Chapter 25 Exercises: Education and the Fight for Literacy — From Settlement Schools to Consolidation

Exercise 1: Primary Source Analysis — Settlement School Correspondence

Read the following excerpts from letters written by settlement school teachers in eastern Kentucky (early 1900s):

Letter A — May Stone, Hindman Settlement School, to a supporter in Boston, 1908: "The children come to us eager to learn but deeply set in their ways. They speak a dialect that would be unintelligible in most of the country. They have never seen a toothbrush. Some have never worn shoes. And yet they possess a quickness of mind and a dignity of bearing that puts many a city child to shame. Our task is to preserve their virtues while correcting their deficiencies."

Letter B — A teacher at Pine Mountain Settlement School, to the school's board of directors, 1920: "We have had considerable difficulty with the children singing their mountain songs during recess and free periods. While some of these ballads are of historical interest, many are unsuitable for a school setting — they contain themes of violence, infidelity, and superstition that we cannot encourage. We have introduced a program of approved songs and hymns that the children are to sing instead."

a) In Letter A, Stone simultaneously praises the children ("quickness of mind," "dignity of bearing") and defines them by their deficits ("unintelligible" dialect, no toothbrush, no shoes). What does this dual perspective reveal about the settlement school philosophy? How can admiration and condescension coexist?

b) In Letter B, the teacher suppresses the children's traditional music on grounds of unsuitability. What assumptions about culture are embedded in this decision? Who gets to determine which songs are "suitable" for children — the teachers from outside or the community that produced the songs?

c) Both letters are written to audiences outside Appalachia — supporters and board members. How might these letters have read differently if they had been written to the parents of the children described? What does the intended audience tell us about the power dynamics of the settlement school movement?

d) Write a response letter (300-400 words) from the perspective of a parent in the settlement school community — someone who is grateful for the educational opportunity but troubled by the cultural changes they observe in their child.

Exercise 2: Comparative Analysis — Three Models of Education

This chapter describes three distinct approaches to education in Appalachia: settlement schools, the Highlander Folk School, and the public school system (including consolidation). Complete the following comparative analysis:

a) For each of the three models, answer these questions: - Who defined the educational goals? (Outsiders, the community, or the state?) - What was the relationship between teacher and student? (Expert-to-novice, facilitator-to-participant, or professional-to-client?) - How did the model treat Appalachian culture? (As a deficit to correct, a resource to draw on, or an irrelevancy to ignore?) - What was the model's theory of change? (Uplift individuals, organize communities, or improve institutions?)

b) Create a table or matrix comparing the three models across these dimensions.

c) Which model produced the most lasting positive impact on Appalachian communities? Which caused the most harm? Support your answers with specific evidence from the chapter.

d) Design a fourth model — your own educational approach for a rural Appalachian community — that draws on the strengths of each model while avoiding their weaknesses. Describe it in 400-500 words.

Exercise 3: The Consolidation Debate

Imagine you are attending a school board hearing in a rural Appalachian county in 1965. The board is considering closing three small elementary schools and consolidating their students into a new centralized facility twenty miles away.

a) Write a 300-word statement arguing IN FAVOR of consolidation. Use the arguments described in this chapter: broader curriculum, better facilities, more efficient use of resources. Acknowledge the costs but argue that the benefits outweigh them.

b) Write a 300-word statement arguing AGAINST consolidation. Use the arguments described in this chapter: transportation burden, community disruption, loss of the school as a social center. Acknowledge the benefits but argue that the costs outweigh them.

c) Now evaluate both arguments. Which is more persuasive? More importantly, which perspective was more likely to be heard by the school board in 1965? Why? What does this tell us about who had power in educational policy decisions?

d) Research whether your own state (or a state of your choice) has experienced school consolidation in rural areas. What was the outcome? Were the promises of consolidation advocates fulfilled? Write a 300-word analysis based on your findings.

