The crusade against illiteracy had extended rapidly to other states.
Moonlight schools were organized in the fall of 1913 in Bradley County,
Tennessee, to teach the mountaineers; in Spartanburg County, South
Carolina, to teach the people in mill villages, and in Grant County,
Washington, to teach some German farmers to read and write the English
language.
Alabama was the second state to wage a state-wide crusade against
illiteracy. In 1914, Honorable William F. Feagin, State Superintendent
of Education of Alabama, sent out this call:
It is my opinion that there are a number of people in this state
who are patriotic enough to give themselves over to the task of
making a crusade against illiteracy in their communities, if we only
knew how to find them. For such as these, this pamphlet is being
sent out and in the belief that any soul who gives himself to a task
like this, namely that of bringing light and help and cheer to those
who have never learned to know the independence, the self-respect,
the information and the delight of the printed page, is worthy of
honorable mention whenever we call to mind those true patriots who
serve humanity and glorify the state.
[Illustration: LETTER FROM AN ALABAMA PUPIL]
[Illustration: LETTER FROM AN ALABAMA PUPIL]
In 1915 the Alabama Illiteracy Commission, the second illiteracy
commission in the world, was created and the Governor of Alabama issued
a proclamation against illiteracy, which was, also, the second of its
kind. The Alabama Illiteracy Commission was organized with former
Governor William D. Jelks as Chairman and Honorable William F. Feagin
as Secretary. With the slogan, “Illiteracy in Alabama--Let’s remove
it,” this Commission began the task of extending to every illiterate in
Alabama the opportunity of the moonlight schools.
Late in the year of 1914, Doctor J. Y. Joyner, State Superintendent of
Public Instruction of North Carolina, began to organize the forces
for an illiteracy campaign in that state. What was accomplished in this
initial campaign was reported by him to the editors of North Carolina
assembled at Montreat, July 1, 1915, when he appeared before them to
enlist them in a state-wide crusade against illiteracy. In summarizing
the results he said:
The moonlight schools have proved successful in dealing with this
problem of adult illiteracy in other places, notably in Rowan County,
Kentucky, where they were first inaugurated about three years ago.
The story of the movement in that state is inspiring and the results
have been marvelous. Largely as a result of the discussion of this
subject at the annual meeting of the State Association of County
Superintendents at the Teacher’s Assembly last November eighty-two
moonlight schools were conducted in twenty-nine counties in this
state last year enrolling sixteen hundred illiterates of an average
age of forty-five, most of whom learned to read and write.
Seven thousand North Carolina teachers volunteered the following year
to teach moonlight schools. At the close of the session Dr. Joyner
wrote:
A partial report from fifty of the one hundred counties show 638
moonlight schools with 5,530 illiterates enrolled, most of whom have
been taught. It is safe to estimate that the reports from other
counties will show at least 10,000 have been reached through the
moonlight schools and taught to read and write.
[Illustration: LETTER FROM A NORTH CAROLINA PUPIL]
When such reports were in as could be collected--and many schools
known to be successful were never reported--9,698 illiterates had been
taught. Doctor Joyner then rallied his forces for a more heroic effort
with this war-cry:
Outstrip Kentucky! What Kentucky has done and is doing North Carolina
can and must do for the need is greater. Adult illiteracy in the
United States is doomed. A few more years and there will not be a
vestige of it left. Kentucky, led on by the spirit of inspiration of
a woman, has preempted the first place in this glorious work. North
Carolina may be second; indeed there is a chance that she may even
outstrip Kentucky and be the first to reach the coveted goal.
The North Carolina Legislature of 1917 appropriated $25,000 annually
for moonlight schools and in 1919 the work was made a part of the
public school system of the state.
[Illustration: A North Carolina Moonlight School.]
Minnesota’s first moonlight schools were organized in 1915 in response
to a call from her State Superintendent of Education, Honorable C. G.
Shulz, who, in October, 1914, issued this call through the press of the
state:
I hesitate to accept the figures on Minnesota’s illiteracy. They
would seem rather larger than we would expect even though at that
they show Minnesota as being among the states having the least
illiteracy. But, we have to recognize that there is some illiteracy
here and the recognition carries with it the admission that there
shouldn’t be any. Minnesota should stamp out illiteracy absolutely.
Mrs. Stewart’s message to us makes this a fitting time to inaugurate
a study of the subject here at home. I think that Minnesota’s
illiteracy is centred mainly in urban rather than in rural
communities. School heads would do well to make an immediate
survey of their neighborhoods and to ascertain who the illiterates
are and how to reach them.
Superintendent E. A. Freeman, of Itasca County, was the first of Mr.
