Part 15

Besides these difficulties there are certain prejudices to be met. The middle-aged woman does not wish to study English in classes with her children of working age or others of their age. She dreads the implication of this association. Many of the foreign-born mothers also have a hesitancy about going into classes with men, as they feel a mental inferiority, and many prefer not to be in classes with students from other national groups.

The most frequent criticism by immigrant leaders interviewed is the inelasticity of the public-school methods. The classes are usually held three or four nights a week, and no housewife should be expected to leave home as often as that. The groups are composed of both men and women and of all nationalities, disregarding well-known prejudices that have already been mentioned.

A more fundamental criticism than these has reference to the failure to adopt or devise new methods of instruction for persons who cannot read or write in their own language, and who have arrived at a period in their lives when learning is extremely difficult. The classes are often conducted in English by day-school teachers, who are accustomed to teaching children and who are entirely unfamiliar with the background of the immigrant woman and her special problems.

There are reports also of the unwillingness of the school authorities to relax formal requirements, with reference to the minimum number for whom a class will be organized. Often it is necessary to "nurse the class." In Chicago sixteen women have in the past been deprived of a class because the Board of Education refused at the time to open the schools to groups of less than twenty.

THE HOME TEACHER

The home teacher in California is an interesting educational device, of which much is to be expected. The Home Teacher Act, passed by the state legislature April 10, 1915,[56] permits boards of school trustees or city boards of education to employ one "home teacher" for every five hundred or more units of average daily attendance. The home teacher is

to work in the homes of the pupils, instructing children and adults in matters relating to school attendance and preparation therefor, also in sanitation, in the English language, in household duties, such as purchase, preparation, and use of food and clothing, and in the fundamental principles of the American system of government and the rights and duties of citizenship. She is required to possess the following qualifications:

1. A regular teacher's certificate under the State Education Law.

2. Experience in teaching and in social work.

3. Good health.

4. Ability to speak the language of the largest group in the district.

5. Complete loyalty to the principal of the school.

6. Tact and patience for a delicate task.

7. Ingenuity in adapting all circumstances to the main purpose.

8. An incapacity for discouragement.

9. Comprehension of the reasons and objects of the work.

10. Finally, above all and through all, a sympathetic attitude toward the people, which involves some knowledge of the countries and conditions from which they came, and what "America" has meant to them.[57]

Her salary is paid from the city or from district special school funds.

The law authorizing the use of home teachers was enacted largely through the efforts of the State Commission of Immigration and Housing, and was from the first intended to be used for the benefit of foreign-born families. The first experiments were financed by the Commission of Immigration and Housing and by private organizations, such as the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Council of Jewish Women, and the Young Women's Christian Association. According to the latest report[58] there are twenty official home teachers at work in eight cities of the state. The Commission says of the purpose of this plan:

The interpretation of the need in California departs from that conceived elsewhere. There have been so-called home teachers in a dozen cities, of several Eastern states, for a number of years, but their purpose is to do follow-up work for absent, irregular, subnormal, or incorrigible children, and they are more properly visiting teachers. The home teacher, as we conceive her purpose, seeks not primarily the special child--though that will often open the door to her and afford her a quick opportunity for friendly help--but _the home_ as such, and especially the mother who makes it. This discrimination as to aim and purpose cannot be too much emphasized, or too consistently maintained, for the care of abnormal children, important as it is, can by no means take the place of the endeavor to Americanize the _families_ of the community.[59]

SETTLEMENT CLASSES

The social settlements are in many cases situated in congested city districts, and they have always dealt very directly with the family groups in their neighborhood. Settlements have, in fact, probably more than any other social agency, tried to become acquainted with the Old-World background of their neighbors in order to establish friendly relationships. The settlement ideal has included the preservation of the dignity and self-esteem of the immigrant, while attempting to modify his habits when necessary and giving him some preparation for citizenship.

Classes in English and Civics, mothers' clubs, and housekeeping classes have been part of the contribution of the settlement to the adjustment of family life. Seventeen settlements in Chicago, for example, have conducted during the last year 36 clubs and classes of this kind for non-English-speaking women. Among these there are 9 English classes, 8 sewing classes, 10 cooking classes, and 9 mothers' clubs, with varied programs.

