A Stake in the Land :: IX PRIVATE SCHOOLS

IX PRIVATE SCHOOLS

One of the greatest negative agencies, and in a large number of cases consciously negative agencies, affecting the Americanization of immigrants in our rural districts has been private schools. Among these—the writer wishes to be entirely outspoken—the most conspicuous have been immigrant Catholic and Lutheran parochial schools and Hebrew schools.

Many of them are run in the spirit of preference for the old country and for the immigrant race or nationality to America and the American nationality. Furthermore, the very spirit and aim of their methods are foreign to America. In their training of children they lay special stress on discipline, obedience, on the form of things, on punctuality, on memory, and on mechanism. All these qualities have been desirable in the "subjects" and in the small "subject nations," from the point of view of the monarchical and aristocratic European regimes, with which Catholicism and Lutheranism have been identified, or of the Talmud, upon which extreme Hebrew nationalism is based. The authorities of parochial schools, especially the higher authorities, such as bishops, allow themselves to criticize sternly the American public schools for looseness, too much freedom, lack of moral teachings, etc. A prominent German Catholic bishop, who has been for thirty years in America and who can hardly speak English, stated to the writer that the American colleges, high schools, and even public schools are no good, that their aim is to prepare children and students to get easier jobs, to get along in life without labor and effort. Religious and moral teachings are entirely lacking in his opinion and the schools work against these teachings. Especially, the training of girls in America is entirely wrong. They are not educated to be good housewives, but are just reared for an easy and joyful life; in fact, girls are too lazy to do family work or any work. The severely nationalistic churchman was unable to approve the democratic spirit of the American public school with the stress which it lays upon freedom of action, self-reliance, initiative, and imagination in children. He looked upon children as if they were somebody's property or tools, not human beings with individual destinies.

How important the parochial schools are considered to be by certain immigrant nationalistic leaders and high clergy is shown by the speeches delivered at the southeastern Wisconsin district conference of the Evangelical Lutheran Joint Synod of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, and other states, held in the summer of 1918. Prof. A. Piper stated that,

we must concentrate all our powers upon keeping our hands on our schools. To hold our schools we must compete with the public schools, must hold classes five days a week, and must work with all the strength that is in us. The most important part of all of our missionary work is the work in our schools.

The importance of concentrating effort on the parochial schools was further emphasized by W. Grabner, Milwaukee, who asked:

What has made Chicago the greatest Lutheran city in the world? [and replied] I say it was the Lutheran parochial school. It has served as a nucleus for all Lutheran families to settle about. Round it all life and activity centered. Our Lutheran forefathers nourished the little Lutheran schools with all the powers they possessed.

The situation in the rural districts of various states in regard to the private and especially the parochial schools in connection with the Americanization of the children of immigrants born here and abroad is shown by the following field notes and material collected by the writer.

NEBRASKA

The Nebraska State Council of Defense made a report on the foreign-language schools in Nebraska, dated January 14, 1917. The data were secured through the personal investigation of Miss Sarka Hrbkova, chairman of the Woman's Committee, aided by Miss Alice Florer of the State Superintendent's office, and through the efforts of the county chairmen of educational propaganda of the Woman's Committee. Professors Link and Weller and other representatives of the German Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Missouri Synod co-operated with Miss Hrbkova. The following facts indicate the extent of parochial schools in Nebraska. [26]

Foreign-language schools are located in 59 counties of Nebraska. There is a total of 262 schools in which it is estimated that 10,000 children receive instruction in foreign languages, chiefly the German. In these 262 schools 379 teachers are employed. Five thousand five hundred and fifty-four children are attending the schools of the German Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Missouri Synod, this number including those in the summer sessions as well. About 20 teachers give instructions in their homes or in church buildings. Of these 379 teachers in private schools, 2 give instruction in Danish, 6 in Polish, 14 in Swedish, and 357 in German. Less than 2 per cent of the teachers of these schools are certified. About 120 of the German teachers are likewise ministers in the German Lutheran parish where the school is located. The county superintendents of the 59 counties in which the foreign-language schools are located reported that in only a few cases do these schools give the equivalent of the eighth-grade public school. For the most part, the eight years' attendance at such a school fits pupils for the sixth grade of the public schools.

