Maybe it’s a funny time to write a column about K-12 education. After all, the highly-treasured last day of school is tomorrow or Friday here in Franklin County.

But as we’ve worked to share education coverage over the last couple of weeks, I can’t help but be in awe of our local school systems and reflect back on my own early school years.

I guess that makes me sound like I think I’m a hundred years old, but – I’m coming up on my ten-year high school reunion. I think the milestone is augmenting my nostalgia.

I can’t tell you how much fun I had putting together this issue of Franklin Living, which you will notice is education-themed. When we set out to put together an education-centric edition, it was initially an overwhelming prospect to the point of paralysis. How could we possibly select only three or four features that might be seen as fairly representing education across the entire county? After all, that’s six high schools, not counting any pre-schools or Northwest-Shoals – and if I could do a whole magazine on each school, I still couldn’t even begin to highlight everything that is going on here in education.

I was inspired when I talked with our local educators and principals about their passion for teaching and for their schools. I was particularly in awe at Vina High School, where – despite its small size and rural location – cutting edge technology is constantly being pursued and implemented in the classroom. I mean, these kids are using clicker technology – for immediate feedback quizzes and assessments – that is the same type of technology I was first introduced in college. College, y’all. These children in elementary school are effectively utilizing educational tools I didn’t even know existed until I was 18 years old pursuing a Bachelor of Arts.

So for those who think education isn’t changing, think again.

Even in kindergarten these students are learning on Chromebooks. I never touched a computer until first grade, and even then it was this big clunky thing in the back of the classroom – not a laptop a student could bring to her desk. And the only educational game we had was “Reader Rabbit” – but that’s beside the point.

The point is that amazing things are going on in education, and not just at Vina High School. Across the county new and innovative programs are reaching our students, whether its fine arts, consumer sciences, ag and tech classes or traditional academics being taught in unconventional ways. When I was young, we learned environmental science from a textbook. In Russellville City Schools, students from kindergarten all the way up through high school are learning environmental science by actually going outside and planting living things. How cool is that?

I guess what I’m trying to say is, our education here in Franklin County is really something we should be proud of. I hear the rumblings about overcrowding issues, and underfunding issues, and all the other issues that plague a growing area of rural Alabama. I’m not saying those issues don’t exist. What I am saying is that in spite of those issues, FCS and RCS teachers are making every effort to bring a quality education to local children, and for that they – and their respective school boards and superintendents – should be commended.

I hope you enjoy this issue of Franklin Living. I look forward to future editions – as well as future issues of the Franklin County Times – in which we can continue to highlight more of the good things going on in our local schools.