The High School in the Middle of Everywhere: Nebraska’s Lincoln High

Authors

• Edmund T. Hamann, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
• Janet M. Eckerson, University of Nebraska at KearneyFollow
• Mark Larson, Lincoln Public SchoolsFollow

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

1-2023

Citation

Hamann, E. T., Eckerson, J., & Larson, M., (2023). The High School in the Middle of Everywhere: Nebraska’s Lincoln High. In A. York, K. Welner, & L. Molner Kelley (Eds.) Schools of Opportunity. (pp. 158-175). Teachers College Press

Comments

Copyright © 2023 Teachers College Press

Abstract

In 2002, world-renowned author Mary Pipher published a book about her home city, Lincoln Nebraska, playfully titled “The Middle of Everywhere” a tongue-in-cheek rejoinder to the idea that Nebraska is ‘the middle of nowhere.’ But word play aside, her title was empirically apt, as her volume documented how immigration and refugee resettlement were demographically transforming Nebraska’s capital city. As in other cities, resettlement was concentrated in some areas of Lincoln, placing differential burdens on different parts of the community’s institutional infrastructure. Of interest to readers of this volume, Lincoln’s refugees and immigrants were concentrated in the city’s oldest high school. This account shares how that school embraced the challenges of demographic change by valuing the knowledge, skills and experience of students and their families.