Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-10-31
CHUN LING SAMb|T|0N
Priest of Buddha Studying
English in Night School.
CLASS IN THE FIRST GRADE
Many Foreigners Among the Pupils
Under instruction.
REFLEX OF THE MELTING POT
System Ct Tuition Which Benefits
Those Unable to Attend
Day Schools.

Chun Ling. a priest OF Buddha, well
versed in all Of the mysterious knowledge
that is secreted in those mystic temples
of the plains of China, knowing as much
about the mysteries of the invisible world
as Nine. Blavatsky and her books could
tell-and perhaps mOre-is a student In
the first grade of the Franklin School
night class for foreigners. Chun Ling 8
ears have heard the tinkling temple bells
far down the road to Mandalay and be-
yond: he has listened to the raucous
call Of the west and Is now at the foot
of the stepladder OF United States knowl-
edge. He sits three nights a week at
table with a Hungarian girl, an Irish
girl and a Russian boy. in a room full of
foreigners, all of whom strive nightly
with little first reader while a patient
teacher builds up their vocabulary of
simple English words.
The foreign class of which this Bud
dhis. priest is member forms an odd bit
of color against the plain background of
public school education. In fact, all the
night school classes have a marked In
dividuality of their own. Into the night
schools flow the youngsters AMI adults
who. for scores of reasons. have had no
chance to learn their alphabet and mul-
tiplication tables by day. The night
Zangwilrs play, THE Melting Pot"
where all sorts and conditions of for
eigners are the elements of an incongru-
Gus mass which later is melted and
welded into the great body Of good
American citizenship.
Not Foreigners Only.
However. it is not only foreigners which
the night school Is beneflting. In Wash
ington are hundreds of young clerks. men
and women. boys and girls, firemen, car
penters cooks, housemaids. nurses. peo-
pie In all trades and callings, who missed
their chance to go through day school
and who are determined to make up the
deficiency by the opportunity offered by
night Mondays, Wednesdays and FRI
days the desks Of the day students In
dozen or SO of the schools are turned
over to the after-nightfall students. And
the schoolrooms which by day see many
a youngster Indifferent to the opportu-
mites of free education behold an army
of earnest workers determined to make
up for the OPPORTUNITIES missed-or never
offered.
So it is easily seen that those who go
to school by night are in the same class
as the gentleman from MissOuri-they
have to be '"shown.' They want re-
suts-practical results. that Will put ex-
ira dollars in the pay envelope. III there
is too much frill and fancy In the course
would leave. So say many persons con-
nected with the night schools. For that
reason a class Of husky young men who
fire" boilers are giving up three nights
a week at the Armstrong Manual Train
ing School to learn more about their
own trade, and something about the engi-
neer's job Some day the engineer VIII
be sick or take to loafing. and then the
hundred clerks and office boys are learn
ing to typewrite and compose good let
tiers; some day the boss Will want a
letter written and Miss Blondine, the
stenographer. Will be at lunch. The once
boy will rattle off letter to Stockson.
Bonds & Co, and he will get raise.
Learning the Culinary Art.
Glasses OF young colored women are
learning to cook from some OF the best
cooking teachers in the land. Some
day a rich lady will want an expert
in her kitchen at $40 a month. and-as 1t
has happened in the past. 1t will happen
in the futures she will send to the public
schools for the ruler Of her kitchen
cabinet.
1t is the practical things which the
night school stands for. The students are
SO different from the day scholars, and
so much older and more experienced In
worldly and practical things. that the
methods Of instruction are different. A
man of forty years, who wants to learn
to read, Is not going to be satisfied with
three pages OF reading matter. beginning
with the startling sentence
"Oh see the rat! and ending with
the question, docs the cat see the rat?'
l. No. He wants to learn to read the
newspaper. to read about fires. murders,
airships and want ads. So they teach
him words which come within the scope
of his everyday, practical life.
There goes a fire engine" is far sweet
er 10 his ears than THE rat Is bad
rat"
1t is seen in the night schools that
nearly every one of the crowd that comes
to the first grades knows something
about money. They can make change
and know how much dollar is. so the
teacher of mathematics takes the United
States currency for an example and the
ladder of arithmetic leans against the
almighty dollar
Difference in Curriculum.
Instead of asking fifty-year-old col
ored whitewasher the delightful question:
IF there are twenty nine persimmons
on a branch and John threw a stone and
knocked off seven. how many persimmons
would there be left?" the teacher asks:
III you have 30 cents and spend cents
for sugar, how much money would you
have?" In that way the tremendous
variety of sheep. goats. apples. pears.
boys. girls, bricks. marbles. tops and the
whole toy box of lower-grade arithmetic
is left untouched at night.
1t means nothing to old Aunt Sally.
who hobbies from somewhere on the
Eastern branch to learn a little readin'
and writin, when they ask her how
many daffodils are eight dafodils and
four daffodils. She would be worrying
her poor old gray head over what daffO-
dis are, but she knows mighty we'll
about cents and cents.
II is another odd fact that the higher
you go the lower are the ages Of the
students. In the first grades. painfully
toilng over simple words and phrases,
with fingers aching from the unaccus-
toned grip on pencil. are old men and
women. In the colored schools you can
see white-headed "mammies" trying pa
tiently to write. Some OF them have
been in that first grade for years and
will never learn, but they keep at it, and
probably will keep at II until they are
too old to come any more. There are
old men. too. proud Of the fact that they
can add three figures together on a
blackboard. And of course there are
some young fellows, but in the higher
grades you will find really young peo-
pie who may be continuing where they
left OFF day school to go to work. In
the eighth grades, a general rule, are
students i'm the teens and twenties-never
any older than that.
One-Sided Instruction.