The record-union., 1894-09-20
COSMOPOLITAN SCHOOLS.
One in Boston Has Over Two
Thousand Pupils.
Not Ono s'Yankee'' in Hancock
School-An Army of Scholars Who
Cannot Speak One Word of Eng.
lish When They Enter the School.
From the Boston Advertiser.1

FROM the Boston Advertiser.
"There are 2,l00 pupils in this school
division" said II. l.. Dutton, master of
the Hancock School, yesterday. "And,"
he continued, there is not Plymouth
Rock Yankee among them. Ofthe LOO,
about 200 are Russian, Polish and Ger
man Jews, and about 600 are Italians.
The remaining 500 are all sorts of
natlonallues. y good proportion OF
them, though not, perhaps, a majority,
are Irish, or of Irish extraction. The
rest are of nearly every nation under
heaven. Many are from the Western
Islands, some are Portuguese, and few
are Scandinavians. l remember one
class which we had once, which included
fourteen different nationalities."
How do you account for the small
number of children of Irish parentage in
the schools?
''The Irish, you know. have largely
migrated from the North End since the
Jews and Italians began to come III. And
then the parochial schools take many of
the girls of Irish parentage."
The children Of Italian Catholics do
not attend the parochial schools gen
erally?"
Not so generally, believe, as those of
most universally send their children to
the public schools"
And what is your chief trouble with
such cosmopolitan school?n
LAS may readily be inferred, our chief
trouble is on the score of language. The
school year has just begun, as you know,
and 20O new pupils have entered the
schools in this division, not one of whom
is able to speak word of English. Our
first interest IS TO teach them to speak our
language. In doing this, our teachers are
charged not to use word of the language
of the pupil. l should greatly prefer, if
possible, that we might have teachers
who know nothing OF the French, Italian
or Portuguese languages themselves, so
that it would be impossible for them to
use them in any degree in teaching Eng
lish. We use the object system of teach
ing, wholly.
The teacher has various small objects
on her desk and holding them up, one
by one, she pronounceS its name and
teaches the pupils to pronounce it. Then
she writes the name of the object on the
black board and thus familiarizes the
pupil with the object and it's writ
ten name. The next step is to write
phrases or short sentences on the board
in which the words already learned are
used. And so. step by step, the child
grows into the language. We find our
greatest trouble III the fact that we have
t1uences but few hours each day, while
during all the remainder of the time she
is at home with her parents, who con-
stantly use their own language and make
no effort to assist US. On this account
the progress of the pupils in acquiring
our language is much slower than il
would be if they heard English spoken at
home and on the street. The greater
numb of the new pupils who are
obliged to learn our language are young
children, many of whom were born in
this country or were brought over as in
fants, who have just reached the school
age.
There are some, however, who are
older, and who have recently come across
the water. We do not put these in the
same class with the little ones, even
though the instruction is precisely the
same. We group the pupils so that chill
dren of approximately the same age are
placed together"
You have many Jews, you say, Mr..
Dutton, among your pupils. Do these
children, as rule. speak and under
stand Hebrew? Are they able to read
the many Hebrew signs that are con-
spicuous throughout the North End?"
AS rule they are able to read them.
They read the Hebrew scriptures tiuently,
especially those parts which their reli-
gion requires of them. But they do not
speak the language OF the countries from
WHICH buSy COLu0 Inc Italian
children, too, vary greatly in their speak
ing of their language. There are, aDpa-
rently, several distinct dialects among
them and person who speaks pure
Italian has much trouble in understand
ing them"
"How long does it require for a child of
average intelligence to learn English so
that she Is able to do good school work?"
1T all depends, of course; but in six
months many of them make such good
progress that they can go ahead with the
regular school work. Then we put them
into the graded classes. according to their
ages and ability, and push them right
along with the regular work"
Are they bright?'
MANY OF them are exceedingly bright,
grasping the thought presented very
readily and making progress in their
studies"
At this point in the conversation a
young girl, of soft, olive complexion,
dark eyes and gentle manner, entered the
room. A long braid of dark hair hung
over her shoulder. She was typical
Rebecca. She waited modestly for recog-
milton, and then in low, sweet tone ad-
dressed a query to the master. Receiving
reply, she bowed respectfully and with
drew. a sweeter face and a more perfect
manner could not be seen at the Back
Bay than those worn and displayed by
this little Hebrew maiden at the North
End.
"a fair example of our Jewish pupils,u
said MIR. Dutton, when she had gone.
Il was at loss to know whether she
was Jew or Italian" 1 remarked.
"Ah, you would soon learn to distin-
guish the difference In type if you were
among them every day. The Jews are
readily distinguished from the Italians.
They are very interesting people. AsI
said before, many of these foreign-born
children are exceedingly bright. At our
annual exhibition, at the close of school
last June, some OF them did excellent
work. We graduated twenty-eight girls
from Hancock School. The subject of the
exhibition was "a Morning Hour With
Oliver Wendell Holiness" 1t consisted
OF recitations from DIR. Holmes writings
and the singing OF hymns and songs
written by him. a young Italian girl
recited Dorothy Q,'' in manner
which have never heard surpassed on
the platform. The list of graduates was
cosmopolitan. There were Jews and
Italians, Irish, Portuguese, Swedish, and
in fact any nation except the American
was represented. But it was one of the
best classes | have seen graduated"
The present Sultan OF Zanzibar, Ham,
med bin Thueni, is one OF the best
swordsmen in his empire, and this ac-
complishment arouses great respect IN
the breasts of his subjects. lie is also