Mark Millican: Encouraged by our youth

Published 2:00 pm Monday, November 6, 2023

“These youth today. They are rebellious and do not listen to their elders.” — Attributed to Plato

Many area high schools now have courses that not only prepare students who are college bound, but also equip others who desire to enter the workforce after graduating. Like many folks in Ellijay, I’ve heard of the College & Career Academy at Gilmer High School, but didn’t really know what it was all about. Therefore, when CEO Carla Foley spoke recently about the CCA publicly in the Apple Capital and I had a conflicting meeting, “chagrinned” would be the word one might use to describe my frustration.

So I emailed her and asked if we could meet and work on a story. She agreed, and although it is taking a few weeks for me to get the writing and photographing of it all together due to other responsibilities, I’ve still enjoyed the times I’ve visited the academy and interacted with the students.

The question that keeps coming up in my mind is “Why didn’t they have this when I was in school?” I remember Career Day in high school, where we were paraded from classroom to classroom to hear a businessman or businesswoman from some company or agency talk about their field, but that was peanuts compared with what the kids in our area school systems are doing these days. By choosing a career “pathway” as early as their freshman year, CCA students can attend a class at the Larry Walker Education Center — the former Gilmer High and Gilmer Middle School building — they feel best suits their abilities, interests and future.

I’m amazed at what these kids can immediately begin doing after graduation to earn income and become productive in our community — without going to college (unless they want to do that, too).

Another opportunity to interact with students came when Ms. Foley asked me to address a class of students involved in the Leadership Gilmer program. She had asked local economic development expert Kent Sanford who she could find in the community to talk about history. Carla said he mentioned me immediately. That’s interesting, since Gilmer native Kent probably has forgotten more about local history than I’ll ever know.

Nonetheless, I took on the challenge. But rather than pull up a bunch of stuff off the internet about Gilmer County, I researched some old articles I’d written that showed some of the “back stories” of local history. They included tales about Carters Dam being built, how James Dickey got the idea for his novel “Deliverance” from an incident on the Coosawattee River before the dam was built, how Ellijay got its name from the Cherokee Indian village there, stories about late historian Lawrence L. Stanley, Vietnam veterans who died in the war, water witching, planting by the “signs” and more.

Well, I’ve been known to get animated speaking in front of people, and this was no exception. “Astonishment” might describe the look on most students’ faces; for their part, Carla and Kent and my wife Teresa were mostly smiling at the show I was putting on. Later, I received a note from one of the students telling me he had no idea there was that much to our local history.

Note to students (and readers): Sometimes you just have to dig a little deeper and make that extra phone call to really make a narration — published or not — “jump” during the retelling.

Then at the end of last week, our publisher Andy Ashurst requested help with a developing story over the weekend. Boy Scouts and other friends and teachers of the late Noah West at Gilmer High School were working on a garden at Ellijay Elementary that he wanted to complete for his Eagle Scout project. Noah died tragically last month and left a community bereft at his untimely passing; yet when an opportunity arrived for young people to honor him, they sprang into action.

Although we were out of town during Noah’s garden project, newspaper Sports Editor Robbie Bills went by to get some photos and told me later that community spirit was strong at the work project.

Perhaps Plato was philosophizing about a broad segment of the society of his day, but from my experience of the last few weeks our local youth are displaying diligence, purpose and dedication. One thing does, like, bother me, however, and it’s how often they say “like” in their sentences. On the other hand, they still say “cool” about stuff as my generation did.

I like that.

Mark Millican is a former staff writer for the Dalton Daily Citizen.