A Stake in the Land Part 22

PROPOSED MEASURES

There is no other public inst.i.tution in the country so varied in its organization, its strength, its methods and ways as the elementary public-school system. It ranges from a shanty-like to a palace-like building, from a teacher almost illiterate herself to a teacher with an education and training which fit her for a college chair, from a few hundred dollars of yearly appropriation to tens of thousands of dollars for upkeep of a single school, from one teacher to a staff of teachers in one school, from an almost voluntary attendance to a rigid compulsory attendance. All these wide variations, in themselves picturesque, are a weakness of the system.

When the writer speaks of the weakness of the elementary public schools he uses this term in a relative sense, keeping always in mind that there is no other tool in the hands of the government so powerful in stamping out and keeping out illiteracy and hyphenism as the public school.

To make it meet these tasks a uniform public-school system based on standard requirements should be established throughout the country by the Federal, state, and local governments closely co-operating with one another for this purpose.

The Federal Bureau of Education should certainly be developed and elevated to the status of a department similar to that in a number of the states, and in almost all foreign countries.

The reorganization and the support of an efficient public-school system would require heavy public expenditure, a substantial part of which should be contributed by the Federal government to the states as an inducement to the latter to meet the minimum standard requirements in regard to the public-school system and to accept Federal inspection of the schools for the purpose of ascertaining that the states and the counties were keeping to the minimum requirements, which might be as follows:

(1) Enlargement of one-teacher schools through either consolidation or development; no less than two teachers and no less than three cla.s.srooms in each school.

(2) At least a general high-school education, two years of training in teaching methods, practical and theoretical acquaintance with agriculture, with library work, with first aid and with recreation and community activities, should be the minimum requirements for candidates for teachers in the rural public schools.

(3) The rural teacher must receive a satisfactory living salary throughout the calendar year, to be gradually increased as the years of service increase. A pension for old age, and accident and health insurance, should be provided. Near the schoolhouses there must be established "teacherages," small experimental farms with family living houses for the teachers.

(4) The school year should be made to coincide with the calendar year, with a number of short vacations during the time of special farming seasons, such as planting in the spring and harvesting in the fall. The work done by the children for their parents during the vacations should be considered as a part of their school curriculum. They would report on their work to the school, and receive instructions on how to do the work in a better way, and at times the teacher in charge of the children's home work would make inspection and instruction tours in the district during the vacation periods.

(5) Each child must be compelled to attend the public school, or a private school which fully meets the requirements of the public school, until he has completed the elementary-school education. Such school attendance should be rigidly enforced throughout the country, which would be possible if the local school authorities, in the enforcement of the law, were made more independent of the will of the parents in their districts. In addition to the inspection by the local authorities, a Federal system of inspection and direction should be established.

(6) English should be the teaching language in all public schools.

(7) There should be included in the school program instruction in farming methods, varying according to the local soils, climate, and other conditions and requirements.

[31] C. P. Cary, _Education in Wisconsin, 1914-16_ (1917), p. 51.

[32] "Educational Conditions in Arizona," _United States Bureau of Education Bulletin_ No. 44, 1917, p. 46.

[33] H. W. Foght, "Efficiency and Preparation of Rural School Teachers."

_United States Bureau of Education Bulletin_ No. 49, 1914, p. 19.

[34] Report of Superintendent of Public Instruction, North Dakota, 1914-16, pp. 84, 85, 87, 89, 109.

[35] "The Educational System of South Dakota," _United States Bureau of Education Bulletin_ No. 31, 1918.

[36] C. P. Cary, _Education in Wisconsin, 1914-16_ (1917), p. 99.

[37] H. W. Foght, "Rural-Teacher Preparation in County Training Schools and High Schools," _United States Bureau of Education Bulletin_ No. 31, 1917, p. 5.

[38] Report of Superintendent of Public Instruction, North Dakota, 1914-16, pp. 89, 107.

[39] Report of Superintendent of Public Instruction, North Dakota, 1914-16, pp. 52, 70.

[40] Report of Superintendent of Public Instruction, South Dakota, 1916.

[41] Report of United States Commissioner of Education, 1917, vol. ii, p. 77.

[42] Minnesota Department of Education, Nineteenth Biennial Report, 1915-16, p. 8.

[43] C. P. Cary, _Education in Wisconsin, 1914-16_ (1917), p. 98.

[44] Department of Interior, Commissioner of Education, Report, 1917, Vol. II, pp. 69, 77.

[45] "Educational Conditions in Arizona," _United States Bureau of Education Bulletin_ No. 44, 1917, p. 67.

[46] Minnesota Department of Education, Nineteenth Biennial Report, 1915-16, pp. 34, 75, 87.

[47] Fourteenth Biennial Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, North Dakota, 1916, pp. 67, 110, 121.

[48] Report of Superintendent of Public Instruction of South Dakota, 1916.

[49] K. M. Cook and A. C. Monahan, "Rural School Supervision," _United States Bureau of Education Bulletin_ No. 48, 1916.

