WINONA LAKE – Dr. Patrick J. Carr is impressed with what he’s seen in Warsaw and Kosciusko County for the limited amount of time he’s been here. “I think, from what I can gather, it seems like a very thriving community here. I don’t see it sliding toward a ‘Hollowing Out the Middle’ phase, but things could always change. I doubt it would happen here quickly if it did because there’s a lot of insulation. On a positive note, I see a real willingness for people from different areas to work together. There’s large potential here,” Carr said in an interview Friday morning. Carr is co-author with Maria J. Kefalas of the book “Hollowing Out the Middle: The Rural Brain Drain and What It Means for America”. The book, which looks at the rural brain drain and the exodus of young people from America’s countryside, was the focus of Friday’s Education Summit XVIII, hosted by the Warsaw/Kosciusko County Chamber of Commerce. Carr was keynote speaker at the summit. The book also was chosen by Kosciusko Literacy Services for the Community Book Read this year. During the interview, Carr said as secure as the community seems to be, it has to inform its kids. They need to be told what the real world is really like, what kinds of jobs will be created and that less than half of those who enter a four-year college graduate in six years. “It’s encumbered on us to do so. We need to bring all the parties in. As cliched as it sounds, the more you know the better decisions you will make,” Carr said. “I think the signs are really bright here,” he said. “I’ve been to places worse than here but not many others much better.” Carr said he was “very impressed” with just the leadership in the community and the way they get away from the tunnel-vision way of looking at things. Young people in the community are key to keeping the community growing and strong. He said they need to be empowered. During his keynote speech at the Education Summit, Carr said during their research for the book, they interviewed people who were five to seven and nine to 11 years out of high school. It was a perfect way to uncover what it was like to find out about people who grew up in small-town America. They found three large groups of people, with subgroups in the groups. The groups can be found in communities across the country. The first group is “leavers”, and there are two groups within that classification. Achievers seem to be at the forefront of things in the community. Achievers talk about themselves as if they were set apart. Achievers are most likely to leave their community where they grew up and never come back. “You’re putting a lot of resources in people who will never benefit your town,” Carr said. Seekers, the other type of “leavers”, want to see the world but aren’t “chosen” to do so. Most, but not all, join the military. Small towns send a disproportionate number of its young people to the military. The second group is “stayers”. They are the people who, in terms of resources, get the least amount and just assume they will get a job in the community. For awhile, that was true, but the economy and job market have changed. Stayers are very well aware of their position in the community. They are aware that they are not highly thought of in the community and that they are “cast-offs”. “But here is the deal,” Carr said. “These are the guys that are going to be the future of your town because they stay.” The third group is “returners”, and there are two subgroups under returners. A large group are the “boomerangs”. They leave for a short period of time, but come back. They are predominantly male and moderately trained for the work force depending where they are. The smallest group of returners are high-flyers. They are the professional group that everyone needs, including entrepreneurs, dentists, doctors and lawyers. Towns do a good job of making the high-flyers leave. They are told to be successful they need to go out into the world, but not encouraged to bring their skills back to their hometown. “If you want to stay alive and stay vibrant,” Carr advised, “you have to work with what you have.” Carr then talked about three examples of communities doing things really well and empowering their residents and getting young people to stay and be successful. “You can be a leader in different ways, but you have to open that up to your young people in high school in many different ways,” Carr said. In all cases where things are working for a community, you see people who are willing to get out of the “silo”, or “tunnel vision”, way of thinking. They work with all their stakeholders, and are informed. Important stakeholders include educators, the business community, local non-profits, legislators and parents. “One obstacle in all of this is how do we imagine what college is. We say ‘college is for all’, but what does that mean? Less than half of those who enter a four-year college graduate in six years. It’s worse if you factor in kids from low-income backgrounds,” he said. Of the 18 million jobs the economy is expected to create between 2010 and 2018, Carr said, two-thirds of them will require college. A third will require less than a four-year degree. “Part of the issue we have is ‘college for all’ is synonymous with a four-year degree. It’s very hard to shift that way of thinking,” Carr said.