Shulz’s lieutenants to respond. Mr. Freeman organized his teachers
in November, 1914, and conducted moonlight schools for illiterates,
mainly those of foreign birth. This pioneer work in Minnesota was the
inspiration of the Naturalization Bureau which adopted the plan and
promoted it in other localities. The Examiner of the Naturalization
Bureau for Minnesota in one of his official bulletins said:
The National Government Bureau of Naturalization is anxious to help
the foreign-born to learn to read and write the English language and
to better understand our form of government. In the rural districts
where the need is greatest, little has been done, but Professor E. A.
Freeman, of Itasca County, introduced an entering wedge last year in
his schools and met with much success.
Oklahoma had several moonlight schools in 1914 through the influence
of the Literacy League organized at the State Normal School at Edmond
by Moses E. Wood, head of the Departments of Pedagogy and Psychology.
In 1915 Honorable R. H. Wilson, State Superintendent of Education,
launched a state-wide campaign in which he enlisted several thousand
teachers besides organizing the press and the people of his state to
aid. A sweeping campaign was made by Mr. Wilson and the patriotic
men and women who enlisted with him. In an official report in 1916
Superintendent Wilson gave the results of the first year’s work as
follows:
Probably more than five thousand persons were reached by the
moonlight schools in Oklahoma during the school year 1915-16. This
is indeed a good beginning. During the next school year 1916-17, we
should reach 25,000 illiterates and as many adult literates. The
black cloud of illiteracy can be dispelled by the united efforts of
county superintendents and teachers. This is a call to service and
an appeal to the state pride of every teacher employed in our
common schools. By concerted effort we can make Oklahoma the most
literate state in the union.
[Illustration: Oklahoma Moonlight School.]
[Illustration: LETTER TO THE STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, OKLAHOMA]
Oklahoma was the first state whose normal schools offered credits for
moonlight school work, an example followed by Kentucky and some of the
other states.
“Illiteracy in New Mexico must go,” was the slogan sounded by the
school forces in New Mexico during 1915. Honorable Alvin N. White,
State Superintendent of Education, inaugurated the campaign, and the
slogan was caught up with enthusiasm by leaders throughout the state.
This appeal was made by Superintendent White:
The purpose of this is to call attention of the people of the state
to the alarming and excessive percentage of illiteracy; to have the
educated forces of the state realize more fully that illiteracy is
a curse, a menace and a disgrace; that it must be destroyed and
the state elevated; that by the united efforts of the teachers and
citizens of the state everybody must read and write in New Mexico by
1920.
Santa Fé County, under the leadership of Superintendent John V. Conway,
led the state. Superintendent Conway and his corps of teachers made the
record of establishing a moonlight school in every district with 1,549
adults enrolled. This county had a large Mexican population, some of
whom could read and write in Spanish, but came to the moonlight schools
to learn to read and write English. The majority of Mexicans enrolled,
however, were illiterate, and these were taught in English. The record
of this pioneer county inspired the entire state and has been the
foundation upon which New Mexico’s work among adult illiterates has
been built. It led to the enactment by the New Mexico Legislature
of several laws, for the benefit of illiterate adults, one of them
providing compensation for those who would teach a moonlight school
with as many as ten illiterates enrolled.
[Illustration: A class of Mexican mothers in California learning to
read and write.]
[Illustration: LETTER FROM NEW MEXICO MOONLIGHT SCHOOL]
The illiteracy crusade spirit was abroad in California and
found concrete expression in 1915 when the State Department of
Education, the Immigration Commission and the California
Federation of Women’s Clubs jointly launched a state-wide campaign. The
Federation announced its plans as follows:
The Education Committee is asked to center its efforts upon the
eradication of illiteracy and the Kentucky plan is recommended. The
program is to vitalize the state into educational responsibility and
activity in behalf of a considerable part of our population and to
raise California to the first place in the literacy column.
California passed the “home teacher” law in the same year. The law
provides an itinerant teacher to go from house to house and instruct
illiterates and others. To this has been added other wise legislation
in behalf of the illiterates, at the instance of Honorable Will C.
Wood, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, and a comprehensive
program for the elimination of illiteracy from California has been
adopted and is being carried on under the State Department of
Education. Los Angeles is one of the cities in the United States that
has made great progress in redeeming illiterates. Kate Douglas Wiggin
wrote a story--“The Girl and the Kingdom”--and gave it to the teachers
of this, her home city, to be sold and the money used to defray the
expenses of the local illiteracy campaign.
The moonlight schools were begun in Georgia in 1915 under the
leadership of Honorable M. L. Brittain, State Superintendent of
Schools, who tells of its progress in the following report:
The first notable instance of training illiterates under State
auspices originated in Kentucky several years ago. The work attracted
attention throughout the country and several states organized
somewhat similar classes.
