Project I-57

Question: 

• After learning more about Benton and students from there this year, what do you now feel are the good and bad points about life in Southern Illinois mining towns?
• Describe what you now think the people who live there are like.
• Which place do you now think is a better place to live: Benton or Chicago?  Why?

 
(write two to three paragraphs using complete sentences)

N.B.   M  and F on the line following each essay refer to the student author's gender.

I think the people that live there are the same, but not better as the people in Chicago.  Benton does not have theaters, retaurants As for Chicago if people want to [,] you could go as many times as you want to movies, or restaurants.  In Benton it is very hot.  Compared to Chicago the climate changes.  I think that it’s better living in Chicago.  The same reasons that I wrote down.  In Chicago you could go out with your friends to the pool, park, malls, etc ...  In Benton you can’t.  You may be able to go out with your friends, but it will be you have fun [.] when you’re in Chicago you have a lot of places to choose from.

- F who never communicated with Benton Middle School

Benton is another school like Fisher.  Same small town with not that many people.  Almost every man there is a farming [?] and is going to be a farmer.  There is alot of space where they live and I like that.  But too slow for me.  And there can be a lot of gossip there cause their every body knows every body.  I would pick Benton over Chicago [Fisher?] because you wouldn’t have to drive 10 miles down the road to get to a fast food resterant or the grocery store.

- F who communicated a few times with Benton but not with specific students

I think that a bad point about living in Benton would be that you have differt people come in and look for gold in the mines.  It seems like people get robbed there (because of the mines) & they seem like frindly people.

I think the people are nice & they may be rich because of the mimes, by there houses.  The whole city is probally rich because of the mines.

I think Bengon is a better place to live because it may not have that many robberys of gangs by the city.  Also, most people there are probally rich & have lots of money.  I also think that the houses would be kind of big.

- F who never communicated with Benton Middle School

don’t know anything about it!

- F who never communicated with Benton Middle School

(no post-survey)

The good side about living in a small town is that everybody knows you.  On the other hand, the bad part about living in a small town is that there isnt anything to do and seeing the same people over and over again becomes rather tiering.

To my point of view I think that the people in the small mining towns are very benign.  Unlike some people in Chicago think that they are all that.

I still think that Chicago is a better place to live.  It is more exciting and you never see the same people walking down the street.

- F who never communicated with Benton Middle School

(no essay)

- F who communicated with Benton Middle School a few times, but not with specific students

Benton is a nice place to live in.  Who ever lives in a little farm or where there is a lot of vegetation and farm animals, I always [used to] think that they dress up like farmers with overalls and their hankerchief.  I am wrong, they usually dress up how we do here in Chicago.  In my opinion I think it would be better to live in Chicago.  We have the malls and theater close to us.  But in Benton the stores might be far away.  People who came here to Chicago that are from a farmland - like they don’t like it here to live, because they were born in a place where crops grow.  It would be the same with going to Benton from Chicago.

- F who never communicated with Benton Middle School

(no essay)

- F who never communicated with Benton Middle School

The children at Benton School are fun to talk to.  They tell us stories about where they live and the school they go to.  Many of the students have animals at home that they take care of.

I think I would rather live in Chicago.  Chicago has more things to do on the weekends like clubs and parties.  But living on a farm would be a great experience.

- F who never communicated with Benton Middle School (according to her questionnaire)

(no post-survey)

Well Benton and the students who are living their are nice and look forward their future and I admire that.  Well I think that student should have somewhere where they go out more and live the 90’s not the 70’s.  Live what you could have fun [,] meet new people, nationalties, place around the world.  The same thing is going on everyday.  They should have ne [?] exciting things happening each day and have a smile onc there face for a new reason each day.

The people who live in Benton Illions seem to be respectful people. who know what they want and are working hard to get it.  They seem they will get where they want to as long as they are where they belong.  Student need more edification then what they aready have.  I would like to learn about ther bacgroug [background?].

Well I think that the best place to live in is in Chicago because it has it all.  What I mean by has it all is all the edification [?] people jobs, opertunities in life.  And always something new.  Benton is a wonderful place I am sure but dosnt have all the supplies needed to get some where some dream of.

- F who never communicated with Benton Middle School

In  (India) [my home country] I used to live in a city, although I used to go to a village in sumer vacation.  What I found out was that people in small areas are a lot friendlier then people in large ares.  In cities people are so busy in their own life that they don’t have any time to even talk to anyone.

People who live there probably would be friendly.  They might even know everyone in town.  No matter what, I would never live anywhere besides a city.  I was born in a city, I grew up in a city, and I tend to stay in a city.

- F who never communicated with Benton Middle School

(no essay)

- F who never communicated with Benton Middle School

I real don’t know, because I didn’t get a chance to see the site of school & kids.  I still would live in Chicago because use to the life style.

- F never communicated with Benton Middle School

(no post-survey)

The Good points are: it is far away and possibly quiet.  They probably make alot of money since it’s a mining town.  The bad points are It’s probably is a populated town cause of the mining.

The people are different from us cause they might all be in the mining bussiness.

I would pick Chicago to live at cause there are many many different things to do.

- F who never communicated with Benton Middle School

I think that Benton is too lonely, and dangerous because of the mining they do.  It’s good when you find gold or something, but what happens whey you don’t find anything?  That’s not a very good job, you never know when you’ll find stuff, or if you’re bringing a big check or a little check.  Besides money, you can also get seriously hurt, even killed.  Mining is not a safe thing to do.

