The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1914-08-27
BEING EDUCATED
WHILE THEY WORK
Giving The Foreign Born
Worker A Chance
How One Establishment In New York Edu-
Gated Forty Immigrant Women.
Board Of Education Deeply
Interested
From The Digest

In every portion of the country,
large employers are giving their
time, study and money to movements
to improve the condition of their
EN- tloyees, and to make easier for
them their efforts to improve them
selves. One of these which has re-
Gently come to our attention is told
about in a recent issue of the Ont
look. as follows:
A hopeful and significant occa-
sion was that of the first graduation
exercises. recently conduc by the
New York Board of Education in
factory, wh.p forty Immigrant, wom-
EN- received their certificates of lit
eracy. This class is the result of
an experiment made by firm who
operate large white goods muslin
underwear factory, about year
ago, in CO operation with the De-
partment of Education. The object
was to eliminate the ten per cent of
illiteracy among the foreign workers
In the factory.
The simple exercises at the factory
on the evening of June 4, before an
audience composed Of employers,
representatives. of labor, industrial
experts, and educational authorities,
as well as the friends and CO. work
ers of the class, were full of SYM
bolism. More important than bet
ter knowledge of machines and
materials were the sense of civic re-
sponsibility and love for American
institutions which the workers ex-
pressed in their own words. The
motto America is another word for
opportunity" in large letters above
the platform, formed fitting back
ground.
The work involved in the course
prescribed by the Board of Educa-
ton for factory class, completion
which entities these forty women to
their public school certificates, was
demonstrated by the program.
This included salute to the flag;
singing of America physical
training exercise; the story of the
evolution of an uDdergarment, from
the cotton in the field to the bobbins
for spinning, told simply by six
girls; How to get and hold a posi-
tion," and. How to fill out work
report" All the pupils gave evil
dence of the knowledge of the rudl-
ments of arithmetic. geography. and
history. as we'll as of English.
The significance of the occasion
was emphasized by the speakers.
among whom were the New York
State Commissioner of Education
John II. Finley. the Cily Super
lntendant of Schools (Wllliam Z.
Maxwell }, the President of the Board
Of Education (Thomas w. Churc-
hill) and Mary Antin.
The State of New York is said to
be the only State in the Union
which did not decrease its percent
age of illiteracy from 1900 to 1910.
The Board of Education Is deeply
interested in this work of reducing
illiteracy among the one-half million
adults. mostly immigrants, in New
York City. The factory class is the
beginning If work which needs the
CO. operation of every agency and
individual inturostad in industrial
betterment.
This class going forth is body
of witnesses to the success of the
experiment. 1t is hoped that other
employers will recognize it's econom-
ic value. With the installation of
increasingly dangerous types of
machinery, the llliterate worker by
his failure to comprehend directions
is menace to his own safety and
to industrial enterprise.
Mary Antin sees in this occasion
new proof to the world that
America is sincere in the things
which she promised the world in
1776. The real significance of the
occasion, she told the audience, is
not that a group of alien girls has
been taught to read. write. and ciph-
err, but that Americn is proving
that she believes in the people-all
the people, the common people-and
che is opening to everybody the
stores of universal knowledge. which