The Heartland And The Rural Youth Exodus Analysis

Why is it that when we think of America, we think of a rural community or a farm house at dawn with an American flag flying high? Sometimes we imagine little children in overalls, laughing, playing, and running in their backyards next to a cornfield. Unfortunately, that picture of children playing next to a cornfield might soon be exactly what it is: a memory. “The Heartland and the Rural Youth Exodus” by Patrick Carr and Maria Kefalas write on the issues of the youth migration leaving the rural areas of America. While reading this chapter, it became evidently clear that Carr and Kefalas did not fully convince older, retired, small business owners that the youth are leaving rural America because of their use of self-experiences and with a large

Carr and Kefalas moved to Ellis, Iowa to see what it is like to live in a small town and to see why the youth are leaving the rural areas of America. The first thing that Carr and Kefalas noticed was the nonexistent youth population. “And the town’s graying population means that the median age is forty-four, nearly a decade older than the nation as a whole…in fact, nearly 40 percent of the Midwest’s nonmetropolitan counties have median ages older than forty years, whereas less than 1 percent of the Midwest metropolitan counties do.” (Carr, 26) Carr and Kefalas did not see that many youth around Ellis because almost half of the Midwest’s nonmetropolitan counties are well past their youth. The next thing that Carr and Kefalas state that happened to them in Ellis, Iowa is that they felt unwelcomed or as if they were outcasts moving into the community. At one point in the chapter, Carr and Kefalas even classify themselves as the main act to a circus performance that had just come to town. (Carr, 27) Carr and Kefalas had a certain feeling that they might not have been welcomed to Ellis because of how the people felt towards them. The older, retired, small business owners might not agree that these newcomers are not welcomed, but would in fact argue that they are very welcomed as they serve for future potential customers. It comes off as if Carr and Kefalas have a certain bias already as they move into Ellis, Iowa. This is that they are not welcomed because it is a small town and they are the new people. Carr and Kefalas use nothing more than their personal feelings and personal experiences to make a case that the youth might be leaving the rural communities because of the attitudes in rural communities. Saying that because the attitude of the residents of Ellis towards newcomers is a reason as to why the youth are