Research Topic

The topic of my research paper will be public education in Parsons, Kansas. Having lived in Parsons all of my life, having a father that was a principal and a mother that was a teacher, and being a teacher myself have all lead to this topic.

I have already been to the Parsons Public Library and found some good resources in their private collection. I also began research on their microfilm and found some interesting articles just during a couple of month time span. They have films for papers all the way back to the late 1800’s. I also plan to check with our current school system to see what records that they might have. I have found a good source on the skyways.org website via the Internet. I plan on using oral history as well as using government records. I also plan on picking the brain of our local historian and seeing if he has any information that would lend itself to this subject.

The following is a very basic outline for my paper with a lot of work still left to come! J

I. Introduction
(Here I will discuss my thesis, still yet to be finalized, and state the general points of the paper.)
II. Education begins
This will contain the history of how education came to be and what it first looked like in Parsons, KS.
III. The many changes in Parsons education.
Here I will talk about how the population of the city kept growing, therefore creating the needs for bigger and better. What was bigger and better and how did we achieve it.
IV. The face of our school system today.
What is being done today to maintain a great school system that supports our town?
V. Conclusion