Cora Wilson Stewart and Kentucky's Moonlight Schools: Fighting for Literacy in America

4. Nationalizing the Illiteracy Campaign

Nationalizing the Illiteracy Campaign F O U R In 1917 the escalating conflict in Europe and U.S. preparedness provided a new focus for the illiteracy work and gave Stewart renewed hope for legislative appropriations in her home state. She turned her attention to the creation of programs for the state’s draftage men, whom she numbered at 30,000, and the patriotic tone of thecampaignescalated.1 InAprilofthatyear,whentheUnitedStates committed itself to war, the federal government called for a general registration of the nation’s young men for military service. The nation raised an army of more than 4.5 million men, with just under 2 million posted in the European theater. More than 84,000 Kentuckians served, and almost 2,500 died of injuries sustained in the conflict . At least one-quarter of those called into service could neither read nor write. This startling finding increased public awareness and brought an element of critical need to the rural adult education movement in Kentucky and elsewhere.2 Given the immediacy of the crisis, the needs of soldiers and potential draftees took precedence for a while. If literacy and the ability to function in a rapidly changing world were important in peacetime, they took on critical importance in time of war, said Stewart, along with Senator Ollie James and Congressman J. CampbellCantrill,twoDemocraticsupporterswhoaskedtheWar Department to institute compulsory literacy training for draftees prior to overseas assignment. Thousands of conscripts received militarytrainingatKentucky ’sFortThomas,CampStanley,CampKnox, and Camp Zachary Taylor. Stewart, James, and Cantrill urged man102 103 Nationalizing the Illiteracy Campaign datory training for all draftees who needed it, but military authorities denied the request as “impractical” in the current crisis.3 Becauseshebelievedthewarwouldaffectilliteratesinwaysthatitwould not affect the rest of the population, Stewart set as a special goal for 1917 the teaching of all the state’s illiterate men of draft age before they were called to service, and in a public information campaign designed to drum up support for the intensified effort, noted the particular difficulties they faced. They could not sign their name, read orders, read a manual of arms, or read their Bibles, and just as important in a rural society that valued family closeness, they could not read letters or write home. They could not understand the signals or follow the signal corps in battle, and presumably could not understand the cause for which they were fighting or the principles for which their government stood.4 Although soldiers took priority in the 1917 sessions, Stewart also wanted the public to recognize that illiteracy left civilians equally handicapped in their ability to serve the nation in its time of need. Unable to sign food pledge cards, understand bulletins, or read instructions given through the daily press, they could not read the propaganda, could not help their country by signing applications for liberty loan bonds or thrift cards, and presumably could not understand the government’s purposes and principles and therefore could not give “intelligent support” to the war cause. Moreover, they could not provide “encouragementandcomforttotheirboysinservicebywritinglettersfromhome .”5 To correct some of these problems, Stewart created a “Course of Study” for 1917 Moonlight Schools that focused on war-related issues and encouragedpatriotism .IncludedwerelessonswithaclearmessageurgingallAmericans to get behind the war effort. A good example dealt with the flag: See the flag! It is our flag! Our flag never knew defeat. Why? Our flag has always stood for right.6 Echoing President Woodrow Wilson’s rhetoric on the nation’s involvement in the European conflict, Stewart wrote a lesson depicting the nation’s honorable and self-sacrificing war aims: Why are we at war? To keep our country free. To make other people free. To make the world safe to live in. 104 Cora Wilson Stewart and Kentucky’s Moonlight Schools To stop the rule of kings. To put an end to war.7 The lessons included a section of drills on European geography, emphasizing the location and names of countries involved in the conflict overseas. The next year’s course of study reemphasized the importance of patriotism and service, beginning with a paean to the democratic ideal penned by Kentucky governor A. O. Stanley, who commented on the importance of an enlightened citizenry.8 Following American entry into World War I and the general registration of young men for the draft, Cora Wilson Stewart, by then the most experienced person in the country in dealing with illiteracy, accepted a request from the YMCA to write...