These classes have been conducted with a flexibility that is often lacking in the public-school classes. They are usually held in the daytime at the hour most convenient for the group concerned, and by combining social features with instruction the interest of the women is maintained longer than would otherwise be possible.

Sometimes the classes are conducted in a foreign language, but they are generally taught in English, occasionally with the assistance of an interpreter. The classes are usually small, so that considerable personal attention is possible. The season during which it seems possible to hold such classes lasts from September or October until June, and it seems necessary to expend considerable effort each year in order to reorganize them.

Trained domestic-science teachers are used for most of the cooking and sewing classes. The English teachers and mothers' club leaders are, however, usually residents in the settlement or other volunteers with little training or experience in teaching adults. They often find it quite difficult to hold the group together. Very valuable work is done, however, especially in the cooking classes. Many such classes were organized to teach conservation cooking; for instance, in an Italian class, the women were taught the use of substitutes for wheat that could be used in macaroni; in another the cooking teacher took Italian recipes and tried to reproduce their flavors with American products which are cheaper and more available than the Italian articles.

What is gained in flexibility may, of course, be counterbalanced by a loss of unity. The settlement teaching lacks, on the whole, a unity and organization that the public school should be better able to provide.

CO-OPERATION OF AGENCIES

Sometimes co-operation among several agencies may be advantageous in meeting the various difficulties presented by the task of teaching adult foreign-born women. Such co-operation was developed between the Immigrants' Protective League of Chicago, the public schools, the Chicago Woman's Club and the Women's Division of the Illinois Council of Defense.

The Board of Education of Chicago, in 1917, passed a resolution to the effect that whenever twenty or more adults desired instruction in any subject which would increase their value in citizenship, the school would be opened and a trained teacher provided. The Immigrants' Protective League then undertook to organize groups who would take advantage of this opportunity and to keep the groups interested after they had been organized.

The Chicago Woman's Club and the Council of National Defense undertook to supply kindergarten teachers to care for the children whose mothers were in the class, and the Visiting Nurse Association supplied nurses to examine the children, to advise mothers with reference to their care, and to make home visits when the condition of the children rendered this necessary.

The League visitors made very definite efforts to organize campaigns for acquainting the housewives of various neighborhoods with the opportunity thus provided, and for persuading the women to "come out." The services of the foreign-born visitors have been particularly valuable in the work of organization. These visitors certainly put forth valiant efforts in behalf of the plan. The Lithuanian and Italian visitors, for example, made in three instances 40, 96, and 125 calls before a class was organized, and even then less than twenty enrolled for each class. They have found it necessary to make visits in the homes of women whom they hoped to draw out, and have also used posters, printed invitations, and advertisements in foreign-language newspapers. Nor have their efforts ceased when the class was organized. Often misunderstandings occur, the attendance begins to dwindle, and great efforts must be made to discover the cause and to bring back the members.

The classes organized in this way have usually been small, composed of housewives of a single national group. Considerable individual attention is given the members of the class, and the foreign-speaking visitors attend the classes so that they may interpret when necessary.

The plan has been carried out, of course, on an extremely restricted stage. The efforts have been limited almost entirely to English and cooking classes, and instruction in other phases of household management has been quite incidental.

The teachers supplied by the Board of Education have not, of course, always possessed social experience and training. The classes are sometimes short lived. In the case of a Lithuanian cooking class, to which the teacher came too late to give the lesson, or too weary to give the lesson, it was necessary to reorganize the group. Where the teachers change, the group will dwindle, and the efforts of the visitor will have been substantially wasted.

The subject matter is often poorly adapted to the needs and desires of the foreign housewife. A new domestic-science teacher, for instance, gave to a group of Lithuanian women seven consecutive lessons on pies, cakes, and cookies, in spite of the organizer's request for lessons on "plain cooking." At times, as has been pointed out, the teacher is wholly ignorant as to the habits and tastes of the immigrant. There is, sometimes, an ill-advised attempt to substitute American dishes for foreign dishes instead of modifying or supplementing the well-established and perfectly sound dietetic practices of the foreign-born group.

