What is a Blue Road?

Tonight, Mary and I experienced an "in your face" event that really brought the Blue Road concept home.
As a special education teacher I have seen all too often the disfunctional environments many of my students have to survive in. Too many times I found the life being drained from me as I tried to find some way--any way-- to influence positive change in their lives.
Until 2009, I have always been teaching in what I laughingly refer to as "The Front Lines" of hell. The students in my classroom have always been just one step short of chaos, and one step shy of success. Generally I have been very instrumental with guiding the majority towards success. Not that it has always been applauded by the powers to be. Seems I was always overlooking the financial incentive for having kids in schools. Taking a student who needs 10 credits to graduate usually takes just over 1 1/2 school years, maybe two for a special education student. This translates into 1.5 FTE funding for a school--at the premium rate for a student with an IEP.
I have always looked at running a business from the QUANITY model. That is the more I can turn over, the more I make. My dad always used to say it is better to sell 100 widgets for .50 cents and make a .30 cent profit off each one than it was to sell 50 widgets for .80 cents each and make a profit of .60 cents each. Dad reasoned the consumer will be more likely to by the cheaper widget, your business looked good, and you had more leverage with your supplier to negotiate the price. So it made sense I looked at education in the same light.
I had students who were 17 and older, generally closer to 19 or 20. Most had 50% of their required credits to graduate and wanted to do so in an expeditious manner. So I went about arranging a program that would have the students graduating in less time than the charter school thought was necessary.
But I digress, my point is that here, in Lillington, North Carolina of all places, I have found some resemblance of reality. Where the ends justify the means if it is done in such a way people benefit. In a place where the nearest interstate highway is 40 miles in any direction, these people of the Blue Roads have an appreciation for life. This is exactly what Mary and I are wanting to encounter on the road. A place where folks understand life is more than McDonald's or Pizza Hut. Though there are franchises here, they are not the first choice. Life is tough here. There is no running to the mall to escape nor is there a downtown to fantasize about providing financial security via investments in commodities and futures. Here there is only determination and tradition.
This is the Blue Road Mary and I traveled tonight. At a dinner hosted by a local church, to recognize the teachers who provide that determination to their congregation's children. It was simple. Some would say blantantly simple. It was disheveled and chaotic. But it was important to the folks along this Blue Road, North Carolina Highway 27 West (NC Hwy 27 W). The county school superintendent was there. As was the county commissioner whose family has been part of Harnett county since the days King George signed the land deeds; which are still on file with the county clerk's office in many counties in North Carolina. North Carolina's Secretary of State even drove the 50 some miles south from Raleigh to attend the event. In the end, the event was as much a celebration of the children as it was the people who influence them. It was a night of community--some would say was one step from chaos, and one step shy of success. But this night, it sure felt like it was oh so much closer to success.