McKenzie County ND

The broken treadmill at the Healthy Hearts Wellness Center in Watford City is now repaired as of March 28, and in full use along with the three others. Thanks go to the extra efforts of the staff.

http://www.teach-nology.com/tutorials/teaching/poverty/7/

Information from the above site:

Emotions are a significant aspect of life for children of poverty. Emotions have a connection to memory in that they help to store information and also trigger recall. Emotions affect the actual capacity of children to grasp ideas.

One of the most prominent emotions in children of poverty is fear. Brain research indicates that constant fear has a negative effect on learning. Additionally, a person’s physical and emotional well-being is related to their ability to think and learn. Considering that children of poverty may be poorly developed, both physically and emotionally, and that their home environments are often emotionally stressful can explain why they often encounter difficulties in school (SEDL).

Fear and threat can cause the brain to downshift. Downshifting is biological response that focuses solely on survival needs. Poor children often have a feeling of helplessness, low self-esteem and may be fatigued. Thus, when their brains downshift they will not go any further than addressing survival needs.

New information and experiences will be shut out. Attention will be affected because the brain keeps repeating thoughts or unresolved emotional issues. Additionally, cortisol, a stress hormone, will be in abundance; and the result will be emotional volatility. Downshifting can also cause behaviors such as vigilance and resistance or defiance. Students under these conditions can only learn in concrete ways, not abstract ways. (Caine, 2000).

Helping students to find ways to handle strong emotions productively can help them to deal with emotions such as anger, fear, hurt and tension in their daily life experiences and relationships. If students can deal with these emotions effectively, they will be free to learn.

While all students possess all seven intelligences, each child comes to school with different areas developed. Poor children may come to school with musical or bodily-kinesthetic intelligences more developed due to the types of experiences and modeling children of poverty may have in their home environments. This is also an indicator of the child’s learning style and possible strengths and weaknesses.

People from poverty mindsets may demonstrate 1 to 3 characteristics to obtain status in their community. These characteristics may be:
A Lover
A Fighter
An Entertainer.

Students from a poverty mindset might exhibit one or all of those three characteristics. This may explain the “entertainer” student who acts up or is always goofing off and making the other kids laugh. And of course the other two characteristics are self-explanatory.

The best way to handle these students from poverty is to teach them to live by two sets of rules. First, they need their own set of rules at home to survive until the next day.

Second, they need to (BE TAUGHT) the school rules and that they must abide by them in order to be successful in school and to stay out of trouble. They must be told to use their HOME rules at HOME. And they need to be told they MUST use the school rules at school. If teachers or administrators will take the time to explain the school rules, I think the kids will do their best to comply.

It would be wonderful if every teacher understood where the poverty kids are coming from. But 10 to 15 percent of the teachers send 85% of the students to the principal. I am sure these are the poverty kids and the characteristics at the top of the page are the underlying factors in their behavior and that is why they are getting in trouble. Now that YOU understand the reason for the behavior, you can understand the student, and I know you will come up with some unique ideas on how to assist that student.

Do you find it hard to understand students in poverty? Poverty students seem to have no higher goals for jobs or education. Please understand that they do have goals. Those goals are to have food, shelter, and a few clothes for their back. They also may have a goal of trying to stay alive. In very bad situations, they may rightly believe they may not be alive tomorrow, so why should they plan anything further than right now, today.

Source: A framework for Understanding Poverty Ruby Payne, Ph.D The leading U.S. expert on the mindsets of Poverty, Middle Class, and Wealth.

I was amazed again with our community when we hosted the State B3 Hockey Tournament February 29 to March 2. We can count on our community and its volunteers!

We have hosted many tournaments in the past, but this one was special. It was run almost entirely by volunteers not currently involved with the program!

You see, three of our teams, of older youth and experienced parents, were out of town for their state tournaments. That left only a small amount of people back in Watford City, with experience in currently running a tournament.

About 50 people, with about 1/3 of them involved in the program now, worked together to make this tournament happen.

One game was held on Friday night, four games on Saturday with a special Skills Competition organized on Saturday night and three games on Sunday.