The Lithuanian visitor of the Immigrants' Protective League, in speaking of the difficulties she had encountered in keeping together the classes she organized for the public school, says she has often been able to get together a group of women who want lessons in English and in cooking. The plan has been to give cooking lessons in English. The women have come, perhaps, three or four times. The first lesson would teach the making of biscuits; perhaps the second dumplings; the third sweet rolls. The teacher would be very busy with her cooking and talk very little. Then the women would not come back. They did not want to learn to make biscuits, about which they cared nothing; they were busy women and were aware that they were not getting what they wanted or needed.

INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTES

Another specialized agency for work with the foreign-born groups is the International Institute of the Young Women's Christian Association. This association has attempted in a short period of time to develop over a wide area this form of service, so that between the spring of 1913 and March, 1919, there had been established 31 of these organizations, most of them in industrial centers in different parts of the United States. In general, their work, as outlined in the After-War Program of the association, includes (1) a foreign-language information office, (2) home visiting for newly arrived women and girls, (3) case work in connection with legal difficulties, sickness, and emergencies, and (4) work with groups, including organized classes and informal gatherings. The last are to be especially designed for women and girls unable or unwilling to attend night schools, and there is to be a persistent urging upon the public school of the importance of socialized methods in work for women.

The use of foreign-language visitors is considered to be one of the most important features of these undertakings. Although few of the institutes have been able to secure enough workers to reach all the language groups in the community, provision can usually be made for the most numerous groups. Among the 18 replies to questionnaires sent to these institutes only 4 show less than 3 languages spoken by visitors, 10 have as many as 4 or more, and 4 have 8 or 9 languages.

These 18 institutes employ 76 foreign-language visitors. Forty-six of these are themselves foreign born. These visitors represent a great variety in training and experience, but the institute secretaries think that on the whole they are more valuable than native-born visitors would be even if these native-born visitors were more highly trained. The training of these particular visitors, while varied and often apparently inadequate, is on the whole surprisingly good. Fifteen of the 46 have had some college training; 3 have had kindergarten training, and 4 nurses' training. Eight have had previous case-work experience; 4 have lived in settlements. Eight have taken training courses given by the association, varying from a few weeks to several months at the national headquarters. A number have had religious training of one kind or another, 2 in a school for deaconesses, 12 as prospective missionaries, and 1 in a theological seminary.

The 18 International Institutes report the establishment of 134 clubs or classes in which married women are members, having an enrollment of 894 foreign-born married women. The subject most generally taught is English. Among 134 clubs and classes, 101 are organized exclusively for the teaching of English, and 7 others combine English with cooking or sewing.

Some attempt is made to teach housekeeping in classes. Ten of these are organized for cooking or sewing, 7 for English and cooking or sewing, and there are 13 mothers' clubs with subjects of such general interest as health, the care of children, and home nursing. In addition to the organized clubs and classes, most of the institutes have given lectures in foreign languages to larger groups of women subjects such as "Women and the War," "Liberty Bonds," "Thrift," "Food Conservation," "Personal and Social Hygiene," "The Buying of Materials," and "What the English Language Can Do for You."

Most classes are composed of a single national group, but classes are reported in which there are Polish and Ruthenian, Slovak and Polish, Greek and Lithuanian, Armenian and French, and Portuguese, Magyar and Slovak, and "mixed" nationalities. English is used in practically all classes which are primarily for the teaching of English. Fourteen of the institutes, however, have foreign-speaking workers to interpret whenever the women do not understand the teacher. In answer to the question as to the success of the institute in connecting married women with classes in public evening schools, three reply that they have had no success because the public schools do not use foreign-speaking workers and the women cannot understand the teachers who speak only English.

The institutes conduct vigorous campaigns to acquaint the mothers with their work, using posters, printed invitations, announcements at schools, notices in foreign papers, and particularly home visits by foreign-speaking workers.

With regard to home visiting it appears that there has not yet been time to work out a program for the teaching of improved standards of housekeeping, personal hygiene, and proper diet. The institutes, however, lend their foreign-speaking visitors as interpreters to other agencies organized for particular phases of work in the home, such as Visiting Nurse associations, Infant Welfare societies, Anti-Tuberculosis societies, and Charity Organization societies.

