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Reed contributes to book about public education in Anniston

April 2009

Dr. Cindy Reed, director of the Truman Pierce Institute and Jay Lamar, director of the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts and Humanities collaborated on a four-year research project which culminated in a book exploring how existing connections could be strengthened or how new connections might be made between communities and their educational systems.

The book includes the elementary and secondary education experiences of 10 Anniston, Ala., citizens, many of whom lived through the Civil Rights movement. In addition to co-directing the research project, Reed co-authored the introduction and wrote the coda for Connections: Communities, Schools, and the People Who Made Them, a 147-page volume that provides first-person accounts of the educational experiences that shaped students, teachers, superintendents, mayors, librarians, businessmen and parents.

The book, a product from the research project conducted for the Kettering Foundation by the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts and Humanities in Auburn University's College of Liberal Arts and the College of Education's Truman Pierce Institute, explores the challenges, costs and effects of integration in Anniston, as well as the importance of parental and community involvement in schools.

In the book's coda, Reed, a professor in the Department of Educational Foundations, Leadership and Technology, describes how "progress'' has reshaped community and school environments.

"Close-knit neighborhoods and neighbors who were more like relatives than acquaintances are now rare,'' Reed wrote of Anniston. "People tend to leave the area for work and opportunity, although many do return due to family obligations. Teachers were once integral members of the community and the 'suitcase teachers' were few and far between. Now, teachers tend to live elsewhere, where the quality of life and education is better for their own children. The distancing of self is reflected in the lack of purpose and commitment in the schools felt by so many members of the community.''

Reed also noted that the book's interview subjects were consistent in viewing education as "a privilege and as essential for success.'' This contrasts with the cultural shift seen by some Anniston-area leaders today, in which musicians, TV programs and peers have replaced schools and churches as the primary influences in so many children's lives.

In the book, an Anniston minister asks the question very much on the minds of parents and educators.

"How can you reverse that paradigm?''

As Reed writes, the solutions may be found in emphasizing achievement over fault-finding, in preparing teachers and school administrators who are invested in the children and communities they serve, and in creating and supporting collaborations involving schools, parents and the local business communities.

The book was released to the public Monday, Apr. 20, in a reception held at the Public Library of Anniston-Calhoun County . More than 50 Anniston citizens were in attendance for this celebration and book discussion event and copies of the book were distributed to all in attendance. For more information on the book, contact Reed at 334-844-4488 or the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts and Humanities at 334-844-4948.

Last Updated: May 17, 2011