Evening star., 1929-08-31
STORY OF 3IBEARS
|NTR|GUESA ADULTS
Mountain Folk Listen With
Interest to Telling Of
Childish Tale.
Continued From First Page.)

4 ~
/ after child-and their interests still
were the same as those Of their small
; children. So, for that matter. were
! the interests of their husbands and
/ fathers. And in that thrilling moment
when baby bear discovers Goldilocks
| asleep in his bed some Of the frail.
worn mothers would spit out their cudS
| Of tobacco in their growing excitement.
1t is pathetic little building-this
| tiny log school house with its mud
| chinked walls. less than five hours
away from the Capital of the United
| States. 1t is a county school built l8
| years ago. Then there was a three
month school session. 1t did not open
again until 1925. when there was an
| other three e-month session.
Nicholson Hollow-a cluster OF log
cabins far above the average in comfort
and cleanliness-is a converging point
of Stony Mountain trails. A few miles
! away is the modern Summer resort OF
! Skyland. Five miles in another direc-
! tion is the store and post offlce at Old
| Rag. Three miles below is Corbin
Hollow with its wretched. tumbledoUn
| shacks and ragged children.
Attracted by Curiosity.
When Miss Sizer came to Nicholson
4
, schoolhouse in a wretched condition.
with the mud fallen away from the
| walls and the logs ready to collapse.
/ But men in the neighborhood rather
| Suspiciously at first. repaired it for her
| and the folks from the hollows began
| trooping i'll out OF curiosity. All were
chewing tobacco. from bare footed
| grandpa to the tinieSt children. FlaXen-
haired girls who would have been an
| gelic-loOking children with their faces
washed and with clean dresses appear
| ed with rims of tobacco stain around
| their mouths. Children in the noun
| tains are given tobacco to chew almost
as soon as they are through nursing.
Some say-and it probably is not an
exaggeration-that mothers stick a cud
| in a baby's mouth to keep it from cry
| ing.
! Out of a class of 20 children which
| she finally got together. Miss Sizc-
| found that only three or four ever had
seen the American flag and only oro
! ever had heard the Lords Prayer. -
was neceSsady to start from the begin-
| ming with all of them. Miss Sizer OBJ
| tained wholehearted cooperation from
one of the Older boys, especially in her
efforts to promote cleanliness. She
| tried to teach the children to brush
! their teeth. After the first demonstra-
ton this boy was so thoroughly con-
verted that he generously offered a
chew of tobacco to all the others who
would use the toothbrush the next day.
| He was obliged to keep his promise.
Despite many generations of cloSe
! inbreeding and at least two generations
| Of almost absolute illiteracN Miss SiZer
was able to obtain an excellent response
by patient effort. Although no intel
|. .ligence tests have been given. there is
! little reason to suppose that the aver
| age would be below normal. During
| these two months one boy of 19-vho
had received little training from IL;
| fa'her. who can read-read through two
! primers and the first reader. wrote a
| simple letter and learned TO write
| numbers up to 1000. The rest of the
J adult class, most of whom had had NJ
| previous training. read through one
| primer. The 3-to-10-year- class
read 80 pages of the first primer and
| four or five learned the ALPHABET The
| 6-year-olds learned to read a few words.
to trace over figures from 0 to Q, and
to trace over a few letters.
Record Exceptional.
This record is exceptional. consider
ing that in the beginning Miss Sizer
had very little in the way of mental
equipment to work with. The senses
of the children never had been trained.
, 1t Is mistake to assume that these
mountain children living close to nature.
/ and in constant contact with the birds
! and flowers, are keen observers OF
| nature. A child in Washington
! apartment house. whose senses have
| been trained in the kindergarten, prob
! ably knows much more Of nature and
natures ways than, these waits of the
! hills To them bird is a bird and a
! flower a flower and it is purity"
They have not sharp eyes and ears.
! Miss SiZer found. because they never
| have learned to use these senses
/ Thus she was faced with the most
/ difficult material possible for a teacher
| dullness of senses Possibly the uni
versal tobacco chewing habit con-
tributed to it. Besides there was the
| outstanding malnutrition of the children
! which made concentration of the at
| tention too much of a physical effort
But apparently dullness of the senses
and inability to fix attention on details,
| such as the forms of letters, is not en-
! tirely synonymous with mental dullness
and Miss Sizer has found that the con-
ditlon may be overcome by constant
stimulation. 1t would be much
simpler matter. however. to teach
children to read if they already had
learned to observe birds and flowers.
No Hostility.
The same difficulty was encountered
with the adults. But Miss Sizer whose
school has been visited as an interest
ing sociological laboratory by experts
from the Department of Agriculture
and from the University of Virginia.
never has encountered any hostility to
| literacy such as often is reported from
mountain communities.
| The people are Indifferent to educa-
ton. but they apparently have no OBJ
| jections II 1t is brought to them. There
| is no inferiority complex which would
cause them to link literacy with effemi-
| macy Once their interest is aroused they
make rapid progress. but outsiders must
| teach them all about the living things
of their own hollows.
At first they sit in school like
! children drugged or asleep. Their
| senses have never been trained to listen
/ 70 one thing. And they are afraid OF
| innovations. Some moving pictures
| were shown in the school house this
/ Summer. When the lights went out
| child cried
Hes making it dark so he can
| kill u.s.
The mountain people have constant
| fear of the dark for X is then that hare