A very real effort is often made to reconcile foreign-born mothers and Americanized daughters. Those responsible for some of the institutes realize very keenly the significance of the problem, and impress upon the children they meet their great interest in the Old-World background of the parents, their appreciation of the mother's being able to speak another language besides English, their pleasure in old-country dances, costumes, and songs. They try in every way possible to maintain the respect of the daughter for her foreign-born mother. In home visits they try also to explain to the mother the freedom granted to American girls, the purpose of the clubs for girls, and the need for learning English themselves to lessen their dependence upon the children.

TRAINING FOR SERVICE

It is obvious that the efficiency of the work of these various organizations can rise no higher than the level of efficiency and training of the workers available for such service. It is, therefore, most important that the materials necessary for the rendering of these services be made available at the earliest possible moment. Such materials include compilations of data with reference to the different groups, courses of study developed so as to meet the needs and educational possibilities of the women, devices such as pictures, slides, charts, films, for getting and holding attention of persons unused to study, often weary and overstrained and lacking confidence in their own power to learn.

It is also clear from the experiences of these various agencies that, while giving this instruction is essentially an educational problem, it is for the time so intimately connected with the whole question of understanding the needs of the housewife in the different foreign-born groups, of developing a method of approach and of organization, and of trying out methods of instruction as well as experimenting with different bodies of material, that for some time to come experimentation and research should be fostered at many points.

There should, for example, be accumulated a much larger body of knowledge than is now available with reference to the agencies existing among the foreign-born groups in the various communities from whom co-operation could be expected; there should be a much more exact body of fact as to the needs of the various groups of women; at the earliest possible moment the material available with reference to these household problems, child care, hygiene and sanitation, distribution of family income, should be put into form available for use by the home teacher, the class teacher, the extension workers, and the woman's club organization. In the Appendix are some menus of four immigrant groups, which illustrate the kind of material which would be useful.

By stipends and scholarships promising younger members from among the foreign-born groups should be encouraged to qualify as home teachers and as classroom and extension instructors in these fields. This would often mean giving opportunity for further general education as preliminary to the professional training, for many young persons admirably adapted to the work come from families too poor to afford the necessary time at school. Scholarships providing for an adequate preparation available to members of the larger groups in any community, would give a very great incentive to interest in the problem and to further understanding of its importance on the part of the whole group.

In addition to scholarships enabling young persons to take courses of considerable length, there might be stipends enabling older women of judgment and experience to qualify for certain forms of service by shorter courses. Those who can speak enough English could take advantage of certain short courses already offered by the schools of social work. Others who do not speak English could be enabled to learn enough English and at the same time to learn to carry on certain forms of service under direction.

As has been suggested, lack of resources in face of an enormous volume of educational work is one factor in this lack of teachers trained to meet the needs of women in the foreign-born groups and of material adapted to their class or home instruction. The question, then, has been raised as to whether the supply both of teachers and of material could be increased and whether, if these resources were available, they would be utilized by the great national administrative agencies to which reference has been made.

The following plan has been approved as thoroughly practicable by leading officers and members of the American Home Economics Association, including several heads of departments of home economics in the state colleges, by other educators interested in the field of home economics, as well as by representatives of the States Relations Service, the Bureau of Home Economics Department in the United States Department of Agriculture, the Federal Board of Vocational Education, and the Home Economics Division of the United States Bureau of Education. The unanimous judgment of those consulted is that if such a plan could be carried out for the space of three years, the Federal service would be vivified and enriched and the educational institutions enabled to develop training methods from which a continuous supply of teachers and teaching material could be expected.

OUTLINE OF PLAN

I. Creation of committee composed of officers of American Home Economics Association, representatives from the United States Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Home Economics, the States Relations Service, the Home Economics Division of the United States Bureau of Education, the heads of departments of home economics in the state colleges, the technical schools and teacher-training schools, Federal Board for Vocational Education.

II. Increasing supply of teachers and teaching material.

1. Provision for assembling material in food, household management, including expenditures, and child care, particularly, and adapting this material to the needs of the members of the different foreign-born groups, by supplying salaries for two persons experienced in teaching, who would devote themselves to the preparation of classroom material, leaflets, charts, etc.--$2,400 $4,800