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| Affiliation | Democratic |
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| Name | Cora Wilson Stewart |
| Address |
, Kentucky , United States |
| Email | None |
| Website | None |
| Born |
January 02, 1875
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| Died | December 02, 1958
(83 years)
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| Contributor | Thomas Walker |
| Last Modifed | RBH
Feb 10, 2023 03:00pm |
| Tags |
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| Info | Cora Wilson Stewart was born in Farmers, Kentucky and attended Morehead Normal School (later Morehead State University) and the University of Kentucky. She taught school in Rowan County and in 1901, at the age of 26, was elected to the position of county school superintendent. She was re-elected in 1909.
The Moonlight School program provided a model for fighting literacy that other states and nations followed. When the Moonlight Schools opened on September 5, 1911, adults were taught at night in the one-room schools in which children were taught by day. Teachers volunteered their time to teach at these schools, at first only on moonlit nights when students could make their way in the dark. Stewart later called this first night �the brightest moonlit night the world has ever seen.� 1200 people, ranging in age from 18 to 86, showed up at the 50 schools on that September night. Stewart wrote The Country Life Reader in order to sustain the interest of the adult pupils.
Stewart was the first woman president of the Kentucky Education Association and in 1926, she was named director of the National Illiteracy Crusade. From 1929-1933 she was named as chairperson of President Hoover's Commission on Illiteracy.
One of the schools that served as a Moonlight School now stands on the campus of Morehead State University. The work of Cora Wilson Stewart and the many teachers who volunteered their time are not forgotten.
Stewart was the first woman president of the Kentucky Education Association and in 1926, she was named director of the National Illiteracy Crusade. From 1929-1933 she was named as chairperson of President Hoover's Commission on Illiteracy. She was also a delegate to the 1920 Democratic Convention in San Francisco, and was nominated for President of the United States. She was active in the General Federation of Women�s Clubs as well.
One of the schools that served as a Moonlight School now stands on the campus of Morehead State University. The work of Cora Wilson Stewart and the many teachers who volunteered their time are not forgotten.
Born some 127 years ago, on January 17, 1875 in Kentucky, Cora Wilson Stewart serves as an exemplar of what one person can do to advance a cause. Stewart's cause was the eradication of adult illiteracy and she began to work for it in her home state of Kentucky. In 1911, while she was superintendent of public schools in Rowan County, she started a program to eliminate adult illiteracy. This program, according to historian Wanda Dauksza Cook "might well be classified as the official beginning of literacy education in the United States".
The schools operated only on moonlit nights so people could find their way to and from school safely, hence the name Moonlight Schools. The schools were staffed by volunteer teachers from the day schools for children. Stewart was convinced that adults should not use the same materials as children to learn to read, so she developed for adult students The Rowan County Messenger, a newspaper with short sentences and lots of word repetition. In teaching writing, she concentrated first on teaching adults to write their own names, believing that this was a vital way of developing what we would today call self-esteem. In 1915 she published the Country Life Reader: First Book and the next year she published the Country Life Reader: Second Book. Both books featured functional materials from adult's daily lives.
During the decade from 1916 to 1926 Stewart carried out numerous activities on behalf of the education of adult illiterates. During World War I she was concerned with Selective Service findings that some 700,000 men were totally illiterate, so she developed The Soldier's First Book to teach military recruits to read. The Soldier's First Book explained why we were at war with such prosaic passages as:
Why are we at war?
To keep our country free.
To keep other people free.
To make the world safe to live in.
To stop the rule of kings.
To put an end to war.
Adults in the Moonlight Schools were instructed about how to write to their relatives and other loved ones who were away at war, and men waiting for the draft received literacy education to prepare them for military service.
Later, in 1926, Stewart formed the National Illiteracy Crusade, but by the time of World War II, national interest in the cause had faded, and she turned her attention away from adult illiteracy issues to the activities of the Oxford Group, a religious organization of the Christian faith.
Cora Wilson Stewart, the woman some would consider the Founder of Adult Literacy Education in the United States, died in 1958 at the age of eighty-three.
On January 17 we celebrate Cora Wilson Stewart's life, the pioneering work she initiated and her tireless efforts as a national and international advocate and champion for adult literacy education. Today, in large part as a legacy of her early work, the Adult Education and Literacy System (AELS) of the United States exists and provides literacy education each year for millions of adults in thousands of programs in all 50 states and territories of the United States.
This unique educational system for adults serves as a national monument to Cora Wilson Stewart, one of the great education leaders of the twentieth century.
A gifted, but complicated and difficult person, Cora Wilson Stewart was born in Farmers, Kentucky in 1875 and attended Morehead Normal School (later Morehead State University) and the University of Kentucky. She taught school in Rowan County and in 1901, at the age of 26, was elected to the position of county school superintendent. She was reelected in 1909. Her writings are very formal in nature and somewhat pretensious in tone.
Cora�s personal life was not as successful as her public one. She married Ulysses Grant Carey on June 4, 1895, when she was twenty. He was the son of the owner of the Gault House (hotel) in Morehead where Cora's father had his office for his medical practice. They were divorced on June 9, 1898.
On September 2, 1902, she married Alexander Thomas Stewart, the son of William G. and Elizabeth Patton Stewart, and the grandson of William Charlie and Mary Polly Stewart. Like her prior marriage, her union to Alexander proved a rocky road. They were divorced on March 7, 1904 but remarried three months later on June 22, 1904. In 1907, they had their only child, William Halley Stewart. But the little Stewart�s life was short and he died on June 7, 1908 and was buried in the Lee Cemetery in Morehead. They were divorced on June 8, 1910.
In 1911, she founded the Moonlight School movement in Rowan County to educate adult illiterates during the evenings. Her efforts were successful resulting in more than 1200 adults learning basic reading and writing skills. Stewart was the first woman president of the Kentucky Education Association and in 1926, she was named director of the National Illiteracy Crusade. From 1929-1933 she was named as chairperson of President Hoover's Commission on Illiteracy.
Although she is justly lauded for her achievements in education, the more I learned of Cora, the less I liked her. Many writers have blamed Alexander for her failed second marriage. The evidence suggests that he was a fun loving person in his youth. He served as a City Judge in Morehead. He may have resented Cora's achievements and could not have welcomed her absences from their home due to her public responsibilities.
A lawyer, he moved to Stanton, Kentucky after he divorced Cora, and raised a large family in domestic bliss with his second wife, Clemma, and their children. This to me suggests that although Alexander may have contributed to his first marriage's failure, Cora must also share equivally in that "failure." In Stanton, he served as county attorney and was an active member of the Stanton Christian Church. He loved to recite poetry and was an avid reader.
Unlike, Alexander's happy years following his new marriage, Cora died alone in North Carolina virtually unknown and forgotten for her good public deeds. That fact leaves one sadden. Recently, I discovered a great fact about Cora. She was a great photographer, an avocation I share with her. More importantly, her photographs were placed on the internet at the University of Kentucky. Not surprisingly, many of her photographs were taken of her native Rowan County. These photographs are a treasure and preserve for us a visual portrait of the county of the end of the 19th century and the early part of the 20th century. See Photo Index for her photographs of Rowan County.
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