Maebelle Shaw-Castle, the principal of Kingstree Senior High School, recently got her master's degree from the Teacher's College at Columbia University in New York. She breathes idealism and hope and tries to fight the conditions of Williamsburg County. Shaw-Castle believes her students are highly motivated. More than 95 percent of them graduate. But only about 35 percent of the students in Williamsburg County continue schooling, Gardner says.
Poverty becomes a state of mind, a fulfilled expectation.
They have short term goals, and college isn't a short term goal. They are living in their future, and their future is today. Poverty's stigma When Craig Campbell tells students at the Rains-Centenary Elementary School that he has never been to jail, their eyes widen. Campbell is a Department of Social Services case worker in the Marion 3 School District. He works out of the school, where 95 percent of the children live in poverty, but he spends most of his time paying home visits.