A A JCSi <= 8 ^3l ^Hl 3 4 : w 3 4 1 ^^== — — .' ' ' '.'■ THE SCHOOL AND THE IMMIGRANT THE SURVEY COMMITTEE OF THE CLEVELAND FOUNDATION Charles E. Adams, Chairman Thomas G. Fitzsimons Myrta L. Jones Bascom Little Victor W. Sincere Arthur D. Baldwin, Secretary James R. Garfield, Counsel Allen T. Burns, Director THE EDUCATION SURVEY Leonard P. Ayres, Director CLEVELAND EDUCATION SURVEY THE SCHOOL AND THE IMMIGRANT BY HERBERT ADOLPHUS MILLER PROFESSOR OF SOCIOLOGY OBERLIN COLLEGE THE SURVEY COMMITTEE OF THE CLEVELAND FOUNDATION CLEVELAND • OHIO 20 1916 Copyright, 1916, by the survey committee of the cleveland foundation WM'F. FELL CO- PRINTERS PHILADELPHIA >f YRL °o/00l FOREWORD This report on " The School and the Immigrant " is one of the 25 sections of the report of the Edu- cation Survey of Cleveland conducted by the Survey Committee of the Cleveland Founda- tion in 1915. Twenty-three of these sections will be published as separate monographs. In addition there will be a larger volume giving a summary of the findings and recommenda- tions relating to the regular work of the public schools, and a second similar volume giving the summary of those sections relating to in- dustrial education. Copies of all these pub- lications may be obtained from the Cleveland Foundation. They may also be obtained from the Division of Education of the Russell Sage Foundation, New York City. A complete list will be found in the back of this volume, to- gether with prices. TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE Foreword 5 List of Tables 9 List of Diagrams 10 CHAPTER I. Cleveland as a Foreign City 11 A large proportion cannot speak English 14 Fewer become American citizens 18 Summary 20 II. School Children from Non-English- Speaking Homes 23 Number of elementary pupils who can read some foreign language 28 Foreign language teaching in parochial III. schools 31 Wide variation in different schools 33 Summary 35 Efforts of National Groups to Preserve their Languages 37 Bohemians 39 Croatians 40 Danes 41 Germans 41 Greeks 41 Hebrew and Yiddish 42 Hungarians 44 Italians 45 Lithuanians 46 Norwegians and Swedes 47 Poles 47 Russians and Ruthenians 48 Roumanians 49 IV. VI. Serbians 49 Slovaks 50 Slovenians 51 Syrians 51 Other groups 52 Use of public school buildings by national groups 52 Summary 53 Characteristics of National Groups 55 Bohemians 59 Croatians and Serbians 60 Finns 61 Germans 62 Jews 62 Hungarians 64 Italians 65 Lithuanians 66 Poles 66 Russians and Ruthenians 67 Roumanians 68 Slovaks 69 Slovenians 70 Other nationalities 70 Summary 71 Problem of Education for the Foreign Children 72 Steamer classes 72 English-speaking children from non- English-speaking homes 77 Summary 83 The Adult Immigrant and the School 85 Evening schools for adult foreigners 85 Citizenship classes 87 Quality of instruction in evening schools 91 Reorganization essential 94 Summary 101 LIST OF TABLES TABLE PAGE 1. Languages spoken in homes of pupils in the public schools 25 2. Number of children in the elementary schools who can read a foreign language 29 3. Number of children in the high schools who can read a foreign language 30 4. Number of pupils studying foreign languages in the Catholic schools 33 5. Children in leading nationality groups in each elementary school 79-80 6. Children in leading nationality groups in each high school 81 7. Nationalities of evening school students 88 8. Total enrollment, number belonging, and average attendance in the evening ele- mentary schools 97 LIST OF DIAGRAMS DIAGRAM PAQB 1. Immigration to Cleveland from Southern and Eastern Europe and all other countries 12 2. Number of people of foreign birth from various countries 15 3. Per cent of the foreign population unable to speak English in 10 American cities 17 4. Per cent of the foreign male population who had not taken out naturalization papers in 10 American cities in 1900 and 1910 21 5. Children in each grade from homes in which a foreign language is spoken, and number from English-speaking homes 27 6. Distribution of pupils by nationalities in two elementary schools 34 7. Total enrollment, number belonging, and average attendance in the evening ele- mentary schools during 1915-16 96 THE SCHOOL AND THE IMMIGRANT CHAPTER I CLEVELAND AS A FOREIGN CITY Cleveland is one of the most foreign cities in the United States. Of the 50 cities having a population of over 100,000 inhabitants at the time of the last census, only seven — New York, Chicago, Boston, Paterson, Fall River, Lowell, and Bridgeport — contained a larger proportion of foreign inhabitants. Cleveland's foreign population would constitute by itself a city larger than any other in the state of Ohio ex- cept Cincinnati, and equalled or surpassed in size by only 28 other cities in the entire country. The rate of increase in the foreign popula- tion has closely followed the general growth of the city. The proportion of foreign born in- habitants to the total population has varied but slightly during the past quarter of a cen- tury. When the census of 1890 was taken, 37.5 per cent of the total white population was foreign. In 1910 the proportion had decreased 11 to 35.5 per cent, a shift of only two per cent in 20 years. 1890 81 per cent 1900 68 per cent 1910 U3 per cent Northwestern European and all other Immigration Diagram 1. — Proportion of the foreign born population in Cleveland from the countries of southern and eastern Europe and from all other countries in 1890, 1900, and 1910 Although the ratio of foreign to native born has been fairly constant, quite the contrary is 12 true with respect to the sources from which the foreign element is drawn. In 1890 nearly three- quarters of all the foreign born population of the city were from northern and western Europe, and over one-third were from countries in which the national language is English. During the last two decades of the past century the tide of immigration shifted and there has been an ever-increasing number of immigrants from southern and eastern Europe, while the pro- portion from English-speaking countries stead- ily decreased. This change in the composition of the foreign population is shown graphically in Diagram 1. In 1890 there were about 71,000 foreigners in Cleveland from the northern and western Euro- pean countries. The number increased to ap- proximately 76,000 in the following decade, but from 1900 to 1910 not only was there no in- crease, but the census shows an actual loss of nearly 2,000, although the whole population of the city nearly doubled during the same period. On the other hand, the number drawn from southern and eastern Europe, which was about 18,000 in 1890, increased during the following two decades over 600 per cent, or more than 13 times as rapidly as the general increase in popu- lation, reaching a total in 1910 of nearly 112,000. In 1890 natives of southern and eastern Euro- 13 pean countries constituted less than one-fifth of the total foreign population of the city; in 1910 they constituted nearly three-fifths of the total. The number from each of the principal coun- tries at the end of the three last census periods —1890, 1900, and 1910— is shown in Diagram 2. In 1890 and 1900, Germany led, with the Eng- lish-speaking countries — the British Isles and Canada — a close second. During the decade 1900-10, the immigration from Austria, Hun- gary, Russia, and Italy increased at a tremen- dous rate, so that in 1910 the Austrians led in point of numbers, with a total of 42,059, an increase of 23,078 over 1900. During the same period the number of Hungarians increased from 9,558 to 31,503, the Russians from 7,726 to 25,477, and the Italians from 3,065 to 10,836. Of the 97,000 foreigners in Cleveland in 1890, less than two-thirds came from non-English- speaking countries; in 1910 the proportion had risen to considerably more than four-fifths. A Large Proportion Cannot Speak English Without going into a detailed study of the social and educational characteristics of the old and the new immigration, we may take up briefly two points of peculiar significance from the 14 standpoint of public education. The first relates to the ability to speak English. The successful \8?0 1 900 \9I0 All other countries ■ G.Sdorf Italy 635 3,065 Russia 1,482 L^l^^^B Hungary ^^3^210 Austria ^^^^J British Isles and Canada ^^^^3 Germany B^^M ^^^^^B 1 890 1 900 | mo | Diagram 2. — Number of people of foreign birth from various countries in 1890, 1900, and 1910 assimilation of the immigrant, his adaptation to American customs and ways of thought, and 15 to a marked degree his economic and social status, depend on his ability to read and speak the English language. Nearly every disad- vantage under which he labors during his first years in this country can be traced in the last analysis to ignorance of English. Cleveland's foreign population is becoming increasingly foreign from the standpoint of ability to read, write, speak, and understand the English language. In 1900 less than one-fifth of the foreigners in the city 10 years old and over were unable to speak English; in 1910 the proportion of non-English-speaking foreigners had risen to nearly one-third of the total. Diagram 3 shows a comparison of the pro- portion of the white foreign population 10 years old and over unable to speak English in the 10 cities of the United States having the largest number of foreign inhabitants in 1910. In this comparison Cleveland stands at the foot of the list, with a per cent of 31.3, or nearly one-third. In proportion to its total foreign population there are over one and one-fourth as many unable to speak English as in Chicago, nearly one and two-fifths as many as in New York, and approximately three times as many as in Boston. There is no obvious explanation of this ab- normal situation. It is true that the greater proportion of English and Irish immigrants in 16 Boston and the heavy immigration from Can- ada in border cities like Detroit and Buffalo are factors which make for a low proportion of Pan Franci sco El Boston i m Philadalphii St. Louis El New York Chica ^3 CLEVELAND Diagram 3. — Per cent of the foreign population unable to speak English in the 10 American cities having the largest foreign population in 1910 non-English-speaking inhabitants in those cities. But this explanation does not apply to such cities as New York, Chicago, and St. Louis, 2 17 where the proportion of immigrants from Eng- lish-speaking countries is practically the same as in Cleveland. New York more closely resembles Cleveland in the distribution of its foreign population with respect to country of birth than any of the other cities compared. The proportion from northwestern Europe is almost exactly the same in both cities; in the proportions from southern and eastern Europe and from English-speaking countries the differences are negligible. It is almost inexplicable in view of the close simi- larity as to country of birth and language that the relative number of foreign born inhabitants unable to speak English in Cleveland should so greatly outnumber those in New York. The conclusion seems inevitable that the city's low standing as to the number of its foreign inhabi- tants who were unable to speak English at the time of the last census is not due to such factors as the nationality or mother tongue of the vari- ous groups that make up the foreign popula- tion. Fewer Become American Citizens There are at the present time between 60,000 and 65,000 men in Cleveland who are not citi- zens of the United States. Of every 100 men of voting age in 1910, approximately 30 possessed 18 no political rights or interests in this country and owed no allegiance to the government of the United States. In no more important re- spect does the new immigration from southern and eastern Europe differ from the old immigra- tion from northern and western Europe than in its tendency to cling to an alien political status and indifference to the privileges and duties of American citizenship. In recent years there has been a marked change for the worse in this respect throughout the entire country, but in few of the larger cities has the downward trend been more pronounced than in Cleveland. Of the 10 American cities having the largest foreign population in 1910, only two — Philadelphia and Pittsburgh — showed a higher proportion of foreign men who had taken no steps to obtain American citizen- ship. In 1900 the proportion of foreign born males 21 years old or over who were naturalized or had taken out their first naturalization papers in Cleveland was 69 per cent; in 1910 it had dropped to a little over 51 per cent. This falling off in the percentage of naturalization was ex- ceeded only in Detroit among the 10 cities. The per cent in each city who in 1910 had taken no steps toward securing American citizenship is shown graphically in Diagram 4, with a cor- responding comparison for 1900. In every case 19 St. Louis San Francisco 1900 19151 Buffalo 1900 19101 Chicago 130C 19101 Boston 1900 19101 Detroit 1900 19101 Hew York 1900 19101 CLEVELAND 1900 19IOI Philadelphia 19C0 191OI Pittsburgh L900 19101 221 151 ES llA 311 ■Piol ED TJI E2 H m 33L F9l E2 [52 03 Diagram 4. — Per cent of the foreign male population 21 years old and over who had not taken out naturalization papers in the 10 American cities having the largest foreign populations. Bars in outline show the per cent in 1900; bars in black the per cent in 1910 20 the figures show a decrease in the proportion of naturalization although the amount of varia- tion between the two census periods differs widely. St. Louis leads with 37 per cent, Pitts- burgh ranking lowest with 51. Cleveland, which ranks eighth among the 10 cities, shows only a slightly smaller percentage of naturalization than New York, but a much greater loss for the decade. The present standing of the city in this par- ticular is less disquieting than the marked re- trogressive trend the data reveal. The fact that the social and political assimilation of the great mass of aliens in the city is proceeding at a steadily decreasing pace is of the gravest import in its relation to the future welfare of the city. Summary Cleveland is one of the most foreign cities in the United States. The proportion of foreign-born has varied but slightly during the past 25 years, but the proportion of foreign inhabitants from the countries of southern and eastern Europe has increased very rapidly, while that from northern and western Europe shows a marked decrease. The foreign population has become increas- ingly foreign from the standpoint of ability to 21 speak and read the English language. In none of the 10 cities having the largest number of foreign inhabitants at the time of the last census was the proportion unable to speak English so large as in Cleveland. In 1910 nearly one-third of all the men of voting age in Cleveland were aliens, possessing no political rights in this country and owing no allegiance to the government of the United States. Conditions in this respect are worse in Cleveland than in most of the larger cities of the country. 