A Stake in the Land Part 17

TABLE V

ENROLLMENT AND LANGUAGE USED IN PAROCHIAL AND PRIVATE SCHOOLS IN MINNESOTA, 1918 ============================================================= Number of parochial and private schools 307 Number of pupils enrolled 38,853 Number of teachers 1,359 Number of schools using English only 94 Number of bilingual schools in which the teaching is in English and German 195 English and Bohemian 1 English and Dutch 1 English and French 4 English and Norwegian 1 English and Polish 10 English and Danish 1 ___ Total 213 =============================================================

The Isanti County school superintendent reports for 1915-16:[27]

The poorest schools in the county are in communities where there are private schools in connection with a church. The children attend these for years at a time, and when they return to the public schools find themselves behind their former companions. We wish arrangements might be made so that these schools could not teach the branches unless the teachers were as well equipped as the public-school teachers and that the children could be sent to them only at the confirmation age for two years.

The Martin County superintendent reports:[28]

Parochial schools should be required to report to the county superintendent the names of their teachers, length of term, etc.

The teachers should be required to make monthly reports and be subject to the same supervision of inspection as those of public schools. Their certification should also be subject to state approval. Failing this, the pupils should be required to attend the public schools for at least eight full years, or until they complete the regular eighth-grade work.

Near St. Cloud, Minnesota, there is a Slovenian colony of about fifty to sixty families. Near by there is a much smaller German colony with a German parochial school in which the teacher, at the time of the writer's visit, was a German and the teaching language was German. Quite a number of the Slovenian families sent their children to this school, where they were Germanized instead of Americanized. A Slovenian family head explained to the writer that those Slovenians who are sending their children to the German school do it for a practical reason. They expect some time to visit their native Austria, where German is the state language. The man claimed that about one tenth of the settlers do not understand English, and that only about one fifth of them can speak and write English, although the colony was founded in America about fifty years ago.

MICHIGAN

The following statement made by the Superintendent of Public Instruction in the state of Michigan to the writer, September 11, 1918, shows the situation in regard to the private schools in that state. Parochial schools exist as follows:

One hundred and sixty-six Catholic; 124 German Lutheran; 19 Adventists; 22 Christian Reform. There is a total of 331. Of these, 190 maintain as many as eight grades, and 62 maintain more than eight grades. In the grades below the high school there is an attendance of 43,836, and in the high schools, 2,813. There are employed about 1,200 teachers. Eighty-six schools use German as a medium of instruction, German partly; sixteen use Polish; 5 use French. Only 2 schools in the state give no time to the teaching of the English branches. Seventy per cent of all the schools use the English language only as a medium of instruction. The census of the state contains 892,787 children of school age, five to nineteen years, inclusive. There are enrolled in the public schools of the state, 635,020. We regret that we have not yet the data from Saginaw and Detroit. The city of Detroit alone would perhaps show a parochial-school attendance as large as the parochial-school attendance of all the rest of the state.

In a Finnish colony in upper Michigan the writer found three one-month religious summer schools, well attended. One of the leaders of the colony stated that they have only Finnish teachers in these schools and the teaching is in Finnish. The program contains mainly religious instruction and a limited amount of Finnish history. The expenses are paid by the church treasury. The people want these schools for maintaining their religion among the children as well as for sentimental nationalistic reasons. The schools are conducted in the public-school rooms during summer vacations.

In the same section of the state the writer visited an old and comparatively large Polish colony, located at Posen. His field notes supply the following information: There is at the church a four-room parochial school, housed in a substantial brick building, with five teachers, including the priest. The school year lasts ten months.

Teaching is in English, except that an hour each day is devoted to the Polish language and Polish history. The priest admitted that the teaching of religion is in Polish. The school program is the same as in the standard public schools of eight grades. The same textbooks are used. Although the law does not require examination of the children, nevertheless to appease the county officials and show the efficiency and value of their school they send the children to the county board of education for examination, and the county board has always expressed great satisfaction with the advancement in education of the children of the Polish school. The teachers are all Poles, appointed by the bishop, candidates being presented by the priest.

The need of this school the priest explained as follows: It Americanizes the children more quickly than the American school--that is, it is more efficient in teaching the children the American ways of life and American history than the American public schools, for the teachers are all Poles, know their people and their psychology better than do the teachers in the public schools. During a later discussion the priest admitted that the church service is in the Polish language and that the Polish school exists rather for sentimental reasons of a racial character than for practical reasons. The settlers also claimed that the Polish school and the church service in the Polish language are needed, for the reason that they like this better; they complained that the expenses are too high; they would have the county or state help them. Sometimes a few adults come to the school, but they are irregular in attendance.

