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About The united American : a magazine of good citizenchip. (Portland, Or.) 1923-1927 | View Entire Issue (June 1, 1925)
Page Forty-six THE UNITED AMERICAN JUNE 1925 Adult Education Made Part of School Plan in Portland y HE NIGHT SCHOOLS for adults in Portland had 1 their beginning eleven years ago, according to Mr. A. M. Gray, City Superintendent of the night schools. He began his work in the outlying suburb of Montavilla. To create an interest he had posters printed at his own expense and distributed them, for the most part in person. Subsequently he organized two classes and taught these during the first year. The following year a successor was selected to carry on in the Montavilla School and Mr. Gray was sent to the district of the Albina Homestead to create night school interest in that vicinity. He organized two classes also at this school and conducted these for two years, before he was again transferred, this time to the Jefferson High. Through kindness of Mr. Franklin T. Griffith, president of the Portland Electric Power Company, an extensive adver tising campaign in the interest of adult night schools was put on, by streetcar signs, which carried the news of the schools to every home for a long time. In 1919 Mr. Gray was appointed superintendent of the night schools. The limited funds available for night schools permitted no further expansion and all adver tising had to be discontinued for a time. For several years the high point in the Portland Night School budget was seven thousand five hundred dollars. Due to aroused public interest, the school ad ministration and the Board pledged last year, preceding the school levy election, that if the levy carried the fi- FRIENDSHIP A ruddy drop of manly blood The surging sea outweighs; The world uncertain comes and goes, The lover rooted stays. I fancied he was fled — And after many a year, Glowed unexhausted kindliness, Like daily sunrise there. My careful heart was free again; A friend, my bosom said, Through thee alone the sky is reached, Through thee the rose is red; • All things through thee take nobler from, And look beyond the earth; The mill-round of our fate appears A sun-path in thy worth. Me, too, thy nobleness has taught To master my despair; The fountains of my hidden life Are through thy friendship fair. —Emerson. THE RIVAL QUESTS Of our mixed life two quests are given control: Food for the body, friendship for the soul. High as the spirit hovers o’er its flesh The second quest is free, serene and fresh. O sorrow, that so oft the first betrays This eager searching of celestial ways! 0 bitter sorrow, that the first can rise And pluck his soaring brother from the skies! But there is joy in musing how there be These twain in some lives ruling tranquilly. — The late Arthur Upson in the Bellman. Often a man who sustains a financial loss insists upon adding to it a loss of efficiency caused by worry. nancial allocation for the night schools would be doubled. The election was successful, and so it hap pened that Portland from 1925 on, until otherwise de cided, will be able to expend for night schools not to exceed fifteen thousand dollars annually. With the opening of the school year this fall, Mr. Gray states that he will have a general Americaniza tion program ready for the city, a program that will in clude night school classes, home schools for mothers, social center activities, and school sings—an innovation started last winter which has created an intense interest among the adult students. The night schools in certain designated centers will remain open for the summer for the accommodation of ciizenship students, in particular. Home classes for citizenship students, in particular. Home classes for mothers in some suburban centers have already been started as an advance part of the program that is scheduled for this fall. Miss Elsie Pond, a language instructress, from 'the Teachers’ College at Santa Barbara, California, will teach an Americanization class this year in the Oregon University Summer Center. Mr. Gray states that hi. has approved the university’s choice of instructor for this year and will for that reason suggest to his teachers that they attend, inasmuch as a cerificate, showing their attendance, will be required by hin this fall as a qualification to assignment. WHAT IS SUCCESS? By Bessie A. Stanley HE HAS achieved success who has lived well, laughed often, and loved much; who has gained the respect of intelligent men and the love of little children; who has filled ■his niche and accomplished his task, whether 'by an improved poppy, a perfect poem, or a rescued soul; who has never lacked appreciation of earth’s beauty, or failed to express it; who has always looked for the best in others and given the best he had; whose life was an inspiration and whose memory is a benediction. THE NEW AGE By Frederick Lawrence Knowles When navies are forgotten And fleets are useless things, When the dove shall warm her bosom Beneath the eagle’s wings, When memory of battles, At last is strange and old, When nations have one banner And creeds have found one fold, When the hand that sprinkles midnight With its powdered drift of suns Has hushed this tiny tumult Of sects and swords and guns; Then Hate’s last note of discord In all God’s worlds shall cease, In the conquest which is service, In the victory which is peace. Habits of actions grow from habits of thought.
