By ALAN SMITH
T-H Staff Writer
Large crowds gathered at the Caldwell city park this past weekend for the third annual Caldwell Cotton Pickin Festival.
The event, which offered fun for all ages through live entertainment, food, arts and crafts, and the ever-popular Space Walk (an inflatable jumping room for children), saw hundreds of people file into the city park on both Friday and Saturday.
Caldwell Mayor Gary Hughes talked about how the festival came about.
"We had always wanted to hold a festival here in Caldwell, but we never really had a place to hold one," said Hughes. "We had been talking for some time about it, and when the park was built, we thought it was a great place to hold a festival.
"The name of the festival came from the fact that cotton is such a major crop grown here. It is also named for the main event of the festival, the cotton picking contest. In the contest, contestants go out to a cotton field and pick cotton for 30 minutes. After the 30 minutes, they come back to the park and weigh what they have picked. The person with the heaviest amount of cotton wins. We have people who really get into the contest each year. It's just a lot of fun."
Hughes talked about other events that have also become a tradition at the festival.
"We hold the Cotton Pickin King and Queen Pageant each year. Kids come, and we judge for the titles of king and queen. One tradition was the Womanless Beauty Pageant, but this year we changed it to the Tacky Contest. The contest involves people in tacky clothing and they are judged by the tackiest outfit."
Hughes said that he is very pleased with the success and how the event has grown over the past three years, but said he wants attendance to increase each year.
"This year, we added several new events. We had Bingo this year, which was new. We added the antique auto show this year, and we have added the pet show. Each year we try to add something new and different to the festival. We don't want to change things totally every year, but we want people to have something new to come and participate in each year."
The festival also helps protect residents in Caldwell. Proceeds this year from the festival will again support the city's volunteer fire department in its efforts to purchase a new fire truck.
By DAVID NICHOL
T-H Staff Writer
A study which gave the Arkansas public education an F in social studies standards -- particularly history --provoked some disagreement from some leaders.
Locally, Superintendent Lee Vent of the Forrest City School District defended the job being done by the school's teachers, but added he wished history received more emphasis.
"Being a former history teacher myself, I certainly think we are doing a good job in the Forrest City School District, while we can always show room for improvement," Vent said. "I think the main crux of the matter, though is the emphasis placed on it at state level."
The study, conducted by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, based in Washington, D.C. stated that Arkansas standards are "the equivalent of a diet of only snack foods: Light, airy and full of empty calories," according to a story in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
"History is not, right now, in the same priority as math, science and literacy," said Vent. "It does not get the same emphasis it used to get, and that's really sad. Because it's important, so important, that kids learn history and government."
He continued, "I think we're doing a fair job but there is certainly room for improvement."
He conceded that history may be diluted under the broad field of sociology, and said that could possibly be a problem.
"Perhaps it could be," he said. "History stands as its own discipline in colleges and universities, though certainly under the umbrella of social studies. But now there are so many social studies we have to emphasize, that history simply gets watered down."
Vent said he wasn't sure anything could be done about it.
"With so much emphasis on mathematics, science and literacy, and with there only being so many hours in the day, I don't expect history to come up very high in the pecking order in the future," he said. "But it is so important. If we don't understand history we'll be doomed by it."
Sheldon M. Stern, a retired historian who wrote much of the report, was quoted in the Democrat-Gazette story as noting that Arkansas social studies frameworks are intentionally designed to give all the school districts broad concepts, around which local teachers must build a more specific curriculum.
"In the name of protecting democracy for teachers, it virtually guarantees incoherence for students," he wrote.
The Fordham study is available online at www.edexellence.net. The Arkansas frameworks are available at arkedu.state.ar.us/curriculum/frameworks.html.
Unemployment rates in St. Francis County took more than a one point drop last month to 9.0, but the county shared the ninth highest unemployment rate statewide with Jackson County.
According to figures from the Arkansas Employment Security Department, the county's jobless rate dropped from 10.3 percent in July to 9.0 for August. Last month, St. Francis County had a civilian labor force of 13,025, with 11,850 people employed, and 1,175 not working. Although the 9.0 rate was down from the 10.3 percent rate in July, the unemployment rate was close to a full point higher when compared to August of 2002 which came in at 8.1 percent.
Mississippi County, which has had the state's highest unemployment level since February of 2001, held on to the state's high mark at 13.1 percent, but that was down from 15.7 percent in July.
Madison and Benton counties tied for the lowest rate for the month at 2.5 percent. The unemployment rates in surrounding counties in July were: Cross, 7.9 percent; Crittenden, 6.9 percent; Monroe, 7.5 percent; Lee, 11.7 percent; Phillips, 9.8 percent and Woodruff 12.6 percent.
Arkansas' rate for August was 5.4 percent, down one-tenth of a percentage from July's 5.5 percent. Nationwide, the unemployment rate fell one-tenth of a percentage point to 6.2 percent last month.
Company C, 2-153rd Infantry based in Forrest City was one of 47 Army National Guard Units across the state notified this weekend that their soldiers will be headed to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
According to a press release from Arkansas Army National Guard Adjutant General, Maj. Gen. Don C. Morrow's office, nearly 3,000 soldiers received the orders Saturday and will begin gathering at their hometown units across the state on Oct. 12. They will then travel to their mobilization station at Fort Hood, Texas.
"The brigade has been on alert since July. We've been performing additional training, organizing family-support groups and are prepared to accept this mission, said Brig. Gen. Ronald Chastain, commander of the 39th Infantry Brigade, the state's largest National Guard Unit, which includes Forrest City.
The 39th Infantry Brigade will be joined by a battalion of soldiers from the Oregon National Guard's 41st Infantry Brigade and will join the First Calvary Division as part of the Army's force rotation plan.
According to the press release, the units can expect to be in the Iraqi theater for up to 12 months with a total mobilization of up to 18 months to allow time for equipping, training, mobilizing, leave and demobilizing activities.
"I have the utmost confidence in the men and women of the 39th Infantry Brigade," said Maj. Gen. Morrow. "Our soldiers are well-trained and equipped and I know they will serve the state and the nation honorably."
Soldiers from the Second Battalion, 153rd Infantry include bases in: Searcy, Wynne, Walnut Ridge, Harrisburg, Batesville, Augusta, Brinkley and Newport.