Example Essays Home

FAQ

Acceptable Use Policy

Tech Support

LOG IN!

Click HERE for Instant Access

This is a free preview of the paper.

Join Now
Log In

Martha Berry

Coming from an affluent plantation family, she had access to wealth and social prestige, but she devoted her life completely to providing educational opportunity in the midst of the poverty of the North Georgia Mountains. She had the highest and rosiest ideals, but no one was ever more practical. She devised an educational program in which mountain children could pay their own way through work - work that included building the college that bears her name. She attacked poverty through self-help, giving her students self-respect as well as an education. The motto she chose for her school is, “Not to be ministered unto, but to minister.” In the 1890’s, Miss Berry had come back home from a young ladies’ finishing school in Boston. She was spending her Sunday afternoon in a log cabin where the books and toys from her childhood were kept. While singing to herself some favorite hymns, she noticed three little boys peeking in. She drew them into the cabin by offering them some apples, and she read Bible stories to them. These children had no Sunday school or church to attend, and no public school either. They had wandered a long way over almost impassable roads from Trapp Hollow and Possum Trot. Just to see the total fascination w

Our holiday is over, and September has come with its tasks and cares. Let us dare to choose the difficult road, and learn from such women as Mary Breckinridge and Martha Berry how we can leave the world in a better condition than we find it.

Berry's approach to educating the boys and girls of Appalachia combined practical agriculture and domestic and mechanical applications with moral training. The Berry Schools' seal revealed her fourfold philosophy: "the Bible for prayer, the lamp for learning, the plow for labor and the cabin for simplicity."

Berry's interest in better educating Appalachian farm children lasted until her death in 1942.

Berry's vision of education transformed a one-room schoolhouse into a 28,000-acre campus. With supporters of the school like Henry Ford, she was able to fund new programs and encourage technology, efficiency and other advanced concepts.

Some topics in this essay:
Martha Berry, Miss Berry, Berry College, Southern Appalachians, Martha Berry’s, Henry Ford, Berry Schools', Industrial School, Lavender Mountain, Georgia Mountains, martha berry, berry college, berry schools, henry ford, possum trot, industrial school, agricultural hall fame, georgia agricultural, miss berry, boarding school, hall fame, georgia agricultural hall, berry schools berry, schools berry college, liberal arts college,