(seal)
Cecil H. VanSant,
Assistant Secretary of State.
The United States Bureau of Education, at this time, made Kentucky’s campaign against illiteracy the occasion for a second notice to the public. In this bulletin, which was headed “Kentucky Wars on Illiteracy,” the Commissioner of Education said:
It will be a part of the lasting glory of the State of Kentucky that it has taken the lead in this movement. It is the first state to offer to all the people, of whatever age, an opportunity to learn to read and write, and thus break away from the prison wall of sense and silence within which the illiterate man and woman must live. Whatever else Governor James B. McCreary may do for his State, this proclamation and his recommendation to the legislature that it provide for the appointment of an Illiteracy Commission must always be accounted among his wisest and most important acts.
CHAPTER IX
THE FIRST TEXT-BOOKS FOR ADULT ILLITERATES
Attractive and easy texts and school supplies for adults which would enable them to learn quickly and would stimulate them to further endeavor was a manifest need. The little newspaper had been valuable for a county campaign, but was not so easy to carry out for the State, with its varying conditions and its remote sections to be reached.
Someone had to provide the tools with which these men and women could dig their way out of the mental dungeon in which they were imprisoned. A reader was prepared for them and brought out as quickly as possible. The first lesson was:
Can you read?