22 CHAPTER II SCHOOL CHILDREN FROM NON-ENGLISH- SPEAKING HOMES In the course of the Survey an investigation was made to determine the number of children en- rolled in the public schools who were from homes in which English is not regularly spoken. Each child in the schools above the kindergarten age was asked to fill out a blank containing two questions: first, "What is the language of your home?" and second, "What language besides English can you read?" It was assumed that "the language of the home" is the one regularly spoken by the child before he goes to school and to a large extent throughout the years he is in school. The results of studies in other cities have shown that "language of the home" is a better index of " f oreignness " among school children than is furnished by the data giving the countries of birth of the parents. The data were collected from all schools on a single day, and the totals represent the atten- dance for that day, not the entire number en- rolled in the schools. In all, replies were ob- tained from 75,046 children in the elementary 23 schools, and from 9,088 attending the high schools. Almost exactly one-half of the children in the elementary schools came from homes in which English is not regularly spoken. The most important of the foreign languages on the basis of number of children reporting it as their home language was German. Yiddish comes next, with Bohemian third. More than four- fifths of the foreign children were from homes in which either German, Yiddish, Bohemian, Italian, Hungarian, or Polish was spoken. Only four other languages — Slovak, Slovenian, Rus- sian, and Hebrew — were reported by more than one per cent of the foreign pupils. The distri- bution is shown in detail in Table 1. It is probable that in many cases the figures are too low. Frequently it was discovered that the children replied "English" when the parents only understood English, but did not speak it. Many foreign children wish to appear "Ameri- can," even if exact truthfulness suffers in the process. Some were especially reluctant to acknowledge their native language at the pres- ent time on account of the European war. In addition there are many who have a speaking knowledge of some foreign language, even when English is commonly used in the home. It is probable that the total number who can speak a language other than English is from five to 24 TABLE 1.— LANGUAGES SPOKEN IN HOMES OF PUPILS IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS, CLEVELAND, 1915 Language Elementary High Total English 37,454 6,325 43,779 German 8,118 1,093 9,211 Yiddish 6,219 576 6,795 Bohemian 5,325 374 5,699 Italian 4,493 108 4,601 Hungarian 3,686 102 3,788 Polish 3,523 113 3,636 Slovak 1,558 40 1,598 Slovenian 1,217 22 1,239 Russian 913 44 957 Hebrew 656 120 776 Swedish 328 40 368 Croatian 218 218 Dutch 173 "9 182 Roumanian 151 8 159 Lithuanian 147 1 148 Syrian 140 2 142 Finnish 103 6 109 Welsh 80 26 106 French 79 12 91 Norse 59 8 67 Greek 56 1 57 Danish 55 9 64 Ruthenian 43 43 Albanian 40 "2 42 Serbian 30 1 31 Armenian 27 27 Bulgarian 17 17 Chinese 15 "2 17 Spanish 12 5 17 Other foreign languages 111 23 134 Total 75,046 9,088 84,134 10 per cent greater than the returns obtained show. The reluctance of the child to confess his foreign origin as he becomes older and more self-conscious is no doubt responsible to some extent for the marked falling off in the upper 25 grades. This tendency is illustrated in Diagram 5 which shows the number in each grade from English- and from non-English-speaking homes. In the first grade the number of children from homes in which a foreign language is spoken exceeds those from English-speaking homes by nearly 28 per cent. The numerical superiority of the foreign group continues up to the fifth grade, where it drops considerably below the English-speaking group, with a constantly de- creasing ratio up to the eighth grade, in which the children from foreign language homes falls to less than 63 per cent of the number from English-speaking homes. Although this unfavorable showing is due in some slight degree to inaccuracies in the replies obtained from the children and to the fact that the parents of the older pupils usually have been in this country a considerable time, and there- fore are more likely to have learned English, the comparison undoubtedly emphasizes a con- dition that must be constantly borne in mind in connection with teaching children of foreign parentage. The average child of foreign par- entage is not likely to remain in school as long as the average child of native parents, and many of them reach the end of the compulsory at- tendance period before they have completed the elementary course. During the high school 26 Diagram 5. — Number of children in each grade from homes in which a foreign language is spoken, and number from English- speaking homes. Bars in black represent children from for- eign homes; bars in outline children from English-speaking homes 27 period the tendency of the child of foreign par- ents to leave school is still more in evidence. By the fourth high school year the number of pupils from homes where a foreign language is spoken is reduced to less than one-third the number from English-speaking families. Not only do fewer pupils from foreign homes enter high school, but a very much smaller proportion complete the four-year course. Number of Elementary Pupils Who Can Read Some Foreign Language It was found that approximately one-third of the children from foreign-language-speaking homes were able to read another language be- sides English. With the exception of German, which is taught in the upper elementary grades and in the high school, this reading knowledge is obtained entirely outside of the public school. The figures of Table 2 present the facts but do not include the pupils of the first and second grades, as it is obvious that there can be no appreciable reading knowledge below the third grade. German leads in point of numbers and shows a higher ratio to the number of children from homes in which it is spoken than any other language except Hebrew. The ratio of those 28 TABLE 2.— NUMBER OF CHILDREN IN THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS FROM THE THIRD TO THE EIGHTH INCLUSIVE WHO CAN READ A FOREIGN LANGUAGE, AND PER CENT THEY ARE OF THE NUMBER IN THESE GRADES FROM HOMES IN WHICH EACH SPECIFIED LANGUAGE IS SPOKEN Language Number Per cent German 4,901 90 Yiddish 1,479 36 Bohemian 1,278 36 Polish 1,078 57 Hungarian 956 45 Hebrew 925 222 Italian 536 21 Slovak 449 47 Russian 248 43 Slovenian 162 29 Swedish 96 44 Croatian 49 49 Dutch 40 36 Roumanian 26 32 Greek 24 60 French 17 34 Syrian 15 22 Finnish 13 25 Norse 13 37 Ruthenian 12 55 Danish 11 27 Lithuanian 11 17 Welsh 8 17 Serbian 7 54 Spanish 5 63 Chinese 4 67 Armenian 4 29 Bulgarian 3 38 Other foreign languages 62 97 who can read Hebrew to those who come from Hebrew-speaking families is more than two to one. Only a little over one-third of the Yiddish and Bohemian children can read Yiddish or Bohemian, while over one-half of the Poles and nearly one-half of the Hungarians can read their respective languages. Among the more im- 29 portant foreign groups the Italians show the smallest proportion who can read as well as speak their language. TABLE 3.— NUMBER OF CHILDREN IN THE HIGH SCHOOLS WHO CAN READ A FOREIGN LANGUAGE, AND PER CENT THEY ARE OF THE NUMBER IN THESE GRADES FROM HOMES IN WHICH EACH SPECIFIED LANGUAGE IS SPOKEN LaDguage Number Per cent German 1,790 164 Yiddish 323 56 Bohemian 205 55 Hebrew 112 90 Polish 80 71 Hungarian 78 70 Italian 54 50 Slovak 44 110 Swedish 34 85 Russian 26 57 French 17 142 Slovenian 13 59 Dutch 5 56 ■ Greek 5 500 Welsh 4 15 Norse 4 50 Finnish 3 50 Chinese 2 100 Spanish 2 40 Roumanian 2 25 Serbian 2 200 Lithuanian 1 100 Danish 1 11 Syrian 1 50 Other foreign languages 4 16 In the high schools one and two-fifths times as many students read German as there are pupils from German-speaking homes. This is due to the fact that German is offered as an elective in the high schools. Over half of the enrollment from Yiddish and Bohemian families 30 and seven-tenths from Polish and Hungarian families read the language of their parents. The distribution is shown in detail in Table 3. It is to be noted that the percentage figures of the lower part of this table are of little signifi- cance on account of the small numbers involved. Foreign Language Teaching in Parochial Schools Data relating to private schools were secured only from those supported by the Lutherans and the Roman Catholics. The Lutherans have 15 schools, of which one is Slovak and the rest German. The Slovak school, enrolling 359 pupils, comprises but three grades, although it is proposed to open additional grades as soon as capable teachers for them can be secured. Eleven of the 14 German schools reported an attendance of 2,074 in all. The three from which data were not secured are small schools, but it is doubtless well within the actual figures to put the total, in round numbers, at 2,500. Nearly all of these schools have eight grades, and according to the reports of high school principals, they prepare their children well. The universal practice is to teach German one and a quarter hours a day throughout the eight grades. Part of this time is devoted to instruc- 31 tion in religion. All the pupils are able to read, write, and speak German easily when they graduate. It was somewhat more difficult to secure in- formation from the Catholic schools, but the figures here presented are approximately cor- rect, although in many cases they are probably too low. Of the 52 parochial schools from which data were obtained, 30 may be classed as foreign language schools. The church itself has no par- ticular enthusiasm for these foreign language schools, enduring rather than fostering them, so that the quality of the work done depends on the interest and capacity of the group which each represents, rather than on any determined and standardized educational policy of the church as to foreign language work. This lack of a prevailing purpose and aim in this matter results in considerable disparity in the relative efficiency of the various schools. Table 4 shows the number of children enrolled in the foreign language Catholic schools. The total enrollment in the Catholic schools is slightly over 28,000, so that the proportion of foreign-language-speaking children is nearly 60 per cent. This, including the 2,859 children in the German and Slovak Lutheran schools, gives a total of at least 20,000 foreign-language- speaking children in the parochial schools. 32 Adding this number to the enrollment in the public schools gives a grand total of approxi- mately 57,325 children from foreign-language- speaking homes. Those from English-speaking homes enrolled in both public and parochial schools number approximately 50,000. TABLE 4.— NUMBER OF PUPILS STUDYING THE DIFFERENT FOREIGN LANGUAGES IN THE CATHOLIC SCHOOLS, CLEVE- LAND, 1915 Language Number of schools Pupils enrolled Polish German Bohemian Slovak Slovenian Hungarian Croatian Lithuanian 6 7 5 5 3 2 1 1 4,170 3,977 2,850 2,377 1,846 1,300 352 260 Total 30 17,172 The language instruction in the parochial schools is primarily for religious purposes, and is often limited solely to that necessary for learn- ing the catechism. In a few cases the priests are ardent nationalists, and make a real attempt to teach the language. Wide Variation in Different Schools Children from foreign-language-speaking homes are found in every public school in Cleveland. 3 33 Doan School, with four German children, three Swedes and one Russian among 795 pupils en- rolled, is the least foreign, and Murray Hill, with 1,171 Italians, five Albanians (who also speak Italian), and one German in an enrollment of 1,348, is the most homogeneously foreign of the EASLE SCHOOL TREMQWT SCHOOL 23 ■ Albanian . - 10 3 1 Armenian ■ ■ 10 2 1 Bohemian • • j 10 26 ■ Fngllsh . . ■ IHHHHH 276 01 French |1 b| German .... Hi^HHHHB 202 91 Greek |U 22 ■ Hebrew 1 1 lUl Hungarian . B20 ! MHMMHHHHHI Italian . . ■ 22 01 Lithuanian! 