Folk and settlement schools have served predominantly Anglo-American constituents and have focused upon Anglo-American and western European traditions. The John C. Campbell Folk School (JCCFS) was founded in southwestern North Carolina in 1925. The school's founder, Olive Dame Campbell, was considered progressive in her time in desiring to serve "all that is native and fine" in the indigenous cultural community. However, the decades of cultural movement and change that have intervened since then have given a new basis for today's strivings toward cultural diversity, so that it is only fitting that in the 1990s folk schools as institutions of educational and progressive thought should embrace cultural diversity and educational democracy, by including people other than Anglo-Americans as faculty, staff, and students. Doing this will create a new set of concerns and options for folk school educators and programmers in institutions. While a vast percentage of the students and instructors from JCFFS are outsiders to the school community, current staff and faculty have a strong respect for the community and have re-instituted events for the local residents such as Friday night concerts featuring local singers and musicians. Cultural democracy is the right of each individual to garner an education and to have a voice both in what type of education that will be, and in how cultural activities will be highlighted, showcased, documented, and/or preserved. Folkschools are progressive institutions born of forward thinking, humanistic concerns, and love; yet if folk schools are to continue in service and growth, forward thinking by staff, instructors, and boards of directors must be tempered by public need, student response and contemporary shifts in culture. (LP)