The priest explained that the issue of the immigrant schools in the state has become practically a political issue, and to his mind it ought not to be, at least not in such a sharp form. Prohibition of these schools would have a bad effect on the foreign-born population. The schools might be modified and reformed and the state might exercise some sort of control and supervision over them, but only so far as it is agreeable to the colonies themselves. In this way the schools would be a valuable a.s.set to the education of the people. They would work toward Americanization, better than the ordinary public schools, for they can reach the depths of the soul more easily than the American schools. He believed that his school would be an ideal means to this end.

The writer observed in this colony that the majority of the colonists are of the second and third generations. Not many families are foreign born. The colony is on the way to Americanization. The main causes holding it back are as follows: the colony is to a large degree isolated from the outside world; the Catholic Church and its schools are keeping the Polish language and the racial characteristics very much alive. The writer heard in the town grown-up people talking Polish. All the people the writer met spoke English fluently. In the street he noticed several groups of children playing; some spoke Polish, some English. Two boys were talking together, one speaking Polish, the other English. In watching and hearing the boys, the writer felt the influence of the Polish church and school over them. The faces and build of the people have a specific Slavic character. Otherwise their appearance is American.

At Holland, Ottawa County, Michigan, there is a large long-established Dutch colony, the vast majority of the settlers being already of the second and third generations. The colony is far advanced on the way to Americanization. The writer found the town and farming districts surrounding it almost the same as any native rural district. He did not hear any Dutch spoken in the streets, stores, or public offices. Yet the Dutch language was the language of the service in the churches and the teaching language in the parochial schools up to recent years. In regard to this fact the local church head explained to the writer:

Aside from a number of lower parochial schools, there is one parochial high school and one parochial college, Hope College. The high school is a preparatory school for the college. The college prepares ministers for the village churches. The language used in the high school and college was formerly Dutch. They taught Dutch history, literature, and mainly religion--Bible study. But during late years English has become the teaching language, and the Dutch language has remained only as a subject of study. Up to this time the leaders of the colony have been working toward Americanization unconsciously, but now they have awakened to the fact that the Dutch are rapidly Americanizing. They accept this fact as a desirable one, and are now working consciously toward the end of Americanization. They realize that even if they would like to keep the Dutch nationality alive in the colony, they would not be able to do it, so that they yield to the inevitable. The activities in the church and parochial schools have now to be turned more toward Americanization.

In a German colony at Au Gres, Michigan, the writer learned that the colonists have a parochial school in which the teaching is in German.

They teach the German language, the Lutheran religion, and the rudiments of sciences. The church is composed entirely of Germans. Both ministers are appointed by the German Synod. The Congregational church has Sat.u.r.day and Sunday school. The Sat.u.r.day school lasts from nine until twelve in the morning, and the Sunday school from nine until ten in the morning. The teaching is in German; the subject is Bible study, and also the learning of the German language and the singing of hymns. The meaning of these schools was explained to the writer by the settlers as follows: The parents would like to have their children know the German language, be able to read and write German, and be instructed in religious matters, for neither German nor religion is taught in the American schools. The local native settlers stated to the writer that the German parochial school ought not to be there. It is a Germanizing school, opposed to America and Americanization, they argued.

WISCONSIN

The Superintendent of Public Education of the State of Wisconsin told the writer that there is no law enabling the public authorities to supervise or inspect the private schools or even to collect information in regard to them, except in a roundabout way. There is a law requiring that the county boards keep records of school attendance and this law enables the county boards to learn the attendance of every school in each county. The enrollment in private and parochial schools in Wisconsin was as follows:

TABLE VI

ENROLLMENT AND TEACHING FORCE OF PRIVATE AND PAROCHIAL SCHOOLS IN WISCONSIN, 1914-15 AND 1915-16[29]

========================================================= |1914-15|1915-16 -----------------------------------------+-------+------- Number attending private or parochial | | schools only--counties |24,370 |25,373 Number attending private or parochial | | schools only--cities |21,736 |18,556 Number attending both public and private,| | or parochial schools--counties |34,335 |34,958 Number attending both public and private,| | or parochial schools--cities | 1,441 | 3,276 | | Teaching force of private and parochial | | schools in counties: | | Men | 288 | Women | 600 | Total | 888 | 909 =========================================================

There was a case in Wisconsin in 1918 of a German father sentenced to five years in the penitentiary for persuading his son to evade the draft. An editorial commenting on the case said:

This man, though German in every sense of the word, was born in America. Yet when he was on trial he had great difficulty in understanding questions put to him in English. Born in America, educated in American schools, nearly fifty years old, yet "he had great difficulty in understanding questions put in Englis.h.!.+" Why?

Because in the German--not American--community in which he was raised the education of American citizens was conducted in German.

A rural postmaster of German descent in a small backwoods town in Wisconsin, who claimed to have lost long ago his faith in "the Kaiser's Fatherland," as he put it, stated that there are thousands and thousands of such victims of the German parochial schools in the state, who, though born and brought up here, are unable to converse freely in English. This is especially true among those who live on farms in a German colony and go only to a German school and church.