In certain schools in Fillmore, Cass, Franklin, Gosper, Jefferson, Pawnee, and Wayne Counties the instruction is given entirely in the German language. In about 200 of the schools three hours daily is devoted to instruction in the German language.

In Deuel, Fillmore, and Jefferson Counties the superintendents report that the German national hymn is sung in certain foreign-language schools. In Nance and Washington Counties they report that it was formerly sung, but not this year. In Cedar Creek District No. 88, Cass County, Reverend Kunzendorf, teacher, states that they do not sing the American hymn because they do not sing any hymns at all. The American national hymn is not sung in about 100 of the German-language schools. Over 100 foreign-language schools lack an American flag. One minister, Rev. J. Aron, from Wayne County, writes, "We have no flag, but will see to it that one be put up, if requested to do so." In Madison the minister declared foreign-language and parochial schools are not required by law to have an American flag, and therefore he does not display one.

Public schools have been closed and forced out by German parochial schools in Cedar County, Cheyenne County, Clay County, Colfax County (No. 36), Gage County (No. 103), 2 in Johnson County, 5 in Platte County, District No. 99 in Saline County, 8 in Seward County, No. 38 in Stanton County and Wayne County. In Cedar County the Bow Valley, Constance, and Fordyce schools are taught by Sisters. In the following counties there are public schools with only four or five pupils, because the German-language schools absorb the pupils: Clay, Cedar, Cuming, Dixon, Howard, Nuckolis, Platte, Polk, Seward, Stanton, Wayne, and Webster.

The following statement was made by Prof. C. F. Brommer, Hampton, Nebraska, president of the Lutheran Synod of Missouri, at the hearing before the state Americanization Committee held in Lincoln in September, 1918:

I think we have more parochial schools than any other Protestant body in this state; between 150 and 160, with about 5,000 children in these schools.

In answer to a question by a member of the committee, Professor Brommer said:

I know of one [public school] district where there is no public school. There is no need of one, as the children all go to parochial school. There are a few such cases.

George Weller, of Seward, Nebraska, stated to the same committee:

German has never been taught in our schools [German Lutheran] as an end, but as a means to an end. We could not teach the old folks English, and in order to allow the children and the parents to worship together we taught the children the German language.

J. W. Robb of Lincoln informed the commission that in one district the Germans control the public-school board and they closed the public school two months in a year, and the children are deprived of two months in English schools or must go to a German parochial school during that time.

NORTH DAKOTA

The situation in regard to parochial schools in North Dakota has been and still is, perhaps, more serious than in Nebraska. The writer in his field study in North Dakota was impressed that the public officials were afraid to do anything more than recommend certain desirable changes in these schools; some were even afraid to visit the German counties or sections on public business, such as Liberty Bond or Red Cross drives. Several reasons were given, such as politics, ignorance of the German language, and even care for their own safety. Therefore an English-speaking German woman was engaged to speak for Liberty Bonds in North Dakota German sections. She was successful only because in her German public speeches she praised the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty and condemned the Czechoslovaks in Russia. "Well, she brings home the bacon. For what else do we care!" ironically exclaimed a North Dakota man to the writer.

The State Superintendent of Public Education made the following statement to the writer when he asked for data on the foreign-language schools in the state:

The State Department of Public Education has no authority whatever over the private and parochial schools in the state. There is no legal ground for collecting information in regard to them.... There have been cases when children of immigrant groups, attending a private or parochial school, had to learn the foreign tongue of other groups.

A Catholic bishop stated:

The first grades in the parochial schools use German because the children who enter the schools do not know English, and it is far better and more successful to start work with them in their mother tongue as a teaching language. At the same time, they teach them English. As their knowledge of English gradually grows, the teaching in the higher grades is transferred to the English language.

To the writer's question whether the non-German children in their parochial schools—for instance, Bohemians and Hungarians—have also to start in German, the bishop said that in some cases this is true, for they are not able to find teachers for each language.

In the bishops diocese there are 37,000 Catholic families. Among these are 2,000 Indian families, about 2,000 Bohemian families, and between 300 and 400 Hungarian families. The rest are German families, over 100 of whom are from Germany; about 2,000 were born in America, and the rest are Germans from Russia.

