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You'd think that the character of a village that grew from 12,000 to 60,000 residents in less than 40 years might have changed with the population. But young families move into Tinley Park, Ill., a proud village 25 miles southwest of Chicago, for the same reason that Edward and Emily Zabrocki chose to raise their children there in 1970.

"We looked at the schools and the community services," said Zabrocki, a retired high school guidance counselor who has been Tinley Park's mayor since 1981. "And we found a house that was good for our pocketbook."

More from BusinessWeek.com » Best Places to Raise Your Kids: 2010 » Best Affordable Suburbs 2009 » America's Cheapest Homeownership Markets

Tinley Park, with its top-rated schools, low crime, beautiful parks, relatively affordable houses, and easy access to jobs, is the winner of BusinessWeek's Best Places in America to Raise Kids. Working with OnBoard Informatics, we chose a winner for each state, but the Chicago suburb-only an hour south of last year's winner, Mount Prospect, Ill.-scored the highest.

Named after the village's first railroad master in the 1800s, Tinley Park has two train stations, which carry commuters to Chicago in 45 minutes. Single-family homes for sale in Tinley Park start at $166,000 for a two-bedroom, two-bath house spread over 1,200 square feet to brand-new four-bedroom house for $630,000.

Settling Down

All three of the main high schools serving Tinley Park are ranked in the top 100 in the state. And the students are closely tied to the community and often stay there after graduating.

At Andrew High School, where each student is required to complete 24 hours of community service to graduate, only about 3% of the 2,400 student body move away during high school, compared with the state average of 14%, said principal Robert Nolting.

"There are a high number of kids in Tinley Park who have lived there their whole life," Nolting said. "Of the communities I've lived in or have been part of, it has more interconnectedness to it. It feels smaller than it is."

The village is quiet and safe. But it was shaken on Feb. 2, 2008, when a man posing as a delivery man shot five women to death at a clothing store in one of Tinley Park's outdoor malls. It was a big shock but it brought the community even closer, said Tinley Park High School Principal Theresa Zielinski.

"It shocked everybody," said Zielinski, a lifelong resident. "It's not what happens here in our town."

Friendly Atmosphere

Safety, along with school test scores, air quality, and affordability, were weighted especially highly in this year's calculations. But we also considered job growth, diversity, and amenities such as museums, parks, and theaters.

Many of our picks also share Tinley Park's family-friendly atmosphere. Owensboro, our top pick for Kentucky, is a good example. The industrial town, about 100 miles southwest of Louisville known for its mutton barbecue and as the birthplace of actor Johnny Depp, takes pride in its school district and hires accordingly, said Keith Lawrence, business reporter for the Messenger-Inquirer newspaper in Owensboro. The town's former superintendent left to become superintendent of the Lexington school district.The median home is about $100,000, and it's so safe that two middle-aged women once set out to walk every mile of the 18.7-square-mile city. "They started walking after getting off work at 10 p.m., Lawrence said. "There aren't a whole lot of cities you would do that."

"It's kind of a 21st century version of Leave It to Beaver-church and family and Little League and soccer," said Lawrence who raised a family in Owensboro. "It's really family-oriented. If you're single, though, it's rough."

Tinley Park, Illinois
Nearest city: Chicago
Population: 54,491
Median family income: $90,377
Runners-up: Arlington Heights, Schaumburg

Tinley Park, a fast-developing southwestern suburb of Chicago, is this year's Best Place to Raise Your Kids--not just for Illinois, but for the nation as a whole. It has great schools, a vibrant downtown, and housing options that range from modest to luxurious. Oak Park Avenue, which serves as a Main Street shopping area, includes a beautiful town square where residents gather and children ride bicycles. Tinley Park also has a 28,000-seat outdoor concert amphitheater, one of the largest in the Chicago area.

Arcadia, California
Nearest city: Los Angeles
Population: 55,817
Median family income: $83,480
Runners-up: Monterey Park, Diamond Bar

Arcadia, located about 20 miles from Los Angeles, is the state's best place to raise kids for the second consecutive year because of its low crime and excellent schools. The population of Arcadia includes a number of peacocks that hang out in the neighborhood near the Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanical Garden.

