Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-03-18
CITIZENS IN EMBRYO
Stories Of New York's East
Side Children.
ARE QUICK TO LEARN
SOON PICK UP AMERICAN WAYS
AND IDEAS.
Of All the Little Foreigners the Jews
Are Probably the Cleverest-Their
Queer Ambitions.
Written for The Evening Star.

written for The Evening Star.
The children of the alien in our big cities
are known to nobody so well as to the
teachers in the public schools where they
are made over into little Americans These
teachers can tell many amusing and pa
thetic stories of the youngsters desperate
struggle to become Americanized-of how
quickly they learn the ways and ideas of
strange country and how curiously they
misapply them. making two and two count
five.
Among all these teachers, whether in New
York. Chicago st. Louis, Milwaukee. De-
troit, Pittsburg, Philadelphia, Boston,
Cleveland any other city, there is
none who has made closer study of the
immigrants children than Miss Myra Kelly,
whose delightful stories of east side school
life have made a great success in magazine.
and book form. She had some interesting
stories to tell the writer about little Ameri-
cans in the making.
Il spent two years teaching in a school
in the Yiddish quarter" she said, and al
ways found the work most interesting All
the pupils were little foreign Jews, except
one-an Irish boy-and he bossed the whole
school The children were certainly what
you would call nice children-lovable little
youngsters, with a sweet and confiding dis
position especially the girls. They were
wonderfully smart, and their quickness in
picking up English and adapting themselves
10 American ways was astonishing.
Their parents. as rule, could not speak
English, and did not take the trouble to
learn. They kept TO their old ways-the
ways of the strictly orthodox Jew. The
youngsters We're sensitive on the subject.
They felt the ignorance of their parents in
the new environment very keenly. Often a
child would interrupt her mother when the
latter was trying to talk to me in broken
English, and would offer to interpret. This
was embarrassing. because sometimes l
would have to say:
The Boys Opportunity.
Isaac, tell your mother that you are
the worst boy in my class. Tell her you
didn't come to school three times last week
and you won't do your lessons properly
Isaac would turn to his mother and tell
her all this in just two words of Yiddish.
Then her face would beam and she would
say, Yah! in a stoiId, satisfied tone.
And tell her, Isaac. that if you don't
do better right away, you will have to
leave the school,
Again a rapid word in Yiddish, another
satisfied smile, and the same 'Yahr 1t was
all you could get out Of her. l suppose that
Isaac told her teacher said he was the best
boy in the school, but l could not criticise
his Interpretation, for l didn't know Yid-
dish
There was Just the same trouble when
we sent postcards to their homes COM
planning that the children had been playing
hockey or were backward in their classes
The parents could not read English, and
the youngsters were given the postcards
TO interpret. No doubt they said that
teacher was writing TO compliment mother
on having such clever youngsters
AS the children learn English and be-
s .3e Americanized, they drift away from
their parents who stick to their old Ian
guage and old notions. That Is the trag-
eoS OF the Ghetto-a very deep and bitter
trageay-but it is inevitable. The old peo-
n Eaa heir ..I-fT
world, they are proud of their knowledge
OF English and their cleverness; but they
grieve because at the same time the chill
dren drift away from orthodoxy and frop,
them. Nevertheless, there is a close fam
lily affection among all these people. Again
and again you will see a child irving To
cover up ms mothers ignorance. When she
Yainiy tries to make herself understood in
English, he will assure you that she sneaks
beautiful Yiddish.
Good People and Bad.
The youngsters in my class took IT very
hardly when they found out that | was a
'krisht. They liked me. and they had been
taught from babyhood that Krishts' were
not nice people-that they were people to be
avoided and despised. 1t took them a
long time to accept the fact that was a
'Krsht.' The world to them. Is divided
into 'Krishts and 'Sheenies'-good people
a third class "a
-" All the teachers in this school are
krishts and Sheenles. said little girl in
my class, cepun only one That's Miss
Petroshinf-naming an Italian teacher
She amt Krisht and she amt a Sheenie
She's just Chimney
The girls always want to be teachers.
Just as the boys want to be lawyers A fell
low teacher told me that one of her little
girls came to her proudly and said;
Scuse. please. but I got mine pocket
full from teachers
Full OF teachers? What nonsense Won
talk, child
The girl protested It was the truth, and
at last she turned her pockets inside out.
What do you think she had? A lot OF cut
out dress patterns. showing pictures of
women In smart hats and coats. To her
limited experience they must be teachers
simply because they wore hats Only
teachers did that. All the other women she
saw wore shawis or wigs or went bare
headed
A Closed Book.
The country Is a closed book 10 them.