New Britain herald., 1924-11-19

arranged Tor the observance Of Ed- ucatlon week in New Britain that the emphasis is being laid upon the extent and work of the school plant and the desire to have the parents of pupils and the public generally get better acquainted with 1t.
 The public is invited to visit the schools while classes are in opera ton, which will be a novel exper- ience for those who avail them selves of the opportunity and also for the classes.
 The main thing about Education week is to make the public thor oughly acquainted with the citys educational facilities. In a general way Americans usually are proud of the public school system, in spite of congested conditions and some part ttme pupils, matters which in due time will be obviated by the vari- ous city governments where such conditions exist. There is also a tendency 10 point with pride at the product of the school system-uni- versal education without regard to 1 creed, color or class.
 The public school system has been part Of the fabric of American democracy since the birth of the nation. It has always existed but never on as great a scale as today. { There are finer and bigger buildings than ever before and more of them. Methods have improved even dur ing the present generation. More subjects are taught, the three R's being supplemented by a striking galaxy of useful knowledge which in former time were possible of mas tery by the well-to-do only.
 Yet strange as it may seem, ill.,
 Still More nlitcracy
 teraCy continues to abound to some thlNIiL III tHtSb ' IllItu GSIdlbo. w are fond of claiming that our school system is'the best in the world, yet we do not stand at the head of na- tions in literacy tests: and this as- tonishing thing is not due entirely to a steady influx of foreign-born. but shows Its head among native born. people who are supposed to have had the advantages of an American public school education.
 The bureau of the census, taken In 1920. reports that there are 67.265 ilitcrates in Connecticut, counting those 10 years Of age and over. Hi teracy means persons who cannot read and write in any language, and not only those who cannot read and write English, as the un- sophisticated suppose. Of these illiterates in Connecticut, 2,927 are of the native born white population. The remainder are 9f the foreign born, including 1,07S natlve-born negroes.
 The percentage of i'literates, 10 Connecticut Iliitcracy
 years and over, in Connecticut is likewise Illuminating. The percent { age of all classes In this state is 6.c. This is not the lowest in the Union, hy any means, this honor going to Iowa, where the percentage is II. Several other states in the wild and woolly west also also have low per contages. States with the highest illitcracy percentages are in the south, where untaught negro citi- zens-all native born Americans help swell the total. The highest percentage is in Louisiana, with ! 21.9
 Connecticut's illiteracy percentage of natives is 4. which is no higher than the percentage of illiteracy of children born from foreign or mixed parentage. This is an important | point, indicating that the children of torcign-horn or mixed parents are acquiring the rudiments of literacy as fully as those from native-born parents. and cannot be construed otherwise than as compliment to ] the public school system.
 The percentage of illteracy among Foreign Born Whites
 foreign born whites in Connecticut is high, being r. The lowest per centage among foreign born whites IS found in south Dakota and the state of Washington, which are tied with 4.7 each, closely followed by Iowa with A This means that i'm migration that has settled in these statos have been able to read and ! write a language to g greater extent than immigrants which come 10 Con necticut In fact, most of the i'm migration 10 these western farm states has been from portions of Europe where illiteracy has been and is lower than in the United States.
 Tn tho states where negroes arc few in number they have low per cantage Of iuiteracy. in Minnesota for instance, the percentage being only 3.1. while in New York the percentage is even lower, or o.9. Low percentages of illiteracy among ne Croos are found in virtually all the northern states, but in the southern st4trs the percentage is abnorma fly high, Louisiana leading with 3S.5. Louisiana also leads in illiteracy among all classes, the figures being 2l9. Illiterary among native born whites in Louisiana is ll.4, being only exceeded by New Mexico, witt II.9.
 ConnCc'icuts record of illiteracy is decreasing, the percentage be- tween the years l9f0 10 1920 among persons from 10 to 15 years of age being reduced from 4 to 3 per cent.
 \ Hopeful Sign
 Comparison of Connec'icut's ilH- t.racy with a ncishboring state, os- pecially when that state happens n