Dear editor:
While helping check folk in at the Jazz Society Mardi Gras party Saturday at the Convention Center, I noticed many school buses next door and students walking through the entrance to Horner Hall on their way to the other buildings. I discovered after asking that the Arkansas BETA clubs were ending their three-day convention.
These are junior high and senior high students from various schools in Arkansas. A custodian informed me that over 800 were in attendance. This is a fine example of the quality of so many Arkansas students. The convention may have been highlighted in the Sentinel, but if so, I missed it.
So much attention across the nation is given in the media to those young people who have taken the wrong path in life, but it needs to give more attention to the hardworking achieving students like those of BETA clubs.
BETA was organized in 1934 by a college professor in South Carolina, with the purpose of promoting ideals of academic achievements, character, service and leadership. Its motto is "Let Us Lead by Serving Others." Since 1991, the national organization has given $5 million in scholarships. Our own Bill Clinton was a BETA member at Hot Springs High School in the 1960s. One example of service is illustrated by the small school club at Poyen, whose members last fall collected 1,600 pounds of food to be given to the local food drive.
I spent 47 years teaching in high school, college and university settings, and often saw tremendous positive examples of student behavior, always outnumbering the few "bad eggs," including the social fraternity Phi Sigma at HSU, which collected over 400 cans of food in December for distribution through the local churches.
Arkansas should be proud of such fine examples of students who make a difference.
John W. "Doc" Crawford
Hot Springs
Editorial on 02/03/2016