Oklahoma had several moonlight schools in 1914 through the influence of the Literacy League organized at the State Normal School at Edmond by Moses E. Wood, head of the Departments of Pedagogy and Psychology. In 1915 Honorable R. H. Wilson, State Superintendent of Education, launched a state-wide campaign in which he enlisted several thousand teachers besides organizing the press and the people of his state to aid. A sweeping campaign was made by Mr. Wilson and the patriotic men and women who enlisted with him. In an official report in 1916 Superintendent Wilson gave the results of the first year’s work as follows:
Probably more than five thousand persons were reached by the moonlight schools in Oklahoma during the school year 1915-16. This is indeed a good beginning. During the next school year 1916-17, we should reach 25,000 illiterates and as many adult literates. The black cloud of illiteracy can be dispelled by the united efforts of county superintendents and teachers. This is a call to service and an appeal to the state pride of every teacher employed in our common schools. By concerted effort we can make Oklahoma the most literate state in the union.
Oklahoma Moonlight School.
LETTER TO THE STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, OKLAHOMA
Oklahoma was the first state whose normal schools offered credits for moonlight school work, an example followed by Kentucky and some of the other states.
“Illiteracy in New Mexico must go,” was the slogan sounded by the school forces in New Mexico during 1915. Honorable Alvin N. White, State Superintendent of Education, inaugurated the campaign, and the slogan was caught up with enthusiasm by leaders throughout the state. This appeal was made by Superintendent White:
The purpose of this is to call attention of the people of the state to the alarming and excessive percentage of illiteracy; to have the educated forces of the state realize more fully that illiteracy is a curse, a menace and a disgrace; that it must be destroyed and the state elevated; that by the united efforts of the teachers and citizens of the state everybody must read and write in New Mexico by 1920.