We hosted teams from Fargo, Jamestown/Valley City, Devils Lake, Sidney, Williston and Minot. A special ice cream social for all our guests was held on Saturday night.

It is amazing how many details are involved in running such an event. Leadership and organization, adult/youth partnering, cooperation and team work were keys to our success!

The McKenzie County Archery Club hosted their 3-D Indoor Tournament on March 8 and 9. My son and I have been shooting with the group for three years now, and this year helped with setup and running of the tournament.

We assembled old Christmas trees, dry weeds, tree stumps, tree limbs, antlers, bones, tree bark and even bones around 25 targets, simulating natural surroundings. Tools like saws, drills, hammars and nails are used in the setup process. President Wayne Foreman says, “It’s a long process but we have fun doing it.”

Kids could shoot at 10 targets in a cub division, as well as all targets in the adult category.

This is a wonderful skill building event that allows plenty of interaction between all ages (our two-year old neighbor shoots as well as senior citizens.)

The tournament attracted 140 archers from across North Dakota and Montana and including all ability levels from state champion shooters to people who picked up their first bow this season.

The event also serves as a fund raiser for the group, as many participants shoot throughout the day.

It is exciting to see the numbers of archers, especially children, grow each year. Our club’s goal is to construct a new facility in the coming years.

(Resource: McKenzie County Farmer March 12, 2008 edition “Archery Club Hosts Indoor 3-D Tournament” story by staff writer Tina Foreman)

Can McKenzie County mimic Miner County, South Dakota’s success?

At least 20 people, six from outside McKenzie County, and one foreign exchange student from Germany, came to hear and see first-hand March 7, 2008, how local leaders change their rural community, to see what it takes, how Miner County’s movement started (with youth!) and the lessons they learned. Their grassroots efforts reversed population decline and was a feature story on the Wall Street Journal’s front page in 2005.

Heralded as “the most extraordinary rural development project in the nation” by Dr. Forrest Calico of the National Rural Health Association one year ago, their story begins in 1995 with a three-year successful effort to connect rural schools with their communities.The vision of Miner County? To sustain a community by meeting basic needs, for a community is only as well off as its most destitute citizen; and to grow within ecological lines, for the people must inhabit the community in ways that sustain it for future generations.The interactive television address noted that poverty was addressed by their economic efforts in improving the overall general conditions for everyone.Poverty was “significantly reduced” through their multi-dimensional approach.The FBLA (Future Business Leaders of America) students of Howard, SD did a Community cash flow survey, employing the students as agents of change. An economic spending factor of 3.1 was discovered, and local purchases rose. Over 30 pages of information was generated by every question posed in the questionnaire pushed by students. And the results, positive and negative, were reported upon by the students themselves to those they interviewed.

The people listened to the students.

So, could McKenzie County duplicate the success of Miner County?

Here is the vision: (more…)

Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names.

Less than one per cent of what the world spends every year on weapons was all that was needed to put every child into school by the year 2000 and yet it didn’t happen.

The lives of 1.7 million children were needlessly lost in the year 2000 because world governments failed to reduce poverty levels.

1. Consider the global priorities in spending in 1998
Global Priority………………………………………$U.S. Billions
Cosmetics in the United States………………………8
Ice cream in Europe…………………………………..11
Perfumes in Europe and the United States…………12
Pet foods in Europe and the United States………..17
Business entertainment in Japan…………………….35
Cigarettes in Europe…………………………………..50
Alcoholic drinks in Europe……………………………105
Narcotics drugs in the world………………………..400
Military spending in the world………………………780

2. And compare that to what was estimated as additional costs to achieve universal access to basic social services in all developing countries:
Global Priority……………………………………….$U.S. Billions
Basic education for all……………………………….6
Water and sanitation for all…………………………9
Reproductive health for all women…………………12
Basic health and nutrition…………………………..13

3. Number of children in the world
2.2 billion

Number in poverty
1 billion (every second child)

I invite you to go look………………

http://www.globalissues.org/TradeRelated/Facts.asp?p=1