THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 363 



Oklahoma, illiterate negroes in Alabama, and illiterate whites in 

 North Carolina and other states. California and New Mexico, 

 the last states to adopt the institution, are finding it useful in 

 the education of the immigrant population of the one, and the 

 large Mexican population of the other. 



There are 5,516,163 illiterates in this country, according to 

 the federal census of 1910 more than the entire population of 

 Denmark, also more than the population of Sweden or Norway, 

 and of several other prosperous countries. Some countries 

 thrive, support churches, schools and industries on the number 

 of people that America is permitting to go to waste. Illiteracy 

 in the United States is largely a rural problem ; it exists in rural 

 districts in double the proportion found in urban communities. 

 Until the moonlight school was established, there was absolutely 

 no provision for the education of illiterate adults in rural sec- 

 tions, and there is none in urban districts now, save the city night 

 school, which receives illiterate foreigners, but in most cities, at 

 least, does not coax or compel them to attend. 



It is the privilege of American public school teachers to wipe 

 out America's illiteracy. Back to the school-house twenty to 

 twenty-four evenings, and, with proper organization, the deed is 

 done; for experience has proved that all but abnormal adults 

 can escape from illiteracy in a month's time, and some in even 

 less. 



Could there be more valiant and heroic service to humanity 

 than the stamping out of illiteracy, the most insidious foe of the 

 nation ? 



A NATIONAL PROGRAM FOR EDUCATION * 



(A statement issued by the National Education Association Commission 

 on the emergency in education and the program for readjustment during 

 and after the war.) 



THE time has clearly come when we in America must think 

 and plan for education on a scale commensurate with the magni- 

 tude of the task that lies before us and in terms consistent with 



i Adapted from Commission Series No. 1, pp. 10-20; National Educa- 

 tion Association, Washington, D. C., June, 1918. 



