Fern...topia?

Since I last lived in Nevada, a couple of endearing monikers have come into usage: Fallabama and Ferntucky (at least I don't remember having ever heard them growing up). When I first heard them used, I didn't thing much of it. These small towns in the middle of the desert are a bit backwards, a bit hick-ish you might say. But I've recently had a change of heart.

A few weeks ago my wife went on a little girls night out with some sisters from our ward. Among the myriad of interesting things they discussed that Lindsey shared with me, the two that most caught my attention were: 1. None of them particularly liked it here or wanted to stay here long term. 2. They all particularly wanted to leave before they had children in high school, because the high school was aweful.

I found myself wondering about my feelings on living in Fernley. I actually do plan on staying here long term, but that's mostly because I have limited mobility with my job (if I ever want to collect retirement that is), I like my house a lot and would most certainly have to downgrade anywhere else I moved, and while it was strange coming back to Nevada, living in the middle of nowhere is not completely foreign to me.

But I decided that I do not take pride in my new community. I realized that when I inform someone that I'm now living in Fernley, I almost always add a qualifier like, "Never thought that would happen," or "That's just where the job opening was." Both statements are true, but what am I trying to cover up? Am I saying I live Fernley, but I'm better than Fernley? The honest answer is...well yes.

The second discussion point of the girls night out group now comes in. One of the main reasons I took a job here, despite having the option of staying at a swanky high school in Utah, was that I wanted what I did with my career to have a larger impact than what it currently had. Comparing the teaching staffs at the two schools in which I have worked, I don't personally see a great difference; there are a handful of great teachers, the vast majority are average, and a few are mediocre. The main difference between FHS (which actually does perform at or above state and district averages on all proficiency exams) and my school in Utah (which was consistently ranked in Newsweeks top 5% of high schools in the nation) is the communities the schools serve (and the corresponding home/family life).

There is plenty of research to back up that claim (well not specific to FHS, but that the home life if the largest predictor of academic success), but I'll share some anecdotal examples. In Utah, even the worse students who wouldn't do a shred of work for me still planned on going to college (and 95% of the students did). Here in Fernley, I have a student who is one of the brightest I've ever taught (I've only been teaching a few years, but my sample size is still several hundred), but he plans on going to a technical school and opening up a mechanic shop. I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with his plan, after all he has a plan and wants to earn an honest living without being obsessed with making money, but it does illustrate a common sentiment towards college here in Fernley. I can't tell you how many times I've heard, "college is not for everyone," since I've moved here. I agree that it is not, but I do think that college is for more than the 25% of FHS students who are now going.

So while I do feel that the high school can be a vehicle for changing the community, the inverse is true as well. With that in mind, I have disavowed using the term Ferntucky. For me it is now Ferntopia.