Jane and Evie Bowen are twin sisters who were originally born in San Antonio in 2007. Their family moved to Columbia when they were three years old. They’re both in their teens now.
Jane and Evie spoke with the Missouri on Mic team at this year's True/False Festival held in Stephen's Lake Park about some of their favorite things to do in Columbia and shared some of their thoughts on schooling in Missouri.
Missouri on Mic is an oral history and journalism project documenting stories from around the state in its 200th year.
Jane Bowen: I think Missouri is known for like, we have a lot of historical towns here like Branson, and like, Booneville. There's a lot of, like, outdoor stuff he can do like the trails, parks, but it's basically just known for like, it's a very historic state.
Evie Bowen: Well, I hope that people give us more of the recognition that we need and more people know who may not have even known about it [Missouri].
"If they really want to help them [students], they should do more of school funding – like create more like resources and opportunities and things for teachers to help teach better."Evie Bowen
Jane Bowen: I think it's kind of not really thought of as somewhere you'd go for like a vacation, if you want to, like a weekend getaway or something, and I really think that's kind of wrong because there is a lot to do here when you really think about it.
Like there's a lot to do in Columbia actually – you could go to some of the shops, restaurants, like Maude Vintage, Poppy.
Evie Bowen: We have Sparky's, which is a really good ice cream place.
Most of the people here are really nice, and it's like, a really nice community and we have all these great parks and playgrounds, and we have a good downtown, and we have great schools and great people here.
So, I would like to give a I would actually like to give out a shout out to my middle school that I went to an in person – when they used to go to in person school – and it's West Middle School. I would like to give a shoutout to because we have such a great principal and we have like a great school.
I think that schools in Missouri, in Columbia should get more school funding because – like instead of like standardized testing was written and created, well wasn't created, then – it was just like initiated for all public schools then and then No Child Left Behind Act, because the whole purpose was supposed to be to help schools, and to help fill in the missing things that students don't know.
But that doesn't make sense, because the standardized test doesn't do anything about that except for have students test on things that they were supposed to learn in school.
And also, if they really want to help them, they should do more of school funding – like create more like resources and opportunities and things for teachers to help teach better.
