The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1920-06-10

Methods in vogue in Montana in
dealing with the vexatious problem
of providing educational opportun-
tiles for neglected foreigners in re-
mote localities are being followed
by the naturalization bureau of the
department of labor. A plan of CO.
operation between the division of
citizenship training of hat bureau
and the local public schools is let
ting the light into isolated home
steads, into logging and mining
camps, into shacks and bunk
houses.
In two states, Minnesota and
Washington, the rural teachers and
the adult foreigner are brought to-
gether through the naturalization bu-
reau and the county superintendent
of schools. While details of the plan
vary slightly in these different fields,
the general principle is the same.
The need of the foreign born man or
woman for education is made known
when he takes out his first papers"
The naturalization bureau makes the
need known to the county s~uperinten-
dent. The county superintendent
brings together the candidate for
citizenship and the nearest available
teacher, who agrees to give him a
certain amount of instruction and
gives him the textbook loaned to him
during this preparatory period, to be
his own property when he is finally
admitted to citizenship.
Training in 90 Districts
In Montana there are already 60
districts where citizenship training is
being carried out through a similar
plan worked out by Miss Flora Sims,
Phillips county superintendent and
naturalization examiner for that dis
trict. The same principle is being
modified to suit the special exigen-
cies of the lumber and logging camps
in Washington and Oregon. In that
case, specially qualified ones are
teaching, under the supervision of
the county superintendent, the Ian
guage of the country and the ideals
that have nodded the nation.
1t is wonderful, in view of the diff
ficuIties, what results are being OBJ t
tanned by an enterprise which adds {
another duty to the task of hard
worked and poorly paid rural school
teachers, with, as a rule, 10 addition {
al compensation. Possibly the rea- !
son is, as n such agent in Ameri- T
canization said, that these teachers {
are more willing to take hold of the
work than city teachers because they
are brought more closely in contact
with the foreigners than city people {
are and thus realize the need of s
characterization. 2
Teachers Show Devotion TO Work ]
The splendid devotion shown by
many of these rural teachers, and
the rewards of it, is exemplified by
what Mrs. Nina Mitchell Crow accom- v
plished in a one room county school t
at Cross S Creek, Coalwood, Mon d
tana. The B%ulgarians who formed t
the settlement spoke, besides their a
language, Russian, Rumanian, t.
German and various Slav tongues, S
but centuries of oppression by Tur-
key and the czardom had made them 81
backward in civilization. Mrs. Grow 1
had about 26 pupils in her one room T
of ages ranging from six to Fl
30 years; father and son, in one p
case, attending at the same time. Six fl
of the men were preparing for ma CT
In teaching these Mrs. a
Grow found the book furnished by O.
government very helpful. ST
The women and girls of the COM W
the teacher found were best b
reached in their homes. So this
hearted woman with vision M
made friends with them, visited them Of
lin one case living with n of the h.
antilles three weeks-had the girls ri