Warner Robins, Georgia
Nearest city: Macon
Population: 49,515
Median family income: $62,715
Runners-up: Valdosta, Roswell

Warner Robins, about 120 miles south of Atlanta, is home to the 6,400-acre Robins Air Force Base, the state's largest single employer. Many of the residents of this proud town outside Macon, Ga., are former military personnel. Warner Robins won the Little League World Series in 2007.

Honolulu, Hawaii
Nearest city: Honolulu
Population: 377,399
Median family income: $74,504
Runners-up: Hilo

Honolulu, the state capital, is surrounded by gorgeous beaches, rainforests, waterfalls, and mountain ranges. But there is more to Honolulu than surfing, sunny weather, and sandy beaches. It also has a thriving arts scene, great ethnic restaurants, and each year it hosts the NFL Pro Bowl and college football's Hawaii Bowl. The island of Oahu also has a strong military presence, including Schofield Barracks, the state's largest Army post.

Quincy, Massachusetts
Nearest city: Boston
Population: 92,181
Median family income: $74,160
Runners-up: Weymouth, Barnstable Town

Quincy, located about 10 miles south of Boston, is the birthplace of U.S. Presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams and is known as the "City of Presidents" and "Birthplace of the American Dream." The community has plenty of historic sites, miles of coastline, and great schools. The district, which prides itself on a low student-teacher ratio, has 12 elementary schools, 5 middle schools and 2 high schools that teach a diverse student body, including speakers of 32 dialects.

Woodbury, Minnesota
Nearest city: St. Paul, Minn.
Population: 58,566
Median family income: $114,156
Runners-up: Rochester, Eagan

Woodbury, a growing suburb just 10 miles southeast of St. Paul, is close to major employers, including the state government and 3M, which makes everything from post-it notes to safety equipment. It has 100 miles of multi-use trails and is surrounded by thousands of acres of park land. The city is served by three independent public school districts and is home to the Math & Science Academy charter school.

Tonawanda, New York
Nearest city: Buffalo
Population: 57,922
Median family income: $63,827
Runners-up: Irondequoit, Cheektowaga

Tonawanda, a northern suburb of Buffalo, has one of the state's largest school districts, which includes the Village of Kenmore and most of the Town of Tonawanda. It contains 13 schools.

Beaverton, Oregon
Nearest city: Portland
Population: 87,676
Median family income: $78,946
Runners-up: Corvallis, Eugene

Beaverton, seven miles west of Portland, has a park located within a half-mile of every resident, a 25-mile network of bike paths, nearby ski slopes, beaches, and shopping areas. The highly-regarded public and private schools send students to top-ranked universities.

Clarksville, Tennessee
Nearest city: Nashville
Population: 118,209
Median family income: $53,795
Runners-up: Hendersonville, Johnson City

Clarksville, in Middle Tennessee, 40 miles northwest of Nashville, is among the nation's fastest growing communities. It has lot of new buildings-schools, hospital, and subdivisions. Its low cost of living and good schools make it a choice setting for families.

San Marcos, Texas
Nearest city: Austin, Tex.
Population: 45,366
Median family income: $53,690
Runners-up: San Antonio, Houston

San Marcos, located in Central Texas between San Antonio and Austin, is home to Texas State University-San Marcos. For residents, the university provides plenty of cultural opportunities and the San Marcos River and parkland allow for a variety of outdoor recreation.

Do American children still learn handwriting in school? In this age of the keyboard, some people seem to think handwriting lessons are on the way out.

We asked a literacy professor at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. Steve Graham says he has been hearing about the death of handwriting for the past fifteen years. So is it still being taught?

STEVE GRAHAM: "If the results of a survey we had published this year are accurate, it is being taught by about ninety percent of teachers in grades one to three."

Ninety percent of teachers also say they are required to teach handwriting. But studies have yet to answer the question of how well they are teaching it. Professor Graham says one study published this year found that about three out of every four teachers say they are not prepared to teach handwriting.

STEVE GRAHAM: "And then when you look at how it's taught, you have some teachers who are teaching handwriting by providing instruction for ten, fifteen minutes a day, and then other teachers who basically teach it for sixty to seventy minutes a day -- which really for handwriting is pretty much death."

