MARGARET MOTTER TALK 1933 Given to a Class at a College

Pine Mountain Settlement School
Series 09: Staff/Personnel
Margaret Motter
Talk
PMSS Talk Given to a Class at aCollege,
May 1933

“M.” [ Margaret Motter ?] [kingman_093c]

TAGS: Margaret Motter, Pine Mountain Settlement School staff, institutional promotion, promotional talk, school missions, quotes of community members, institutional accomplishments, mountain people, background of the mountain spirit ; prevailing ideas ; the real truths ; readings from “Land of Saddle Bags” , new ways, roads ; poems,  school mission, learn by doing,  studies of body, studies of mind, studies of spirit, Christian way of living , Uncle William’s dream , future actions


Margaret Motter Talk  About P.M.S.S. Given to Class at College — May ’33”
[1 typewritten page, image 001]

This OUTLINE for a talk was prepared by Margaret Motter to use as a guide for her presentation at an unnamed college in May 1933. This follows the patter of her many promotional talks.  She begins with anecdotes and quotes that she believed depict the nature and life of the mountain people, and then describes the mission, activities, and accomplishments of the Pine Mountain Settlement School. It is unclear what the page numbers refer to.


GALLERY

motter_talk_mtns_001

“Talk given to class at College — May ’33,” single page. motter_talk_mtns_001


TRANSCRIPTION OF OUTLINE FOR TALK
[NOTE: This transcription has been slightly edited for readability.]

P.M.S.S. Talk given to class at College — May ’33

[handwritten notation: TALK ON MOUNTAINS]

I.   To get the spirit of the mountain background.

A. Prevailing idea.
1. shiftless, lazy, ignorant, law-breaking folk.

B. The real truth
1. Read the preface [of] Land of the Saddle Bags, [Raine] pp. 9-10
2. Chief trait of the Highlander — J.C. Campbell. p. 64 (Land of the Saddle Bags)
3. Other traits – pp. 61-2. Land of the Saddle Bags
4. Poems showing love of music — Dulcimer p. 3 Kinfolks
[showing] love of beauty – Kivers p. 7
[showing] Amusement – Making Sorghum p. 31
Set-running
[showing] Hospitality – p. 47

II.  New Spirit Coming In

A. New Ways
1. Road change things – Read poem “Up Carr Creek ” p. 5
2. Schools change things – Read poems, “The Widow Man” p. 9, “New Christmas” p. 55

B. What a school does.
1. Road what [??] Claxton says of schools – p. 162 Saddlebags
2. Our school — Postalozzi’s idea — Learn by doing — Live in refined home. 15-20 children live in attractive house with a housemother and teachers.

Program consists of school and industrial work. Children do everything but mine coal and run the heavy washing machine.

Three-fold work:

a. Body — Teach health habits — treatments for hookworm, trachoma, etc., Nurse and Doctor.
b. Mind — Square world. Humility ” A body couldn’t book up all I don’t know”. “I don’t like school but I like what it makes you be.”
c. Spirit — Application of beauty — Learn to see beauty about them. Melissa “The prettiest thing I ever seed”. Christmas — Decorations, etc. songs, play
Use of leisure – handicrafts, recreational work, etc. [handwritten: study of nature]

Christian way of living — harmonious. “I want all young’uns taught to serve the livin’ God” “Love and Joy come to you.” [written on cabin wall]

Trying to make Uncle William‘s dream come true –“Hopin’ it will make a bright and intelligent people after I am dead and gone.”

III. What of the future?

2 lines of section suggested — to educate people away from mountains or to adapt themselves


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