Moonlight Schools were a program of educational offerings for illiterate adults in Kentucky in the early 1900s which spread to many other U.S. states.
Moonlight Schools were a program of educational offerings for illiterate adults in Kentucky in the early 1900s which spread to many other U.S. states.
The first Moonlight School was created in September 1911, in Rowan County, Kentucky by Cora Wilson Stewart, then a superintendent in the Rowan County Schools. [1] Adults would attend school at night in the buildings where children studied during the day. The school supposedly only operated on moonlit nights so people could get there and home safely which gave the project its name.
Teachers were asked to volunteer to teach at night and they also canvassed their districts to see who might need literacy instruction. [2] There were no school books for adults who couldn't read, so a newspaper was published with a very small word list which had area news and also introduced a subtle element of competition between the area schools. [2] : 24 [3] Once students had mastered basic reading they could also learn other subjects which included "history, civics, English, health and sanitation, geography, home economics, agriculture, horticulture and good roads." [2] : 26
In 1914, at Stewart's urging, Governor James B. McCreary had the Commonwealth of Kentucky create the Kentucky Illiteracy Commission to extend this program statewide with an aim to end illiteracy in Kentucky by 1920. [4] Counties had competitions to see which could wipe out illiteracy first, with bibles given to the students in the winning county which was Tabor Hill, in Rowan County. The Kentucky Federation of Women's Clubs and the Colonial Dames led a fundraising and letter writing effort and ministers observed "No Illiteracy Sunday" in their churches. [2] : 64
Before their second session of the Moonlight Schools, there was a Moonlight School Institute held for the teachers, according to Stewart it was "the first institute for night school teachers in America." [2] : 33 By the second session the program had enrolled 1,600 students, 350 of whom learned to read and write. [2] : 38 A home department was established who would visit people in their homes who could not get to one of the schoolhouses. [2] : 46 Since the state still had legal segregation there were also 15 Colored Moonlight Schools created in Kentucky by 1915. Mercer County, Kentucky offered a Moonlight School in every school district that served Black students. [5] In 1915 Stewart published the Country Life Reader: First Book and in 1916 she published the Country Life Reader: Second Book. Both books featured material of interest to adults, written for people with low literacy. [6] Stewart became concerned during World War I when Selective Service determined that 700,000 men were illiterate, so she developed The Soldier’s First Book to help teach military recruits to read. [6]
Alabama and Mississippi began their own Moonlight School programs shortly after Kentucky did, and by 1916 eighteen states had their own Moonlight Schools. [4] Ten thousand adults were educated in North Carolina's Moonlight Schools in 1915. [4] In 1922 Stewart—who was then Chairman of the Illiteracy Commission of the National Education Association as well as Chairman of the Illiteracy Committees of the National Council of Education—wrote a book about the program to "tell the story of the moonlight schools." [2]
One of the schoolhouses that was a Moonlight School is on the campus of Morehead State University, and is a historic site now called the Cora Wilson Stewart Moonlight School. [7] [8] The Moonlight Schools Collection at Morehead State has collected oral histories and research concerning the history of the Moonlight Schools and the life of Cora Wilson Stewart. [9]
Literacy is the ability to read and write. Some researchers suggest that the study of "literacy" as a concept can be divided into two periods: the period before 1950, when literacy was understood solely as alphabetical literacy ; and the period after 1950, when literacy slowly began to be considered as a wider concept and process, including the social and cultural aspects of reading and writing and functional literacy.
Rowan County is a county located in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of Kentucky, in the Eastern Kentucky Coalfield region. As of the 2020 census, the population was 24,662. Its county seat is Morehead.
Morehead is a home rule-class city located along US 60 and Interstate 64 in Rowan County, Kentucky, in the United States. It is the seat of its county. The population was 7,151 at the time of the 2020 U.S. census.
Morehead State University (MSU) is a public university in Morehead, Kentucky. The university began as Morehead Normal School, which opened its doors in 1887. The Craft Academy for Excellence in Science and Mathematics, a two-year residential early college high school on the university's campus, was established in 2014.