An American church head made the following statement, in reply to an inquiry about the schools:

Strasburg, Emmons County, has a large parochial school where German is the only language both for teaching and speaking. The public school there has only a handful of children. There are plenty of parochial schools in which German is taught exclusively in McIntosh and Emmons Counties, and in the western counties (in the town of New Salem, etc.). Some of the teachers, of whom a goodly number are Sisters, cannot speak English at all. Children of other nationalities would also be under German influences. There is undoubtedly German propaganda in these schools, and American or other children become Germanized. Every graded school, private and public, should be conducted in English exclusively. Every teacher need not be American born; many foreign-born people are better citizens than some native Americans. But every teacher should have to understand and speak the English language. No one should teach, preach, or hold public office who cannot speak English.

The editor of an English daily in Bismarck, North Dakota, said:

The Americanization work is weakest in North Dakota, and yet it is more needed here than anywhere else, for the population is mainly composed of foreign elements. Foreign-language churches, parochial and other private schools, and certain American public schools in which, as it is in a number of places, the teaching language is a foreign language, very often German—are keeping the old country alive in the state. We have a large number of the second generation, grown-up people born here of foreign-born parents, who do not know how to write or read English, who do not know anything about America, but know well the history of Hohenzollern and Hapsburg dynasties in Europe.

A leader of the Women's Organization, North Dakota Council of Defense, made the following statement:

The Red Cross work, food-conservation work, and child-welfare work are organized in every county, a wide-awake woman being chosen as county head. Great difficulty is experienced in reaching the foreigner. A large number of them, especially women, do not understand English, and do not know enough about the country, its traditions, and spirit. Aside from remaining foreigners, they are in many cases unbelievably ignorant. For instance, the organization undertook a baby census, which included weighing the babies. The baby of a German housewife was underweight—that is, below normal. When its mother learned of this she began to cry hysterically. After the other people succeeded in quieting her she expressed the fear that the American government would kill her baby for being below normal weight.

MINNESOTA

The statistical data on parochial and other private schools in the state of Minnesota for 1918, compiled by the Department of Public Instruction, are as follows:

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 asset 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 Saturday and Sunday school. The Saturday 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 English!" 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 classes 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 embarrassment, 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 institutions, 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

The elementary foreign-language schools undoubtedly perform a service in preventing the disruption of families and are justified to this extent. The question arises, however, whether much more cannot be done to assist the parents, through evening schools and home teachers, to learn the language and customs of the country. If this work could be adequately done, it would not be necessary to hold the children back by teaching them a foreign language, only to be used to bridge a temporary gulf in their homes.

The justification for foreign-language elementary schools does not apply to the higher institutions. In the Dutch colony at Holland, Michigan, the writer was struck by the fact that while the people were largely Americanized and English had become their home or mother tongue, the colony leaders insisted on the Dutch language in their high school and college. The only explanation given was that this was done unconsciously. During recent years they had become conscious of the need and the inevitableness of Americanization, and, as a result, had substituted English for Dutch in their higher schools.

The Jewish colony in Woodbine, New Jersey, had a Jewish agricultural college, supported by the Hirsch fund. To the writer's inquiries as to why there was need of a special Jewish agricultural college, why the Jewish boys cannot enter American agricultural colleges, receiving scholarships from the Hirsch fund if need be, the answers of the authorities were varied: They had to follow the will of Baron de Hirsch; in a special Jewish institution the Jewish boys are kept from "going astray"; teaching and training can be better adjusted to the peculiarities of the Jewish boys, etc.

NEED FOR REGULATION

There is no question that the foreign-language private schools have done great harm to the country as a whole and to the immigrants themselves. The question is, What has to be done?

The parochial schools must be regulated by the following measures: All elementary private schools should be licensed or registered in the office of the public-school authorities; all should meet the same requirements as the elementary public schools in regard to the qualifications of teachers, school terms, program, teaching language, and inspection and direction by the public-school authorities. Exception might be made to permit religious instruction certain definite hours during the week to the American-born children in English and to recently arrived immigrant children in their mother tongue as well as instruction in their mother tongue as an extra cultural subject. The lessons should be given by a duly qualified teacher.

In another volume [30] of these Studies there is a further discussion of a successful experiment along this line. The parochial schools of New Hampshire have co-operated voluntarily with the state authorities. Progress toward regulation and the establishment of a minimum standard in all schools in the state has been made. Only through some such provision can this country insure equal opportunity to its potential citizens.

Clyx.com