FLORA PATSY HALL Correspondence and School Record

Pine Mountain Settlement School
Series 09: BIOGRAPHY – Students
Series 19: STUDENTS
Flora Patsy Hall [Martin] (1926-2022)
Student 1939-1944
PMSS Alumni Association President 1980s

Flora Patsy Hall portrait and floral painting. [Tribute, painting and photograph by H. Wykle, 2021].

SPECIAL NOTICE

FLORA PATSY HALL passed away on Easter morning, April 17, 2022, in Modoc, IN. Funeral arrangements are with Culberson Funeral Home in Hagerstown, IN. Visitation is from 3-5 pm on Saturday April, 23. 2022. The family has asked that in lieu of flowers that donations be made to Pine Mountain Settlement School, 36 State Hwy. 10, Bledsoe, KY 40810.

OBITUARY
Culberson Funeral Home in Hagerstown, IN

TAGS: Flora Patsy Hall, Pat Hall Martin, Pine Mountain Settlement School, Harlan County, KY, student Perry County, KY, Eula Fern Hall; Enoch Hall Jr, Mary Susan Hall, Mable Hall, Hall Family, Progressive education, Co-op store, Pine Mountain Settlement School Alumni Association, William David Martin, Mutual Broadcasting Company, NBC recording, John C. Campbell Folk School,; Leon Deschamp, May Deschamp, Wheaton College, Gladys Morris, Glyn Morris

FLORA PATSY HALL Correspondence and School Record

Student 1939-1944
PMSS Alumni Association President 1980s

The Flora Patsy Hall correspondence and record at Pine Mountain Settlement School is voluminous, as is sometimes the case when students have many years at the school and many succeeding years in which they are active in School affairs. For example, Patsy was a long-time leader in the Alumni Association of the School. Flora Patsy Hall’s record as a student, is, however, unusually large. It contains one of the later and more documented and extensive records of growth as a student at the school in which each instructor weighed in on the student performance with an annual written report.

Her record is also an account of student education during WWII and illuminates the many impacts the World War had on the students at Pine Mountain Settlement. The intensity of engagement with the world beyond the mountains shines through her Student Record and in her decision-making processes. Her record and others at the School are compelling in their individual adaptation to the terrors, the limited resources, and their deep appreciation of their education in troubled time. The lessons of the School were life-changing in so many respects and shine through the self evaluation of Pat’s school record and those of her classmates. The lessons for contemporary education are there for each reader to explore. That Pat chose to become a teacher would not be surprising. Also, not surprising, would be to find many of the lessons of Pine Mountain introduced into her Indiana classrooms over the years.

How this writer wishes she had had her as a teacher, but then I will settle for being her niece where the lessons still filtered down.

SCHOOL RECORD

In the later years of the Boarding School, Glyn Morris and his staff became more and more intent on documenting the progress of students. One reason was Morris’ belief that these records were critical to the educational progress of the student. But, the other important reason was that students were not graded in the standard manner and in order for records to transfer for additional educational purposes, the “in-house” record keeping had to be comprehensive to satisfy the transfer of credits.

Of particular interest are the “Letters Home” in which students were obligated to report to parents on the progress they were making at the school and the reports were then validated by means of the narrative teacher “record”. The recording of each year of work by her teachers, supervisors, and housemothers produced a large body of evaluative material. The student “Letters Home” and Evaluations are unique insights into the educational experience and processes at Pine Mountain Settlement School as instituted by Glyn Morris, during his tenure as the Director and filled the gap of the typical registrar school records that were not collected.

As in many of the student biographies, some of Patsy’s academic records (testing, for example) have not been included in the Correspondence page in order to retain privacy. Flora Patsy Hall is now in her early 90’s and has given permission to publish most of her school record and correspondence in this online archive of student records and the additional correspondence that the record produced.

The heart of the student record was the “Letter Home” in which the student was compelled to self-evaluate for the parent or the guardian — and face the consequence of either poor performance or exemplary performance in scholarship and civic behavior. Today some schools have adopted similar practices such as the “portfolio” record.