Many adults remember learning that way -- by copying letters over and over again. Today's thinking is that short periods of practice are better. Many experts also think handwriting should not be taught by itself. Instead, they say it should be used as a way to get students to express ideas. After all, that is why we write.

Professor Graham says handwriting involves two skills. One is legibility, which means forming the letters so they can be read. The other is fluency -- writing without having to think about it. The professor says fluency continues to develop up until high school.

But not everyone masters these skills. Teachers commonly report that about one-fourth of their kids have poor handwriting. Some people might think handwriting is not important anymore because of computers and voice recognition programs.

But Steve Graham at Vanderbilt says word processing is rarely done in elementary school, especially in the early years.

STEVE GRAHAM: "Even with high school teachers, we find that less than fifty percent of assignments are done via word processing or with word processing. And, in fact, if we added in taking notes and doing tests in class, most of the writing done in school is done by hand."

American children traditionally first learn to print, then to write in cursive, which connects the letters. But guess what we learned from a spokeswoman for the College Board, which administers the SAT college admission test. More than seventy-five percent of students choose to print their essay on the test rather than write in cursive.

It took more than a million of them to produce that much silk. Simon Peers is a British art historian and expert in woven materials. He moved to Madagascar about twenty years ago. He started a textile business in that island nation in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Africa. Nicholas Godley is an American clothing designer. He also had a business in Madagascar making purses.

Both were interested in the idea of making a textile piece from silk of the golden orb spider. These spiders are native to Madagascar as well as many other places. The females make huge webs, sometimes large enough to hang between trees on either side of a rural road.

The webs have an intense golden color. The female spiders have a bright yellow splash of color on their bodies and can grow as large as a human hand.

Mister Peers had researched stories of spider silk being used by human weavers. Together he and Mister Godley paid local people to gather about three thousand female spiders daily.

They placed twenty-four spiders at a time in a holding device. Each spider produced a line of silk about three hundred fifty meters long. Then, the creatures were released back into the wild.

The tapestry was finished after about four years of gathering the silk and weaving it together. The piece has a traditional Malagasy design woven into it.

Mister Godley and Mister Peers hope the tapestry will help protect the golden orb spider and bring attention to the needy country of Madagascar.

 

 

 

 

In eighteen thirty, only a few miles away from what is now the great city of Cincinnati, Ohio, lay a huge and almost endless forest.

The area had a few settlements established by people of the frontier. Many of them had already left the area for settlements further to the west. But among those remaining was a man who had been one of the first people to arrive there.

He lived alone in a house of logs surrounded on all sides by the great forest. He seemed a part of the darkness and silence of the forest, for no one had ever known him to smile or speak an unnecessary word. His simple needs were supplied by selling or trading the skins of wild animals in the town.

His little log house had a single door. Directly opposite was a window. The window was boarded up. No one could remember a time when it was not. And no one knew why it had been closed. I imagine there are few people living today who ever knew the secret of that window. But I am one, as you shall see.

The man's name was said to be Murlock. He appeared to be seventy years old, but he was really fifty. Something other than years had been the cause of his aging.

His hair and long, full beard were white. His gray, lifeless eyes were sunken. His face was wrinkled. He was tall and thin with drooping shoulders—like someone with many problems.

I never saw him. These details I learned from my grandfather. He told me the man's story when I was a boy. He had known him when living nearby in that early day.

One day Murlock was found in his cabin, dead. It was not a time and place for medical examiners and newspapers. I suppose it was agreed that he had died from natural causes or I should have been told, and should remember.

I know only that the body was buried near the cabin, next to the burial place of his wife. She had died so many years before him that local tradition noted very little of her existence.

That closes the final part of this true story, except for the incident that followed many years later. With a fearless spirit I went to the place and got close enough to the ruined cabin to throw a stone against it. I ran away to avoid the ghost which every well-informed boy in the area knew haunted the spot.

But there is an earlier part to this story supplied by my grandfather.

When Murlock built his cabin he was young, strong and full of hope. He began the hard work of creating a farm. He kept a gun--a rifle—for hunting to support himself.

