The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-11-26
The Attendance and
Work Are Better
This Year.
AN EVIDENCE OF PROSPERITY.
Foreign Born Students Work
Hard to Learn to Speak
English.

OF the many institutions in which
Worcester takes just pride the even
ing schools of the city deserve a prom
inent place. At first thought, the term
institution as applied to the system.
would seem inapplicable, but although
the elementary evening schools are
scattered all through the city in IA
different buildings, it is all under one
head, united in one comprehensive sys-
tenn, and thus worthy Of being called
an institution by itself.
! To John j. Riordan, supervisor of the
evening schools, credit is due for the
present state of high excellence of the
evening schools, bothpHelementary and
high.
To show how the elementary school
system of Worcester compares with
| others in the country, it is only neces-
sary to refer to the gold medal re-
ceived at the worlds fair, for the eX-
cellence of the exhibit of the local
schools. Here in Worcester, as per
haps nowhere else in the state, so much
interest is manifested on the part of
the city authorities, that everything
possible is being done to improve and
develop the evening school system. On
account of this cooperation of the au-
thorities, Supervisor Riordan has been
allowed to add Improvement after inn
provement, changing and developing as
in his experience he deemed best
There are about 900 students enrolled
in the elementary evening schools, and
between $50 and $40 in the evening high
school, For the convenience of those
who wish to attend the schools, there
are IA buildings so situated in every
district of the city that no one need
to walk more than half a mile to attend
the nearest school, The makeup of
the schools is largely localized. That
is, in the various districts will be found
the nationality attending the evening
school nearest to it's colony
The Armenians are to be found al
most exclusively at the Dix street and
Belmont school houses.
The French are pretty evenly divided
between Canterbury Grafton and Lam
artine streets The hebrews so to
the Providence street school house. The
colored students go to Abbott and Dix
street buildings. The Swedes who for
merly were found mostly at the Bel
mont and Quinsigamond school houses,
are now scattered all over the city as
the Swedish population has increased
in Worcester.
The Poles, including many men of
middle age, attend the Millbury school,
While the Syrians are divided between
the Shrewsbury and Grafton street
buildings
All these elementary schools, in spite
of these pupils of foreign birth, have
changed wonderfully in the past few
years. The number of American chill
dren is constantly on the increase. Per
haps an estimate that one-half the at
tendance at the schools are of American
parentage would not be far out of the
way.
At the Belmont street school, form
erly composed of three-fourths foreign
ers, now the same proportion are
Americans In order to do the best
work, only about 20 pupils are assigned
to one teacher. This gives an oppor-
tunity to look after each individual
student, as could not be done with an
unwieldly class. In the hours allotted
for work in the evening, it is necessary
to put in every moment to get the best
results. They are there to study and
acquire knowledge, not to play and
dawdle away the time.
The attendance, take it all through
the various buildings, is about IS per
cent OF the enrolment. Considering
that the term lasts from October until
April, this is a good average.
The attendance varies with the pros
perity of the community during the
year This year it is the largest at
tendance in the history of Worcester
evening ScnOOlS.N IN a prosperous year
the boys and girls work during the
day and study at night In bad years
when work is hard to obtain, the young
people generally attend the day schools.
The foreign element that attends
these schools furnishes an interesting
'study There are many middle-aged
persons who are regular attendants for
at least at part of the year, and then
after obtaining some degree of pro-
ficiency in the English language, drop
out. AT one school. a father, mother
and one child attended the sessions at
the same time, last year.
An interesting feature of this adult
attendance is the remarkable quickness
with which foreigners just landed find
their way into the schools. They evil
IDENTIFY have heard of the free method
of obtaining a knowledge of the Eng
fish language, and are eager to take
advantage of it. They do not care so
much ABOUT what they learn, as they
do for the simple requirement of the
language that Is to form a part of their
stock in trade. When they get srnat-
tering OF the language they stop. SUI
pervisor Riordan says he does not know
of a Chinaman ever seeking admittance
to the evening schools They generally |
go to some Chinese Sunday school for
their instruction in our language, and
they are not over particular as to a |
long course, but simply wish just
enough pigeon English" to make
known their wants.
A characteristic Of these night stu