Pine Mountain Settlement School
Series 09: Biography
Series 07: Directors
Arthur W. Dodd (School Principal, Interim Director)

ARTHUR W. DODD  1946 General Statement of History and Philosophy of PMSS for Staff

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TAGS: Arthur Dodd; Pine Mountain Settlement School; Harlan County, KY; Glyn Morris; General education; vocational training; Directors; history; philosophy; craft; weaving; discipline; labor programs; community relations; guidance; agriculture; attitudes; religion; 

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The original document was produced by Glyn Morris in 1940, just two years short of his departure from the School. It was developed to meet the need for a general statement of purpose based on the history and philosophy of the School for members of the existing and incoming staff. When reviewed against administrative documents created within the decade before Morris, the emergence of a new institutional philosophy may be seen.

This 1946 Statement is a revision by Arthur W. Dodd, who served as Principal of the Pine Mountain Settlement School from 1932 until 1952 and as an Interim Director of the School in 1942. It provides a useful comparison of the two eras. Dodd has used the original document created by Glyn Morris and has added his observations and has also shortened the document, removing sections that he deemed no longer relevant.

Glyn Morris brought to the school a palpable encounter with the world outside the narrow valley of Pine Mountain. Young, but world-wise, Morris introduced a strain of Progressive Education that attempted to integrate the most current views on education, agriculture, economics, and religion. Arthur Dodd was strongly influenced by Morris and came to the School at roughly the same time as Morris. As a graduate of Berea College, Dodd was strongly influenced by the Berea view of Appalachian service, but he also brought his own relevant experience with the poverty of share-cropping in Georgia and the difficult life of individuals living in rural poverty. Dodd was also strongly influenced by the work of the progressive educator, John Dewey, and had absorbed his educational philosophy from his graduate work at Columbia University.

Morris worked hard to shift the School and its growing body of young adults to the contemporary world of work and civic responsibility and Dodd followed this path, using his contact with fellow staff-worker Everett K. Wilson and others at the School to help shape this perspective to his own views.

The headings of 1940 document and the later 1946 document align, but there are subtle and not so subtle changes to each of the sections.

In 1946, when Glyn Morris’ “General Statement of History and Philosophy …” was revised by then Principal at the School, Arthur Dodd, there does not seem to be significant push-back. When compared to the earlier Glyn Morris document of 1940, the Arthur Dodd’s revision of the “General Statement of History and Philosophy of Pine Mountain Settlement School, Revised (1946),” is a remarkable window into the changes in administration and the administrators’ perceptions of the mission of the School.

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GALLERY:

ARTHUR DODD GENERAL STATEMENT OF HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF PINE MOUNTAIN SETTLEMENT SCHOOL FOR MEMBERS OF THE STAFF, SEPTEMBER, REVISED1946