Items of Interest November 27, 1915 Issue

Items of Interest

Moonlight schools, so called because conducted during moonlight nights, are meeting with success in various communities in Kentucky, Georgia, and the Carolinas. Concerning results of the work done by the teachers under her charge, the superintendent of schools of Rowan County, Kentucky, says:—

"We expected to enroll a straggling few, but found how eagerly adults welcome an opportunity when twelve hundred people came the first evening. We taught persons from eighteen to eighty-six years of age that year, having a two weeks' session, then a recess and then another two weeks' session. The next year we had a six weeks' session, enrolled sixteen hundred, and our oldest student was eighty-seven. In these two years we taught more than six thousand people to read and write. During the autumn of 1913 we made an effort completely to wipe out illiteracy. We enrolled twenty-five hundred persons, and taught all illiterates in the county but twenty-three. Meanwhile eight other counties in Kentucky tried the method with success the second year, and twenty-five adopted it last year. It was tried in the tobacco districts among the tenant class with marked success; it was tried in the mining camps, and the miners and their families embraced the opportunity with eagerness; it was tried in isolated farming sections, and the farmers and their families came for miles and could hardly be driven home from school when the hour of dismissal arrived. In the mountains, where the movement originated, the people crowded to the school in throngs, as many as one hundred and twenty-five being enrolled in one isolated district."

The National Historical Society has acquired The Journal of American History as its official organ and will appeal to the country in behalf of the George Washington Memorial Building, to be erected in Washington, D. C., on a site given by Congress. The purpose of the society, as set forth in the articles of incorporation, are: "To discover, procure, preserve, and perpetuate whatever relates to history, the history of the western hemisphere, the history of the United States of America and their possessions, and the history of families; to inculcate and bulwark patriotism; to provide a national and international clearing-house and historical exchange, promoting by suitable means helpful forms of communication and cooperation between all historical organizations, patriotic orders, and kindred societies, local, state, national, and international, that the usefulness of all may be increased and their benefits extended toward education and patriotism; to promote the work of preserving historic landmarks and marking historic sites; to encourage the use of historical themes and the expression of patriotism in the arts."

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