The united American : a magazine of good citizenchip., July 01, 1923, Image 5

THE
WESTERN
menean
( continuing The Northman )
A MAGAZINE OF GOOD CITIZENSHIP
Devoted to the Cause of
Americanization, Assimilation and Group Elimination; Pointing the way to a Constitutional
Americanism, to Equality in Citizenship, and a better understanding
between Native born and Foreign bom.
Vol. 1
Continuous 1 Q
Volume
-*•
JULY, 1923
Number 10
UNSOLVED PROBLEMS OF AMERICANIZATION
SIDELIGHTS ON THE REACTIONS OF LOCAL EDUCATORS
U7ITH THE development of the Americanization
* movement in the city of Portland the citizenry at
large in this city and state have become interested in
immigrant education and intelligent instruction in
citizenship to an extent that is gratifying at least to
those who have been less sanguine in their antici­
pations. In a small way the movement has for the last
year been given support by the public, through the
community chest, making it possible to sustain a
small service station and one paid combination field
and office secretary. Gradually it has become clear to
those who have taken indirect and more or less direct
interest in the Americanization activities, as well as
those actively engaged in Americanization work, that
success in this work, however, depends largely on
teacher training and a careful study of the racial back­
ground as it affects the immigrant. To equip the
Americanization worker engaging in social activities
or in teaching with these fundamental requisites
means the development of a course in Americaniza­
tion study in connection with some higher educational
institution, wherever Americanization work is to be
¡undertaken with any reasonable expectation of suc­
cess.
I While volunteers from all walks of life have entered
into the work and given their services free, or in the
classes in the night schools, where they in a measure
have been paid for their services, it has been felt that
the individual solution of the immigrant teaching
problem, while in some respects very good, has only
proven the great need of unification methods in teach­
ing and the need of a higher standardization of quali­
fication has. likewise become more and more apparent.
I At the instigation of the Portland Americanization
Council, the Oregon University Extension Depart­
ment, conducting classes during the summer months
in the city of Portland, added this year a course in
Americanization for the purpose of training Ameri­
canization teachers and social workers. At great ex­
pense the university faculty brought two trained and
experienced Americanization instructors from eastern
centers; Mr. Geo. A. Green, Director of the Citizens
Bureau at Cleveland, and Miss Huldah Cook, assistant
director of Americanization at Cleveland, Ohio, to
teach the Americaniztion class in this city the many
important elements that necessarily enter in, in the
proper assimilation, educational and social develop­
ment of the immigrant to better carry out the punpose
of helping him to become a more intelligent and de­
pendable unit in our citizenry.
Many of Portland’s civic and social organizations,
having Americanization committees, sent a represen­
tative to take the course and it has been a matter of
common discussion among teachers and students at­
tending the university summer school that the Ameri­
canization course has been one of the most interesting
and important classes conducted this season and as an
educational departure has more than proven a success
both in attendance and in subject matter presented,
from racial background study to the simple practical
methods in language instruction with the object of
immediate results and rapid development in language
knowledge even among illiterate immigrants.
While the university’s plan to give a course in
Americanization was given a strong indorsement by
the Portland city superintendent of public schools,
the department of Public Night Schools, conducting a
limited number of adult alien classes in language and