Functional illiteracy consists of reading and writing skills that are inadequate "to manage daily living and employment tasks that require reading skills beyond a basic level". Those who read and write only in a language other than the predominant language of their environs may also be considered functionally illiterate. Functional illiteracy is contrasted with illiteracy in the strict sense, meaning the inability to read or write complete, correctly spelled sentences in any language.
Christopher John Offutt is an American writer. He is most widely known for his short stories and novels, but he has also published three memoirs and multiple nonfiction articles. In 2005, he had a story included in a comic book collection edited by Michael Chabon, and another in the anthology Noir. He has written episodes for the TV series True Blood and Weeds.
Maysville Community and Technical College (MCTC) is a public community college in Maysville, Kentucky. It is part of the Kentucky Community and Technical College System. It was formed in December 2004 from the consolidation of Maysville Community College in Maysville and Rowan Technical College in Morehead, Kentucky. MCTC is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges.
Education in Kentucky includes elementary school, middle school, high school, and post-secondary institutions. Most Kentucky schools and colleges are accredited through the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS).
The 1920 Democratic National Convention was held at the Civic Auditorium in San Francisco, California from June 28 to July 6, 1920. It resulted in the nomination of Governor James M. Cox of Ohio for president and Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt from New York for vice president. The 1920 Democratic National Convention marked the first time any party had held its nominating convention in a West Coast city.
The Rowan County War, (1884–1887) which occurred in Rowan County, Kentucky, centered in Morehead, Kentucky, was a feud that took place between the Martin-Tolliver clans & their supporters. In total, 20 people died and 16 were wounded.
The most recent comprehensive data on adult literacy in the United States come from the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) study conducted in stages from 2012 to 2017 by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). English literacy test results from 2014 suggest that 21% of U.S. adults ages 16 to 65 score at or below PIAAC literacy level 1, meaning they have difficulty "[completing] tasks that require comparing and contrasting information, paraphrasing, or making low-level inferences." Included in that 21% is the 4.2% of respondents who were unable to be assessed due to language barriers, cognitive disability, or physical disability. A 2020 study by the Gallup analysis company funded by the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy estimated that getting all U.S. adults to at least PIAAC literacy level 3 proficiency would raise American's incomes by $2.2 trillion.
Education in Alabama consists of public and private schools in Alabama, including the University of Alabama, private colleges, and secondary and primary schools.
Cora Wilson Stewart was an American progressive era social reformer and educator who is well known for her work to eliminate adult illiteracy. In 1911, Stewart was the first woman to be elected to the position of the president of the Kentucky Education Association. Stewart opened Moonlight School, first in Rowan County, Kentucky and then across the United States, to educate illiterate adults at night in the schools where children studied during the day.
Lucille Caudill Little was an American patron of the arts and philanthropist who served as president of the W. Paul and Lucille Caudill Little Foundation in Lexington, Kentucky.
Kimberly Jean Davis is an American former county clerk for Rowan County, Kentucky, who gained international attention in August 2015 when she defied a U.S. federal court order to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
Kentucky Route 377 (KY 377) is a 23.894-mile-long (38.454 km) state highway in the U.S. state of Kentucky. The highway connects mostly rural areas of Rowan and Lewis counties with the Morehead area.
The Downtown Morehead Historic District, in Morehead in Rowan County, Kentucky, is a 30.37 acres (12.29 ha) historic district which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2022.
The People's Republic of China's overall literacy rate reached 99.8% in 2021. Adult literacy in China, defined as literacy in those aged 15 and above, was measured at 97% in 2020 by the World Bank. Youth literacy, defined as literacy in those aged 15–24, was 100% since 2010 and remained so in 2020.
Claire Louise Caudill was an American physician from Rowan County, Kentucky. She and her nurse Susie Halbleib co-founded the St. Claire Regional Medical Center in Morehead, Kentucky. It is estimated that she delivered over 8,000 babies between 1957 and 1998.
History of education in Kentucky covers education at all levels from the late 18th century to the early 21st century. The frontier state was slow to build an educational system. In K–12 and higher education, Kentucky consistently has ranked toward the bottom of national rankings in terms of funding, literacy levels, and student performance. Inside the state the Appalachian region always lagged. The Bluegrass area, however, built a strong reputation in higher education.