Baraboo weekly news. [volume] (Baraboo, Wis.) 1912-197?, 1920-12-16

worst of all, the two Japanese teach
ers stood around and watched US
They would doubtless have helped us
if they could, but the only English
I ever heard them use was Good
morning" Our pupils are the children
of the plantation workers, aud are
Portuguese, Porto Ricans, FiiipinOs, a
few Hawaiians, and about two thirds
OF them are Japanese. The Hender-
sons send their two children to Hilo
to school, or have a private tutor,
and they are the only white people on
the plantation except the bookkeeper,
an old Scotchman.
l teach second, third and fourth
grades, and am the principal; my
friend has three divisions of the first
grade-those who have just entered
| and know no English, those who have
| been in school a year or a little less,
and know some English, and those
who have been in school year or two
and can do regular first grade work.
She has thirty-five pupils, and
have twenty. The children usually
finish third or fourth grade by the
time they are fourteen, then they stop
school and go to work on the planta-
| ton. If they wish to continue in
school, they are expected to go to
Hilo. 1t was simply impossible to call
the roll that first day-here is a
sample Of the names-try it for your
60 To
manoha, Shimabuku Chitashi. Aayo
Terashito Eihiko Eguchi, Seikachu
Goiya, Kashiyo Kawauchi, Shigeko
Murasaki, Seichi Yamashiro. These
are only the Japanese names, the Fill
ipinO and Portuguese names are quite
as funny in their way, but not so
hard to pronounce.
If you have never been in a Jap
anese school, you can have no idea
how little equipment there is, accord
ing to an American point of view.
There was one small portable black
board in each room, rough benches
without backs, and benches a little
higher for desks. There was chalk,
the children had pencils and paper,
a few bO0ks-and that was the extent
of the equipment. You can imagine
how discouraging this was to us, par
ticularly when you add to this thu
fact that the children shouted out
their lessons at the top Of their VOC
es to show that they were studying
This is a japanese trait, but everyone
in this school seemed to have it
strongly developed
Own School Different
Well, to make long matter short
we taught in these surroundings
two whole months But the past twa
weeks we have been in our own
school, which is very nice building,
excellently equipped. We enjoy the
work very much. The children are so
good-there is one appreciate diff
ference between these children and
American youngsters - these pupils
are uniformly respectful, courteous,
and well behaved. Discipline isn't even
thought of here. They are even polite
to each other, and that isn't common
among small Americans, I believe. On
the playground you hear them say,
Excuse me" and Thank you, even
when they think they are not obser-
we'd. The school room is quiet now
that we have trained them to study
quietly, in American fashion, for not
a child in school has ever had a shoe
on, except that some Of the bigger
girls wear wooden clogs in rainy
weather, but these. of course, are left
at the door Our rubbers made a SEN
sation-they called them other shoes |
My friend and I are perfectly wild |
about Chinese cooking. We have a |
chop suey dinner in Hilo at least once
a week. Of course, we eat it with chop |
sticks, in regular ''Pake" (pronoun-
oed Pah kay, means Chinese) style. |
We never know what we are eating
there are lily roots, mushrooms |
shrimp, pork. Chinese vegetables, |
noodles, and rice, shredded up and |
Favored with the most delicious |
gravies. The food is very rich, but it
doesn't seem to hurt us
There are three "haOle" (whitel |
movies in town but for local color one
really has to go to the Japanese NOV
lie. Everyone sits on the floor, babies |
dogs, and grown ups, smoking, laugh |
ing. and drinking tea. The movie is of |
coure pictures of japanese actors, |
and there is sort of reader who /
stands up near the screen. points to |
it with a long stick, and explains il.
a sing song voice what it is all about !
OF course, this takes hours-the pic |
ture is run through slowly enough for |
the "reader' to explain each picture |
thoroughly. The movies are the wier- |
dest things-but you ought to hear
the music-of course to our "haole' |
ears it isn't music, but they seem to |
enjoy it, so l suppose we are not edu- i
Gated up to it. 1t is a queer sensation |
to be the only white persons in a |