The people there are polite, and nice, they are very amiable folks.  Their homes have always that smell of fresh air.  The people are hardworking, and their children go to school which is good.  Benton is beautiful, but Chicago is a better place to live.  Benton is too lonely, and not fun!  Here in Chicago is never that boring, you always have something new to do.  Visit the museums, go to the park, out to the mall.  Chicago has very good schools and Maine West is one of them.  Housing is better, there’s appartments, townhouses, houses, etc ... You can visit Lake Michingan, or just simply go to Lake O’Peka, Chicago is full with interesting surroundings.

- F who never communicated with Benton Middle School

The bad points is that their is someone always working outside.  It’s like having no life.  Why would someon want to live where you see people working in colemins [coalmines].  The houses must be seperate.  I really don’t have any good points about southern Illinois.  I balieve the people their are just like us.  I don’t think they are diffrent from us.

I would rather live in Chicago, because I don’t whant to see no workers everyday.  I was raised mostly in Chicago so I say that no better place will make me change my mind were I’m living.

- M who never communicated with Benton Middle School

After learning little about Benton Middle School I think it would really be boring if I lived out there.  It’s a small mining town, there’s probably nothing to do and not a lot of people to meet.  I think the people who live there are really serious because there probably stressed out and bored so much they don’t know what to do.

I would rather live in Chicago because there’s so many different things possible for a person to do.  You can go to the malls, swim, bike, skateboard, rollerblade, go to the clubs, eat at nice restaurants, watch a sporting event, etc.  You can also meet a lot of people when you go out because a lot of people are really nice and upbeat.  You can also learn lots of new things when your out sightseeing and checking things out.  There is always something  going on in Chicago.

- M who never communicated with Benton Middle School

I think some of the good points are people in Benton have a nice calm life.  They dont have to worrie about crime or any of the problems that we face in Chicago like violence and crime.  The bad thing about it is there isn’t many jobs for people out there and not many veriety’s of jobs.

The people who live there are nice and get along with each other.  They live there lives calm and peaceful.  They dont worrie about crime out there like we do.  I think if I had a choice of living in eather Chicago or Benton I would rather live in Benton because of the life style.

- M who communicated once with Benton Middle School, but not with specific students

(no post-survey)

Life in sothern Illinois mining towns has to be fun in a way.  I think the people that live there love their pet mokingbirds.  The people would probably have better manners because everyone knows what kind of person everyone is.  That helps because everyone knows who to correct.  They are probably really nice people.

I think Chicago is a better place to live.  I think so because Chicago has more things to do.  I could not live in a place with nothing to do.  I get boared easily if the only exciting thing there is to do is hop in a cart and roll around some tracks underground with my mokingbird.  I love where I live and I would never move away.

- M who never communicated with Benton Middle School

The good point about Benton is that they can get mony because it’s a mining town.  The bad point is that people can die there because the fumes the mine let of[f].  I think people there are mining people and thy are probly nic.  I would rather live in Chicago because of the stores.

- M who never communicated with Benton Middle School

After learning about Benton, I learned that there are not many jobs to take.  life there is peaceful, but sometimes is boring.  People again enjoy going to church, having barbeques, playing different sports, and eating big home cooked meals.

People in Benton seem to be great hard working people.  They have great manners and respect each other.  I would rather live in Chicago for mainly one reason.  The reason is Chicago has more job opportunnities than Benton.  A lot of people work at the same job.

- M who communicated a few times with Benton Middle School, but not with specific students

To tell you the truth I didn’t learn much about Benton students.

- M who never communicated with Benton Middle School

(no post-survey)

Was not here

- M who missed class when class communicated with Benton Middle School

(no essay)

- M who never communicated with Benton Middle School

I thinke that people in Southern Illinois mining towns listen to country music.  People there dosen’t have all the things that we have in Chicago like M.D., big malls, big parks, ect.  When I used to live in (Mexico) [my homeland] I lived in a little ranch it was fun but not as much as the city, because in the ranch schools aren’t that good, there isn’t no big malls.  I [think in] Chicago the[re] is big malls big parks.

- M who never communicated with Benton Middle School

I think that most mining towns have lot’s of hard working people [.] they have do much harder things than us who live in the suburbs.  just like I stated in my previous essay I wouldn’t want to live in a mining or farming town because they don’t have all the diffrent advantages that we in the suburbs have.

- M who never communicated with Benton Middle School

The good points are [you] can mine a lot and get gold.  The bad points are that you can’t do a lot.

I think people who live there are like farmers.  And have hard working jobs.

I think Chicago is better because there is more to do and more fun.

- M who never communicated with Benton Middle School

(no post-survey)

one of the good things about over there would be the kind of the tecnology they have over there which I they [?] didn’t have.

- M who communicated once with Benton Middle School, but not specific students

after learning about benton students I feel that there are good and bad points about Benton for example a good point might be that they have a mining corporation and they must make good money.  a bad point about this town is that it propable has a high polution rate because they mine cole.

The people who live there must be hard workes and are proble loyal people.

I would rather much live in Chicago than in Benton because it is more bissy than Benton and I just like it more.

- F who never communicated with Benton Middle School according to her questionnaire

(no essay)

- M who never communicated with Benton Middle School

I was absent the day when our class communicated with Benton

- M who was missing when class communicated once with Benton Middle School