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Beech-Bethel-Mabel-ASU Partnership

Avery County Schools

Beech Home
 

The education of each student is the shared responsibility of their homes, the school, and our community.  Recognizing this, we strive to achieve an effective team approach through an active Parent Teacher Organization, open communication with parents, and community involvement at school.  Nevertheless, it is the child who must ultimately be responsible for his own learning.

As facilitators of learning, we believe that an integral part of the learning process is the development of a positive self-concept, as well as respect for teachers, other adults, and fellow students.  It is our responsibility to create a positive environment in which students can develop socially, emotionally, physically, and intellectually.  This will prepare them to become productive adults in an ever-changing society.  In addition, the A+ philosophy makes it mandatory that students' needs and learning styles are met through various activities.

Therefore, we believe that our main purpose in education is to prepare children to understand their world and to live in it successfully.

The arts program known as "A+ Program" began through an application process in 1995.  Along with twenty-four other schools, Beech Mountain Elementary School was chosen to participate in this new teaching, learning, and assessment endeavor.  Funding by Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, The Wachovia Foundation, and Philip Morris Companies, Inc.  It continues to operate through the support of The Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts, North Carolina State line item biennial budget.  This program is based on Howard Gardner's extensive research in multiple intelligence's.

In 1995 Beech Mountain teachers met at Lees McRae College with the state A+ Program staff for a summer institute from July 16-21.  The area of Multiple Intelligence, Interdisciplinary Instruction, Creative Process, and much more was addressed.

From the beginning sessions of the A+ Program until the present a continuous efforts have been made to upgrade and advance the learning of children through the practice of the arts.  Each summer institutes have been held first in Banner Elk, then Black Mountain, Asheville, and most recently in Hickory for our staff.  Much effort has been undertaken by the A+ Program to help in promoting the use of arts in our school.  Such activities as principal meetings, state wide meeting, extra funding, and school visits by artists make the arts more attractive to everyone.

Our school has been involved in square dance, pottery making after instruction on the internet, lessons taken from and donated to www.learnnc.org/, storytelling weeks, paper making, numerous field trips, cultural experiences at school and various visual arts projects over the past five years due mainly to the A+ Program.  Where do we go from here one might ask.  Art as a carrier for learning styles takes one into strange and joyous places.  It has been said that: "Before we learned to complete sentences and do arithmetic, humans chanted together, moved their bodies in rhythm, decorated their bodies and conducted ceremonies.  Today we sing, do line dancing, carefully select clothes and "paint faces" for the day and act out stories or take part in weddings."  Creativity lies within all students here at Beech Mountain Elementary School.  It is up to all of us to use the arts to benefit the students learning through their use.
 
 

The history of Beech Mountain Community can be traced back to when the Cherokee Indians traveled through the area in search of its many elk, bear, and deer.  Historians believe that the area was once a part of the Great Trading Path which stretched all the way from Virginia to Georgia, and which Indians as well as white men used.  Arrowheads and other Indian artifacts have been discovered which verify this, along with a tree thought to have been marked by Indians traveling on the path.  It is thought that this marked tree helped the first white settlers discover and settle in the Beech Mountain area.

One of the first white settlers of the area is thought to be Samuel Bright, who purchased land along the Great Trading Path and began a small settlement.  During the next 100 years the population of this settlement and others steadily increased as new settlers arrived.  Many of these were of immigrant stock with English, Scotch-Irish, Welsch, German, and Dutch heritage's who came from the previously settled areas of Pennsylvania, Virginia, and the North Carolina Piedmont.

As more and more people moved into the settlements, communities began to form around the churches which the earlier settlers had begun.  These churches became the center point of people's lives, serving various functions such as schools, community meeting places, and the center of social life, with families walking back and forth to them with lanterns.  Even today, Beech Mountain Community itself consists of five smaller communities -- Mt. Gilead, Fall Creek, Flat Springs, Beech Valley, and Beech Mountain -- all of which formed around churches of the same name which make up their center.

When looking to build in the area, families looked first for a water supply and then for a spot that was level enough to build.  Natural mountain springs were the most common source of fresh water, with pipes hooked up to them so that water was diverted to a reservoir of some kind.  Farming was also extremely important because it was mostly subsistence farming, with families raising just enough to make it to the next harvest and with what they raised providing them with all they needed except salt, sugar, and coffee.  Pork was a staple food because of its ability to be cured and stored for long periods of time, as well as its variety of uses.  Sheep, cows, and chickens were also kept, providing wool, milk, and eggs, and sorghum cane was converted into molasses, which was used in a number of recipes, as well as for a sugar substitute.

Women formed the backbone of these early communities,  putting in long hours of work to keep their family going.  Food had to be gathered, cooked, and preserved, and apples and cabbages had to be stored in cellars.  Clothes had to washed, meals cooked, water carried and heated, and children taken care of.  It was a life that required not only a strong body, but also a strong spirit, a need which in part was met by the strong religious beliefs of the mountain people.  Death was no stranger to these people, with the number of children and newborns who died from common diseases high.  Isolation of the community from the outside world with its corresponding lack of doctors and medical facilities was responsible for the high infant mortality rate which extended into the early 1900's.

Despite the remarkable growth of Beech Mountain, the old Beech Mountain Community has maintained much of its original identity.  While there are now many more paved roads and a large number of residents who work in the surrounding communities of Boone, Elizabethton, and Johnson City, many of the old ways have persevered.  The community is still close knit, with the church and school still playing a large part in everyday life.  The values of independence and family loyalty also remain strong.

Farming still plays an important role in this area, although it is usually no longer subsistence farming.  Better roads and transportation have increased the dependence on grocery stores, retail stores, and restaurants.  Canning is still done every fall in many homes, and old crafts such as quilt making and furniture making are still practiced by a few.  Activities such as fishing, hunting, and sports play a large part in the community, and the church continues to be an important part of everyday life.  Children grow up learning many of the same values that their parents and grandparents did, and crime in the area is practically nonexistent.

Christmas trees, though a profitable crop, require a seven to eight year period to mature, which makes using them as an only source of income almost impossible without a large amount of land.  The environmental impacts of Christmas tree growing are also being questioned.  While tobacco is rotated with other crops each year, Christmas trees remain in the same place for a much longer period of time, and the constant spraying that is required to keep them healthy is damaging to the soil, and the run-off is probably also contaminating nearby water sources.

Aside from farming, service, and manufacturing jobs,  employment is hard to come by in this area.  As one person stated in the 1950's, "When you graduated from high school, you got a bus ticket along with your diploma."  Today, much the same situation exists  - in the words of a local, "to make any money you have to leave Avery County."  Jobs are scarce for graduating young people, and many, especially females, leave the area to seek professional jobs elsewhere.  Two-thirds of the community now consists of senior citizens 65 years of age or older, and the number of young people who stay in the area is declining at an alarming rate.  This issue could be of major concern to the community, since as the older generation passes on, an absence of a child or grandchild to take over the land could lead to it being sold to someone outside the community.

Despite these problems, however, most people in the area seem to be happy and enjoy living in an area that is the envy to all those who come to visit.  Their strong traditions and spirits allow them to live in a world that in other places seems to have vanished.  In fact, many who left the area are coming back to a place they didn't appreciate until they were away from it. The mountains with their rolling hills and shades of green seem to emit a homing signal to those who have drifted away, as well as to those who seek peace and a respite from the hectic outside world.  The strength of these people mark them as belonging to Beech Mountain Community, a place where everyone knows everyone, culture and tradition remain strong, and in some ways, time seems to have stood still.