To the editor:
This letters is for the Nineveh-Hensley-Jackson United School Corp.
I have always been proud to say I was a 2005 graduate of Indian Creek. I’ve been proud to send my kids to be taught by the same teachers who taught me.
Not today. A few months ago we found out school would be starting Aug. 4 this year, during the Morgan County Fair. Believe it or not, a small but no less important group of your student population lives in Morgan County. These kids that are involved in 4-H work year round to raise their animals, learn about and plant the crops that bless your table and now — they have to choose between school and the 4-H fair.
To say this is unfair is an understatement. All of my children will miss their back-to-school night this year because they have animal shows that night. I’m not going to tell them that they can’t show the animal that they’ve worked so hard on, but I am the one that gets to tell them they have to miss back-to-school night.
4-H teaches our children things that they can’t learn inside the four walls of a classroom — responsibility, determination, perseverance and hard work just to name a few. Qualities that quite frankly are becoming a rarity in our world. These children that are getting cheated out of a few days the first week of school and their back-to-school night are your future.
These are the children that are going to grow up to farm the fields around your house. They’re going to raise the animals that you’ll feed your family. This isn’t just their future, it’s yours. I’m begging you: Teach these children that hard work and determination shouldn’t be punished by losing out on activities at school.
I invite the school board, teachers and community to come out to the Morgan County Fair. Watch these young kids show and you can clearly see the passion in all of their eyes. Walk through the exhibit halls and see all the amazing projects these kids have created. I am proud to be even a small part of the Morgan County 4-H community.
Instead of starting school the first week of August, take back one of the ridiculous two weeks of spring break and give these kids a week to be able to enjoy the culmination of all their hard work.
Holli Hayden
Morgantown
