The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1907-07-11
Aliens to be Given a Chance for
Free instruction in Night
Schools at the Y. N. C. A.
MANUFACTURERS Adm WORK
Board of Education to Be Asked to
Take Hold Of the Matter if Free
Schools Prove Successful
This Year

Aliens in Kenosha are to be given
chance to get an English education
IN Kenosha without money and with
out price as the educational committee
of the Young Mems Christian AS
ISOLATION under the leadership of
James Cavanagh, one of the members
OF the Board of Education has ar
ranged for the opening Of free night
schools during the coming winter,
months at which time the people of
the city who have been forced to go
to work before their education was
com pleted as well as aliens who are
thronging the city in great numbers
will have chance to get an education
in the English branches. Night
schools have been maintained at the
Y. M. C. A. for several years but in
the past they were open only to the
members of the Association and the
members Of the classes were forced
to pay an added fee for the instruction
they received.
The cost of the membership and the
added fee for instruction made it al.
most n impossible for many of the
aliens to enter these schools and when
the matter was taken up this year
Attorney Cavanagh declared that the
time had come to have these schools
thrown open to aliens as free schools.
In order to do this Mr.. Cavanagh
agreed to raise the funds needed for
the support of the schools by private
subscriptions. He took up the matter
with z. q. Simmons, Charles and
Nathan Allen and Thomas B. Jeffrey,
along with other manufacturers in
the city, and all of these men assured
their aid in the work of educating the
foreigners of the city. No set sum
was raised for the work, but Mr.. Cav
anagh has been given the promise
that the money needed will be forth
coming and the schools will be opened
Just as soon as the heated season is
over.
It is planned to secure an excellent
faculty for the schools and to give
them a thorough trial. Mr.. Cava-
nagh will watch the experiment very
closely, and if the schools prove a
success the matter will be taken up
by the Board of Education next year
and an effort will be made to have
night schools opened in the various
school buildings of the city and under
the management Of the Board of Edu-
cation.
Racine, Milwaukee, Madison and
other larger cities in Wisconsin have
already opened public night schools
for the education of those who could
not attend the schools during the day
and these schools are proving of
greatest worth. The cost of these
schools is reduced to minimum by
the employment of teachers who are
already employed in the day schools.
In nearly all of the cities manufac-
turers have given largely for the sup
port of the night schools and in this
way the expense to the various cities
has been greatly reduced. The for
eign population of Kenosha is increas
ing with alarming rapidity and it is
claimed that already fully thirty per-
cent of the population of the city is
unable to speak the English LAM
guage. These people are anxious to
learn and it is thought that the free
night schools will have crowded
classes. The night schools at the Y.
M. C. A. in other years have been
successful, but the cost of the in
struction as we'll as the demand that
the students join the Association had
the tendency to keep out many who
would have sought instruction had
the school had no string tied to It.
The full announcement of the vari-
GUS courses to be offered, together
with list of the men who will do the
teaching will be made public within
short time. The plan is to make
these schools very attractive in order
that they may appeal to the largest
number of people.