Holly Springs Part Four

A few weeks later Germain and I set up a meeting with Irene Walton, the interim Superintendent at Holly Springs. After having spent many mornings driving to and from Holly Springs we asked that they travel to Oxford. We felt that the summer school was now a longshot and, if they were really interested, they would make the drive. Not only did the administration from Holly Springs make the drive, they continually reiterated how much they wanted to continue with our proposal.

At this point he big question became, “How many kids will attend?” We had calculated that with the number of first and second-year teachers we would need a minimum of 100.

Several people at the School of Education felt 100 students was unrealistic. I’ve been told many an idea wouldn’t work (a summer intern, an MTC Reunion, 400 applications, to name just a few.) Sometimes it seems that all I do is listen to someone tell my why something won’t work. As all of these ideas did indeed work I did what I always do: put my head down and keep going.

The more immediate problem was convincing the soon to be second-years, who all this time had been expecting to take courses at Ole Miss during June, to buy into the idea of an MTC summer school. The initial meeting I had with them did not go well…