JUNE 1925
THE UNITED AMERICAN
Page Forty-three
Thirty Thousand Adults Attend Night School in Ohio
By M. W. SIMPSON, State Director of Adult Education, Columbus, Ohio
(Special for The United American)
interest has been more fully realized in the immigrants’
'T HE WORK of Adult Education in Ohio has taken on examination for citizenship. These examinations have
1 renewed interest when measured by the ac been very satisfactory to the examiner. The teachers
complishments recorded for the year just closing. Our of all the schools as well as all the institutional workers
different cities, of which Ohio has many, have en are very careful in their teaching to give out no un
deavored to develop interest along different lines of certain ideas, as to what our government expects of
marked advancement, the first of these being the finan her citizens. This is taught the beginners as well as
cial side of the work. In one of our cities where it has the advanced students.
never been attempted to raise a community chest fund,
Another very important factor is the apparent
a committee raised $95,000 in four days..
unanimity of those doing the work, as rendering service
The adult school attendance has been greatly stim for the welfare of humanity. The different sects of
ulated and the work has attained a higher standard. We religionists move forward in the work as one unbroken
have now enrolled in our night schools and in different phalanx. The workers’ possession of this spirit of lofty
classes of Americanization or over thirty thousand purpose enables the teacher and the taught to look
Of these the larger number were foreign-bom, native forward to great results in the education.
in attendance registering only five hundred and about'
Although our year’s work in a measure has been
fourteen hundred were colored people.
favored in many ways, we are hopeful of still greater
Our leading workers are very desirous to have some results.
of our educational institutions establish a course for
The ambition of all workers and teachers should be
the training of teachers for this specific work. Our to accomplish more in each new tomorrow than has
teachers are greatly interested and the result of their been accomplished in each yesterday.
Adult Immigrant Education as a Remedy For Child Delinquency
By JACOB KANZLER, Judge of the Domestic Relations Court, Portland, Oregon
(Special for The United American)
the latter lose a measure of respect and control.
A FTER DECADES of observation of our immigra-
tion policy, the necessity for its rational revision
has finally been forced upon us, and we are face to face
with the question: what is our first duty to the adult
immigrant after we have permitted him to enter upon
our shores?
Stripped of all other considerations our first and
foremost duty is to teach him to read and speak the
English language. Unless this is done soon after his
arrival, how can we understand him and he us ?
When we stop to reflect how easily misunderstand
ings arise and lead to bitter enmity among those of us
speaking the same tongue, how much greater is the
possibility of aggravation among the immigrants
unable to speak the language of their adopted country ?
During the past si$ years as judge of the Court of
Domestic Relations in Portland, I have come in fre
quent contact with foreign-born parents and their chil
dren. Usually the father speaks English brokenly, but
more often the mother is unable even to understand
our language.
To what extent this condition contributes to the
lack of control over their children, I cannot definitely
say, but I am convinced that it has a strong bearing
upon the difficulties in their homes which so frequently
are aired in this court. I notice how' this situation is
embarrassing both to them and their children.
It it embarasses them in court, necessarily it effects
them likewise in every day life. No native-born child
of foreign-born parents likes to be called “a foreigner.”
But how can it escape the appelation if its parents make
no effort to acquire the tongue of their adopted land?
Whenever children feel ashamed of their parents
This
must be regarded as a tragedy, because in most cases
these foreign-born parents are men and women of
character, who at heart are sound on questions of
personal conduct and good citizenship.
Their children are prone to discount the sterling
worth of their parents on the assumption that they
hold old country ideas because they express themselves
in their native tongues. Without that touch of inti
mate relations between parents and children, these
American born children of foreign-born parents too
often seek their pleasure outside of the home circle,
become jazz crazed and frequent public dance halls
where vice and crime generally seeks company. Habits
thus acquired are hard to stamp out when these chil
dren have come to believe in the free and easy ways to
which they have adopted themselves, as the untimate in
American life.
When such a stage in family life has been reached,
it usually terminates in a serious delinquency. At this
juncture the Domestic Relations Court is called upon
to make adjustments—usually a difficult task, which
necessarily must begin with the evaluation of the
foreign-born parents, their conception of American
citizenship, their ideas and ideals of home life and their
attitude toward their children. How much better it
would be to have the lessons of mutual esteem between
parent and child learned out of court?
It is clear that this hit-or-miss method of learning
the English language, a fault traceable to the native
American as much as the adult immigrant, is at the
bottom of all the grief and delinquency we ultimately
accumulate from these sourdes.
With no definite state or national policy for the
(Continued on Page Forty-seven)