GwinnettForum | Number 21.57 | July 23, 2021
MOUTH-WATERING: It’s a miracle that all French people are not fat, since they must resist temptations like these in the photo that Rob Ponder of Duluth sent recently. The Ponder family has been on a vacation to Paris and environs after travel restrictions were lifted by the European Community. Ponder says: “The number of different pastries that you can select from approaches 100 in a typical store. The proprietors of these establishments are very proud of their creations.” This photo may make your mouth water as you may remember what these fancy cakes, pastries and cream-topped desserts taste like. And even the most lowly of these are full of calories. Ymmmm. Good. Read the final installment of the Ponder trip to France in Another View below.
Sunday morning, September 26, at 8 a.m., close to 500 runners will wind through Downtown Duluth in the annual Duluth Donut Dash 5K Road Race. Every runner will receive a donut and coffee compliments of Dunkin’ Donuts. Pre-registered runners are guaranteed a long-sleeved t-shirt. This is a qualifying race for the Peachtree. Much of the proceeds go to the Wellroot Family Services, which works with children in foster care and transitional housing. Go to duluthfallfestival.org to learn more about the race, register for the race, and to find out about our Festival! Or, look for the Festival tent at Food Truck Fridays in Downtown Duluth for more information.
Editor’s Note: We’re taking a few days off. The next GwinnettForum will be dated July 30, 2021—eeb
TODAY’S FOCUS: When should high schools teach students about government?
EEB PERSPECTIVE: Norcross ranks 14th in nation in patents per 10,000 people
ANOTHER VIEW: Surprised near trains whirling past you at 200 mph
SPOTLIGHT: Mingledorff’s
UPCOMING: County equips police with new ballistic ID system technology
NOTABLE: Georgia Gwinnett College’s local economic impact totals $508 million
RECOMMENDED: Friends Divided, by Gordon S. Wood
GEORGIA TIDBIT: Sapelo Island is home of the University of Georgia Marine Institute
MYSTERY PHOTO: Mystery Photo with few pedestrians asks for your identification
When should high schools teach students about government?
By Alex Tillman
VALDOSTA, Ga. | Let me dispel a growing myth. The myth is that the U.S. Constitution (and “civics”) is no longer taught in public schools. This statement is usually repeated by proponents of right-wing politics. The evidence to the contrary is easily found which makes me question the agenda behind the myth.
Tillman
Our government is remarkably transparent if you put forth the effort to research a question. Use any search engine and enter the Georgia Standards of Excellence. That is the current name for the public school standards in Georgia.
Click on grades 9-12 then click on social studies. The Georgia Department of Education requires a minimum of one unit of United States History, one unit of World History, and a half unit each of American Government and economics, in order for a student to graduate. A unit is equal to a minimum of 135 to 150 hours of instruction depending on class scheduling. In plain English, this means all high school graduates studied American Government for at least nine weeks.
What is in the curriculum? This is also public information for those who bother to know the facts. The American Government standards are listed for public review. I would pay special attention to SSCG 3, which covers the U.S. Constitution. This shows that, indeed, the Constitution is taught in Georgia public schools.
So why is the average citizen clueless about constitutional law? If you don’t believe this is true, log on to Youtube and watch comedian Jay Leno ask adults on the streets about basic government questions. You will laugh and cry at the same time.
So why are high school graduates not retaining this instruction? That’s a good question. Not only do we teach the American Government, but the Constitution is heavily referenced in U.S. History. As a high school social studies teacher, I have my theories.
American Government is usually taught in the freshman or sophomore year. I’m not convinced the subject is age appropriate for students who are 15 and 16 year olds. They are rarely interested in the inner workings of government at this age. They can retain enough information to pass the tests about these concepts, and then forget it.
Take a moment to reflect on your high school years. Do you remember your freshman class schedule? Compare that memory to lessons you learned as a junior or senior?
School districts are free to determine which required courses are taught and which class year they are taught. Most districts save U.S. History and Economics for the upperclassmen. As a veteran educator I agree with this logic. We cannot cover the entire social studies curriculum in the last two years.
Perhaps we should move American Government to the senior year. However, that would require moving Economics to the lower classmen years. Which subject is more important?”
The myth is dispelled , but the problem remains. How do we educate the general public in constitutional law?
We live in the information age. Learning does not end when you walk across the high school stage to grab your diploma. Adults have an obligation to read and research the unknown. It’s never been easier.
You may think you know the Constitution. Go back and read it now. It is not a long document. I would recommend a version with explanations in the margin. Recognize that the original Constitution was written in 18th century English, which can be confusing. That’s why the margin comments help.
