The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1912-08-10
POLISH PAROCHIAL SCHOOLS
10000 Pupils in $50 SchooIs-Relig-
ions instruction in Poiish-Engiish
Teaching-Most of the Children
American-Born.

At the recent national convention
of the Catholic Educational Associa-
ton held at Pittsburgh, Pa, the Rev
erend Francis Retka, C. S. Sp., of
that city read paper on Catholic
Schools in Polish Parishes in the
course of which he made the following
reference to the present condition of
Polish parochial schools.
There are at present somewhat
over three million Catholics of Polish
nationality in the United States, or
about one-fifth of all the Catholics in
the country. These are distributed
among $50 organized parishes with
resident priests and 307 missions.
Some $50 of these parishes have paro-
chial schools with Sisters; about
200 are in charge of lay teachers,
where the priest himself does the
greater share of the teaching. But
few of them go beyond the eighth
grade. About 35 per cent, however,
have eighth grade courses There are
some 5000 Polish teaching Sisters,
about 1900 of whom belong to dis
tinctively Polish communities, chief
Nazareth and the Felician Sisters,
and the rest to non-Polish communi
ties, mainly the School Sisters of
Notre Dame. All told, there are about
100000 children attending Polish
parochial schools. The number Of
Polish children attending English
parochial schools would not, / believe,
come up to one-half of one per cent.
By far the greater part of the chill
dren are American born, some of
them already of the third generation.
| 1t is admitted that the American born
Polish child speaks and writes better
Polish than the average child from
abroad. This is true even of those
children whose parents are American
born. The number of Polish children
who do not know their mother tongue
or know it but slightly is extremely
small, and, proportionately, does not
seem to be on the increase. Basing
their judgment on present data, the
more general opinion among those
conyersant with the subject seems to
be that even if immigration were to
cease, the Polish language is not like
ly to lose it's present prominence for
for many generation, and that should
immigration continue, even in it's
present restricted state, the great bulk
of Polish people bids fair to remain
such, not only in character but in
| language also, and that indefinitely.
Bi-Lingual Instruction.
I'm their schools, religious instruc-
tion is all in Polish. So, too, Bible
history, Church history, Polish history,
and, of course, whatever is directly
connected with the language, as Pol
ish grammar, composition, etc. 1t is,
| however, customary in some schools
to give the corresponding English re-
! ligious terminology; also to point out
the difference between Polish and
English proper names of places and
persons. There has not been until
| now uniform program of studies for
Polish schools. l mean, of course,
with regard to the subjects taught in
Polish. Recently, with the initiative
of the convention of Polish priests
held in Detroit last February, a ten
tative program was arranged, which
is likely, with some small changes, to
become universal. The English course
of studies in Polish schools is as much
as possible the one prescribed in the
respective dioceses where such courses
obtain. Otherwise the course pur-
sued in public schools is mainly fol-
| lowed. Of course it is not always
possible to get in the English subjects
in their entirety. Some schools, in
order to be able to do this, commence
class an hour earlier, namely, s
o'clock. AS rule Polish children
are bright. I think among the bright
est. Like all the Slavonic races, they
are especially good in languages. They
also show. marked aptitude for music,
| painting and other cognate accom-
plishments. In this particular respect
even children of the very poorest
| classes, whose home surrounding mill
tate against mental development
dlOHS IASSS llACS, dIC, Luluk, -InOT0
advanced than non-Polish children of
maturer age and much better oppor-
| tunities. On the other hand, in math-
ematics they are somewhat backward
! During the first years, the Polish
child seems rather deficient in Eng
| lish; it makes much better progress
! in its Polish studies. But about the
L IL,
have caught up in the English sub
jects as well. And with the possible
exception of arithmetic, towards the
end of the eighth grade course, be-
lieve the average Polish pupil com
pares very favorab1y with his English
cIassmate of about the same age. He
speaks English about as well and
writes it as correctly, and in addition