This article reads like a press release or a news article and may be largely based on routine coverage .(November 2022) |
Hindman Settlement School | |
---|---|
Location | |
Hindman, Kentucky United States | |
Information | |
Motto | Celebrating Heritage, Changing Lives |
Established | 1902 |
Campus size | 200 acres |
Campus type | Settlement schools |
Website | www |
Hindman Settlement School is a settlement school located in Hindman, Kentucky in Knott County. Established in 1902, it was the first rural settlement school in America. [1] It is financially supported by the Daughters of the American Revolution. [2]
The mission of Hindman Settlement School is "to provide educational and service opportunities for the people of the mountains, while keeping them mindful of their heritage." [3]
The Settlement's major work today includes education and service programs that address critical educational needs of the region's youth, promote cultural awareness, and address emerging issues of health and food insecurity through increased access to nutritious, locally-grown foods.
In 1980, community members led by Lois Combs Weinberg, founded an Orton-Gillingham based program to tutor children struggling with dyslexia. The program offers afterschool tutoring and a five-week-long intensive summer school program. During the COVID-19 Pandemic the school offered its afterschool tutoring program and the summer school program through virtual classes. Due to the popularity and ability to reach more students, the school has continued to offer both virtual and in-person offerings.
Beginning in 2020, in partnership with AmeriCorps, the program has provided in-school reading intervention services in 20 schools across five counties. As of 2024, over one thousand students have been served through the AmeriCorps partnership.
Following Weinberg, the program has been led by Ann Titsworth and Ola Pigman.
The literary program has nurtured the Appalachian literary tradition for more than a century. The program hosts several events throughout the year including the Appalachian Writers Workshop, the Ironwood Writers Studio, the Troublesome Creek Writer's Retreats, Winter Burrow Literary and Arts Conference, and the Oak Ledge Writing Residency.
James Still was a notable poet, folklorist, and novelist during his life, spanning 95 years from 1906 to 2001. James Still's friend, Don West offered him a job organizing recreational programs for a settlement school in Knott County, Kentucky. James Still gladly accepted the invitation to teach in Knott County. James Still soon became a librarian at the Hindman Settlement School Library and spent the rest of his days in Knott County. James Still is buried on the Hindman Settlement School Campus.
Fred Williams was principal at Hindman Settlement School in the mid-1940s. A close friend of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, Williams was a Methodist missionary who pioneered indoor and running water sanitation in rural India (Asansol) and fought to eradicate caste-based discrimination. [4]
The Marie Stewart Museum & Craft Shop supports the activities of the school. The store sells traditional Appalachian crafts and has an online site. Upstairs is a small museum with exhibits about the Hindman Settlement School and regional crafts. [1]
The School's goal of integrating traditional culture with education led it to welcome visiting outsiders who sought to document the musical heritage of the Appalachians, notably in folk song. The fieldwork teams of Loraine Wyman with Howard Brockway, and Cecil Sharp with Maud Karpeles, working in the years of the First World War, found a wealth of beautiful melody and texts from singers at the School or from the local neighborhood.
On July 28, 2022, Governor of Kentucky Andy Beshear declared a state of emergency after several counties in Eastern Kentucky experienced a thousand-year flood event. The weather event created major flooding of Troublesome Creek that affected nearly all buildings in the Hindman downtown area. Hindman Settlement School sustained significant damage as multiple buildings were inundated with several feet of water.
Knott County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of the 2020 census, the population was 14,251. Its county seat is Hindman. The county was formed in 1884 and is named for James Proctor Knott, Governor of Kentucky (1883–1887). As of 2024 the county is now wet. Its county seat is home to the Hindman Settlement School, founded as America's first settlement school. The Knott County town of Pippa Passes is home to Alice Lloyd College.
Hindman is a home rule-class town in, and the county seat of, Knott County, Kentucky, in the United States. The population was 701 at the 2020 U.S. Census.
Carl Dewey Perkins, a Democrat, was an American politician and member of the United States House of Representatives from the state of Kentucky serving from 1949 until his death from a heart attack in Lexington, Kentucky in 1984.
Jean Ruth Ritchie was an American folk singer, songwriter, and Appalachian dulcimer player, called by some the "Mother of Folk". In her youth she learned hundreds of folk songs in the traditional way, many of which were Appalachian variants of centuries old British and Irish songs, including dozens of Child Ballads. In adulthood, she shared these songs with wide audiences, as well as writing some of her own songs using traditional foundations.
James Still was an American poet, novelist and folklorist. He lived most of his life in a log house along the Dead Mare Branch of Little Carr Creek, Knott County, Kentucky. He was best known for the novel River of Earth, which depicted the struggles of coal mining in eastern Kentucky.
Verna Mae Slone was an Appalachian author from Knott County, Kentucky.
Richard Hague is an American poet and writer.
Hazard Community and Technical College (HCTC) is a public community college in Hazard, Kentucky. It is part of the Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS). Established as Hazard Community College in 1968, the name of the college was changed to Hazard Community and Technical College in 2003. HCTC has five campuses: the Hazard Campus and Technical Campus, both in Hazard, the Lees College Campus in Jackson, the Leslie County Center, and the Knott County Branch. HCTC is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS).
Gurney Norman is an American writer documentarian, and professor.
Vest is a post office in Knott County, Kentucky, United States, at the mouth of the Trace Branch of Balls Fork. It serves a store, a crafts centre, and a school.
Settlement schools are social reform institutions established in rural Appalachia in the early 20th century with the purpose of educating mountain children and improving their isolated rural communities.
The Pine Mountain Settlement School is a historic cultural and educational institution in rural Harlan County, Kentucky. Founded in 1913 as a settlement school near Bledsoe, it now focuses on classes related to the culture of Appalachia and environmental education. It first operated as a boarding grade school for students of the rural region, then in 1930 shifted to operating as a boarding school for high school students. In the later 20th century, it was integrated into the Harlan County Public School System. Its campus is designated as a National Historic Landmark District, for its role as the first major effort to adapt urban settlement reform work into a rural setting.
Katherine Rebecca Pettit was an American educator and suffragist from Kentucky who contributed to the settlement school movement of the early 20th century.
Knott County Central High School is a high school located in Hindman, Kentucky.
Troublesome Creek is a creek in Breathitt, Perry and Knott counties, Kentucky, a fork of the North Fork Kentucky River. It is 41.46 miles (66.72 km) long with a gradient of 8.92 feet per mile (168.9 cm/km), normally free-flowing, and with banks that vary between tree-lined and open.
Jim Wayne Miller was an American poet and educator who had a major influence on literature in the Appalachian region.
Lois Ann Combs Weinberg is an American politician and an advocate for improvements in public education in Kentucky. A native of the eastern region of Kentucky, Weinberg has served on the University of Kentucky Board of Trustees, the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education, and the Kentucky Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence.
May Stone was an American educator and administrator from Kentucky who contributed to the settlement school movement of the early 20th century.
Ethel Marguerite de Long Zande (1879–1928) was an American educator from New Jersey who contributed to the settlement school movement of the early 20th century.
Between July 26 and August 1, 2022, widespread and catastrophic flooding swept through portions of eastern Kentucky, southwestern Virginia, and southern West Virginia. 45 people died from the floods. Entire homes and parts of some communities were swept away by flood waters, leading to costly damage to infrastructure in the region. Over 600 helicopter rescues and countless swift water rescues by boat were needed to evacuate people who were trapped by the quickly rising flood waters. The flood event is said to be the deadliest natural disaster to hit eastern Kentucky in more than 80 years.