6
are refusing to teach their children any
language but English. There is, in this
particular group, no understanding, no
appreciation of the culture of another
land. This was true in my own case
until I began my training for Ameri
canization work. Although I read the
Scandinavian languages almost as easily
as the English, I had had courses in four
other foreign languages before having
any instruction in Swedish. As la part of
my preparation for the work of hastening
the Americanization process, without
loss of what is valuable in the foreign-
born student’s background, I have taken
courses in Swedish grammar, Swedish
literature, Scandinavian history and
Norse mythology. From observation and
study so far, it seems to me we should
have many better Americans if parents
with a knowledge of another language
would use it to some extent in the home
and if high school and college students
of foreign birth or parentage could study
the language and literature of their fore
fathers as the first modern language. As
an instrument of culture, one language
is as valuable as another, and we are
certainly best fitted by nature to acquire
and appreciate the social heritage of our
own ancestors. To what extent can a
high school pupil, of Teutonic stock, for
instance, be expected to understand
Freneh culture ? How well does even
the average college student sense the
difference between Teutonic and Medi
terranean psychology?
After my completion of the work in
our ungraded village’ school, followed by
a few aimless years, a most unexpected
combination of circumstances brought
higher education within the range of
possibilities, first to my twin brother and
later to me. With the exception of a
few of our cousins, all boys, who had
gone away for some high school or com
mercial training, no young person in the
community had at that time dreamed of
any education beyond what the village
offered. My brother finished the high
school course in our county seat, twenty-
five miles distant, with plans for uni
versity training. I had then put in two
years in the high school he was at
tending, carrying extra credits to com
plete the course in three years. In the
fall our family moved to Minneapolis,
where my brother entered the mining en
gineering department of the state uni
versity and I began my third year in
high school, a month late. I was gradu
ated in June following. Both of us had
been dependent upon our own resources
in meeting living and school expenses.
After four and a half years of teach
ing in the rural schools of Minnesota
and North Dakota, I took a three
months’ commercial course and then
worked as a stenographer for a year in
an office in Minneapolis. Upon resigning
this first position in order to find some
thing better, I began my experiences as
a traveler, by a two weeks’ trip to the
East. The “wanderlust” has been strong
in me ever since; viking blood, I suppose.
Some weeks of “job-hunting” brought
work in which I could utilize both my
business and teaching experiences, and
THE WESTERN AMERICAN
in addition learn something of the prob
lems of the social worker. The position
was that of State Agent for Blind, with
headquarters at the state school for
blind, and field work principally in the
three cities of St. Paul, Minneapolis and
Duluth, where three home teachers
worked under my supervision.
In the fall of 1916 I resigned my posi
tion to take up a normal school course,
as preparation for work in another sec
tion of the country, the West, toward
which my family was then looking as a
possible future home of our “clan.” My
sister had been settled in her own home
in Portland for some years; my twin
brother had vaguely planned to make his
permanent home in some one of the
western cities he had seen on his travels
to western mining districts, as an engi
neering student; my parents hoped for a
more pleasant old age in a milder cli
mate. I knew the West as a place to
rest and play. In the summer of 1914 I
had made a vacation trip to Yellowstone
Park, and in 1915 I traveled for three
months, my itinerary including the ex
positions in California and two weeks in
Portland with my sister. Although I
had, during this brief visit, little oppor
tunity for obtaining definite information
regarding conditions of employment in
Oregon, my observations indicated that
it would be necessary for me to prepare
myself for teaching in graded schools
while waiting for an opening in some
more specialized field where my business
and social service experience could be
more directly applied. Hence a normal
school diploma became my next objec
tive. With university credits, accumu
lated by. summer school work at Minne
sota University and correspondence
study courses from Chicago University,
I was able to complete residence study
at the Winona State Teachers’ College
in twelve months, some work on my
courses from Chicago remaining to be
done before my graduation from the ad
vanced department.
In February, 1918, I arrived in Port
land, and the first of March I began
work as principal of a semi-graded
school on the coast, completing the school
year for a young man who had enlisted.
During the following summer I finished
my university courses. As a normal
school graduate, I was now in a position
to do work more to my liking. At nor
mal I had specialized in departmental
and junior high school English. Owing
to the abnormal conditions, however, I
found myself beginning the school year
as a high school commercial teacher, and,
later in the year, I was teaching all the
English of the four-year course. In the
meantime, my family had “migrated” to
Portland, my brother and his family in
September, 1918, my parents in October,
1919. Our old home in Minnesota had
been disposed of quite unexpectedly
while my sister was back there on a
visit. When news of this reached us in
Portland, I had already made arrange
ments to return to Minnesota, having
become convinced that I could more
quickly find a field of maximum useful-
APRIL, 1923
ness, for a time at least, in an older
community.
The first of January, 1920, I began
work as a departmental teacher of Eng
lish in a Minneapolis school, a position
which I regarded as a step toward the
more specialized work of “Visiting
Teacher,” a type of social worker just
then being introduced into the school
system. But the Americanization move
ment was also getting under way at that
time and, the following summer, my
training for this field began with gen
eral courses under Dr. Jenks, head of the
Department of Anthropology and Amer
icanization, and courses in technique
from Dr. Anne Nicholson, director of
Americanization in San Francisco. Dur
ing the following school year I took
most of the subjects offered in the de
partment, with the instruction in tech
nique from Miss Ruby Baughman, who
came here from the position of director i
of Americanization in Los Angeles.
Last year I began work in the field
as head of what we called the Extension
Department at Minnesota College, in
Minneapolis. Finding that institution in- I
adequately equipped for work'along lines I
broad enough to maintain a separate de- I
partment for foreign-born, I resigned I
my position at the close of our school I
year. Since several of my students I
wished to continue during the summer, I
I organized classes to meet at my home I
during the vacation months and, at the I
opening of this school year, I decided to I
continue my work independently for at I
least a year, that I might round out ex- I
perimental work begun with certain I
types of students, especially the full- I
time student, whom I could not hope to I
find elsewhere.
Of such students, for instance, one I
young woman, Miss J., came to me last I
year, “right off the boat” from Sweden. I
During the first three months she had a I
few lessons a week, with no work out- I
side of class. After twelve months more, I
of full-time work, she entered the Amer- I
iean Business College, the first of this I
year. A second young woman, Miss L., I
who had been in this country a year and I
a half, had first a few evening lessons, I
last spring, and then began fulltime I
work the last week in June. Since the I
first of January she has had shorthand I
in Miss J.’s class, with the rest of her I
work here. Upon completion of the win- ■
ter term, she took state eighth grade ■
examinations in four elementary school ■
subjects, and on April first entered Miss I
J.’s other classes, that is, she will com- I
plete her business course in five months I
from the first of April, Miss J. having I
begun an eightmonths’ course in Jami- ■
ary. Miss L. now spends two hours here ■
once a week, two half-hour periods de- ■
voted to study, the other two to talking I
on what she has read. One recitation I
is given to civics, in preparation for al
June examination in that subject, the ■
other to a story, chosen with a view to I
giving a larger speaking vocabulary. ■
Miss L. talks continuously during these I
recitation periods, with only the briefest!
(Continued on page 11)