17 3] Woroe 10 23H Polish ... ■■■■■■■■■■■ | 18) 31 Roumanian • 10 16B Russian . ■ ■ ■■■■^■■■■■■■■■m UU3 2 1 Ruthenian ■ ■ 19 01 Scotch |U 01 Servian • • • 1 1 Slovak MHMBMHMB1 266 I4-! Slovenian • 1 1 QJ Spanish... j 2 ^■■B Syrian 10 2 I Welsh |0 2| Yiddish... I U Diagram 6. — Distribution of pupils by nationalities in two ele- mentary schools elementary schools. Both the percentage of foreign pupils and their distribution by na- tionality and language vary widely among the different schools, so that the relation of racial and linguistic characteristics to teaching meth- ods and school management becomes a separate problem for each school. The comparison of the 34 foreign distribution in two of the larger ele- mentary schools, Eagle and Tremont, shown in Diagram 6, illustrates this point in a striking way. The Italians are the largest group in the Eagle School, constituting 44 per cent of the total number in the school, while in Tremont only one per cent are Italians. In Tremont the largest group is made up of Polish children, who constitute 27 per cent of the total, as against four per cent in Eagle. Nor is the problem less complex if only a single school is considered. Such schools as Eagle and Tremont are veritable melting-pots in which the ingredients show no common lin- guistic or national elements. The proportions given vary also within the schools in the dif- ferent grades and from year to year. Summary Approximately one-half the children in the ele- mentary schools of Cleveland and one-third in the high schools are from homes in which some foreign language is spoken. The children of foreign parentage do not advance so rapidly through the grades as those of native parentage and they drop out much faster in the upper grades. Approximately one-third of the chil- dren of foreign parentage can read as well as 35 speak a foreign language. About 20,000 chil- dren are receiving instruction in some foreign language in the parochial schools of the city. The distribution of pupils of foreign parentage varies widely in the different public schools and among the different grades in single schools. 36 CHAPTER III EFFORTS OF NATIONAL GROUPS TO PRESERVE THEIR LANGUAGES Each national group expresses its group con- sciousness in varying degrees of effort to pre- serve its language by providing more or less adequate instruction for the children in the mother tongue. Generally there are very strong traditional and historical reasons for devotion to the language. Often the immigrant comes from countries where attempts have been made to substitute the language of foreign rulers for the mother tongue with the result that the pres- ervation of the language has become a matter of patriotism. A very large proportion of the inhabitants of Cleveland possess a reading and speaking knowledge of some language other than English. More than one-half of the children in the public schools speak, and more than one-third read, some other foreign language. The economic and social value of this knowledge cannot be denied, and in every case, excepting that of German, it has been obtained absolutely with- 37 out cost to the school system. The possibility of conserving this economic and cultural asset should not be lost to sight, even though we recognize that the main duty of the school is to give the child a thorough English education. The place of foreign languages in the cur- riculum of the public schools has been de- termined in the main by custom and tradition. At one time foreign language instruction was limited almost exclusively to Latin and Greek. Later the study of German and French was introduced, and at present considerable atten- tion is given to Spanish on account of its alleged commercial value. The claims of other lan- guages, several of which are spoken by many thousands of children and adults in Cleveland, are deserving of consideration. In addition to their practical and literary value, they have also a moral value in that their preservation would tend to soften the abrupt transition from foreign to American ideals and ways of thought, and to obviate the breakdown in parental control and discipline often observed in immigrant families. It is probable that before many years the Board of Education will be called upon to decide whether or not instruction in such lan- guages as Bohemian, Italian, Hungarian, and Polish should not be offered in the high schools. The following pages contain a brief descrip- 38 tion of the efforts now being made by the various foreign groups in the city to teach their lan- guages to the rising generation, with some men- tion of the social and educational organizations maintained by each group. Bohemians The Bohemians, who constitute one of the largest national groups in Cleveland, are unre- mitting in their efforts to preserve their lan- guage. The work is carried on by two quite distinct groups: the Catholics in the parochial schools, and by national organizations without religious affiliation. The majority of the Bo- hemians send their children to the public schools, but they also maintain five private schools for instruction in the Bohemian language and his- tory. The children attend these schools for three hours on Saturday or Sunday. Each school has a separate organization but there is a central committee to determine the curriculum and choose the teachers. On Broadway there is a school of 300 chil- dren in four grades; on the west side one having about the same number of pupils in three grades; on Quincy Avenue one with 200 pupils in three grades; on Rice Avenue one with 75 children in five grades; and at Mt. Pleasant one with 60 39 children in three grades. There is also a Sunday kindergarten on Broadway with 300 children meeting in the afternoon. For older children there is a young people's club maintaining dramatics, singing, and other cultural activities. Among 5,325 Bohemian children in the ele- mentary grades, 1,278 say that they can read Bohemian. Above the first three grades almost half of them can read the language and in the high schools the proportion is almost two-thirds. In general this ability to read Bohemian is the result of the organized efforts of the private schools that have been mentioned. Croatians The Croatians belong to the more recent immi- gration. While their numbers are small, their community feeling is very strong. There are but 218 children in the public schools. In the parochial schools, which give instruction in the Croatian language, there are 354 children en- rolled. A society has recently been formed among the young people of this nationality. Its mem- bers range in age from six to 16 years and the object of the organization is to promote the study of the Croatian language. 40 Danes There is only a small colony of Danes in Cleve- land, and apart from the Sunday schools there are no regular exercises carried on in the Danish tongue. The Danes, like the other Scandi- navians, enter easily into the American life and readily adopt our customs and institutions. Germans The status of the Germans is different from that of any other foreign group. It is the only foreign language in which instruction is given in the public elementary schools. The attitude of the Germans toward their own language has been greatly stimulated by the interest taken in it by non-German-speaking people. Altogether there are in the public schools some 9,211 chil- dren from German-speaking families and more than half of these young people can read the language as well as speak it. In addition there are about 6,500 more such children in the Catho- lic and Lutheran schools. Greeks There are only 57 children in the public schools in whose families Greek is regularly spoken, and of these only 24 can read the language. Within 41 the past few years a considerable number of Greek women have come to Cleveland and in the near future the number of Greek children in the schools will rapidly increase. The Greeks are the only foreign group in Cleveland which has not formed any organization centering around national consciousness and aspirations. Hebrew and Yiddish The Hebrew- and Yiddish-speaking children should be classed together. All who speak He- brew also know Yiddish. The number from He- brew-speaking families is 776 and those from Yiddish-speaking ones is 6,795, making a total of 7,571. There are a great many more who know how to speak Yiddish, yet do not regularly use it, and still others who belong to the same general group but do not speak either language. The effort to maintain Hebrew is so closely re- lated to the religion of the Orthodox Jews that it can hardly be separated from their social and religious lives. The orthodox service is con- ducted entirely in Hebrew and from time im- memorial it has been the custom of the Jews to employ private teachers to instruct their chil- dren in Hebrew. In one public school in the Woodland Avenue district where more than nine-tenths of the 42 children are Jewish, from one-half to two-thirds of the pupils have had this sort of private in- struction in both Hebrew and Yiddish. The instruction in the former language is frequently- most inadequate, often consisting of simply learning to read without understanding. When one knows the Hebrew letters, Yiddish seems to be acquired very easily. It is a language com- posed of elements of the various languages of the countries in which the Jews have lived and it is now appropriating many English words. Yiddish literature, which is not over 50 years old, is growing very rapidly. There are many newspapers in the language and one daily — "The Jewish World" — is published in Cleve- land. Interest in Hebrew is also reviving and it is rapidly becoming a modern living language instead of an exclusively classical and religious one. There are several newspapers published in Hebrew and a modern literature is developing. There are now in the city three schools in which Hebrew is taught by modern methods. The oldest and largest one has eight grades and is located on 35th Street, between Woodland and Scovill Avenues. There is another school on 55th Street and one on 105th Street. The children attend every afternoon after regular school hours, on Sundays, and all day during the summer. While the attendance is not abso- 43 lutely regular, the rooms are crowded to ca- pacity. The instructors are mostly young men who are students in high school or college and have been well instructed in Hebrew before coming to America. In the first three grades the children attend for one and a half hours a day, while in the upper classes the session lasts for two and a half hours. In the winter months school opens at about half past four and does not close until 8:30 in the evening. In the summer months the session is from nine to one. From 500 to 1,000 pupils are enrolled in the largest school and many more desire to attend than can be accommodated. These schools are secular and while sympathetic with the orthodox religion, they are really na- tionalistic in purpose. There are in addition several more or less modern schools connected with synagogues. The Zionist Socialists conduct a school which teaches Yiddish and the orphan asylum on Woodland Avenue has classes in Hebrew. Hungarians The Hungarians, with nearly 4,000 children in the public schools, have a historical background for their devotion to their language, but as yet this has not been thoroughly organized. Many 44 of them are Catholic, while the rest belong to several different Protestant denominations. A majority of the children are in the public schools but there are also considerable numbers in the parochial schools. Three churches maintain classes for instruc- tion in the language, history, and geography of Hungary. During the past summer there were seven classes with 546 children enrolled in the Reformed Church on 79th Street and during the other months of the year a school was main- tained on Saturday with more than 150 chil- dren in attendance. Not all the pupils are con- nected with this church. The West Side Re- formed Church gives instruction to about 100 children and in the St. John Greek Catholic Church there is a summer school of four grades. Here a few finish the work in four years while the rest continue for five or six years. The children are taught to read and write and to sing their national and religious songs. There is no religious instruction in the summer time, but throughout the rest of the year religious classes are held on Saturday and Sunday in Hungarian. Italians There are approximately the same number of Italian children as there are Hungarian chil- 45 dren, but since the Italians have no parochial schools their public school enrollment is about 1,000 more than that of the Hungarians. Since there are no opportunities in the city for learn- ing to read Italian, a large part of the children have to get their religious instruction in English although they belong to the Italian Catholic Church. The recent development of national societies of "Sons and Daughters of Italy" is likely to have considerable influence in the pres- ervation of national ideals and traditions. Some of the older Italian children who have attended the public elementary and high schools are now taking up the study of the Italian lan- guage. Lithuanians The Lithuanians have only 148 children in the public schools as compared with 260 in parochial schools. The Lithuanian language belongs in the same class as the Hebrew and Greek. In some respects it more nearly resembles Sanscrit than any other Aryan language although it has ap- propriated many Slavonic words. It has a literature rich in poetry and folk lore and will probably come into greater importance in the near future. 