The Moberly Area Community College Board of Trustees approved a new director for the college’s Law Enforcement Training Center at its Monday meeting after the former director Russell Tarr resigned. John Pehle of Mexico was named the new director. He has served as an LETC adjunct instructor for nearly 20 years and has been involved in law enforcement since 1991.

“We’re really fortunate because we were quickly able to find a tremendously qualified person,” said MACC President Jeff Lashley. “...We had no disruptions to the program at all. The next class was able to start on time… I’m feeling very confident about our LETC moving forward.”

One of the issues that was pointed out in the LETC’s October program review was small class sizes, primarily due to the dwindling interest in law enforcement careers, Tarr said during the review. The college’s goal is to increase its number of students in the program, Lashley said.

“We would like to have larger classes in that program,” Lashley said. “It’s been a challenge to have full classes. Right now, going into law enforcement is not an incredibly popular career choice. We’ve struggled some with getting recruitment for the program and I’m hoping that he’s going to be a great recruiter and hopefully increase our numbers.”

During the board’s meeting, Robert Williams, an associate professor and Teacher Education Program coordinator, spoke to board members about a recent trip he and three MACC students took to Stockholm, Sweden, and Helsinki, Finland, to learn about the education system there.

Williams and the students were on the trip for eight days, which included one-day stops in Sweden in Finland. The group visited a high school in Stockholm and an elementary school in Helsinki.

Education students learned different teaching methods, Williams said. 

“Their curriculum is based on overarching life-learning, rather than details of what math should be taught,” Williams said. “Item one on their curriculum is thinking and learning to learn. … Once you get students excited about the curriculum, then you just have to stay out of their way, they will teach themselves.”

He described several strengths of their school systems, including that most students were multilingual but lack technical education.

 “We like the fact that we provide opportunities for international travel for our students,” Lashley said.

ecliburn@moberlymonitor.com