Today, many Kentuckians think of school reform as a product of this generation, but school reform is as old as schools themselves. One of Kentucky’s most devoted school reformers was also one of the state’s most popular writers—Jesse Hilton Stuart. Stuart’s autobiographies are a roadmap to today’s Kentucky Education Reform Act. They advocated consolidation of schools, better pay and more training for teachers, an emphasis on writing, and ungraded primaries, to name just a few.

"The Thread that Runs So True," perhaps Stuart’s finest work, is a psalm of praise to the teaching profession and an advocacy piece for school reform. The book was published by Scribner’s in 1949, and it has been in print ever since, clear testimony to the ongoing relevance of Stuart’s educational messages. This personal memoir has inspired tens of thousands of Americans to enter the teaching profession and nurtured millions of teachers through dark hours of difficulty and self doubt. This book is sometimes described as a novel, but it is the actual—but slightly altered—story of Stuart’s experiences as a one-room school teacher in Greenup County, Kentucky.

A similar book, but not as well-known, is "Mr. Gallion’s School." Stuart is the principal character in the person of George Gallion, a middle-aged man with a bad heart and a passion for education. Through Gallion, Stuart argues that education is the best hope for an improved society as he rails against the rebellion, dishonesty, and apathy of the James Dean generation. In Stuart’s Appalachian morality play, the hero George Gallion was saving poor country youth from uncaring parents and corrupt local officials.

"Mr. Gallion’s School," published in 1967, was the story of Stuart’s return as principal of McKell High School for the 1956-57 school year. At that point in his life, the fifty-year-old Stuart had already published 20 books with major publishing houses. He had worked for years like a man whose hair was on fire—"burning the candle at both ends" and jeopardizing his health so badly that he suffered a near-fatal heart attack in the fall of 1954. His doctors insisted that he stay at home for a year, rest, and not ever entertain visitors. By 1956, he had recovered and agreed to return as principal of McKell High School, a school which had been built in the 1930s to accommodate 300 pupils, but by the mid-50s it had 625 students. Stuart’s first job was to recruit teachers. He later strengthened the curriculum, added more classrooms, and energized the school’s spirit and athletic teams. He also confronted and resolved problems that related to truancy, smoking, gambling, profanity, and shoplifting.

When the school year ended, Stuart noted that "we had taught school for a full year in an overcrowded building with too few teachers, too little money, and problems with local racketeers." But order and academic excellence had returned to McKell High School. At the end of the year, because of health problems, he resigned and was succeeded by Clifford Lowdenback, one of Stuart’s former students.

Many people who read this article remember McKell high school in the mid 50s, and I would like to incorporate your memories into an article I am writing for a regional magazine. Send me your thoughts by email at jsf@jsfbooks.com or write a paragraph or a page and mail your material to me at: Jesse Stuart Foundation, PO Box 669, Ashland, KY 41105. Be sure and sign your piece and send me your mailing address.

"Mr. Gallion’s School" and many other books about school life in Eastern Kentucky are available at the Jesse Stuart Foundation Bookstore, 1645 Winchester Avenue, in downtown Ashland.