46 Norwegians and Swedes The Norwegians, like the Danes, have only a small colony and maintain Norwegian instruc- tion in the Sunday schools. The Swedes are somewhat more numerous, with 328 children in the elementary schools and 40 in the high schools. There are five Protestant churches where the services are conducted in Swedish. There is also a summer school with a six weeks' session three hours a day in which instruction is given in Swedish. On the whole, little effort is made to maintain the language after English is learned. Poles There is probably no other people so devoted to maintaining their language as the Poles. In their struggle for independence from Germany and Russia, their language and their religion have become symbols for freedom. It is hard to distinguish between their devotion to their language and to their church. It is estimated that 99 per cent of them are Catholics. More than half of their children are in the parochial schools and almost all of those who attend the public schools also spend some time in the paro- chial schools. It is reported by the librarians that the Polish children are the only ones who draw juvenile books in their native language for 47 their own reading. It is said that pupils of other nationalities draw foreign books only for their parents. Russians and Ruthenians There are 957 children in the public schools who claim to come from homes where Russian is spoken and 43 from Ruthenian homes. Never- theless it is probable that there are not more than 100 Russians from Great Russia in the entire city. Almost all of the Russian-speaking families in Cleveland came from Galicia in Austria. Historically this belongs to what is known as " Little Russia." On the Russian side of the border the people are called Ukrainians and on the Galician side Ruthenians. There are some religious divisions that tend to draw the two groups apart. The language uses the same alphabet as the Russians, but differs from official Russian almost as much as Polish and Serbian do. The people belong to the Greek Catholic or Greek Orthodox churches and send their children to the public schools. Both groups maintain schools for teaching their own lan- guage. Since the religious services are conducted in old Slavic, instruction in this language is given in the higher grades, while in the lower ones only Russian is taught. 48 Roumanians Cleveland has been the leading Roumanian city in America although it has now dropped into second place. There are probably some 10,000 of the people in the city. Since most of them are recent arrivals, there are comparatively few of their children in the public schools. The num- ber reported is 159, although this must be an under-statement. Many Roumanians belong to the Greek Orthodox and Greek Catholic churches while others have no religious affilia- tions. Few of them came from Roumania proper, but instead from Transylvania and Bukowina in Austria-Hungary. Many who learned Hun- garian or Magyar in Hungary are now learning Roumanian in America and it is probable that there will be a great increase of interest in the language in the near future. Serbians The Serbians have only 31 children in the public schools, but nevertheless they are already plan- ning to start a private school in their language. Except for the alphabet, their language is identi- cal with that of the Croatians, but on account of the difference in religion few of the children attend the Croatian parochial school. A library is maintained on St. Clair Avenue by the Ser- 4 49 bian Educational Society of New York and there is talk of using the library room for a school with volunteer teachers. Almost none of the Serbians come from Serbia proper but from Austria. Slovaks There are approximately 1,600 Slovak-speaking children in the public schools and a large num- ber in the parochial schools. The Slovaks com- ing from Northern Hungary are like the Hun- garians in being divided into Catholics and Protestants, but linguistically and nationally they are very closely related to the Bohemians. Approximately half are Roman Catholic. In Hungary they have made a great struggle to maintain their language, and large numbers of them have come to America in the past few years in order to escape oppression at home. There have been some Slovaks in Cleveland for 20 years or more. Like the Roumanians, many of them have learned to read their language since coming to America. Last fall the Slovak paper published in Cleveland was changed from a weekly to a daily. Most Slovak children study Slovak. The Protestant churches maintain afternoon and evening classes throughout the year. The instruction is of a high order and is rapidly improving. 50 Slovenians Cleveland has a larger Slovenian population than any other city in America. Practically all of these people have come within the past 20 years and many very recently. There are 1,239 children in the public schools and a somewhat larger number in the parochial schools. So far no classes have been organized for the children to learn the language except in the parochial schools, but the national feeling is being rapidly developed and schools will probably be estab- lished in the near future. Syrians There are only 142 children from Syrian-speak- ing homes in the public schools, but the Syrians, in spite of their division into four religious groups, have a strong national consciousness. These religious groups are the Catholics, who constitute about one-third; the Maronites, who are a sect of the Catholics; the Greek Orthodox; and a small group of Mohammedans. By mu- tual agreement many parents who had begun to speak English in the home now speak only Syrian in order that " their children may not get away from them." St. George's Society has bought a house on Cedar Avenue to be used for a school as soon as the money can be raised to 51 maintain it. The majority of the members of this society are Catholics but the activities of the club are not religious and all divisions of the people will use the school. Other Groups There are several other linguistic groups in Cleveland, but they are of less significance than those that have been described. It is interesting to observe in the light of the recent agitation for the introduction of Spanish into the public schools that there are in the city only 17 chil- dren from Spanish-speaking families. Use of Public School Buildings by Na- tional Groups One important problem which should be faced by the Board of Education and the people of Cleveland is the formulation of a policy with respect to offering the use of public school build- ings for the nationalistic expressions of the dif- ferent groups. In the opinion of the writer of the present report, it is important that these build- ings should be so used more generally than they are at present. It seems a pity for the Syrians to purchase a house on Cedar Avenue and 22nd Street in order to teach their children the Syrian language when far better quarters are available 52 within two blocks in the Eagle School. Similarly the Hebrew building on 35th Street is used to its utmost capacity for carrying on work that could be done much better in the evening in the Long- wood School only three doors away. Among most of the nationalities there are singing and dramatic societies and literary associations which could properly meet in public school buildings and which would in no way interfere with the regular work of the schools. Summary The different national groups express their group consciousness through varying degrees of effort to preserve their languages by provid- ing instruction for the children in the mother tongue. More than half of the school children of Cleveland speak some foreign tongue and a large proportion of them read some language other than English. Most of the important national groups send large numbers of their children to parochial schools conducted in foreign languages. In addi- tion they maintain part-time schools for giving language instruction to those of their children who attend the public schools. These part-time schools hold sessions in the afternoon, in the evening, on Saturdays, on Sundays, and during the summer months. 53 Many of the national groups are divided into different religious sects and some are split into political divisions having their inception in old-world politics. In order to understand the social and educational problems of the different foreign groups, it is necessary to study their origin and history. The necessity for some special knowledge of this sort is indicated by the fact that many of the immigrants speak the language of one country but come from a differ- ent country. Thus the Russian-speaking chil- dren in our schools came from Austria; the Roumanians did not come from Roumania but from Austria-Hungary; and almost none of the Serbians came from Serbia. 54 CHAPTER IV CHARACTERISTICS OF NATIONAL GROUPS There is a current belief that the prime qualifi- cation of a public school teacher is to know cer- tain school subjects and how to teach them. It must not be forgotten, however, that the human beings she is teaching respond with great readi- ness to genuine sympathy and understanding and that her real success depends in no small measure on her personal relations with the chil- dren in the school. The provincial self-satisfac- tion which many teachers feel in their Ameri- canism does not help them make good Ameri- cans out of their foreign pupils. They seem to fear sometimes that if any affection for foreign traditions and ideals is retained, the child is likely to be less American in his sympathies. Nothing could be farther from the truth. There is the closest relation between the central ideal of Americanism — freedom and liberty — and the principal motive underlying the abandonment of his native land by the immigrant. With the exception of the Germans and the Italians, many of the immigrants come from 55 subject races and they come here primarily for freedom. It is true that the economic advan- tage offered by America is the assigned reason for their coming, but the fact that no Roumanians come from Roumania, no Serbians from Serbia, no Russians from Russia, shows that something besides economic influences cause the emigra- tion. Again and again, when the immigrant has been asked for a comparison between this country and his own, the invariable reply has been " America is free." The immigrant is often criticized for living in segregated groups. No criticism could be more unjust. Is it not perfectly natural every- where for social groups having something in com- mon to try to live in the same neighborhood? Even should they try to avoid segregation, their American neighbors would not allow it. The result is that every effort is made to keep them from getting into a new section. Nevertheless, as soon as the standard of living is raised, we find all the nationalities breaking away from the original colony. As a matter of fact, we find within these vari- ous colonies a neighborliness and social organi- zation which are sadly lacking in much of our modern society. A teacher should know some- thing of the social life to be found within these various groups, both in order that she may un- 56 derstand her pupils better and that she may be able to use these social forces to the advantage of the school and the community. In addition she ought to know something of the history of the region from which her pupils or their parents have come. If she knows even a few words of their language, it might prove of inestimable value in establishing a sympa- thetic relationship between the teachers and the children, but more especially between the parents and the school. A knowledge of the geography of the child's native land would be an asset to teacher and principal. From one school some children were listed as speaking Ukrainian. Now it is true that very few people know the difference between Ruthenian, Russian, and Ukrainian, and in all probability the children themselves did not know. As a matter of fact the Ukrain is a section of the Southwestern part of Russia and the language spoken is a dialect of the Russian and is called not Ukrain- ian but either Little Russian or Ruthenian. There are at least 35,000,000 who speak this language — certainly enough to justify some knowledge on the part of the teacher as to their existence, particularly since there are over 900 children from this part of Russia in the Cleve- land schools. Again, "Slovenian" figures in the list of 57 languages used in the investigation conducted by the Survey, and yet some teachers added "Griner." Even granting that the children do not know the difference between Slovenian and Griner, certainly when there are approxi- mately 20,000 Slovenians in Cleveland and over 1,000 in the public schools, principals with a considerable enrollment of Slovenians ought to know that Griner is a name derived from the name of the province of Krain, and that the people themselves generally repudiate its use. These illustrations show the common indiffer- ence of teachers who take it for granted that all they need is a knowledge of the subjects they teach. There are, of course, a considerable num- ber of exceptions. For example, the principal of one school attended by many Italians speaks Italian, and the parents are constantly coming to the school for consultation about their chil- dren and for general advice. Certainly this makes possible an Americanizing influence through the school which is far