Exercise 4: Mapping Educational Access

Using ARC data (arc.gov), U.S. Census data (census.gov), or the National Center for Education Statistics (nces.ed.gov), conduct a comparative analysis of educational access in Appalachia.

a) Select three Appalachian counties — one from the northern subregion (e.g., Ohio or Pennsylvania), one from the central subregion (e.g., West Virginia or eastern Kentucky), and one from the southern subregion (e.g., western North Carolina or northeast Georgia). For each county, record: high school graduation rate, bachelor's degree attainment rate, number of schools, student-teacher ratio, per-pupil expenditure, and distance to the nearest community college and four-year university.

b) Compare the three counties to each other and to national averages. What patterns do you observe? How do the central Appalachian counties compare to the northern and southern subregions?

c) Investigate the relationship between educational attainment and economic indicators (median household income, poverty rate, unemployment rate) in your three counties. Does educational attainment correlate with economic outcomes? What direction does the causality run — does education produce economic opportunity, or does economic opportunity produce educational attainment?

d) Write a 500-word analysis of what the data reveals about educational equity in Appalachia. What structural factors explain the patterns you observe?

Exercise 5: The Highlander Model in Practice

The Highlander Folk School's educational philosophy — that the people closest to a problem are the best equipped to solve it — has been applied in contexts far beyond Appalachia.

a) Research the concept of popular education (also called critical pedagogy) as developed by Paulo Freire, Myles Horton, and others. How does Freire's concept of "banking education" (in which the teacher deposits knowledge into passive students) compare to the settlement school model? How does his alternative — dialogical education — compare to Highlander's approach?

b) Identify a contemporary example of education being used as a tool for community organizing or social change (possibilities include worker centers, community land trusts, health literacy programs, environmental justice organizations, or digital literacy initiatives). Describe the program and analyze how it does or does not reflect Highlander's principles.

c) The Citizenship Schools taught people to read and write specifically to enable voter registration. Is it appropriate to design educational programs with explicit political goals? Write a 300-word argument defending or challenging this approach.

d) Design a Highlander-style workshop for a contemporary Appalachian issue — the opioid crisis, economic transition, broadband access, or a topic of your choice. What would the workshop cover? Who would participate? How would the facilitator draw on participants' own experience? Write a 400-word workshop design.

Exercise 6: Then and Now — Education in Appalachia

Then: In 1960, fewer than 30 percent of Appalachian adults had completed high school.

Now: High school completion in Appalachia has risen to approximately 86 percent, but bachelor's degree attainment (24%) still lags the national average (33%), with some central Appalachian counties below 10%.

a) Research the educational attainment data for your Community History Portfolio county (or an Appalachian county of your choice) across time — from the earliest available data to the present. Create a graph or timeline showing the change. What drove the improvements? What barriers persist?

b) The chapter identifies three contemporary challenges: the digital divide, teacher shortages, and funding inequity. Research which of these challenges is most acute in your selected county. What evidence supports your conclusion?

c) The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the digital divide in rural Appalachian education. Research how schools in an Appalachian county responded to the pandemic's educational disruptions. What adaptations were made? Were they effective? What was lost?

d) Write a 400-word proposal for addressing the most significant educational challenge you identified in your county. Your proposal should be specific, feasible, and grounded in the evidence you have gathered.

Exercise 7: Oral History — Education Across Generations

a) Interview two people from different generations about their educational experiences in Appalachia (or in a rural community if you are not in Appalachia). One should be at least sixty years old; the other should be under thirty. Ask each person: Where did you go to school? How far was it from home? What was the school like? Who were your teachers? What subjects did you study? How did your education prepare you for your life?

b) Compare the two accounts. What changed between the two generations? What remained the same? How do the personal narratives compare to the broader trends described in this chapter?

c) If a direct interview is not possible, locate oral histories from the Appalachian Heritage Archive, the Hindman Settlement School archives, or similar collections. Compare accounts from different eras.

d) Write a 500-word analysis of how the experience of education in Appalachia has changed over time, using your interview data and the chapter's historical framework.

Exercise 8: Community History Portfolio — Education in Your County

This exercise is part of the ongoing Community History Portfolio project. For your selected Appalachian county:

a) Create a timeline of educational institutions in your county, from the earliest subscription or common schools through the present. When were schools established? When were they closed? When were they consolidated? What higher education options existed?

b) Determine whether a settlement school, folk school, or similar institution operated in or near your county. If so, research its history, mission, and impact. If not, what external educational initiatives, if any, reached the county?

c) Research the school consolidation history of your county. How many schools were consolidated? When? Were there community protests? What were the consequences?

d) Compile the current educational attainment data for your county and compare it to state and national averages. Write a 500-word assessment of education in your county across time, connecting the local experience to the broader patterns of settlement school intervention, consolidation, community college development, and contemporary challenges.