Originally published in TEACH Magazine, January/February 2024 Issue
By Jeffrey Webb
I am a teacher at DuPont Middle School in southern West Virginia, a region defined by stereotypes and hit hard by America’s opioid epidemic. The course I teach, 8th grade social studies, focuses specifically on our state’s history. It is designed to analyze the past and future of West Virginia, and to instill in students a sense of pride about their home.
However, every year students come into class believing there is little to be proud of when it comes to West Virginia. “Nothing but crackheads,” some of them say, not realizing that heroin and prescription pills—not crack cocaine—are the reason behind our state’s drug problem.
Jeffrey Webb is a writer and an English and social studies teacher from West Virginia.
