Part 10

"In the winter of 1914, nearly one thousand boys and girls of Ohio, in five special trains, were sent on a tour which embraced the cities of Washington, Philadelphia, and New York, as a reward for their efficiency in agriculture and domestic science. The people of Ohio have found that it pays to encourage thrift and industry in their children, for since these "corn tours," as they are termed, were started, the annual value of the corn crop of Ohio has become almost twenty million dollars more than it formerly was." [Footnote: Outlook, Dec. 16, 1914.]

Public School, No. 23, of Mulberry Bend, New York, stands in the heart of an Italian district of more than 100,000 souls, and draws also from the great Chinese section. Various other nationalities in less degree contribute their quota, so that the school ministers to the children of twenty-nine different nationalities.

This school is fortunate in having a teacher of unusual ability and magnetism for its new students in English. A visit to her room on the top floor well repays the effort of exploration in a very foreign quarter of America's greatest city, and the long climb up the winding cement stairs of the school building.

As you enter, the class is asked to bid you "Good morning," and the familiar greeting comes to you in the soft Italian accent, mingled with the higher-keyed voices of the Japanese and Chinese.

The group of ten Chinese young men impress you by their alertness, neatness of appearance, and evident eagerness to learn. An Italian boy who had been set at a trade when very young is now having a belated chance to learn to read. A number of girls of various sizes help to make up the class, with little Italian Mary, ten years old, quite new to America, beautiful and winning in spite of her unkempt appearance and poor clothing.

With the exception of two who had acquired a little English, the class entered school three months before with no knowledge of English. All are able to write their names and addresses and simple sentences in English on the blackboard.

They can go through the transaction of buying a newspaper, explaining each action involved, and making correct payment or exacting correct change.

When questioned, they give quickly and correctly the names of the President of the United States, the Governor of New York, the Mayor of New York City, and answer other questions on civic affairs.

It was deeply stirring to see a little Italian whose patois English was scarcely intelligible, step forward, with conscious pride, to be the standard-bearer and hold the flag while the class, with eager enthusiasm, saluted, touching foreheads and extending arms at full length as they repeated, the foreign tongues giving queer twists to the words:

"I pledge allegiance to my flag and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indissoluble, with liberty and justice for all."

Many night classes likewise afford opportunity for new Americans to learn English. Public School No. 95, located on Clarkson Street in the old Greenwich Village of New York, where now many Italians, Irish and a few Jews find homes, carries forward a remarkable service to its neighborhood.

Here the opportunity of helpful evening recreation is given to girls and boys. These evenings include basket ball games and athletics, Boy Scout activities, moving picture exhibits, public concerts and meetings, with such speakers on popular themes as Commissioner of Corrections Katharine B. Davis. Other public schools give carpentry training in actual shop work, qualifying the students for positions in trade. They also prepare students to pass the civil service examinations for public positions and give suitable training for positions on the Police and Fire Department.

The establishment of continuation schools in a few stores and factories is an inestimable boon to some of the toilers thrust too early into the livelihood struggle.

The employers are finding it to their interest to spare their workers for certain hours and days for such schooling because of the increased efficiency and intelligence of their service.

A peculiarly neglected group in the foreign quarters of all our cities are the older women--workers and mothers in the homes. To these Home Missions is striving to bring some knowledge of the tongue of the new country through classes arranged especially for them.

It is startling to find that the United States census for 1910 reports a greater percentage of illiteracy among native whites of native parentage than among native whites of foreign parentage. The proportion of children from five to fourteen years attending school is greater among those of foreign parentage and foreign birth than among native Americans of two or more generations.

For the entire population over ten years of age, the following table gives the percentage of illiteracy:

Foreign Foreign Native or Mixed born Native Parentage Parentage Whites Negro

United States as a whole....... 3-7 1.1 12.7 30.4

The North...................... 1.4 0.9 12.7 10.5 The South...................... 7.7 4.3 18.8 33.3 The West....................... 1.7 0.8 9.5 7.0

For the children of school age from ten to fourteen, the following table shows the percentage of illiteracy:

United States as a whole....... 2.2 0.6 3.5 18.9

New England ................ 2.2 0.6 3.5 18.9 South Atlantic................. 5.0 0.8 5.3 18.9 East South Central............. 5.8 0.9 11.4 20.7 West South Central............. 4.1 11.2 34.6 22.4 Etc............................ --- ---- ---- ----

In some Western states the percentage of illiteracy is as low as one-tenth of 1 per cent.

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An examination of schools in fifty-two cities representing with fairness the entire United States, shows that the majority of children who enter complete only the fifth grade; of one thousand children of school age, only one hundred and twenty graduate from the grammar school and six from the high school. [Footnote: Henry C. Vedder--The Gospel of Jesus and the Problems of Democracy.]

It is axiomatic that if children are to be spared by law the strain of enforced labor upon immature bodies and minds, and to be properly conserved because they are the most precious of the nation's resources, they must be prepared by suitable training for the life work that lies ahead--"making a living being an indispensable foundation for making a life."

Through special circumstances certain parts of our country have been slow in developing the free school so as to make possible even a most elementary education for their children. This is notably true of sections in the South. From the early days when the University of Virginia entered upon its honored service to higher education, the schools and colleges of the South have been influential, but through the force of peculiar economic condition these have ministered to the privileged classes, while the great masses of Negro and white children in the isolated regions were given few opportunities for even the most elementary schooling.