Schooling Appalachia

Abstract

This chapter examines schooling in the Appalachian region. Schooling features in many of the correspondent columns as well as in pieces written by the editors. In particular, the newspapers illustrate that a thriving industry of ad hoc private education institutions was active in eastern Kentucky, a fact seldom recognized in histories of the area. While modern studies of schooling and literacy frequently cite public school data to suggest that Kentuckians were not supportive of schooling, the newspapers demonstrate that many of these supposedly unschooled children were in fact receiving an education from privately run institutions that some of the editors touted as superior to public schools. The newspapers also demonstrate vibrant community support for education.