more effective than would be secured by requiring the parents to speak English. The following pages contain a brief statement as to the national and racial characteristics of the various foreign groups with a few suggestions as to supplementary reading for 58 teachers in charge of classes made up largely of foreign children. Bohemians It is impossible to understand the Bohemians in America without some knowledge of Bo- hemian history. They are one of the national divisions of the Slavs. The Bohemians who dwell in the northwestern part of Austria, directly between Dresden and Vienna, have been the subject of more German influence than any other Slavic people, and in many respects are indistinguishable from the Germans. In 1415 the church and the state burned at the stake John Huss, a Bohemian priest, the first martyr to religious freedom. A revolt took place which made Bohemia Protestant until the Thirty Years War, which began in 1618. After that Catholicism was re-established, and to this day embraces nearly all the inhabitants of Bohemia. In America, beginning more than 50 years ago, a reaction was organized until at the present time approximately two-thirds of an estimated million are aggressive free-thinkers. In Cleveland about half are Catholics and the rest free-thinkers, with only a few hundred Prot- estants. Both parties have many organizations and, while the feeling between the two is very 59 strong, the common Slavic feeling manifests itself most strongly in antipathy for the German language. The free-thinkers are the more na- tionalistic, and fortunately so, for with the loss of the control of the church there is a tendency to materialism which can be counteracted only by devotion to some social cause. There is no group to which the mother tongue and national history can have more moral value. This is in part because their history is peculiarly rich. Commenius, one of the world's greatest edu- cators, was a Bohemian, exiled during the Thirty Years War. The influence of Bohemian history has been such that the people refuse to accept dogma, and even the children argue theology. The best descriptive book on the Slavs is "Our Slavic Fellow Citizens," by Emily Green Balch, published by the Charities Publication Committee, New York, 1910. This deals with both European and American conditions for Bohemians, Croatians, Russians, Roumanians, Ruthenians, Serbians, Slovaks, and Slovenians. Croatians and Serbians These two people can be considered together. Their spoken language is the same, but the Croatians are Roman Catholics and use the 60 Latin alphabet, while the Serbians are Greek Orthodox and use the Cryllic or Greek alphabet. Most of those in America come from exactly the same region in southern Austria-Hungary. In fact the census taker classifies them under one or the other name solely by their religion. They have been dominated by the Hungarians. They, with the Slovenians from the adjoin- ing Austrian provinces, are group-conscious as South Slavs, being entirely separated by Germans and Hungarians from the North Slavs — Bo- hemians, Slovaks, and Poles. Their deepest purpose is freedom. Finns There happens to be only a small number of Finns in Cleveland, but there are some facts which should be known about them. Finland was for six and a half centuries ruled by Sweden, and since 1809 has belonged to Russia, but the culture has been continuously Swedish until almost the present decade. Now the Finn is claiming his own national individuality and his language is rapidly replacing Swedish. The Finnish language is extremely difficult, and every Finnish child in the schools must learn Russian and many learn Swedish. These lan- guages are all so difficult that they can master 61 English very quickly. The Finns are almost all Lutheran, and have decidedly socialistic tenden- cies which are being abated somewhat by the growing nationalism. In cleanliness they are quite the equal of the Dutch. Helsingfors, the capital of Finland, is probably the cleanest city in the world. Germans A large proportion of the Germans who come from Germany have been in America a long time. A majority of them came for the same purpose of securing freedom that has influenced the other groups. They belong to the earlier immi- gration and very few have come to this country in recent years. Most people are so familiar with the Germans that it is unnecessary to add anything here except to call attention to the fact that conditions are now tense and the Germans are feeling a self-consciousness which the majority of them did not feel hitherto. Jews The most complex and most variously regarded of all our immigrants are the Jews. The earlier arrivals came from Germany, and many have been here for several generations and occupy a most important place in American life. Later 62 many came from Hungary. With only occa- sional exceptions, all are proud of being Jews. The commonly mentioned " Jewish character- istics" can be explained in a large measure by conditions of economic and social life under which the Jew has been constrained to live for generations in every country. Although the Jews have religious expression ranging from the extreme of orthodoxy to the extreme of liberalism, there are fewer internal conflicts than in most religions, for Judaism is not so much a dogma as it is a progressive edu- cation. Jewish children are eager pupils, not because they are naturally brighter than others, but because the whole Jewish life develops mental alertness and the learned are tradition- ally respected. The religious forms are highly organized and of great historical as well as con- temporary interest. Every teacher should learn the significance of the 14 holidays that occur during the school year. Some effort should be made to understand what the Talmud deals with. Linguistically the Jews are among the best equipped people in the world. They know Hebrew for religious purposes, Yiddish for com- mon use, and the language or the languages of the country in which they live for commercial purposes. Most Hungarian Jews speak Hun- 63 garian and German, and Slovak if from the north, Roumanian if from the east; and Croatian if from the south. Some good books are: "The Promised Land," by Mary Antin, published by the Houghton Mifflin Company; " Jewish Life in Modern Times," by Cohen, published by Dodd, Mead & Company; "The Jews in America," by Peters, published by the John C. Winston Co.; "Jewish Ceremonial Institu- tions and Customs," by Rosenau, published by the Friedenwald Co., Baltimore; "The Tal- mud," by Darmstetter, published by the Jew- ish Publication Society, Philadelphia. Hungarians Hungarians should properly be called Magyars, but they themselves have no objection to the name which is derived from the geographical district in which something over 50 per cent of non-Magyars live. As a people they have come into national consciousness in comparatively recent times. Their nearly successful struggle for independence from the Germans has given them confidence. Their anti-German feeling has been strong and their disdain for other peoples has been striking. The result is that a large proportion of them know no language but Magyar, while many Slovaks and Roumanians 64 know equally well their own language, German, and Magyar. The Hungarians have strong Protestant denominations, a large number of Roman Catholics, and not a few Greek Cath- olics. A book full of information but unsym- pathetic with the Magyars is "Racial Problems in Hungary," by Scotus Viator. Italians Most of the Italians in Cleveland, as in the United States, come from southern Italy, following the line of their commerce. From northern Italy they follow their ship lines to South America. There are divisions among the people according to the provinces from which they come. Each province has a somewhat dis- tinctive dialect, but since all official business is in good Italian, the people understand it even if they do not speak it. The large majority of the Italians have Catholic traditions, but both in Italy and in America show only moderate devotion to the church. Although there are two large Italian congregations in Cleveland, it has not been possible to establish a parochial school. There is no language richer than Italian in form or literary content, and no history, ancient or modern, more full of heroic incidents and high ideals. 5 65 Lithuanians Although there are many Lithuanians in Amer- ica, they are very little known. Living in the midst of Russian Poland, they are generally thought to be Slavs, but as a matter of fact they are a quite distinct nationality which for many generations has preserved its language and many of its traditions, while adopting much from its Polish environment. Like the Poles, the Lithuanians are Catholics, but since they identify the church with the Polish imposition of culture, they are inclined to be lukewarm religiously or to go into anti-church organiza- tions. In fact they are often less hostile to the Russians, who lay political restrictions on them, than to the Poles, who seek to make their culture dominant. Within the past 10 years there has been a remarkable revival of a nationalism which had hitherto seemed almost dead. There are now several Lithuanian newspapers in America, many of whose subscribers have had to learn to read Lithuanian since coming here. Poles Poland, divided into three subject provinces by Germany, Russia, and Austria, is fired by the one ideal of national freedom. The Prussian attempt to Germanize her province is the finest 66 illustration that society affords of the impossi- bility of coercive assimilation. The tremendous emotionalism nourished by this Polish conscious- ness has made them highly idealistic. It is next to impossible for the children to feel the controlling emotions of their parents and no substitute has been provided to take its place. Their rebellion against authority is illustrated by the frequent secessions of Poles from the Roman Catholic Church. They secede and establish independent congregations which they call the Polish Catholic Church. There was formerly such a congregation on the southeast side, and within the past year one has been established in the old Olney Art Museum on West 14th Street. Poland has given the world several literary and musical persons of great eminence. How- ever, the problem of the Pole is one of the most difficult which America has to solve, though con- ditions are better in Cleveland than in most other cities. Much help can be secured by co- operating with the positive qualities which they possess. Russians and Ruthenians These have already been discussed. They belong to the newer immigration. The Ruthenians are the only Slavs who are anti-Russian. This is 67 because they are generally Greek Catholic and have been made to feel that the Orthodox Church will be imposed on them if Russia is in control. Formerly Galicia, from which they came, was part of Russia and Orthodox, but when it came into the possession of Austria the existence of congregations of the Orthodox Greek Church in large numbers was thought to be dangerous to the government. The result was that the Roman Church, in return for their acknowledgment of the headship of the Pope, allowed them to retain intact their Orthodox ritual and their married clergy. This was the origin of the Greek Catholic or Uniate Church. The church interior and the service are hardly distinguishable from the Orthodox Church, yet allegiance is to the Roman Catholic Church. This makes a complex situation which cannot fail to have interesting developments in the future. Roumanians No large group of immigrants is less known than the Roumanians, who have come to America in very recent years. They have come almost ex- clusively from Austria-Hungary, and like the Ruthenians belong to the Orthodox and Greek Catholic churches. There is a strong tendency to organize along national lines. At the recent 68 dedication of a Roumanian church on Buckeye Road the tenor of the priest's remarks was that they should drop the use of Magyar, which many know better than Roumanian, and main- tain the integrity of the Roumanian ideas. The Roumanians claim to be descendants of the Romans, who colonized their region and their language has a large proportion of Latin roots. Nevertheless their sympathies are pre- vailingly Slavic. Slovaks As has been said above, the Slovaks are lin- guistically closely related to the Bohemians, but unlike them they have never known political freedom. They have had less contact with the modern currents of the world, and have thus preserved more of the old customs and tradi- tions. They have little literature of their own, but several of their writers have written in Bohemian. They come from Northern Hungary, and the effort to Magyarize them, which has been constant and especially severe in recent years and which is the cause of the large im- migration, has resulted in great bitterness and increasing devotion to their language. 69 Slovenians The Slovenians or "Griners" come from south- ern Austria where they had been almost German- ized. They have come in large numbers to Cleveland in the last 15 years. They have been highly illiterate and are almost all Catholics. The clergy in Austria is prevailingly in favor with the government and has kept down rather than stimulated national feeling. Here in America, however, there is a growing feeling for the right of national freedom in Europe. Other Nationalities It is unnecessary to discuss in detail the other nationalities represented in our public schools. There are some facts common to all these which have been described, the most striking of which is the great number of mutual benefit societies, all of which have a certain social and national value. For example, the Slovenians have 72 such societies. Some are for men alone, some are for women alone, and some for men and women. In the National Bohemian Hall on Broadway, 68 societies, clubs, and lodges meet every month. The Jews have at least 150 Ver- eins, as well as more comprehensive organiza- tions, such as the Hebrew Relief and Socialist and Zionist clubs. The same thing runs through every nationality. 