC, SP, or WHS... whichever the case may be...... Are our priorities in the right place?

[The Drunken Sailor]

I really don't think that consolidation is the only way to improve schools. Having an administration committed to constantly striving to improve is the key in any school large or small.

 

I agree with this. An administration committed to improvement is obviously a key. Teachers doing their job and teaching the kids is obviously a key.

 

There are many teachers out there that do an outstanding job of preparing the kids. There are many that just get by long enough to get a paycheck. Bill#49, if you teach the kids the way that you say you do then you fall into the first category and should be commended. We need more teachers like that. But will consolidation bring more teachers like that? If it's bigger does that make it better? Does it mean that the people inside doing the teaching will be better? Or does it mean that you will have more teachers just looking for the check.

 

Also, is it going to be better on the kids that live at the outer reaches of the county to travel 35-45 minutes one way to school and home each day. Actually, with all of the bus stops that would have to be made it would probably be more than an hour long trip. The kid could lose more than 2 hours a day just travelling. Of course in today's world though that mean 2 hours of playstation and xbox time though. But is it good for the kid?

 

One question for you Bill, and I am not calling you out, just looking for clarification if you will please. You said that you have no time left to teach anything extra. How will having a bigger school increase the time to teach the extra in your classes? Again, not calling you out, I probably just misread it, but I was looking for some more understanding to it. I do agree that 9.5% is too low though. For that matter, I think the 19.6% for the state is too low. Consolidation may be the answer to improve it. But then consolidation may not be the answer.

 

In my opinion, and this is only my opinion, consolidation doesn't matter. Speaking for myself here, there is nothing that I can think of that SPHS could have done for me to prepare me any more for college. In my opinion and only my opinion it all comes down to the kids and whether they want to or not. Sure, I guess there can be things that may help them but if they don't want to then it just isn't going to happen.

 

As for whoever made the remedial courses comment, that is off base and let me say why I think this. I wasn't a good student, and for those that know me know that I was far from it as a matter of fact. But I graduated from South Pittsburg and did NOT have to take remedial courses in college. My wife graduated from a large public high school in Chattanooga and she did have to take them (and there is no doubt that she is smarter than I am). Kids from our system aren't all having to take remedial courses. And for the ones that do, it isn't only the kids from our system that do have to take it.

 

I'm not for consolidation because of my own past. I did better in the smaller settings, whether I liked the subject or not. For me bigger is not better. For someone else though they may do better in a larger school, or larger class. But no matter what, large class or small, remedial class or not, prepared to go to college or not, it all came back to one thing. ME and my desire or lack of to do better. It's is not the fault of SPHS that I dropped out of college and work at a manual labor job. That was my own doing. They did what they could to prepare me, I just didn't take the reins.

 

I know that this has rambled on and on and most people have quit reading by now. But whether it ever gets consolidated or not means nothing unless you have the teachers that are willing to teach and more importantly, students that are willing to learn. But then that is the case in every school, large or small all across the nation.

 

Ps. if you will notice, none of this had anything to do with sports. /biggrin.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin.gif" />