Tehachapi News

While the abysmally low level of education in Kern County is embarrassing to say the least, given the reasons for this prevailing ignorance and illiteracy there really isn’t anything to be done to improve a situation in the schools that will only continue to deteriorate. There really is a reason for cities like Bakersfield and Oildale being the butt of so many jokes, and for the consensus among the literati of Kern County in general being a cultural wasteland. It was considered to be so when I first arrived on the scene in Weedpatch back in 1935; and over the decades since little has been done to persuade anyone of a different opinion than the prevailing one back when people were often comparing communities throughout the county with Al Capp’s portrayal of “Dogpatch.” And, truth be told, in many cases the comparison was a valid one; both back then and now.

To fully appreciate the situation imagine you are among the beautiful people at an upscale cocktail party after attending an opera in San Francisco. During conversation someone learns I am an author and we begin discussing literature. The person learns I’m not only an author, but I have a Ph. D. Then they ask where I was born and I reply: “Weedpatch.” Talk about a conversation stopper! The gamut of facial expressions is marvelous to behold, generally settling on an embarrassingly obvious attempt to control and overcome various emotions struggling to find a civilized reaction to such a reply and retain decorum. One thing I learned over time, the response no matter the setting would never be, “Oh, so you were born in Weedpatch,” as though the name equated with some place like, say, Boston.

Years ago the thought did cross my mind that like Gatsby I could fabricate a persona more in keeping with my intellectual academic and literary accomplishments. But I dismissed such a thought for two reasons; there was no green light holding me in thrall like a beckoning beacon, and what I had accomplished was done honestly. And having no reason to be either embarrassed nor ashamed of my birthplace, I reconciled myself to the fact that among those considering themselves educated many would act as though my being born in Weedpatch and having a Ph. D. and writing books was a personal affront to academia and the field of literature. Silly, isn’t it; that anyone believing themselves to be educated should react in such a manner to the name Weedpatch. And yet, such is the case.

Now, about Bakersfield, which I consider more my hometown; while the attitude isn’t as pronounced as it would be with Weedpatch, yet no one can deny mentioning the city provokes a negative reaction among the “better classes.” But unlike the mention of Weedpatch at a cocktail party in San Francisco, the mention of Bakersfield would more likely provoke a definite sneer. People from Bakersfield do not attend or mix with the beautiful people at a cocktail party following an opera in San Francisco. It simply isn’t done. People in Bakersfield attend Buck Owens’ Crystal Palace, a place where such people “properly belong” being entertained by singers with adenoidal voices accompanied by twanging guitars.

Such is the perception, and perception is everything folks; as with politics so with the names Weedpatch and Bakersfield. And the general perception of Kern County is a bunch of redneck hicks, provoking a like response of disdain as that of Nathanael to Philip concerning Nazareth. To make matters worse, while I vividly recall the folks of the Dust Bowl migration, my being born and raised among them, despite the work of Steinbeck, in part because of it, Okies and Arkies remained Okies and Arkies. But Kern County was agriculture and oil, and this together with the Dust Bowl migration determined the culture.

However, English was the glue as all languages are that held us together. And despite the lack of education and literacy we were all Americans, we all had a common heritage as Americans before anything else; despite Okies and Arkies there was no problem of assimilation, there were no “hyphenated Americans” back in those days and schools were not required to accommodate themselves to Mexico for the sake of slave labor benefitting the wealthy. The failing educational system of Kern County has its basis in being demanded to perform the impossible. And no amount of laws or money will make this impossibility possible. Now as then, when education is not a priority for children in the home it is fruitless expecting it to be a priority for them at school.

With its world-class air pollution, the problems with drugs, gangs, and illegal aliens established in colonies throughout Kern County, with welfare and prisons being the “growth industries” the perception is not going to change, and will only worsen because of the declining attention being given education in homes where English isn’t the native language, and there isn’t even the assimilation that was common in the days of the Dust Bowl migration. While education was emphasized in many of the homes back then, this is no longer the case. And in the “old days” teachers had real authority in the classroom, and this too has passed away.

Little Oklahoma in southeast Bakersfield when I was a boy was a pretty rough place. There was a fair amount of cuttin’ ‘n’ shootin’ back then I remember all too well, a place where you learned to handle a knife and your fists very early in life. But Buck Owens knew the truth about “The Streets of Bakersfield,” and the schools can’t win against what have become “The Mean Streets of Bakersfield,” the escalating gang violence only making an already bad situation a worsening one where people are afraid to walk the mean streets of Bakersfield, and because of shootings, carjackings, uninsured, unlicensed, and drunk drivers even driving them becomes increasingly hazardous.

The perception of Kern County in general and Bakersfield in particular is not good. But there is little that can be done about such perception given the odds against us. We retain the stigma of being a cultural wasteland, a place where people do not read good books and engage in literary discussions, a place where book signings can be lonely vigils as I know personally, and attempts to persuade of culture in Kern County are viewed by outsiders as “pretentious.” If you are a native like me with a few decades of experience living here you won’t take offense at my remarks, like me you will more likely have a melancholy reaction to them, wishing like me such remarks were not a stating of the facts.