70 The object of the teacher should be to see her group from the inside as it sees itself. In this way not only will sympathetic relations be established, but human values recognized which cannot be comprehended when seen from the outside. Dr. Edward A. Steiner's books, while perhaps glorifying the immigrant overmuch, will be of great value in arousing respect. Summary The success of the teacher in dealing with for- eign children depends in no small measure on her personal relations with them. In order that the most effective work may be done, it is essen- tial that the teacher should know something of the history and characteristics of the different national groups. The object of this chapter is to present in brief outline some of the more sig- nificant facts concerning each one of the leading nationalities, and to give in addition references to the most reliable and interesting books con- cerning them. 71 CHAPTER V THE PROBLEM OF EDUCATION FOR THE FOREIGN CHILDREN The problem of educating children of recent for- eign origin divides itself into two major phases and almost innumerable minor ones. The two main divisions of the problem have to do re- spectively with education for the recently arrived non-English-speaking children; and with the far greater number of children scattered throughout the school system who come from homes where English is not spoken but who have themselves acquired some facility in the use of the language and some familiarity with American customs and standards. Steamer Classes Fifteen years ago, in 1901, the Cleveland school system first recognized the necessity of mak- ing special provision for teaching English to recently arrived immigrant children. In that year the principal of Harmon School organized the first class for non-English-speaking children and termed it a "Steamer Class" because it was 72 made up of pupils who had come to Cleveland directly from the steamer which brought them to this country. The name has persisted and ever since that day the special classes for non- English-speaking children in the day schools have been known as steamer classes. The value of this educational innovation soon became apparent. Children who cannot speak English are misfits in the regular grades. They must be given an opportunity to learn the language before they are placed in a class of 40 or more other children and expected to carry on regular grade work. Unfortunately, the steamer class cannot become a very effective instrument for assisting recently arrived immigrant chil- dren until further provisions are made for trans- porting such children to these special classes whenever they happen to enroll in schools where provision for teaching them has not been made. Under the present arrangements steamer classes are organized in the schools that regu- larly receive large numbers of new immigrants. Here they meet an important need, but they do not help the pupil whose parents have found a place to live a little removed from the other recent arrivals and so have sent their children to a school where there are not enough foreign children in attendance to warrant the establish- 73 ment of special classes. This is one of the prob- lems which the school system has never satis- factorily solved. At the present time such cases are often handled in a most unsatisfactory manner. The non-English-speaking child cannot keep up with his companions in the regular grades. For this reason he is sent to a special class, but if there is no steamer class available, the pupil is all too frequently assigned to the backward class. This is not because the backward class is the right place for him, but rather because it fur- nishes an easy means of disposing of a pupil who, through no fault of his own, is an unsat- isfactory member of a regular grade, holds back the other pupils, and makes the teacher's work more difficult and less effective. Attention has already been directed to some of these problems in the report of the Survey entitled "Schools and Classes for Exceptional Children. " That report discusses cases in which mentally deficient children are assigned to for- eign classes, and normal foreign children to classes for backward pupils because the school organization has not been sufficiently flexible and sufficiently discriminating to examine each child carefully, diagnose his case accurately, and then see to it that he is assigned to a class which will give him the particular sort of 74 instruction he needs and that he is transported to such a class if one is not available in his own building. The truth is that the problem of teaching for- eign children to speak English has never been regarded by the public schools as one of their serious problems. Although classes for these children have been in existence for the past 15 years, it is only during the past two years that the statistical summaries of the annual school reports have shown the number of pupils and teachers in them. Moreover, during the entire period of 15 years the work of these classes has never been of sufficient importance to receive mention in the annual reports of the superin- tendent and board. The data that are available indicate that in 1913 there were 15 classes with more than 400 children enrolled. In 1914 and 1915 the number of classes was about 25 and the number of pupils a little over 700. Toward the close of 1915 these figures were very much reduced be- cause the European war resulted in largely cutting off the stream of immigration to this country. The effects of the war were still more fully felt in 1916 so that in the spring of that year almost all the steamer classes had been suspended. The educational officers of the city have never 75 worked out any special methods for teaching English to these non-English-speaking children. There is no special supervision of the work and no provision in the Normal School for training teachers to do it. As a result the classes are far less efficient than they should be. There is a special educational technique for teaching a new language which is far different in its methods from that employed in teaching subject matter to pupils in their own language. This has been amply demonstrated in the special classes of several of our cities, notably New York and Boston, and still more strikingly illustrated in the schools of Porto Rico and the Philippines, in which hundreds of thousands of children are taught the English language so effectively that they successfully carry on their entire school work in it after a remarkably short period of special teaching. The school systems of these insular possessions have developed methods of language teaching incomparably more effective than those in use in our American school systems and vastly more efficient than any commonly employed in our high schools or colleges. In the lesson of their experience the fact which stands out with most impressive clearness is that the problem of teaching children a new language is one of great difficulty when attempted by traditional 76 school methods and one of remarkable ease and celerity when the proper special methods are employed. In view of the great importance of English teaching in the schools of Cleveland, the Board of Education ought to take vigorous steps to increase the efficiency of this work. Two steps are urgently needed. The first is to secure a supervisor thoroughly conversant with the most effective methods of teaching English to non-English-speaking children. Through the ser- vices of such a supervisor a trained corps of teachers could soon be developed. The second important step is to provide the administrative readjustments necessary to put every non-English-speaking child into a special class, even if this involves transportation from one district to another. In this connection special care should be taken to avoid assigning foreign children of normal mentality to back- ward classes or backward English-speaking chil- dren to foreign classes. English-speaking Children from Non-Eng- lish-speaking Homes It has already been shown that more than half of the children in the schools of Cleveland come from non-English-speaking homes. A study of 77 the figures showing how these children are dis- tributed through the different grades and among the various schools leads to the conclusion that the only uniform condition permeating the entire situation is the universal heterogeniety of the school population. There are very few schools indeed having anything approaching a homogeneous student body. In every school there are children from non-English-speaking families, and in most of them these children are divided among a large number of nationalities. Moreover, some schools have large numbers of foreign children in the upper grades while in others they are mainly in the lower ones. In some schools one nationality predominates among the older children and another among the younger ones. The school population is a synthesis of the most varied elements. Tables 5 and 6 are introduced to show the numbers of children of the more important nationality groups in the different schools from which data were gathered by the Survey. A study of Table 5 reveals conditions that are not only interesting, but constitute a very puz- zling educational problem. The data were gathered from 98 elementary schools. In a majority of cases the children from non-English- speaking homes outnumber those from English- speaking homes. It would thus seem on first 78 TABLE 5.— CHILDREN IN LEADING NATIONALITY GROUPS IN EACH ELEMENTARY SCHOOL ON BASIS OF THE LANGUAGE OF THE HOME School A a be a W a 03 a B 3 o 24 A •3 a a) 1 0J A O n 1 a .2 *3 03 u a a 03 7 A tn ~o oj > O 53 O O "3 H Addison 508 7 547 Alabama 42 65 "6 1 "2 3 94 "2 91 306 Barkwill 139 15 359 10 523 Bolton 910 82 "8 45 "2 "3 "l '60 1,111 Boulevard 361 84 39 27 "3 14 9 537 Broadway 436 33 15 2 3 258 68 815 Brownell 248 11 "8 1 650 1 1 "6 38 964 Buhrer 491 110 3 10 5 3 7 9 638 Case 220 252 3 20 44 46 165 750 Case- Woodland 100 39 448 132 15 47 10 24 22 837 Central 363 27 440 5 16 3 29 883 Chesterfield 438 9 "2 12 1 462 Clark 342 162 198 22 20 6 750 Columbia 1,043 28 "10 "5 2 6 1,094 Corlett 93 9 191 5 14 "l2 '6 330 Dawning 318 368 81 7 37 7 18 24 860 Denison 895 85 11 6 2 2 3 84 1,088 Detroit 508 85 " 1 3 12 28 1 1 82 721 Dike 277 58 659 3 15 2 49 1,063 Doan 787 4 4 795 Dunham 672 59 7 2 6 1 18 765 Eagle 26 6 2 "2 88 13 23 116 380 656 East Boulevard 349 76 1 126 122 44 5 19 742 East Clark 306 23 1 13 5 59 407 East Denison 389 80 18 24 ibo " 1 9 621 East Madison 487 164 1 6 3 8 15 39 260 983 Empire 567 93 1 1 1 3 9 1 25 701 Fairmount 400 6 1 192 1 3 603 Fowler 282 56 248 2 10 '24 "l2 3 637 Fruitland 266 26 2 2 14 310 Fullerton 10 17 67 684 2 780 Giddings 402 84 158 74 "4 24 16 85 847 Gilbert 405 294 260 3 84 5 26 11 1,088 Gordon 414 128 7 3 15 2 19 588 Halle 558 152 "4 4 5 6 4 13 746 Harmon 34 4 31 1 542 2 4 59 677 Harvard 218 33 38 2 415 3 5 714 Hazeldell 936 101 "4 4 " 1 22 1,068 Hicks 294 102 4 "2 5 472 '36 114 42 1,071 Hodge 508 205 4 4 4 10 24 7 75 841 Hough 782 37 4 1 3 5 1 1 7 841 Huck 169 114 166 2 18 2 471 Kennard 162 33 847 1 63 17 "2 71 1,196 Kentucky 367 51 1 1 5 90 6 2 66 589 Kinsman 543 200 11 12 6 247 15 49 95 1,178 Landon 692 87 4 2 2 7 16 810 Lawn 374 61 1 "5 11 10 462 Lincoln 299 66 "l2 133 3 321 "8 22 864 Longwood 131 7 427 8 47 19 "3 3 6 651 Marion 149 7 132 271 7 14 80 63 723 79 TABLE 5 . — (Continued) School is a a 1 fa 0) o -a •3 •a a 3 1 0J JS « a .2 "3 as W C a B .a .$ ~o 42 75 1 22 28 09 O 53 "3 H Mayflower Memorial Memphis Miles Miles Park 127 300 415 380 488 34 130 67 32 49 494 34 2 12 122 49 184 15 1 2 37 28 33 16 2 1 98 6 2 1 35 136 336 9 12 13 1,177 897 523 573 700 Milford Mill Moulton Mound Mt. Pleasant 389 342 189 91 334 391 151 53 34 39 "8 "6 304 3 4 183 126 5 3 16 "l8 51 5 5 1 2 2 4 20 256 2 47 "5 4 5 14 1 11 1,193 521 301 566 543 Murray Hill North Doan Nottingham Observation Orchard 171 612 342 166 539 1 40 99 15 205 "9 2 1 4 "2 3 10 5 1,171 2 25 98 2 3 28 171 "3 "2 "l3 5 20 70 9 39 1,348 688 572 299 980 Outhwaite Parkwood Pearl Quincy Rawlings 245 582 170 418 62 58 6 49 84 61 1,033 "lO 2 1 "l7 138 4 8 4 2 6 50 1 23 537 9 '38 7 21 3 "7 16 33 "5 24 21 1,440 593 281 717 724 Rice Rockwell Rosedale Sackett St. Clair 227 92 750 692 359 68 5 33 195 163 5 2 "3 347 225 5 27 '25 26 10 294 2 "l7 16 5 2 "5 109 66 "7 7 21 23 9 6 90 1,060 126 817 1,173 762 Scranton Sibley South South Case Sowinski 446 624 478 247 502 167 41 43 15 127 1 147 1 638 10 7 6 4 2 20 218 50 3 22 7 4 8 11 185 43 1 25 57 158 2 65 724 903 906 960 892 Stanard Sterling Todd Tremont Union 235 481 265 276 275 133 21 83 202 55 6 60 1 4 1 1 "46 10 440 2 114 3 22 8 1 13 20 1 5 45 483 103 5 3 5 266 28 280 42 6 495 31 675 722 467 1,778 934 Wade Park Walton Warner Waring Warren 653 382 335 357 250 40 219 50 165 110 " 1 " 1 1 "56 37 438 2 66 40 3 "22 1 15 8 1 1 '21 87 20 55 23 8 8 50 12 719 775 471 612 961 Washington Pk. Watterson Waverly Willard Willson 110 356 381 839 682 11 44 48 235 75 "3 3 1 131 " 1 16 2 ibi 2 8 3 "4 7 19 9 20 "3 1 " 1 4 4 19 48 27 21 276 524 491 1,154 794 Woodland Woodland Hills Wooldridge 218 393 477 63 96 91 2 527 59 185 19 5 2 4 504 8 37 5 9 8 97 80 3 66 27 45 1,019 800 1,211 37,454 8,118 6,219 5,325 4,493 3,686 3,523 1,558 4,670 75,046 80 consideration that it would be a comparatively simple matter to modify the instruction given in each school so as to meet most adequately the needs of the pupils. In point of fact this is rendered exceedingly difficult by the complex character of the group from non-English-speak- ing homes. TABLE 6.