The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1929-03-08
ForeignB01n
Youth Feels
Infe1i01ity'
BY MARTHA LEE

A serious problem confronts us
today. A boy of foreign parentage
has been educated out of his class
$50 he thinks and into no other.
He has been taught standards OF
living above his own people, he says,
and has nothing to take their place.
Our customs, our modes of living
are different from those of other
countries. A southern European
feels just as strange in the United
States as we feel in his native land.
Our food is as hard to become &C
customed to as their dishes are for
us.
OF course, through our educational
system, the children come in contact
with these differences more quickly
than do the parents. They see how
their American classmates do things
And children are unhappy when
they are different" They must
initiate, to the letter, those with
whom they come in contact.
And of course, the farther they
progress in school, the more they see
the necessity of doing and dressing,
talking and being like their fellow
students.a Here is young man who
feels completely out Of things:
| Dear Miss Lee-I am son Of parents
of foreign birth and I was born in the
old country but was brought to America
when a baby. I am one of thirteen
children. My father is a laborer and we
| 10 ba 81 Of
| people here. My mother works hard and
has no time to learn English. except what
we children can teach her.
Our home is small and of course crowd
ed with such big family. My father
comes home at night, takes his shoes
of, and props them up on the stove. The
house is always hung with washing, dur
! ing cold weather, and it is almost inn
possible to study because OF the noise and
| confusion Of the younger children.
I am in my last year of high school,
1s-years-old. am grateful for my edu-
cation, because I know it has cost my
parents number of sacrifices to give it
to me.
I am quite bright in school. nice look
ing, in a foreign way and something oil
an athlete. which has brought me before
Viz obhhCAAVo- 4slb w 4lOI hlOW R1lSbtlSA
am glad for all this or not. I am dis.
contented with my home life. hate the
crowded conditions, the poverty, the old
fashioned ideas. AS soon as am through
school, l must go to work. Labor pay!
the most money, to a beginner, so I sup
pose I must be q laborer. These pretty
are not for me, am foreign and poor
But am discontinued with girls of my
own class. Figure that one out. Miss Lee
You're all wrong, Eighteen. In
the first place your parents are
progressing in the new country OF
they would not have seen the neces-
sity of you attending school after
you had reached the age when the
state no longer requires you to at
tend.
You are intelligent. Exceptionally
so, from your letter. You have nc
reason to feel inferiority when you
are with your classmates. You
clothes may make a difference now
because do know children are APT
to be SnobbiSh, but when you gel
out in the world it will be your gooo
mind that counts.
Your parents have gotten along
without any help from you so far
Why not try your hand at some
thing you want to do first, and see
how you can get along. You coulc
help them some, financially, and al
the same time try your hand al
what you want to do. Your knowI.
edge for foreign language ought tt
make you valuable to some com.
pany which has a foreign market.
Better forget about the girls foI
a while. You have big program
mapped out for yourself.