XII

EDUCATION OF ADULT IMMIGRANT SETTLERS

The adult immigrant settlers need American education, the women more than the men. This fact was clearly impressed upon the writer during his field investigation. The women do not penetrate the American world; they live in the Old World, their children live in the New, and the men in a mixed world. No matter how brokenly or how fluently their husbands speak English, with but few exceptions the wives either speak it not at all or attempt a few syllables of the strange language with a hesitation and shyness which soon cause them to fall silent and retire in favor of their children or husbands. Their social visits, their contact with women and men other than their family, are confined to members of their own nationality. They live in a cage, in which they suffer, but to which they cling because it is all of life that they know.

IMPORTANCE OF REACHING WOMEN

To reach them, to bring them out into the world in which their families live, is a difficult task. It must be undertaken and accomplished, first, for the purely humane reason of lightening their lot and making them individually more happy in the New World; second, for the sake of preventing the disruption of families, the corner stone of the present social order; third, for the sake of creating and sustaining good citizens.h.i.+p. Whether immigrant women vote or not, they are an inevitable influence in the political life of the country. They must be helped to keep pace as nearly as possible with their children, who are increasingly under the influence of the American environment, especially the public schools. Not only that, but education of the mothers means a more effectual development of the children, for the mother is the greatest educator of the nation. The first question is how to reach them.

It is easy to say that the native women should go to them, establish friendly social relations, and in this way influence them. The writer observed in the field that such attempts have been made in earnest, but without much result. The first difficulty is the lack of a common language. Next is the difference in the levels of intellectual development. One might question what common grounds for social intercourse there would be between an American farmer's wife with either grammar-school or high-school education and some European peasant's wife, illiterate, impossibly shy, and downtrodden.

Still, there is a way out. In almost every immigrant rural colony one may find a more intelligent immigrant woman, either a mother of a family who has been long in this country or an elder daughter who has received a public-school education, speaks English satisfactorily, and who, at the same time, speaks the immigrants' language and knows the families in the colony more or less thoroughly. Such women should be approached first, should be brought into intimate contact with the native families, and should be induced to take a course of training and become organizers or teachers of the adult immigrant women in the colony. They will be able to effect an organization which might be called the "Women's Club"

or "Mother's Club." Instead of creating an entirely new body, such organizations as exist can and should be utilized; there may be clubs, some co-operative a.s.sociation or a benefit society. There may be no organization and one may have to be initiated. In that case it is desirable that the more developed immigrant women be appointed to the directorate of the new organization.

THE HOME TEACHER

It would seem advisable for our high schools, normal schools, and colleges specifically to train their immigrant girl students to become home teachers in the colonies of their respective nationalities. Such home teachers, qualified and trained for their work, should receive an adequate, living salary. Their duty would be to visit the immigrant homes, talk with the mothers, tell them how to rear their children, how to care for the health of the family, how to prepare meals of American food and in American ways, how to can and preserve, and how to work in the home garden. They should organize recreation facilities, reading circles, amateur theatricals, choruses, etc. The home teacher should organize the women into afternoon cla.s.ses for learning English and should induce them to visit the evening cla.s.ses with the men. She also would be the intermediary for the establishment of friendly and social relations between the immigrant families of different nationalities and the native American families. She should be attached to the teaching staff of the local public school.

Such home teachers have been employed in California under the direction of the Home Teacher Act pa.s.sed in 1915. The conditions of employment, the duties and qualifications of the home teachers are outlined by the Act as follows:[50]

Boards of school trustees or city boards of education of any school district may employ teachers to be known as "home teachers," not exceeding one such home teacher for every five hundred units of average daily attendance in the common schools of said district, as shown by the report of the county superintendent of schools for the next preceding school year. It shall be the duty of the home teachers to work in the homes of the pupils, instructing children and adults in matters relating to school attendance and preparation therefor; also in sanitation, in the English language, in household duties--such as purchase, preparation, and use of food, and clothing--and in the fundamental principles of the American system of government and the rights and duties of citizens.h.i.+p. The qualifications of such teachers shall be a regular kindergarten primary, elementary, or secondary certificate, to teach in the schools of California, and special fitness to perform the duties of a home teacher; provided that the salaries of such teachers shall be paid from the city or district special school funds.

The provisions of the law at present limit its application to congested neighborhoods.

In regard to afternoon cla.s.ses for the women, one of the home teachers, Mrs. Amanda Mathews Chase, writes as follows:[51]

Organize mothers' cla.s.ses to meet afternoons at the schoolhouse.

This group work seems to me absolutely necessary in order to cover the ground efficiently, and also because of the outlook and inspiration for the mothers.... I would suggest forming cla.s.ses from the leading nationalities, each cla.s.s to meet two afternoons a week. One afternoon the program can be an English lesson, followed by cooking, cleaning, or laundry. The other afternoon the program might comprise English followed by sewing, mending, weaving, or similar handcraft instruction. Sanitation, including personal hygiene, and patriotic teaching should be kept in mind.... Every forenoon will be spent in the homes. After all, the cla.s.ses will only be islands in the sea of your visiting. You must visit to form the cla.s.ses and visit to hold them. You must visit to see that the knowledge absorbed at school is actually put into practice at the home. You must visit to talk over many matters too delicate and personal to be taken up on cla.s.s afternoons.