Now these people suffer and are ashamed of themselves. But who is responsible? I think both the German clergy and other leaders for victimizing these people, as well as the American public for allowing such mischief.

SOUTH DAKOTA

In regard to the situation in South Dakota, the Federal Bureau of Education reports (Bulletin, No. 31, 1918) that,

some counties, Hutchinson, for example, are largely peopled by German stock. A large portion of the school population attend German Catholic and German Lutheran parochial schools in which German has been used largely as a medium of instruction. (Recently stopped by order of the State Council of Defense.) In this county, and in Hanson County, the German-Russian Mennonites still live the quaint community life brought with them from Russia. German, not English, is the language of the villages, although in most of the schools English is the medium of instruction.

CALIFORNIA

The California Commissioner of Public Education stated to the writer that the state authorities have no right to interfere in any way with the private and parochial schools and that he is not legally able to collect any information in regard to these schools.

Even the leaders of the Russian sectarian peasant colonies maintain some sort of a private school of their own. The San Francisco colony has cla.s.ses for children two evenings a week, in which they are taught reading and writing in the Russian language. In Los Angeles the colony leaders explained that their children learn the Russian language in their homes, where Russian is spoken exclusively, and that they learn Russian reading and writing in their Russian private evening schools, one hour each evening. The peasants themselves teach them. The parents have to pay certain small sums to the teachers.

The leaders expressed a keen desire that the city should provide them with a Russian school, for they would like to have their children able to read, speak, and write the Russian language. If they should not be able to settle in America on the land they would be compelled to return to Russia. The leaders of the Russian colony at Glendale, Arizona, said that they are attempting to teach Russian to their children in the evenings and other spare time, but owing to lack of time and proper teachers they have not made much progress.

HEBREW SCHOOL IN NEW JERSEY

The local manager of the Hirsch fund in Woodbine, New Jersey, a Jewish colony, stated that there is in the colony a Hebrew school supported by individuals and to a certain degree by the Hirsch fund. It is a Hebrew school connected with activities of the synagogue, maintained for religious purposes. It corresponds to the parochial school of Christian churches. About sixty pupils attend this school.

OPINIONS ON BOTH SIDES

It goes without saying that during war-time excitement, with its heightened suspicion, the statements made by the defenders of the foreign-language schools and their opponents do not always correspond to the reality. It has been the writers impression that the defenders were inclined to diminish the negative influence of these schools, while their opponents in a number of cases saw these schools darker than they really were.

For instance, it was a usual experience of the writer, when he arrived in an immigrant colony and explained either to individual leaders or to a meeting of the whole colony the purpose of his inquiry, to receive at the outset the following answer: "Well, we are all Americanized; we are all Americans; we understand and speak the American language and love the country; we are not a colony at all, but just plain American people of a certain old-country stock," etc. When it developed that the language of their church service and the teaching language in their private schools was their old-country language, the leaders began, with certain embarra.s.sment, to admit that the old folks and the late arrivals do not understand English, and therefore the mother tongue of the parents becomes the home language for both the young and old. And since some settlers intend to return to the old country, and do not like to lose their former nationality--their old-country tongue is used in the churches and taught in the schools.

Perhaps the Polish settlers were most outspoken in their attachment to their nationality, while the German settlers were either silent or denied their preference for the German nationality; their main argument in favor of the use of German in their churches and schools was based on purely religious grounds. It was solely on this religious ground that they explained the higher proportion of German-language schools to the number of German immigrants than obtains in any other immigrant national group. The Jews claimed that their racial characteristics, such as diet, moral conceptions according to the Mosaic laws, and study of Hebrew history, were really contributions to America. They justified on this ground the cultivation of their racial differences, maintaining that there is nothing in this opposed to American ideals, but that, on the contrary, it is in accord with what this country stands for and fosters.

On the other hand, the opponents of foreign-language schools often viewed them as the sole hindrance to the better understanding and acceptance of American ways and inst.i.tutions, the creators of disloyalty. They would close all foreign-language schools in the country at once, without any further consideration.

As a result of the war-time revelations and excitement, certain changes have taken place in these schools. In a number of states the use of a foreign tongue as a teaching medium and even as a subject of study in the common schools has been prohibited. In a number of places the immigrant leaders themselves have voluntarily changed their teaching language to English under the pressure of both public opinion in general and that of the members of their own group. "It is an injustice to our own people if we teach them a foreign tongue instead of the language of this country," stated a Lutheran pastor to the writer.

But in many cases the nationalistic leaders expressed their dissatisfaction with the changes "enforced" upon them. They expressed the opinion that after peace is established their people would have things their own way through their votes. Many of them are already naturalized and still more are going to be.

TEMPORARY USEFULNESS