Evening star., 1903-12-19
IMMIGRANTS SCHOOL
WHERE FOREIGNERS ARE
TAUGHT OUR WAYS.
Newly Arrived Men Learn Through
Blackboards the Blessings Of
Our Government

From the New York Tribune.
Leaving others to continue the verbal war
over the advantages or disadvantages OF
permitting Europe's hories to descend on
these shores, little band of earnest pa
triots has established the fl. st of number
of schools soon to he opened where immi-
grants may learn to become good Amert-
cans through a series of blackboard les.
sons. There would seem to be no more ear
nest seeker after this kind of knowledge
| than the immigrant, for the school o. ened
| at No. 2lS South 4th street, Phi ladelplia, in
three rooms of fair size, has already scores
more pupils than can be accommodated.
The immigrants, chiefly Russians. with
their sons and daughters, have come to
school hungering for knowledge. Hum
dreds have been enrolled and the rooms are
! nightly crowded 10 the extreme lint OF
their capacity. The teachers volunteers
from the city's educational staff as lis ed
by few earnest workers who wish TO see
the ignorant immigrants lifted to h CHER
plane, give Their services free
All are accomplished linguists for If was
FOUND impossible to permit any to under.
take the work of teaching who could nor
SPEAK several languages, for the reason
that perfect Babel of tongues is oxen
by the men. women, boys and girls who at
tend the school, few of them having been
In the country longer than six months. and
scarcely any knowing more than enough En-
slsh TO make themselves understood in that
LANGUAGE AS for reading or writing the
language OF their new country, that was
ItoS ioT Il moment 10 be expected. If WAS
therefore necessary to begin the work of
Teaching these aliens the Constitution of
their new country by making them familiar
with the alphabet, then advancing to sim.
pie words of one syllable, and so on to the
Ilsher heights of learning, where it would
De made possible for them to understand
the meaning of the written law of the land.
Divided in Glasses.
The school has been divided into three
classes. In one room about a hundred
grown-up men and women, with a sprin-
king of boys and girls, can be found each
night wrestling with the mysteries of or
typography 1t is strange to see these elder
~ scholars knitting their brows over such
problems as the spelling of the word
girl" the correct pronunciation of dog
or the proper sound to give to the first let
ter of the personal pronoun I'VE" In the
second room the pupils who can spell cor
rectly simple words of one syllable are
gathered for easy reading lessons Grown
men, with the untidy beard of the typical
immigrant, sit side by side with bright
eyed boys and girls, all equal in the dense-
ness OF their ignorance of what any Amer
lean child could teach them, but all in
deadly earnest and determined to learn.
In the third room are the advanced pu-
pills, to whom 1t is found possible to teach
the Constitution of the United States a
word at a time. Among the immigrants
who have been attracted to the school are
some who had more educational advan-
tageS in the old country than the ma ajority.
Some, 1t was found when the pupils were
classified at the opening of the school,
could read and write English little, hay-
ing been what is known wealthy" in
their home village and able to afford the
advanta ges of some local establishment Of
learning where foreign languages were
taught. These are in a class by them
selves. With the clauses of the Constitu-
tion written on the blackboard these adj
vanced pupils are able to commit it to
memory 81 line at time, the teacher care
fully and patiently explaining the full
meaning of each word, until in time they
will know as much about this framework
of the national liberty as any American
child.
Enthusiastic Teachers.
The teachers are enthusiastic over their
work. 1t is almost new experience to
those who have taught in American public
schools to find such whole-hearted reach
ing after knowledge the immigrant pu-
pis with the bearded faces and the care-
lined features display. There is no frivolity
anywhere The middle aged man who pores
over his first reader is as anxious to solve
the mystery of the printed pages as any
learned scholar who delves into musty man.
uscripts for light on the lost pages of am
tique history. 1t may seem comicai to the
Well-educated onlooker to listen to a youth
full teacher leading an elderly woman, who
probably has sons older than he, through
the may labyrinths of the alphabet But
the pupils fail TO see any humorous side to
It, They are there to learn how to speak
and read and write English, to the end that
they may be fitted to master the Constitu.
ton of their adopted country and become
thoroughly conversant with the law of e
land that they have chosen for their own
When the teachers have piloted a sufti-
cient number of pupils through the school
course 1t is intended to open other schools
of a similar nature, placing some of the
graduates from the central school to teach
their countrymen what they have learned
In this way the work will be spread over
the city, or In that part OF ii where the :n-
migrants settle; and In time, when similar
schools have been established in othar
Cities as it Intended. the stigma of ignor.
ance will be removed from the immigrant,
and 1t will be no longer necessary to wait
for the second generation before q fa.nily
from the old world viii be true Americans.