The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-01-13
N. Y.'S EVENING SCHOOLS,
THAT THOSE IN NEW YORK ARE
 DOING

DOING
 For the Poor, the UnIettered and th,
 Foreigners.
 During the daytime New York city
 may have educational rivals; but wher
 night sets in she takes the lead anc
 teaches the young idea how to shoot, il
 spite of daily and often laborious toll
 as perhaps no other city in the country
 attempts to do. Four years ago the
 hrst evening high school was opened
 followed promptly by others, until there
 are now seven of these schools alone
 without counting the many grammar
 schools for children who have left the
 day schools before being graduated, or
 Tor adult foreigners who wish to learn
 English and the three R's.
 Most teachers love their profession.
 and declare that they find much inspi-
 ration in the close contact with young
 and usually eager minds; but of all
 teachers those who work in the night
 schools are probably the most enthusi-
 astic This is natural for there is
 nothing to force a child or an adult to eoN " eii% iiioi pIllOUl, anu llt CldSS OL pupils is therefore more earnest than can be found elsewhere. When each pupil has definite aim, in the further ing of which he is willing to sacrifice his leisure time, there is a romance about the work which overshadoWs the drud- gery, measure of which is inseparable from any kind of teaching.
 A visitor to the evening schools will be surprised at the class,of pupils found there. Every rank of life, from the higher professions to rag picking, is represented, with an astonishingly large admixture of the refined and com- paratively we'll to do. The latter class is to be found chiefly in the high schools, of course, but is represented also in the grammar schools among those who wish to learn English On entering classes in East Side grammar schools one finds crowds of from four teen to twenty, goodly number of men and women of from thirty to fifty, and a small group of children under ten, who sit in the back seats and amuse themselves quietly. These last are not there to learn, but because their mothers or big sisters cannot leave them at home, and are too eager to em- brace the opportunity of learning to stay at home. In fact, the occupants of grammar school class room may range in age from six months to sixty, for mothers with babies in arms are not by any means unknown.
 In the grammar schools the ordinary subjects of the day school are taught, l together with stenography, and for the | women cooking and dressmaking. The | school is divided into junior and senior | departments, the latter including all | over sixteen For children from four teen to sixteen there is no choice in the subjects taught; they simply take the regular day school course. After that | they choose such courses as they wish. Those who are over sixteen when they come to school take anything they wish from the start. An adult class may in- clude representatives of every nation under heaven, Russian and Italian, French and German, Spanish and Cu- ban, all united in an effort to speak English After being over here a year and attending school they are able to speak and write fairly we'll The edu- cation of these people may be fair in lHelI uWil lttlS udSeS, OI IL iiltty De uell- cient, but the majority of those who are sufficiently keen brained to want to come to evening school when over twen- Ly are pretty sure to have had some training at home< There are men and however--and Italians perhaps are here in the majority--who come to night school without having had any to speak of. In one school the other night there ap- | ,eared a regular Italian pupil, bringing ,, friend who, she explained, had land d that day. This eagerness for learn ng shows itself in pathetic ways dany of the women come straight to ,, chool from work. bringing something 0 eat with them, or even going without nything until reaching home. There . re two sessions for seniors, one from 15 to S:15 o'clock and the other from J ' :15 to 9:15 o'clock Some of the pupils -ork so late that they come direct from be shop to the S:15 o'clock session, and eep this us for five nights in the wook. Among the Italians, the teachers say, is common to have the new arrivals 7 i've their age as fourteen without re- ', ard to length of limb or lines on the :l ace. They hilON lildl lhty lllliot bS yer fourteen to be admitted and at = 1is age they stay until their knoWl- :, lge of the language has enabled them ? grasp the idea that any age over ,urteen is equally acceptable. They =, re an initiative people, or, rather, a ice anxious to please. On one occa- ", o on, dealing with a crowd of foreigners " ho wanted to register for the school, Y le teacher asked on arrival what he e orked at Pants" he said, under n anding a little. Putting the same lestion to the others who were wait " g. the same answer came with smil- Y, v 2 promptness. They were not sure 4, hat it was all about, but the reply ~, oants'' had pleased before, and they 4, l hastened to give equal satisfaction. a Sa they come in all weathers, often -' st through and through; without their '" nners sometimes. and always at the VI crifice of rest. But it is only for a w years, and the benefits last forev-
 Many poor boy and girl con- mned to leave school have worked VI cir way upward to that level for o lich nature meant them. There is Y