Lower coast gazette., 1913-09-27
The Moonlight" Schools.

!, Suppose. that a reasonably welledu-
Gated man, of middle age or older,
were suddenly to find himself unable
to read and write Even though his
faculties were otherwise unimpaired,
and his body and mind were both
sound, would he not find the misfor-
tune simply overwhelming? The imag-
ination cannot compass Il changes
such an affliction would make in the
remainder of his life. But suppose he
had never learned to read and write
at all? How many Of us, to. whom
these simple accomplishments are as
the air we breathe, have ever even
tried to imagine what our lives would
be without them
Yet only in some such way a we
conceive what it means when a ma
ture or even an aged man or woman
suddenly acquires these powers. We
say suddenly" OF purpose; for the
thing can be done by mature minds
in a few weeks, even in a single week.
And Of our five and a hall million il
literates yer ten years old, more than
four and a half millions are grown up
people, and a great proportion OF them
old people. Could anything in the
world be finer than to help perform
the simple miracle that will bring so
vast a change to all these lives?
The. way one woman set about it,
less than two years ago, and what she
has already accomplished, should stir
every generous heart among us. She
was the superintendent Of schools in
Rowan county, Kentucky, Mrs. Cora
| Wilson Stewart, and what she did was
to open the schoolhouses on moon
light nights for grown-ups. All the
teachers volunteered to help. Al
though that, is a mountain country,
sparsely populated, with rough roads,
twelve hundred persons came the first
evening, and soon nearly one-third OF
the entire population of the county
was enrolled. To a few shy old PEG
pie lessons were at first given In their
homes; then they, too, came to school.
The range of ages was from eighty
seven downward.
A year later, that is to say, in Sep.
TENDER, 1912, these Rowan teachers
met others in a moonlight teachers
institute" and told their experiences.
The movement at once spread into
eight or ten other counties. Last
April, the Bureau Of Education at
Washington published as Bulletin
about it. So much attention has been
drawn to the movement that it will
surely spread into other States.
! You hardly know whether to laugh
! or to cry over what these generous
: country teachers have: accomplished.
: OF course not all their pupils were e
tirely illiterate; but think of enabling
: four preachers for the first time to
read their Bibles! Or a merchant to
! cast his accounts! Or a school super
intendent to write a report! Or a
/. grandam of seventy to send her first
: letters to her far.away children apd
: grandchildren!
And such work can be Gone, such
J happiness conferred all over this
Z country. immigration has given to our
= oldest cities a percentage Of grown.uI
y illiterates all too close to that of the
Kentucky and Carolina mountains
& not to speak OF the ratio among the
9 older negroes Of the South. Nearly
everywhere, at laagt, the children o,
all races have a chance at the rudi
) ments. But a mass OF 1etterless grown
o men and women nearly as great al
u the population of New England still
y appeal to our pride and patriotism a!
Americans, to our sympathy, to ou1
IS sense of, fairness and justice. Fo
MANY of these millions are not trul.
to blame for their state. Many hav'
lived. good and honorable lives in spit
u of it. That they should be deprived
a of so infinitely much that the res
r of us can have so easily, is not mere
ly pathetic; it is unjust.
1t
u r.. no Tr,o