Moonlight Schools for the Emancipation of Adult Illiterates — John Shaqi
Moonlight Schools for the Emancipation of Adult IlliteratesStewart, Cora Wilson
History
Moonlight Schools for the Emancipation of Adult Illiterates
Stewart, Cora Wilson
Education -- Kentucky; Literacy -- Kentucky
Lemonade was a thing rarely seen in those parts, a treat indeed, so it
was served as the final reward, not from a punch bowl, as it is served
in most places, but from the most available thing to be found on Tabor
Hill--a lard can. As they passed in line around the receptacle to be
served, an old man rose in the back part of the house and said in a
loud voice, “Things certainly have changed in this district. It used
to be that you couldn’t hold meeting or Sunday school in this house
without the boys shooting through the windows. It used to be moonshine
and bullets; but now it’s lemonade and Bibles.”
Some teachers found obstacles in their way, such as the prolonged
absence of the illiterates from home, but they watched for their
return, and even if they came back and tarried but a short time, they
put them for the moment to the book and pen. One teacher said to me,
“I have a father and three grown sons in my district who are employed
twelve miles from home and are only at home on the Sabbath day. Do
you think there would be any harm in my going over there on Sunday
and teaching them to read and write?” Remembering those words of the
Master when he was asked in regard to healing the withered hand of a
man on the Sabbath day--and certainly these were withered hands--and
His answer, “Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath day?” I said, “It
is a holy day and I think it would be a holy deed.” The young man went
Sunday after Sunday and taught the father and sons to read and write.
There are masterpieces of art that one would travel many miles to
see, but to me there is no picture more beautiful than the one my
imagination conjures up of that young teacher, with those four grown
men grouped about him learning to read and write on the Sabbath day.
We tried by every means, to wipe illiteracy out of the county to the
last individual. Every one was offered the opportunity and some were
offered it repeatedly. The overwhelming majority accepted it with joy
and gratitude--a few had to be coaxed. Some few, in their ignorance had
a misconception of our motives and stubbornly refused to learn.
When the campaign closed, of the 1,152 illiterates in the county,
only 23 were left, and these were classified; six were blind or had
defective sight; five were invalids languishing on beds of pain; six
were imbeciles and epileptics, two had moved in as the session closed
and four could not be induced to learn.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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