As State Superintendent of Education, I called the attention of
our Legislature to this subject four years ago, but met with no
encouragement, the belief being expressed that these illiterate
grown-ups could not be taught with any degree of success. To prove
that this feeling was erroneous, our five state rural school
supervisors were directed to see what could be done with these
classes and five counties were selected for the purpose. Very good
results were obtained by these supervisors. The best work in the
state, however, was accomplished by Mr. I. S. Smith, an educator,
who was then Superintendent of Tattnall County schools, who had more
than six hundred adults taught to read and write. Fortified with
these facts and the proof that it could be done successfully, the
Legislature was again requested to authorize the work and to give
financial aid for its support.
In compliance with Mr. Brittain’s request, the Georgia Legislature
created an Illiteracy Commission in 1919. Governor Hugh Dorsey became
the President and Mr. Brittain was made Secretary and Director of this
Commission. Seven state organizers were employed, six white and one
colored, and the five regular state school supervisors were directed to
give much of their time to the illiteracy campaign.
In his official report of 1920 Mr. Brittain says:
Another 1919 law that reflects credit upon the legislature is that
of teaching the illiterates. Our records show that we have, since
August, enrolled 31,545 illiterates and taught 17,982 to read and
write.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: LETTER FROM A GEORGIA MOONLIGHT SCHOOL PUPIL]
The State of Washington, under the leadership of Mrs. Josephine Corliss
Preston, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, enacted a law in
1915 which enabled all school districts to have night schools. Finding
that the illiteracy campaign was necessary to arouse the illiterates
to their opportunity and the public to co-operate, an Illiteracy
Commission has since been created with the State Superintendent of
Public Instruction as Chairman and with members chosen from the various
state organizations. This Commission has appointed county illiteracy
commissions and is engaged in a campaign to remove illiteracy from the
state.
The illiteracy movement, which was started in South Carolina in 1913
by Miss Julia Selden, a patriotic Southern woman, took the form of a
crusade in Laurens and Newberry Counties in 1914 and blossomed into an
Illiteracy Commission in 1916. The Legislature appropriated $10,000
for the work in 1918 and increased the appropriation to $25,000 in
1910, when it became a branch of the State Department of Education,
the Illiteracy Commission assuming the position of aid and ally. South
Carolina, the first state to secede from the Union before the Civil
War, chose as her slogan in the illiteracy crusade, “Let South Carolina
secede from Illiteracy.”
The Mississippi Legislature created an Illiteracy Commission in 1916
and began a state-wide campaign with the slogan, “Illiteracy in
Mississippi--Blot it out.”
At the request of Governor Charles H. Brough, an Illiteracy Commission
was created by the Arkansas Legislature in 1917. The expense of the
illiteracy crusade in that state was met, at first, by the bankers,
together with other patriotic organizations and individuals. The
Legislature of 1920 made an annual appropriation of $13,000 which
was supplemented by private subscriptions, and Arkansas entered upon
an intensive campaign. The slogan, “Let’s sweep illiteracy out of
Arkansas,” has met with a hearty response by the whole people of the
state. Arkansas has apportioned a certain number of her illiterates to
be reached within a definite time. One-fourth of them will be taught
each year until the task is done. Governor Thomas C. McRae in the
following proclamation declared “illiteracy is the greatest stain upon
the state”:
Because I believe that the best way to reduce crime and poverty is
through education of adults as well as children,
Because I believe that every man and woman in Arkansas has a right to
an education,
Because I believe that the greatest stain upon our state is the
condition of adult illiteracy. Nearly 100,000 men and women in
Arkansas cannot write their names,
Because I believe that united effort on the part of the citizens of
Arkansas will speedily eradicate this evil,
I hereby designate the week beginning February 5 and ending February
12, as “Illiteracy Week” to be known as such throughout the entire
state.
I call upon the bankers, the lawyers, the merchants and the men of
all stations in life to lend their efforts toward encouraging people
to learn to read and write.
I call upon Rotary Clubs, Kiwanis Clubs, Lions Clubs, Civitan Clubs,
Chambers of Commerce, Y. M. C. A.’s, Y. W. C. A.’s, K. of C.’s, S. I.
A.’s, fraternal societies and lodges and all other organizations, be
they small or great, to volunteer moral and financial aid in driving
out our enemy, ignorance.
I call upon the ministers of Arkansas to set aside one Sunday within
the period designated as a day to be devoted to preaching adult
education.
I call upon the teachers and pupils of our public schools to take the
message as planned by the Illiteracy Commission, into every community.
