The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1913-10-30

From the report of an investigation
by Louise Montgomery, carried on I'M
der the direction of the University of
sChicagc Settlement and the Chicago
sAlurnnae Club of the University of
kChicago)
tsE7xciustve Service The Survey Press
Bweau.)
Alma Is q good GIRL said the Pc
|7ish mother. 'tShe brings home all her
money, but-she goes out where she
pIeases nights and Sundays and we
Ninety per cent. OF the parents in
the stockyaFds neighborhood of Chica-
go admit that they have as little con-
troll as this over their daughters,
Many dercely condemn tthe American
1ffe'' which makes such insubordina-
ton possible
Every foreign industrial community
in our American cities is confronted
with much the same sftuatioJHtl1e
Amertcan4b girl of foreign parents
lives between the unseen traditions
o< the Old World and the visible GUS
toms of the New. The foreign parent
and the American child are under one
roof. struggling with the misunder-
stan6in gs common to age and youth
but intensified by the natural desire
of the one to cling to inherited Ftan-
-dards and by the strong young will
of the other 10 BIS vital part Of the
Present generation
ground of a recent study in the Chi
cago gtockyards neighborhood hare
teen known to the University OF Chi
cago Settlement from one to eight
years Within this group of 900 fam
1Iies 500 girls were selected from whom
( II was possible to obtain the informa-
1fon needed with a fair degree of ac-
euracy. Without exception the 500
girls represent a prevailing type apart
from the historical background of the
he Tszf In l.
ca, struggling to keep up with Ameri-
can standards and making every effort
to avoid being classed as foreign
ers-'
The dominant educational standard
of the neighborhood is the minimum
legal requirement of the state accept
ed with little protest by the majority,
for the people as a whole are essen
tally a law-abiding people. The rea-
sons for this attitude, however, are
various. Among hard-headed peas
ants, for example, there is the trad1-
tienal feeling that education is a lux
ury- Polish parents who owned a three
etor-v tenement from which they wer9
collecting $50 a week, not because thew
were pressed for money but because
in the natural order of things she was
destined to marry Polish working
man and it would be very unwise 20
Unfit her for that position by giving
her the education of a Yankee"
very much larger number how
ever. feel an actual need of the chi1d's
wages TO supplement the earnings U1
the father. The sacrifice Of little
-frIs to the passionate determination
10 own property may be found IN any
social group, from the undaunted Wtd-
or who takes in washing six days
OF the week and drives her children
TO any task that will bring in money
to meet the payments on the four
room cottage, to the thriving saloon
Reaper who is landlord over a. dozen
tenants.
Again the failure of the elementary
school to meet the practical needs
OF an Industrial community is rec
ognized by many parents. Work
with the hands is good said a Ger
man father, land American education
does not give it"
Apart from the group of parents who
accept the compulsory age limit as
their educational standard, is another
group made up of those who look be
.yond the law As Bohemian Ia
borer OF the stockyards expressed it:
People who have learned nothing do
the dirty work Of the world I want
my children to have a chance at a
clean job. That's why I send them
TO school"
The educational standards of the
foreign homes influence the future of
both boys and girls, but in the stock
yards district IT is fundamental idea
that the education of the girl is a mat