We had heard that the Plant City Strawberry Festival was ‘something to see’, so last Friday afternoon Gail and I drove to Floral City Florida and spent the night at Martha’s Motel (my mother-in-laws home) so we could finish our Plant City Trek the next morning. In Plant City we found a parking spot at their local middle school. With both of us being former & current middle school teachers we really didn’t mind giving our 5 dollar parking fee to this Middle school’s yearbook club. We talked to one of the teachers in the school and she said that the previous week and next week they were having their FCAT tests during this excitement. The FCAT is Florida’s version of Georgia’s CRCT. These are tests that can make or break a school. These tests are BIG Deals - Principals get or moved when the schools don’t make AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress). For my non-teacher friends I will explain a little about the current high-pressure testing and schools. Bush’s Law called “No Child Left Behind” states that if a school does not make AYP on these standardized tests for 5 years straight, the federal government can come in and assume control of the school in terms of curriculum, faculty, and administration (ie. you might lose your job). So we felt much empathy for this MS teacher who had to get her kids calmed down and focused on the FCATs during probably the biggest yearly event in their town – the Strawberry Festival.
Strawberries were the theme but junk food what the staple. It wasn’t quite what we had imagined. We had assumed that it would be similar to the Fernandina Shrimp Festival where there are lots of talented artists, with a few token craft booths, restaurant sponsored food tents, along with a few token junk food stands and antiques. We shouldn’t have assumed. Imagine a County Fair with carnival rides, livestock, skateboard and bike shows, puppet shows, singing and carnival food trailers you have the idea. Now just add lots of strawberries and a high ticket price of 9 dollars along with lots of crafty kind merchandise and you will get the picture.