I call upon every citizen in the State to assist in this movement
by teaching at least one person who wants some education or more
education.
Given under my hand and the great seal of the State at the Capitol at
Little Rock this 21st day of January, A.D. 1922.
Dr. John H. Finley, Commissioner of Education of New York State,
launched a state-wide campaign against illiteracy in that state in
1917. Only $3,200 was appropriated at first, but interest in the work
so increased that $140,000 was appropriated in 1919. Governor Alfred G.
Smith in signing the bill said in a memorandum:
The purpose of this bill is to obliterate adult illiteracy from the
State. This subject is one in which I have long been interested. The
plan proposed through this measure appears to be so practicable and
reasonable that its operations may, in my judgment, be made effective
in accomplishing the desired purpose.
New York appropriated $200,000 the following year, and within four
years after starting the movement, had expended a half million dollars
from her state and local treasuries on educating illiterate native and
foreign-born adults. The State Department reports some two hundred
thousand taught to read and write. It was the first state to secure
the illiteracy census of 1920 from the Federal Census Bureau. This was
placed in the hands of the school authorities by Dr. Finley, who
wrote to his lieutenants:
I hope that we shall immediately and vigorously take advantage of
this census of 1920 which has, through special effort and provision,
been put so promptly at our disposal, to clear the state of adult
illiteracy as you have practically done for child illiteracy.
[Illustration: Jewish mothers in New York improving their education.]
Dr. Thomas E. Finegan, State Superintendent of Public Instruction of
Pennsylvania, is a well-known champion of the illiterates of the nation
and their cause and the State of Pennsylvania is making great strides
in reducing illiteracy under his leadership. An extensive program of
instruction for the illiterates and the Americanization of foreigners
has been carried on in the state since 1918. The State Department of
Education reported 20,378 taught during the year 1919 alone. The name
of every illiterate taken by the census enumerators in 1920 is on
record in Pennsylvania, having been obtained from the Federal Census
Bureau. With the stimulus of achievement back of her and with splendid
organization, plans and leadership, Pennsylvania bids fair to realize
her slogan--“Pennsylvania a literate state in ten years.”
Ohio is engaged in the fight on illiteracy. Much skirmishing has been
done by the State Department of Education and by Dr. S. K. Mardis,
of Ohio University, a pioneer crusader in that state, and in 1922 a
State Illiteracy Commission was created and the work among illiterates
started as a state-wide campaign.
Maine, under the leadership of Dr. Augustus O. Thomas, State
Superintendent of Schools, has a five-year program for wiping out
illiteracy. Maine has 20,240 illiterates and this five-year program
will include the teaching of some four thousand each year, a thing
easily possible of accomplishment. Maine thus expects to free herself
from illiteracy by 1926. The politicians watch Maine closely in
election times and have a saying, “As goes Maine, so goes America.” If
the Nation can afford to follow Maine in things political, it can well
afford to emulate her in the emancipation of its illiterates.
North Dakota wages war on illiteracy in a determined fashion and with
the avowed intention to surpass all of the other states. “No illiteracy
in 1924” is her goal. She has 9,937 to teach and practically her whole
population has entered into the crusade in a plucky spirit, resolved
to get at least half of them taught before the end of the year, 1922.
The spirit of these North Dakota crusaders was illustrated by two young
teachers who were asked, “Have you any illiterates in your districts!”
and replied with eagerness, “Oh, we hope we have.” They, like all of
North Dakota, want to play their part in making their state the first
literate state in the Union.
Massachusetts and the other New England states, New Hampshire,
Connecticut and Rhode Island, have extended the opportunity to their
adult illiterates under certain ages and conditions.
Virginia has had moonlight schools in her remote sections, West
Virginia in her coves, Texas on her ranches, Louisiana in her parishes,
Michigan in her lumber camps and the Dakotas on their plains. Moonlight
schools have ministered to illiterate fishermen on the coast of
Maryland, illiterate immigrants on the coast of California, illiterate
Swedes in Minnesota, illiterate Indians in Oklahoma, illiterate
Mexicans in New Mexico and illiterate white and colored people through
the mountains and valleys of the South.
With the slogans, “Illiteracy in Alabama--Let’s remove it,” “No
illiteracy in New York State,” “Pennsylvania a literate state in ten
years,” “No illiteracy in North Dakota in 1924,” “Let South Carolina
secede from illiteracy,” “Let’s sweep illiteracy out of Arkansas,”
“Illiteracy in Mississippi--Blot it out,” “Illiteracy in New Mexico
must go,” the states have sounded a battle-cry which means the
death-knell of illiteracy in the Nation.