Consider this your homework for tonight.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
Norcross ranks 14th in nation in U.S. patents per 10,000 people
By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
JULY 23, 2021 | Bet you didn’t know this: Norcross, Ga. ranks 14th in the nation in the number of U.S. patents issued, per 10,000 population! That’s what we found out from TIME magazine.
A total of 2,746 patents have been issued to people with an address in Norcross! That’s an average of 8.6 patents per the 2010 population. Not surprisingly, Princeton, N.J. ranks first, with 15.5 patents per 10,000 population. (See table for the complete list.)
We first heard of those figures when Paul Duke STEM Principal Jonathon Wetherington was speaking to the Norcross PDC Club last Wednesday. (PDC now stands for “people drinking coffee” and meets at the 45 South Café at 8:15 until 9 a.m. each Wednesday. It has no dues and no attendance requirements, but 25-30 people show up most mornings.)
How in the world does Norcross rank so high in patents?
Perhaps the biggest reason is that the city once housed Western Electric’s Bell Labs office here, and that office was big into research for the Bell System. Back about 1975, we were present when that laboratory unveiled its new “light guide” cable, that small-as-a-hair cable system that could transmit telephone calls (light waves) better than a quarter inch copper cable. That revolutionized telephone wiring, leading eventually to using what is now called “fiber optics.” You can understand why modern cell phones would never be so small if it had copper cable wires.
Of course, other companies calling Norcross home contributed to patents. Remember that Scientific Atlanta (now Cisco) had its headquarters once on Peachtree Industrial Boulevard. And in what was then Norcross but is now Peachtree Corners was also Electromagnetic Sciences, making patented antenna equipment. Don’t forget Hayes Microcomputer patented the modem here, and today that once-new device is automatically part of all computers. And of course, there were other high-tech companies, inventors, and firms working in Norcross on unique solutions.
One other Georgia firm is on the list of the top 100 companies with patents per 10,000 people. The City of Suwanee was credited with 553 patents, or 1.9 per 10,000 residents.
Williams
It’s good to hear of Ife Williams, former director of the Hudgens Center for the Arts. She’s now the deputy director of the Hambidge Center in Rabun County. That’s a highly-respected artist community near Clayton, providing a residency program where the artist can explore, develop and express their creative voices. Ife, herself a potter, will be focused on operations and programs at the center.
The Hambidge Center is beginning construction on an expansion to bring in more artists from throughout the United States. This new project was enhanced by a $1.45 million gift from Atlanta philanthropist Susan Antinori and the Antinori Foundation. More info: www.hambridge.org.
Sing big praises for Georgia’s Department of Transportation in resolving problems quickly on Interstate 16 when a truck with a raised hydraulic trailer slammed into a bridge near Soperton. Such an impact caused the heavy steel and concrete bridge to move five-six feet! Can you imagine the impact? Or can you imagine why the driver didn’t know the trailer was in the “up” position?
So the heavily-used four-lane was closed to traffic, causing many people delays, and tying up two communities, Soperton and Adrian with diverted traffic. The DOT got busy. And within two days all was clear, thanks to good work by DOT and its contractors.
Hip-Hip-Hurrah for the Department of Transportation!
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Surprised near trains whirling past you at 200 mph
(Editor’s note: this is the fourth and last installment of a recent trip the Rob Ponder family of Duluth made recently to France, as tourists from America returned to Europe. –eeb)
By Rob Ponder
Ponder
PARIS, France | While Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris is better known around the world, Reims, France is the home to what is considered the “best” front façade of any Gothic Cathedral in the country. The other thing the Reims church has going for it is that it is open for public tours (unlike Notre Dame which is closed because of a major construction fire two years ago). We decided to make Reims our Sunday pilgrimage.
The Paris to Reims train line is served by what are known as “Train a Grande Vitesse” (TGV’s). Such trains (“Super Fast Trains”) zoom along right at 200 miles per hour (mph)! Riding these is something that our special needs son loves.
Reims Cathedral
The trip to Reims went smoother than to Normandy (no elevator problems) and the Cathedral is merely a long walk from the train station. On the train ride, I downloaded an “app” on my phone that showed me track velocity, based off of satellites. I was pleased to see an even 200 mph show up as our maximum speed near the middle of the trip! We averaged 189 mph over an extended period of time.
We spent the day touring the interior and the exterior of the Cathedral, having lunch in a very nice McDonalds (we were craving some simple food), and spending the rest of the day getting to know the remainder of the city. We made it back to the train station about 45 minutes before our train was to leave for Paris.
When I checked the monitor in the station to confirm our return trip, I noticed that the time of train matched our tickets but the train number did not (our tickets showed train #1254 and the one the monitor said #1252). Oh my gosh! I looked at my ticket a little closer and noticed that I had booked the return train for Monday and not Sunday. Rookie mistake!
