Battle Rock

"In the Four Corners region of rural southwest Colorado sits a one-room schoolhouse that holds the center of attention among the local residents of McElmo Canyon. Not so long ago, most of the children attending Battle Rock Charter School, first through sixth grade, were related. Most of their parents still earned a living either ranching or farming; many of their homes were still heated only by wood-burning stoves; they traveled to school on the single gravel road that stretched the length of the canyon; and absences were taken for granted during hunting season. But along came change. In the 1990s, rural America increased in population three times faster than it did in the 1980s as a migration from cities to rural communities took place as urban residents fled their former lives in search of a slower pace, simpler living, and better schools. Some of these people landed in southwest Colorado." "From 1999 to 2000, former New York Times education correspondent William Celis lived in the community and attended Battle Rock school, which sits in the middle of the canyon, providing both a real and figurative divider between the longtime farmers and ranchers and the newer urban expatriates. As Celis describes the daily lives of the canyon residents, the children, and their teacher, he paints the portrait of a community grappling with the pressure resulting from conflicting viewpoints, goals, and values." "Over the course of his year in Colorado, Celis encountered bull snakes and loaded revolvers, Anasazi ruins and majestic vistas, poverty, stubbornness, ghosts, a cattle drive, and the daily struggles on the playground and in school board meetings. In Battle Rock, Celis puts to rest the common misperception that smaller communities offer simpler lives."--Jacket.