A Second Pause: Why are we talking about rural and urban (and exurban and suburban) and so on...

I want to talk a little bit about why issues that divide urban and rural are important to me.


I'm a first-generation college student.  In fact, if you trace my family back to 1900, I am only the sixth person to graduate middle school and the fourth person to graduate college.  My dad was a soldier,  my grandpa was a custodian, and my great-grandfather was a longshoreman.  Education and the professional life was not what my family understood.  (When I was accepted into graduate school, my great-grandfather asked "Wasn't it time to quit this school foolishness and get a job?)

I was brainy and I had no mechanical aptitude.  By their reckoning, I was supposed to be a priest.


So I care a lot about what divides people, and a lot of the things that divided me from my family divide rural from urban.  Education level is an easy one -- urban people tend to have higher education levels because higher education is easier to seek.  Income follows education, too.


But really, the things that unite us are so much more important than the things that divide us.  I want to uncover those, too, and I am looking forward to your help in discovering these things in this unit.

Comments

  1. SaraFebruary 14, 2026 at 11:13 AM

    Thanks. This is simply lovely. So heartfelt, touching, and wise.

    ReplyDelete

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