Even worse: the train we thought we were on was sold out, so we could not buy last minute tickets for it. The next train to Paris (about an hour later) was a “one stop.” We would have to take a slow train 12 minutes to another small town and then change trains for a TGV back to Paris. It was no big deal, but I did have to pay a “change fee” for my mistake.
We disembarked from the slow train in the little town and started to make our way to the platform for the train to Paris. Our son would want to stand there and not sit inside the station. We had only made it a few feet past the end of a parked train when a TGV passed through the station at what must have been full speed of 200 mph. It scared the dickens out of us Americans, while it did not seem to faze the French at all.
During the 45 minutes that we waited for the train to Paris, at least seven trains passed through the station at (or near) full speed. It was amazing! We all loved it…not just our son. As it turned out, my “mistake” allowed us all to have an experience that we would have missed had we made the first train. The show was worth the change fee!
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Mingledorff’s
The public spiritedness of our sponsors allows us to bring GwinnettForum.com to you at no cost to readers. Today’s featured sponsor is Mingledorff’s, an air conditioning distributor of the Carrier Air Conditioning Company. Mingledorff’s corporate office is located at 6675 Jones Mill Court in Norcross Ga. and is proud to be a sponsor of the Gwinnett Forum. With 37 locations in Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi and South Carolina, Mingledorff’s is the convenient local source with a complete line for the quality heating, ventilating, air conditioning, and refrigeration parts and supplies you need to service and install HVAC/R equipment. Product lines include Carrier, Bryant, Payne, Totaline and Bard.
- For all of your HVAC needs, and information on the products Mingledorff’s sells, visit www.mingledorffs.com and www.carrier.com.
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We encourage you to send us your letters and thoughts on issues raised in GwinnettForum. Please limit comments to 300 words, and include your hometown. The views of letters are the opinion of the contributor. We reserve the right to edit for clarity and length. Send feedback and letters to: elliott@brack.net.
County equips police with new ballistic ID system technology
Move over CSI, the Gwinnett County Police Department will soon be able to solve crimes more efficiently. Tuesday, the Board of Commissioners approved purchasing Integrated Ballistic Identification System technology to reduce gun-related crimes.
Deputy Police Chief James McClure says: “The acquisition of this technology will produce important investigative leads that will aid the department in apprehending the perpetrators of violent crime. There is no doubt this new technology will play a vital role in helping the agency safeguard our community.”
When shell casings are found at a crime scene, the investigator will use the new technology’s 3D-enhanced imagery to compare images with shell casings found in a national database. Because everything is done in-house, this will cut down on ballistics wait time – which can generally take several weeks to complete. The program allows investigators to access the National Integrated Ballistics Information Network, which is managed by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
GGC’s local economic impact totals $508 million
According to an economic impact study released by the University System of Georgia (USG), Georgia Gwinnett College (GGC) contributed more than $508 million to the economy of Gwinnett County and the Atlanta metropolitan area during fiscal year 2020. Including its capital outlay for construction projects, GGC has generated about $4.8 billion in cumulative economic impact since the college has been included in the study.
Dr. Jann L. Joseph, GGC’s president, says: “GGC continues to be a significant contributor to the economy of Gwinnett County and the surrounding region. As the county grows, GGC is excited to be part of that growth.”
This year’s report indicates that GGC is responsible for the creation of 3,834 jobs, of which 799 are on campus and 3,035 in the community. In addition, the college now has more than 9,000 alumni who are living, working and serving in Gwinnett, Georgia and beyond.
Amenities in upgraded building includes a bocce ball court
Avison Young Atlanta has been selected by Icarus Alternative Investments and Scipio Ventures to lease the four-story, 101,809 square foot, Class A office building located at 3550 Engineering Drive in Peachtree Corners. The building features a variety of space options ranging from 2,166 square feet to a contiguous 51,909 square foot block, perfectly suited for professional service firms like accounting and law firms: as well as fast-growth tech companies and companies seeking proximity to greenspace. Completed this spring, the interactive outdoor amenity area next to the lobby entrance includes lounge seating, a bocce ball court, communal farm tables and trail-facing patio views that are perfect for socially distant business meetings and after-hour co-worker gatherings.
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Friends Divided, by Gordon S. Wood
From Raleigh Perry of Buford: Professor Wood is often called the dean of American historians. He has written eight books, all of which were greeted with accolades. This book is basically a juxtaposition of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. Almost everything about them is different. They were seldom in agreement. However, they were good friends, that is until the French Revolution and in that, they disagreed supremely. Though they communicated for many years, that communication stopped in about 1789 and did not start again until about 1811. The book covers their parallel lives. It is a new look at these two men who put together the Declaration of Independence. If American History is your gig, this is your book. Adams was basically a Puritan; Jefferson was an Anglican. Adams’ education was limited; Jefferson was a perpetual student. Adams was against the French Revolution; Jefferson supported it. That is specifically what caused the friends to divide.
