The Friends of Coal Ladies Auxiliary is implementing a school program, called Coal in the Classroom at one Raleigh County private school.
A third grade class at St. Francis is the first in Beckley to participate in the Coal in the Classroom program. Yesterday was the second week of the program. The topic was surface mining.
As part of the program, third-graders were given a Friends of Coal bag with a pencil, pen, packet of crayons, and a foam lump of coal-all stamped with the Friends of Coal logo.
There was also a real lump of coal, a bracelet that read, “Friends of Coal” and a booklet with activities in it like connecting the dots to make earth-moving machines.
Regina Fairchild is the chairwoman of the ladies auxiliary. She says the curriculum was put together by retired teachers.
"We realized that there was a lot missing as far as children knowing anything about coal," she said. "Our age group when we grew up we were taught about coal and knew a lot more about it." "They teach to how to plant a garden in Iowa so we are about coal. West Virginia is coal so we thought maybe could give back in that direction."
Regina’s husband, J.D. Fairchild was the guest speaker on Wednesday. He is the director of sales at Terex. The company manufactures machines such as highwall miners. He showed the class pictures and talked about massive machines that move the earth at these sites.
The students seemed to impressed with massive machines.
Fairchild believes this message is critical to the local community.
"It is very important now especially with this administration," Regina Fairchild said. "We think this is vital. This has fit like a pocket on a shirt as far as getting the message out. We want to give a positive message. There is so much negativity out there we are about giving back and being positive about it and I don’t think you can create anything other than what we’re doing but good."
"I want them to learn more about their area," said third grade teacher Mary Grace Peck. "Coal is part of what makes West Virgnia so special. I want them to think about jobs you know they might be interested in the future.
During yesterday’s session, Fairchild also talked about the technological advances in the equipment used in the industry.
The highwall miner is a machine that is operated outside the mountain. The coal is extracted by a sort of arm that reaches in the mountain up to 1,000 feet to extract the black gold.
Again, the massiveness of the machines had an appealing effect on the kids in class, especially the boys.
"My kids are learning about careers that they might be interested in the future," Peck said. "They're also learning that education never stops and they're learning more about industry in our area."
Peck says that the message of the hard working men and women in the industry sometimes is lost.
"They’ve seen men like that at Wal-Mart or at a gas station so now they know a little bit about why they dress the way do," she said. "They've seen the guys still with coal on them a little bit; I'm sure they have because everybody sees them around here like that."
There was only one girl who raised her hand when asked if anybody knows someone employed by the coal industry, but Peck says it still gives them a better understanding of some jobs available in the region.
"I’m sure that there are groups that do relay the negative part of coal and the coal industry," she said. "I think they're worried about the environment; they want the mountains. Nobody in West Virginia wants our state to lose the mountains. That's what makes our state so special also."
The “negative part” was not in the presentation. Peck says it’s too complicated for third graders.
"Not in third grade," she said. "Right now we're just kind of learning about the coal mining industry so it won't be touched on here but that might be an issue for middle school or even high school."
"It's very complicated."
Originally, the program was supposed to start at Stratton Elementary in Beckley. That class was postponed because of conflicting schedules with WEST testing after a bad winter full of snow days.
Now the class is scheduled to start in the Raleigh County public school system in the fall.
Fairchild says there have been several schools that called to inquire about the program.
Officials with the environmental group, Coal River Mountain Watch say they are also working with retired teachers to form a curriculum for the public schools of Raleigh County.
They plan to present the proposal to the board sometime this summer.