Three steps in the right direction

Over the weekend, Commercial readers may have noticed three stories about education in Southeast Arkansas.

Each report highlighted people involved in positive, innovative programs designed to spur learning and creativity.

As we have oft repeated in this venue: The good people of our region need all the education and training we can get. More than anything else we could do to foster economic gain, neighborhood stability and crime reduction, education is the key.

The programs mentioned were an Arkansas Department of Higher Education-sponsored robotics workshop for teachers held at UAPB. Designed to help area teachers understand and promote interest in robotics, the Summer Institute on Robotics was made possible because of a $77,000 grant from the Arkansas Department of Higher Education.

UAPB Math and Science Center director Shelton Fitzpatrick and UAPB Industrial Technology instructor Felicia Webb said of the event: “Robotics is an important field for our students to understand and schools in the northern part of Arkansas have already established robotics programs. This institute is the first time that a robotics program has been done in the southern part of the state.”

Webb is correct to be excited about the potential for increased command of this emerging field. Most large American factories now use some form of robotics in their production lines. Their use has increased production in many different fields. If we expect manufacturing interests to look our way, we must grow a technologically sophisticated workforce with which to attract them.

The second program of note is the Interested Citizens for Voter Registration, King Team PEN OR PENCIL. We are happy to report that these intrepid youngsters did Pine Bluff proud with their win at the National Alliance of Faith and Justice “Take A Stand To Keep Your Seat Drop In and Mentor Summit” at New Orleans.

“We were extremely proud of our kids, but more important this is a positive for the youth of Arkansas and particularly in Pine Bluff,” the Rev. Jesse C. Turner, ICVR executive director, said.

Turner is correct in his praise. More than this, the ICVR program explicitly acknowledges the mutually exclusive choices our population faces: Fund education or you’ll have to fund prisons.

There is no third choice.

Lastly, we would like to highlight the achievement of 36 students from Altheimer-Martin elementary school. They’ve done something rare and beautiful. These students have written and illustrated their dreams of the future for a book written by Brenette Wilder.

As previously reported, Principal Brenda Barnes said the idea for the book evolved when Wilder asked about the children at the school. After being told how creative and intelligent the students were, Wilder decided to use them for her new book.

The younger children drew pictures while the older children wrote down their dreams. The dreams spanned from wanting to be a princess to being a pediatrician.

The children worked on their book project for about a semester.

They mainly worked on it during art and literacy classes. Some of the students even started using some of their lunch break to work on their projects.

“I was very impressed, but not surprised,” Barnes said.

We share those sentiments.

In fact, we are impressed and not the least bit surprised about all three of these programs.

We have long said that it is within us as a community to do great things.

Somewhere along the line, we just seem to have forgotten.

Thanks to these great teachers and students for reminding us.