- An invitation: what books, restaurants, movies or web sites have you enjoyed recently? Send us your recent selection, along with a short paragraph (150 words) as to why you liked this, plus what you plan to visit or read next. Send to: elliott@brack.net
Sapelo Island is home of the UGA Marine Institute
University of Georgia Marine Institute was established in 1953 through the generosity of Richard J. Reynolds Jr. It was founded primarily as a research institute and has conducted research centered on salt marsh, watershed, and nearshore ecosystems since its inception. The goals of the research are to understand the biological, chemical, geological, and physical processes that control salt marsh systems.
Sapelo Island is a barrier island located approximately five miles off the Georgia mainland in McIntosh County. Barrier islands are found along the length of the Georgia coast and act as protection against erosion and storms. Between the barrier islands and the mainland lie estuaries, areas where freshwater mixes with seawater. These estuaries have extensive salt marshes dominated by the smooth cordgrass, Spartina alterniflora, and the black needle rush, Juncus roemerianus.
The coastal marshes of Georgia comprise almost 400,000 acres and represent nearly a third of the salt marshes on the east coast of the United States. These highly productive marshes provide a home for oysters, clams, and other organisms that spend all of their lives in the estuary and for young shrimp, crabs, and fishes that use the estuary as a nursery ground.
The Marine Institute provides a modern environmental laboratory with access to outdoor field sites that allow scientists to study these valuable natural resources. The facilities include a main laboratory building of approximately 13,685 square feet, which houses offices and laboratories for resident and visiting scientists.
There are two modern instrument rooms with state-of-the-art scientific instruments, two flowing-seawater laboratories, and a scientific library with more than 6,000 volumes and sixty-three current journals and periodicals. There are 27 volumes of collected reprints from studies conducted using the Marine Institute, with contributions numbering almost 900. To conduct studies in the estuaries, the Marine Institute operates the research vessel R/V Spartina, a forty-four-foot fiberglass boat, and maintains numerous smaller boats for use in the tidal rivers and creeks.
In addition to five resident faculty, visiting scientists are encouraged to live and study on the island for periods of one month to six months. To date, the Visiting Scientist Program has attracted renowned scientists from 13 countries and across the United States. As a part of the University of Georgia‘s School of Marine Programs, the Marine Institute does not offer formal courses, but its facilities are available for use by graduate students from any accredited college or university who wish to pursue their degree-requirement research in estuarine and marine ecological studies. The Student Intern Program allows first-year graduate students and advanced undergraduates to learn about the process of basic environmental research through actual hands-on experience under the guidance of Marine Institute faculty.
- To view the Georgia Encyclopedia article online, go to https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org
Mystery Photo with few pedestrians asks for identification
Many columns, many busts, a vaulted ceiling and red carpet. Can you identify this edition’s Mystery Photo? Send your ideas to elliott@brack.net and include your hometown.
The last Mystery Photo came to us from former County Agent Bill Baughman of Snellville. It is of a covered bridge in the Hilton community of Early County. The bridge was built by his grandfather and namesake, J.W. Baughman, who was born in Lexington, S.C. in 1861 and died in 1923 in Dothan, Ala.
Lou Camerio of Lilburn told us about this bridge: “This is the Coheelee Creek Covered Bridge. Besides being the southernmost covered bridge in Georgia, it has a unique truss design, a modification of the Queen Post truss design, that allowed for longer a span. The concrete abutments were added in 1958 according to the Georgia Historical Society’s marker.”
George Graf of Palmyra, Va. gave us this tidbit: “Its total length is 96 feet and was posted to the National Register of Historic Places on May 13,1976. The roof was damaged by Hurricane Michael and now gated and closed to vehicular traffic.”
Allan Peel of San Antonio added: “It is 21 miles north of the Florida/Georgia line, which makes it not only the southern-most covered bridge in Georgia but also in all of the United States. Its history dates back to May 2nd, 1883, when the Early County Board of Commissioners commissioned a study about the practicality of constructing a bridge to cross Coheelee Creek in the area. While the bridge was approved in 1883, actual construction was delayed for 8-years. It was eventually completed in 1891 by J. W. Baughman and 36 workers. The construction took only four months and cost $490.41 ($14,642.03 in today’s dollars), making it impressive that the bridge still stands today. While it remains open to pedestrians, iron gates have been placed at both ends of the bridge to prevent further damage to the bridge from vehicular traffic.”
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