Pine Mountain Community School library photographs. %

Pine Mountain Settlement School
Series: PHOTOGRAPHS
88 VII Life and Work School – Library

088 VII LIFE WORK School Library single photographs

088 PHOTOGRAPHS VII LWS School Library singles — Celeste and Kitty LeHigh. [life_work_046a.jpg] 1699

TAGS: photographs, libraries, children’s libraries, books, reading, education, Harlan County Schools, rural schools, Black Beauty, Kitty LeHigh, Celeste LeHigh, reading is fundamental, digital libraries, rural schools, Miss Gephart, Ruby Yocum, Mary Rogers, Ruth Creech, Fern Hayes

Reading is fundamental, and school libraries are fundamental to reading. The free access to other worlds, other lives, other experiences can be life-changing for children. The library at Pine Mountain was an educational change agent for many rural children.

03a Librarian, Miss Gampert, and students. Early 1950s in Burkham Schoolhouse II Library. [88_life_work_school_library_003a]

FOR Example

Black Beauty was not just a story about a horse. It was a story that took the reader into a deep dive of empathy. The story is told through the eyes of the horse, Black Beauty, who experiences multiple owners and experiences but who never abandons the feeling of compassion for all living things. The book challenges the reader to empathize with the horse who experiences a multitude of assaults and injuries

Without identifying any specific religion, the author of the story, Anna Sewell, tells the reader that all religions have a special place for love and kindness but that it is all a sham if that love and kindness is not practiced

“…there is no religion without love, and people may talk as much as they like about their religion, but if it does not teach them to be good and kind to man and beast, it is all a sham…
Anna Sewell. Black Beauty, Chapter 13, last paragraph

Sewell also tells the reader to never give up and that bad beginnings have happy endings when guided by compassion and a strong passion for helping others.

Kitty LeHigh check-out card, 1965. [091_LW_school_library_s_003e]

READING

In the 1877 book, Black Beauty: His Grooms and Companions, the Autobiography of a Horse, the author, Anna Sewell, takes the reader through the life of the remarkable horse — as seen by the horse. The story of Black Beauty is a remarkable journey with many lessons in love, kindness, and sharing.

Like stories in books, photographs also tell stories. The photographs on this page were taken in the 1950s-1960s and the children are now adults. If any viewer objects to the open display on the Web of their image and wishes to remove the image, please contact: office@pinemountainsettlementschool.com

NOTE from editors: [Page 4 is missing – 2 additional pages were in folder not belonging to 088 ??]

COMMUNITY COOPERATIVE SCHOOL

The Community Cooperative School operated at Pine Mountain from 1949 until 1972. The institution of the cooperative school at Pine Mountain Settlement marked the end of the boarding school years. The Community School was a cooperative arrangement between Pine Mountain Settlement and the Harlan County Schools system. The Cooperative School program reduced the need for lengthy busing over the Pine Mountain to schools in the Harlan town region. Further, the County School system shared in the costs of education, greatly reducing costs to the settlement school. Yet, the geography of the region continued to create lengthy and treacherous rides for many students to the settlement school. Further, in these years, there continued to be no provision for Middle and High School students on the Northside of Pine Mountain. Many of the students experienced lengthy and treacherous rides on the narrow roads in the region and often up and over Pine Mountain.

THE LIBRARY

“There is no dictionary in the mind …”
James Gleick. The Information – A History, a Theory, a Flood. “The Persistence of the Word,”… p. 28 (2011)

When James Gleick wrote this in 2011 we had more access to information and resources than ever in all our lives. Technology has brought “the dictionary in the mind” closer than it has ever been by placing that dictionary in our hands and on our desk-tops… but the mind then needs to process all this new information and new power. There are no librarians on the internet guiding our reading or filtering out truth from fiction unless we ask for that guidance.

The LIBRARY of the 1950s-1970s at Pine Mountain was one of the richest experiences at the School for the children because of the very rich staffing and broad collections. Storytelling with Mary Rogers, the loan of much-loved books, and the sharing of mutual stories, the access to the Bookmobile from the Harlan County Schools and libraries, all contributed to a habit of life-long learning for many of the students. While the Community School no longer exists at Pine Mountain Settlement, the names of many of the students may be found in the check-out cards of the remaining books from the Library — many of which still survive in the ARCHIVE at the Settlement School.

Further, the complete school record of each child who attended the Community School has been retained by Pine Mountain Settlement and as a body of information. it provides a rich research repository for those studying rural education in mid to later decades of the twentieth century. One of the delights in the extensive school records is the “letter” from each student written when in grade school and the wonderful extra gift of being able to place a name with the wonderful photographs taken during these years.

One of the promises made during the 2013 celebration of the one-hundred-plus years that the School has been in existence was that the School would begin to “give back its history to the Community. This process has begun as technology has become widely available. Now, more than ever it is imperative that rural children have equal access to learning resources. As digital resources become more critical to learning, it should be on the first list of priorities for the new administration to make digital resources available to all households in rural areas and to fund ALL libraries in the upcoming emergency funding. Ask your Representatives to include LIBRARIES in emergency federal funding!

FACTOID: Did you know that Tribal Libraries are not eligible for Federal funding and that they are often excluded from free access to State-wide digital resources?

CHILDREN AND ADULTS IN PHOTOGRAPHS

NAME	NAME
Miss Gampert	Delma Huff
Fern Hall Hayes	Mina Jane Huff
Ruth Creech	Kitty LeHigh
Ruby Yocum	Billie June Lewis
Rebecca Caudill Ayers	Teresa McCoy
Mary Rogers	Betty Middleton
Connie Boggs	Freddie Nolan
Don Boggs	Bertie Patterson
Billy Bo Boggs	Audry Turner [See Turner Family for all]
Judy Boggs	Bonnie Turner
Patsy Boggs	Debbie Turner
Don Browning	Jimmy Turner
Glenna Callahan [Glenda Callahan ?]	Lesia Turner
Norma Callahan	Marilyn Turner
Gayle Cootes	Mike Turner
Connie Cornett	Ralph Turner
Harold Couch	Sandra Turner
Cathie Creech	Kathie Wilson
Mable Day	Brenda Wilder
Ronnie Day	Don Wilder
Loretta Harris	Evelyn Wilder
Earl Hensley
Betty Jo Hoskins
Brenda Hoskins
Vickie Hoskins