ge of barrel
hoops strung together with cables--spanning the creek has passed. The
mountain mother's warning is heard no longer. "Mind, Johnny, you don't
swing the bridge." Concrete pillars support steel girders that span the
creek high above even the highest flood point. Education soars high in
the southern mountain region. Instead of a few weeks of school there are
months now, and what is more Johnny doesn't walk to school any more. The
county school bus, operated by a careful driver, picks him up almost at
his very door and brings him back safely when school turns out in the
evening. Instead of the poorly lighted one-room school, there is the
consolidated school built of native stone, with many windows and
comfortable desks. If the mountain boy or girl fails to get an education
it is his own fault. There is a central heating system and the teacher,
you may be sure, is a graduate of an accredited college. The _Kentucky
Progress Magazine_ of Winter, 1935, gives a remarkable example of what
is taking place in an educational way in the mountain region:
"Twenty-nine well-equipped, accredited four-year high schools and two
junior colleges now dot the five counties, Lawrence, Johnson, Martin,
Floyd, and Pike ... seven high schools and one junior college have the
highest rating possible, membership in the Southern Association of
Colleges and Secondary Schools.... The advent of surfaced roads has made
successful consolidation possible in many instances."

Preceding the consolidated school an inestimable service has been
rendered the children of the southern highlands by means of the
settlement school. It would be impossible to discuss them all
adequately, but of the outstanding ones of which I have personal
knowledge are: that great institution at Berea, Kentucky, the Hindman
Settlement School in Knott County, Kentucky; the Martha Berry School in
the mountains of Georgia; the agricultural school of Sergeant Alvin C.
York near Jamestown, Tennessee; and the John C. Campbell Folk School at
Brasstown, N. C.

Under efficient guidance mountain boys and girls are taught to preserve
the handicrafts of their forbears, knitting, spinning, weaving, making
of dyes, and even a pastime once indulged in by boys and men--whittling.
Idle whittling has been converted into not only an artistic craft, but a
profitable one. Nowhere in the country is there to be found a finer
collection of whittled figures, ranging from tiny chicks to squirrels,