Page Seventeen
THE UNITED AMERICAN
JUNE 1925
Adult Education in California
By ETHEL RICHARDSON, Assistant State Superintendent of Public Instruction, State of California.
(Special for The United American)
IMMIGRANT EDUCATION in California has de-
1 veloped in much the same way as in other states
of the union. It had the good fortune, however, to
make its first bow to the public before the war hysteria
concentrated the attention of people throughout the
United State upon the aliens who could not speak our
language. Plans already under way were given an
impetus when the wave of enthusiasm for Ameri­
canization spread over the country.
Dr. Albert Shiels, now of Columbia, came to Cali­
fornia to make a survey of the school system in Los
Angeles. The State Commission of Immigration and
Housing had for some time been aware that there was
no weaker place in the public school system than the
classes for foreign-born adults. The report made by
Dr. Shiels and his associates emphasized the meagre
quality of the classes for foreign adults and the Com­
mission capitalized this report. When Dr. Shiels
became Superintendent of Schools in Los Angeles, the
State Commission of Immigration and Housing urged
him to correct the weakness which he had so wisely
pointed out. He did this by establishing the two
important administrative measures which make for
success in Immigrant Education; — he put in a trained
director and set up teacher training classes. Where
these two administrative arrangements are efficiently
organized, Immigrant Education is bound to succeed.
After a Director of Immigrant Education was estab­
lished in the State Department of Education, the
example of Los Angeles was followed generally
throughout the state. At the present time we have
103 communities where Immigrant Education is being
carried on, with 895 classes and an enrollment of
39,908. (These figures are taken from our report for
1923 - 24, as this year’s figures are not yet in.)
Whenever Immigrant Education is discussed the
question is always raised as to how it is supported.
California having a threefold system of school finance
carries out that system in the financing of her classes
for foreign adults. The state, the county and the
school district support public education in California.
The state and county make returns to the local district
on a basis of average daily attendance. In order to en­
courage the establishment of evening schools, a bonus
of $2700.00 is given by the state and county on the
first thirty units of average attendance. This insures
the salary of a full-time director and makes it possible
for a district to conduct a night school entirely on
state and county funds.
California is particularly interested in three phases
of her Adult Education work:
I. The emphasis on the importance of the adult in
rural communities. Where the competition with com­
mercial amusements is less keen, it is possible to make
Immigrant Education a community enterprise which
supplies not only English classes but a recreation pro­
gram which can draw upon the rich cultural life of the
foreign born and gives to the American a better under­
standing of other parts of the world. In California
practically all of the secondary education outside of
cities is carried on in union high schools. The children
who attend these high schools have come from small
elementary schools reaching out from five to forty
miles from the high school building. This union high
school is made the unit for the Adult Education in our
rural districts. The high school principal appoints a
full-time director who organizes classes in any ele­
mentary school district where the number of foreign-
born warrant it. It sometimes happens that a country
school has a larger attendance at night school than in
the day time. The director finds for these classes the
best available teachers and prepares the lessons. Very
often the director herself teaches classes for mothers
in the afternoon in the various elementary school
districts in order to keep herself in close touch with
the communities.
II. The home teacher is another feature of the
California program which has made for success. The
home teacher meets the needs of the foreign mother
and acts as an interpreter of the American school to
the foreign community. She begins by organizing small
classes in the homes of the foreign women. Later,
when the timidities are overcome, these classes are
consolidated into one class which meets at the school
and more pioneer work can be done with mothers who
have not yet been reached.
One of the problems which we have not yet been
able to solve is the enormous burden which all of our
full-time teachers in the field of Immigrant Education
carry. It is not wholesome for young women, as
most of these teachers are, to be occupied every
evening as well as all day. No matter how carefully
programs are planned at the beginning of the year,
the State Director on her visits to the local communi­
ties finds the local director working all the time. It
seems necessary for these teachers to supervise or
teach every evening. Regular hours can be planned
for the day, leaving a certain amount of freedom, and
sooner or later a host of social service problems fill
up all the free time. A few of our best teachers have
had to drop out because they realized that they were
getting completely out of touch with everyhing that
was going on in the world. There was no leisure for
reading, for going to the theatre, for hearing music
or for any of the other normal recreations which a
young person should have. Something must be done
to correct this if our movement is to succeed.
It was pointed out at the beginning that the train­
ing of teachers is of equal importance with the es­
tablishment of specialists who shall direct the work.
The University of California has supplied one person
who spends all of her time in training of teachers. We
find that the best training a teacher can have is while
she is actually doing the teaching, so that in every
case those who are taking the training are doing either
cadet teaching or carrying on their own classes. The
instructor from the University visits all of her
student-teachers and makes her instruction absolutely
practical. The lessons which were prepared through
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