— CHILDREN IN LEADING NATIONALITY GROUPS IN EACH HIGH SCHOOL ON BASIS OF THE LANGUAGE OF THE HOME ja ja a M u a a a a a 3 0$ -- bu 03 School a J3 2 « 8 "3 C3 05 a "o PL. > 53 rS'S oS o Central 542 151 364 23 39 36 9 3 76 1,243 Collinwood 71 1 1 3 76 East Commerce 491 130 66 38 5 23 10 3 78 844 East High 1,070 49 2 4 16 2 9 16 1,168 East Technical 1,178 376 139 164 40 30 32 i7 110 2,086 Glenville 817 51 4 1 4 13 890 Lincoln 386 75 1 14 2 2 7 ii 16 514 South 431 60 107 2 42 5 25 672 West High 576 20 1 1 3 601 West Technical 763 180 24 2 4 4 17 994 Total 6,325 1,093 576 374 108 102 113 40 357 9,088 In the city as a whole the only homogeneous element in the different school populations is the group of children from English-speaking homes. They do not constitute a majority of all the children, but, except in a few cases, they constitute a larger group than any other single group. In the entire city there are 26 schools in which there is a group of one nationality out- 6 81 numbering the children from English-speaking homes, but in most cases these children do not constitute a majority of the children enrolled in the school. In only 1 1 schools are there homogeneous for- eign groups so numerous as to constitute more than half of the children enrolled. Six of these schools have groups of children from Yiddish- speaking homes so large as to constitute a ma- jority of the whole school enrollment; in two cases the Polish children are in the majority; in two cases the Italians; and in one case the Hungarians. Such facts as these, together with the data of Table 5, indicate the great difficulties in- volved in attempting to modify instruction to meet the special needs of special national groups. In a single classroom there may be pupils of a dozen different nationalities. In most of the classrooms of the city the largest single group is made up of children from English-speaking homes. In only a few cases are there classes in which practically all the children are of the same nationality. Nevertheless the very complexity of the prob- lem points the way with some definiteness to certain wise courses of educational procedure. It is entirely certain that in a city in which a majority of the children are from non-English- 82 speaking homes a definite and conscious effort should be made by the school authorities to acquire an intelligent understanding of the na- tional origins, traditions, histories, and aspira- tions of the more important immigrant groups. Teachers and principals should cultivate a more intelligent and sympathetic understanding of the home problems and conditions of these chil- dren. In addition to these general considerations, there are certain definite and specific courses of action which are indicated by the conditions that have been discussed. It is apparent that the most important subject in the schools of Cleveland is English. This would probably remain true if there were no foreign children enrolled, but under the present conditions it is doubly true. The one educational certainty is that the ability to read, write, and speak the English language easily and correctly is the ability which will conduce most effectively to the moral welfare, the cultural development, the vocational prosperity, and the individual happiness of this great mass of children now in the public schools of this city. Summary The problem of educating immigrant children has two major phases: teaching them English, 83 and teaching them after they have learned English. For the purpose of teaching them English, Cleveland began 15 years ago the establishment of steamer classes, which in- creased in number until in the past year they enrolled some 700 children in 25 classes. These classes are valuable and fairly effective. Provisions should be made for transferring non- English-speaking children to them when such children enroll in schools where steamer classes have not been organized. The work could be rendered much more effective by adopting methods of English teaching such as have been developed in New York and Boston, or the superior methods in use in Porto Rico and the Philippine Islands. The problems of furnishing the best schooling for the foreign children after they have learned to speak English are rendered difficult by the large numbers of national groups and the com- plex manner in which they are scattered through the schools all over the city. The one educa- tional certainty is that the most important single educational asset that the schools could give all the children, whether they come from Eng- lish-speaking or non-English-speaking homes, would be a mastery of speaking, reading, and writing the English language. 84 CHAPTER VI THE ADULT IMMIGRANT AND THE SCHOOL The most important instrumentality for the instruction of the adult immigrant is the public night school. Cleveland has maintained night schools for the past 35 years. The first one was probably established in 1880 and had as its object the instruction of boys and young men who had left school early or had not been so fortunate as to receive any regular education whatever. This first school was supported partly by the Newsboys' and Bootblacks' Home and partly by the Board of Education. Its work proved so successful that the Board took over its control and proceeded to establish other similar schools elsewhere in the city. Very soon the character of the work carried on began to change. More and more non-English-speaking men attended until finally the evening schools have become almost exclusively devoted to the instruction of foreigners in the English language. Evening Schools for Adult Foreigners The evening schools in Cleveland have increased in scope and importance until they have become a large educational enterprise, enrolling in the 85 school year of 1914-15 more than 11,000 students. These schools open in October and continue in session for 20 or 22 weeks, being open four nights each week. At the close of the regular term in March most of them suspend work, but a few are continued for a further period of several weeks. The experiment has even been tried of continuing a few of the night schools through the summer months. The classes are held in regular elementary school buildings and about one-fourth of the teachers are also em- ployed as teachers in the day schools while the remaining three-fourths are people working at other occupations during the day. The following data give the principal facts concerning the Cleveland evening elementary schools for 1914-15. Total number of classes 132 Total number of pupils registered 11,383 Range of ages 15 to 60 Average age 23 Number of nights in winter session 102 Number of buildings in use 34 Number of men teachers 89 Number of women teachers 43 Total number of teachers 132 Teachers also employed in day schools 34 Wages of teachers per evening $2.00 to $2.50 Total enrollment, male 9,082 Total enrollment, female 2,301 Total enrollment, both sexes 11,383 Average attendance, male 3,087 Average attendance, female 796 Average attendance, both sexes 3,883 Salaries of teachers in 1914-15 $25,577 Wages of custodians in 1914-15 $5,626 Contingent expenses in 1914-15 $76 Total cost of instruction in 1914-15 $31,279 86 Among the students attending these classes, 26 out of every 27 are foreigners. The cosmopolitan nature of the student body is shown by the figures of Table 7, which gives the number of students in each of 45 nationalities enrolled during the school year of 1914-15. It will be noted that the total of this table is 11,402, al- though the official records show a total enroll- ment of 11,383. The Survey has not been able to find the cause of this slight discrepancy as both sets of figures are from the official records. Citizenship Classes In addition to their regular work, the evening schools established, two years ago, classes in citizenship for the benefit of aliens desiring to secure naturalization papers. During that winter these classes enrolled more than 1,400 men. Last year the total enrollment was about 1,300. During the winter of 1915-16 the num- ber was less than 600. This does not mean, how- ever, that during the past winter 600 men have been in regular attendance at these classes. This number represents the total enrollment for the school year, that is, the number of different individuals who have joined the classes and been in attendance for any amount of time, long or short. During the winter of 1915-16 the citizen- 87 TABLE 7— NATIONALITIES OF EVENING SCHOOL STUDENTS IN CLEVELAND IN 1915 Nationality Number Magyar Hebrew, Russian Austrian Polish Italian (south) Bohemian Slovenian Slovak 1,964 1,497 1,259 982 762 632 428 351 349 American, wnite Lithuanian 318 German Syrian Russian Italian (north) Croatian 300 274 266 260 252 Greek Hebrew, Polish Hebrew, other foreign Finnish Armenian 235 218 185 143 90 Roumanian American negro Bulgarian English Hebrew, German 87 77 67 54 50 Swedish Dutch Ruthenian Irish Norwegian 43 40 31 28 27 Hebrew, Roumanian Serbian Danish Swiss Macedonian 26 20 16 12 11 Turkish Canadian, English Canadian, French French Scotch 9 7 6 6 6 Spanish American Japanese Moravian Chinese Welsh 4 3 3 2 2 Total 11,402 88 ship classes were in session one night each week and the attendance, which began with 230 in October, rose to nearly 300 two weeks later and then slowly but steadily declined to a little over 100 at the close of March. The motives which prompted the establish- ment of the citizenship classes are deserving of the heartiest approbation and support. Socially and educationally this innovation is wisely planned and worthy of continuation and exten- sion. Nevertheless the fact is that these classes are making a most meager contribution toward helping aliens to become American citizens. Their enrollment is progressively decreasing and their attendance is but a small fraction of their enrollment. The official records indicate that the great majority of the men who enter these classes become discouraged and drop out after attending for a few nights. It is undoubt- edly true that the great European war has stemmed the tide of immigration and taken from the city many who might otherwise have been in attendance at these classes. Nevertheless this cannot be the true explanation of the shrinking enrollment and small attendance. During the early months of 1916 there were from 100 to 200 men in attendance in the citi- zenship classes. At the same time the number of adult foreigners of voting age in Cleveland who 89 had not even taken out their first papers was probably not less than 50,000. Moreover, the number of unnaturalized aliens in the city has been steadily and rapidly increasing for a num- ber of years and has now reached the point where Cleveland's record in this matter is poorer than that of almost any other large city. Under these circumstances it is a matter calling for serious concern that the citizenship classes should be shrinking in size, that most of their students drop after a few nights of at- tendance, that the official records of the work fail to indicate how many of the students who take the course succeed in securing their nat- uralization papers, and that the attendance amounts to less than one-half of one per cent of the men in the city to whom such classes should make their strongest appeal. In the opinion of the members of the Survey Staff the causes of these unsatisfactory condi- tions are to be found in the character of the in- struction given in these classes. The trouble is that the teaching does not follow any well ma- tured plan and is not skilfully done. It suffers from the same sorts of weaknesses that restrict the value of the instruction given in the regular evening schools. The nature of these short- comings is considered in detail in the following section. 