He had married a young woman, in all ways worthy of his honest love and loyalty. She shared the dangers of life with a willing spirit and a light heart. There is no known record of her name or details about her. They loved each other and were happy.

One day Murlock returned from hunting in a deep part of the forest. He found his wife sick with fever and confusion. There was no doctor or neighbor within miles. She was in no condition to be left alone while he went to find help. So Murlock tried to take care of his wife and return her to good health. But at the end of the third day she fell into unconsciousness and died.

From what we know about a man like Murlock, we may try to imagine some of the details of the story told by my grandfather.

When he was sure she was dead, Murlock had sense enough to remember that the dead must be prepared for burial. He made a mistake now and again while performing this special duty. He did certain things wrong. And others which he did correctly were done over and over again.

He was surprised that he did not cry — surprised and a little ashamed. Surely it is unkind not to cry for the dead.

"Tomorrow," he said out loud, "I shall have to make the coffin and dig the grave; and then I shall miss her, when she is no longer in sight. But now -- she is dead, of course, but it is all right — it must be all right, somehow. Things cannot be as bad as they seem."

He stood over the body of his wife in the disappearing light. He fixed the hair and made finishing touches to the rest. He did all of this without thinking but with care. And still through his mind ran a feeling that all was right -- that he should have her again as before, and everything would be explained.

Murlock had no experience in deep sadness. His heart could not contain it all. His imagination could not understand it. He did not know he was so hard struck. That knowledge would come later and never leave.

Deep sadness is an artist of powers that affects people in different ways. To one it comes like the stroke of an arrow, shocking all the emotions to a sharper life. To another, it comes as the blow of a crushing strike. We may believe Murlock to have been affected that way.

Soon after he had finished his work he sank into a chair by the side of the table upon which the body lay. He noted how white his wife's face looked in the deepening darkness. He laid his arms upon the table's edge and dropped his face into them, tearless and very sleepy.

At that moment a long, screaming sound came in through the open window. It was like the cry of a lost child in the far deep of the darkening forest! But the man did not move. He heard that unearthly cry upon his failing sense, again and nearer than before. Maybe it was a wild animal or maybe it was a dream. For Murlock was asleep.

Some hours later, he awoke, lifted his head from his arms and listened closely. He knew not why. There in the black darkness by the side of the body, he remembered everything without a shock. He strained his eyes to see -- he knew not what.

His senses were all alert. His breath was suspended. His blood was still as if to assist the silence. Who — what had awakened him and where was it!

Suddenly the table shook under his arms. At the same time he heard, or imagined he heard, a light, soft step and then another. The sounds were as bare feet walking upon the floor!

He was afraid beyond the power to cry out or move. He waited—waited there in the darkness through what seemed like centuries of such fear. Fear as one may know, but yet live to tell. He tried but failed to speak the dead woman's name. He tried but failed to stretch his hand across the table to learn if she was there. His throat was powerless. His arms and hands were like lead.

Then something most frightful happened. It seemed as if a heavy body was thrown against the table with a force that pushed against his chest. At the same time he heard and felt the fall of something upon the floor. It was so violent a crash that the whole house shook. A fight followed and a confusion of sounds impossible to describe.

Murlock had risen to his feet. Extreme fear had caused him to lose control of his senses. He threw his hands upon the table. Nothing was there!

There is a point at which fear may turn to insanity; and insanity incites to action. With no definite plan and acting like a madman, Murlock ran quickly to the wall. He seized his loaded rifle and without aim fired it.

The flash from the rifle lit the room with a clear brightness. He saw a huge fierce panther dragging the dead woman toward the window. The wild animal's teeth were fixed on her throat! Then there was darkness blacker than before, and silence.

When he returned to consciousness the sun was high and the forest was filled with the sounds of singing birds. The body lay near the window, where the animal had left it when frightened away by the light and sound of the rifle.

The clothing was ruined. The long hair was in disorder. The arms and legs lay in a careless way. And a pool of blood flowed from the horribly torn throat. The ribbon he had used to tie the wrists was broken. The hands were tightly closed.

And between the teeth was a piece of the animal's ear.