CB> Rochester, NY, has a personality all of its own (I grew up there).  It
 CB> has, for a long time, been very fortunate to have a *strong*
 CB> industrial  base, including the corporate headquarters for Kodak
 CB> (George Eastman was  from Rochester).  In the 1950's, Rochester was one
 CB> of the garment  centers of the world, and it saw the birth of Xerox.
 CB> At one time,  earlier in this century, rumor has it that it had the
 CB> highest number of  millionaires (per capita) of any city in the world.
I have lived in the Rochester area all my life.  I won't argue with your
summary above.
 CB> Suburbs, such as Greece,
 CB> Brighton, Fairport, etc. are very wealthy neighborhoods and quite a
 CB> bit  of the most innovative education in our state takes place in these
 CB> suburbs.  Residents of these wealthy bedroom communities love to tell
 CB> you they're from Rochester, and indeed they are from the surrounding
 CB> community, but few of them are actually from the city.
Whoa, Charlie!  Greece is NOT one of the wealthier suburbs of Rochester.  I
have lived in Greece since 1956.  While areas built in the last decade 
ontain
quite expensive homes, the town in general developed as a lower middle-class
community, and it is not highly regarded by the truly more affluent suburbs 
n
the east side of the Genesee River such as Brighton, Fairport, Pittsford, and
Perinton.  I was on the faculty of the first high school built in Greece, but
most of my teaching career was with the City School District.  If suburban
residents "love to tell you they're from Rochester,"  it is probably because
everyone has heard of Rochester and not of the suburban communities.  The
suburban schools have indeed been quite innovative, as you say, however.
 CB> Art worked in Greece, one of the wealthier of the suburbs when I lived
 CB> in Rochester during the 50's and 60's, perhaps declining a bit now,
 CB> but  their school district remains on the cutting edge.  Recently, when
 CB> I was  looking into contracting our Internet service from a company in
 CB> Rochester, the sales representative told me that Greece was one of the
 CB> first school districts in the upstate area to provide Internet access
 CB> for its students and residents.  Although I am sure there are some
 CB> pockets of poverty in Greece (it is a fairly large area), by and large
 CB> it is a wealthy community and they do many innovative things in their
 CB> schools.
See my comment above.  The last I heard, the school district was still
debating exactly how to make the Internet available to students in the
schools.  Greece residents are to vote on a 2.5 million proposal in the 
oming
budget vote at the end of the month to update the schools' technology.  It 
ay
pass, but I have heard rumors that it is in trouble, largely due to 
ull-value
reassessment just completed this year.  I personally was concerned, as a
computer literate Greece resident, that the B or E information on the 
roposal
was short on specifics of how computers would enhance education in the
schools.  Years ago every teacher (and sub) in the district was in-serviced
with pay on Elements of Instruction.  Nothing short of something similar to
insure that teachers would use computers will be necessary to make computer
technology (especially use of the Internet) work in the schools IMO.
I hope readers of this Echo will forgive me for answering you on this echo
rather than writing to you via Netmail.  Educators may, of course, be
interested in how this "wealthy" "innovative" community is doing in this
regard, however. :)  Take care.
--Art--
 CB> Chuck Beams
 CB> Fidonet - 1:2608/70
 CB> cbeams@future.dreamscape.com
 CB> ___
 CB> * UniQWK #5290* A KGB keyboard has no  key!
 CB> -!- Maximus 2.01wb
 CB>  ! Origin: The Hidey-Hole BBS, Pennellville, NY (315)668-8929
 CB> (1:2608/70)
... They also serve who only stand and wait.--Milton
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