90 Quality of Instruction in Evening Schools It appears that the educational officials of the Cleveland school system are highly satisfied with the quality of the work done in the evening elementary schools. In the printed report for 1914, and again in that for 1915, the city super- intendent and the supervisor of evening schools inform the public that "Our evening schools rank high as to quality and amount of work done, and are very much superior to nearly all of those in other cities in regularity of atten- dance and much lower in cost per capita." It is impossible for the members of the Survey Staff to share the optimism of the superin- tendent and supervisor in this matter. During the course of the Survey 66 visits have been made by five members of the Survey Staff to evening elementary classes. As a result the con- clusion has been forced upon these observers that the work done in these classes is very far from ranking high in either quality or amount. While there are many enthusiastic teachers and hundreds of eagerly conscientious pupils, the classroom work exhibits an almost total lack of unified plan, matured method, and intelligent direction. The trouble is that the teaching methods have not been intelligently adapted to the needs and abilities of the pupils. The typical characteristics of the work are 91 well illustrated by that observed in five suc- cessive classrooms in one school visited in March, 1916. The pupils were almost entirely young foreign men of from 25 to 30 years of age. Many of them were employed in one of Cleveland's great steel manufacturing establishments. They were not illiterate, but they had almost no knowledge of English. They were all weary from their day's work and they kept awake only by the exercise of apparent effort. In the first of the five classes a writing lesson was being conducted, and these husky laboring men were busily engaged in copying, "I am a yellow bird. I can sing. I can fly. I can sing to you." In the second class the teacher was barely able to talk English and the work was almost entirely conducted by the translation method. The teacher made several fruitless attempts to get the pupils to speak English. He did this by telling them repeatedly, "Think the sentence in your own language and then try to translate it into English." After this had failed to pro- duce satisfactory results, the teacher gave it up and had them read a selection about making pickles from cucumbers. The third class was taught by a bright young foreigner who had apparently received a classi- cal education. The work was conducted just 92 as are many classes in Latin. The teacher spoke English almost perfectly, and although his pupils could neither speak nor understand it, he care- fully explained to them about inflections, voices, moods, tenses, numbers, and persons. He then told them they that were to conjugate " to have " and "to be." After this was explained to them in their own language, the pupils all went to the board and began to write "I have, thou hast, he has," and "I am, thou art, he is," etc. The teacher explained that "art" was the second person singular, indicative mood, present tense, of the substantive verb "be." After this the class had a reading lesson from the third reader about a robin that said, "God loves the flowers and birds too much to send the cold to freeze them." In the fourth room the pupils had a reading lesson about "Little drops of water, Little grains of sand." They then had a spelling lesson of the words in the reading selection. The teacher was interested, vivacious, and expended a great amount of nervous energy in talking very rapidly and almost incessantly. She took up most of the time with her own activity and most of the pupils could not understand what she was talking about. In the fifth and last class the teacher was also most voluble and talked more than all the stu- 93 dents combined. It was a reading lesson and the 14 men present were engaged in reading a selec- tion beginning "Oh, baby, dear baby, Whatever you do, You are king of the home And we all bend to you." Similar examples might be multiplied from the written records of the work observed in the evening classes, and classes of the sort described may be seen by any one who will take the time to visit the evening schools of the city. Perhaps the most impressive characteristic of it all is that every teacher appears to be entirely free to teach whatever he pleases by any methods that he wishes to use. The lessons assigned and the methods employed in the different rooms are astonishingly varied. There seems to be no effective supervision, no plan for improving the teachers in service, and no effort to find out which of the many methods used produces the best results. Reorganization Essential In the opinion of the Survey Staff it is essential that the evening elementary school work of Cleveland be reorganized. Some of the results of the work as at present conducted are revealed by the attendance records. The data for the 22 94 weeks of the regular term of 1915-16 are shown in Table 8 and Diagram 7. They refer to the evening elementary schools and the citizenship classes. They show that when the classes opened in October, some 2,800 students enrolled and almost all were actually in attendance. A month later the enrollment had increased by 2,500, but the attendance was only 500 greater than at the beginning. This means that even in the first few lessons large numbers of the students had become discouraged and dropped out. From this point on the enrollment steadily increased, showing that new pupils were con- tinually joining the classes, but the number be- longing and the number in actual attendance steadily decreased, indicating that other pupils were dropping out. By the end of the regular term in March, the enrollment was more than 7,000, while the attendance was only a little over 1,000. Moreover, there is evidence pointing to the probability that the loose methods of record keeping used in this part of the school work result in reporting conditions somewhat more favorably than the facts warrant. Under the present regulations a class is suspended when the attendance falls below 15. Upon the occa- sions of visits to the classes the pupils present were counted by the Survey visitors and in a 95 pi 6-1 o o o w Cu Cu o Q m S3 o w CO a c j mr M t < ^^ t E -1 * E I i I -* IH " ' Itn w ■3 *H ^1 k *> a. in _£ 03 * C\J vO «rv C c\) 1 1 96 large number of cases fewer than 15 were found present on the night of the visit, although the number reported at the central office as the average for that week was always 15 or over. TABLE 8— TOTAL ENROLLMENT, NUMBER BELONGING, AND AVERAGE ATTENDANCE IN THE EVENING ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS OF CLEVELAND DURING THE 22 WEEKS OF THE REGULAR SESSIONS OF 1915-16 Week ending Total enrollment Belonging Attendance October 14 21 28 2,834 4,044 4,694 2,831 4,001 4,314 2,487 2,947 3,122 November 4 11 17 24 5,233 5,545 5,655 5,655 4,276 4,223 4,074 4,069 2,908 2,971 2,157 2,817 December 3 9 17 23 5,700 6,001 6,115 6,188 3,818 3,723 3,690 3,766 2,868 2,391 2,210 2,108 January 6 13 20 27 6,252 6,399 6,458 6,515 3,586 3,076 2,818 2,739 2,231 1,881 1,780 1,813 February 4 10 17 24 6,746 6,810 6,910 6,960 2,610 2,423 2,239 2,091 1,742 1,614 1,461 1,360 March 3 9 16 7,040 7,043 7,048 2,031 1,735 1,673 1,331 1,203 1,191 These discrepancies would be possible on the supposition that the visitor almost always hap- pened to call on a night when the attendance was lower than it was for the three other even- ings of that week. However, it seems more probable that the record keeping is not entirely accurate. The following comparison shows for 7 97 the first 10 classes in the list compiled by the Survey the number counted on the evening of the visit and the number reported for that class on the official record as being the average at- tendance for that week. Count Official report 14 15 19 19 11 15 12 15 10 15 8 16 32 32 18 25 16 24 21 21 Whatever the facts may be with regard to the accuracy of the reports, the important features of the situation are that the attendance in the night classes is very much less than the enroll- ment and that great numbers of immigrants enter the classes, become discouraged, and drop out after a brief attendance. Cleveland has been repeatedly told that there were more than 10,000 students enrolled in the night schools. Probably few citizens have realized that this number represented, not students in school, but rather names in books. They have not realized that a count of all the students actually present on any pleasant evening during the middle of the term would have shown only about one- third of that number and that a count near the 98 close of the term would have shown one-fifth or less. \ The tragic part of the situation is that every year thousands of earnest and hopeful foreigners flock to the night schools in keen anticipation of learning English, and after a few weeks be- come discouraged and drop out because the teachers do not meet their needs. Since they cannot understand what is going on, their inter- est flags. As the weeks pass by, physical weari- ness overcomes them more and more each night. Finally they sink into despondency and dis- couragement as they see their cherished dream of mastering the new language depart. This is no matter of casual import for these men and women. They are not children and most of them are not students. Concentrating their minds on the lesson implies painful effort. If this intense application does not bring them within a few weeks some results that the im- migrant can appreciate he begins to realize that his constructive ideal, his dream of becoming an American, his opportunity for success in the new land, are not to be attained through the y public school. These men and women of the evening schools have no abstract zeal for knowledge. They are interested in the immediate, the concrete, and the practical. They resemble children in that 99 they are ignorant and need help, but they are mature in ideas and realizations and keenly conscious of specific needs. This is why they cannot be interested in inflections and tenses and why they are not gripped or thrilled by reading about the beautiful posies and the pretty birdies. They want to learn to talk English, and they can be kept interested only so long as they can use each day what they learned the night before. There are 70,000 people in Cleveland who can- not speak English, and there are few social, civic, or educational problems more important than to make it possible for this tenth of the city's population to understand and communi- cate with the other nine-tenths. The number of unnaturalized adult foreign men is nearly as large as that of the non-English-speaking in- habitants. Moreover these conditions are be- coming worse rapidly and steadily. Again Cleveland makes a poorer showing in these respects than any other large city. For these reasons the Survey deems it essen- tial that the elementary evening schools of this city should be reorganized so as to do efficient work in teaching English to foreigners. What is most needed is leadership. One thoroughly competent supervisor, charged with responsi- bility for making the work efficient, and given 100 greatly increased power in the selection, train- ing, and direction of his assistants, could work a rapid reform in the whole situation. While increased appropriations are needed for supplies and for teachers, they are not nearly so im- portant as skilled and enterprising leadership. Cleveland should profit by the example of other cities. The school authorities here should know what Detroit has accomplished within the past year in dealing with this same problem. Board members and educational officials should care- fully read the report entitled, "The School and the Immigrant," recently published by the New York Department of Education. A careful ex- amination should be made of the 20 different books and sets of books telling how to teach English most successfully to foreigners. The city cannot afford to be indifferent, or inefficient, or contented in its attitude toward helping its aliens to help themselves. Summary The evening elementary schools of Cleveland have been in existence for 35 years. At the present time their total enrollment each year is in the neighborhood of 10,000. The classes are open during about 20 weeks, four nights a week. Almost all the students are foreigners 101 and their main object is to learn English. In addition to their regular work the evening schools have established classes in citizenship. In the opinion of the Survey Staff, based on visits to a considerable proportion of the classes, the work in the evening elementary schools falls far short of being well and efficiently conducted. The records of attendance show that only a small proportion of those who enroll remain more than a few weeks. Many thousands begin, become discouraged, and drop out. It is the conviction of the members of the Survey Staff that a reorganization of this evening elemen- tary school work is essential. The most im- portant factor in reorganization is efficient leadership. 102 CLEVELAND EDUCATION SURVEY REPORTS These reports can be secured from the Survey Committee of the Cleveland Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio. They will be sent postpaid for 25 cents per volume with the exception of "Measuring the Work of the Public Schools" by Judd, "The Cleveland School Survey" by Ayres, and "Wage Earn- ing and Education" by Lutz. These three volumes will.be sent for 50 cents each. All of these reports may be secured at the same rates from the Division of Education of the Russell Sage Foundation, New York City. Child Accounting in the Public Schools. — Ayres. Educational Extension — Perry. Education through Recreation — Johnson. Financing the Public Schools — Clark. Health Work in the Public Schools — Ayres. Household Arts and School Lunches — Boughton. Measuring the Work of the Public Schools — Judd. Overcrowded Schools and the Platoon Plan — Hart- well. School Buildings and Equipment — Ayres. Schools and Classes for Exceptional Children — Mit- chell. School Organization and Administration — Ayres. The Public Library and the Public Schools — Ayres and McKinnie. The School and the Immigrant — Miller The Teaching Staff — Jessup. What the Schools Teach and Might Teach — Bobbitt. The Cleveland School Survey (Summary) — Ayres. Boys and Girls in Commercial Work — Stevens. Department Store Occupations — O'Leary. Dressmaking and Millinery — Bryner. Railroad and Street Transportation — Fleming. The Building Trades— Shaw. The Garment Trades — Bryner. The Metal Trades— Lutz. The Printing Trades — Shaw. Wage Earning and Education (Summary) — Lutz. UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY AA 000 834 341 o