Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-12-19
MOTHER STUDENTS
REGRET VACATIONS
AUGMENTATION Lessons for
Foreign-Born Parents Lead
to Citizenship.
BY GRETCHEN SMITH.

A certain group of public school stu
dents has accepted the Christmas vaca-
ton under protest
why let so many days pass without
iessons?" they ask. 1T will only mean
we will fall so far behind and take SO
much longer to learn
This is neither a fairy tale nor a
Christmas story. A visit to the Amer
icanization School at Tenth and H
streets will reveal a group of students
porting over books and following the
teachers instructions with an eager
ness and effectiveness surpassed only
by their distaste for holidays. There is
small wonder, however. that these eX-
traordinary pupils do not wish to inter
rIIpt the lessons in reading and writing.
Fc~ them tho school hours are reStful
and entertaining 1t means an escape
from noise and responsibility. 1t also
means the opening of door to new
power and to the fascinating world OF
books.
Mothers Are Pupils.
For these pupils are in the majority
of cases, mothers and housewives, who.
as children in the "old country" never
went to school and since their arrival in
the United States have been vPinlY
str-'r~''--~ = master a new ard Diff
cult tongue
Erc~ morning and afternoon
cIaes~- y roreign-bOrn illiteTateS are
held at the AmericaniZation School, but
few classes can boast a more conSclen-
tious group of students than that
which Is attended twice a week by the
mothers who are brought from Wash
SnRton's suburbs in a bus loaned to the
school by the Rotary Club. These
women, Greek, Italian, Russian or
Turkish, whatever may have been the
land of their birth, all speak English
more or less fluently. None of them,
however, reads or writes ever the Ian
guaee CT their birth. and to be able to
read a newspaper, or to write note to
their children's teachers at school. is
now the all-absorbing ambition Of their
lives.
The Americanization School under
the able supervision of its principal,
Miss Maude Alton, has solved the prob
lem of what to do with the little
children" when mother goes to school.
While mamma" is learning how to
read and write in the class room up
stairs, under the direction of Miss D.
j. Donnelly and Mrs. H. G. Vasa, small
sons and daughters romp and laugh in
Miss Grace Janney supervises their
play.
Children Brought Along.
Little Matima Nacos, the 18month
old daughter of one of Mrs. Vasa's
pupils, stops playing in the sand box
long enough to enjoy the midafter-
noon bottle which is given to her by
Miss Janney Her luncheon finished
she patters about the kindergarten
happily with the 20 or 80 little boys
and girls, many of whom have accom-
panied their mothers to the school in
the bus The two hours spent in the
class room by these alien mothers, who
as soon as they have learned to read
and write will take an examination for
citizenship, pass quickly for children
and parents alike 1t is an inspiring
thought to these women that, when the
little boys and girls in the downstairs
kindergarten have passed into the
grammer schools, they will be natural
ICED American citizens, capable Of help
ing their children with lessons brought
home from school.
Small wonder, then, that there will
be regret, when on Tuesday after the
singing of Christmas carols and the
distributing of small gifts made by the
kindergarten children for their mothers,
the lights on the jolly tree in the class
room will be dimmed and the mothers
gill temporarily discontinue their les
sons for the To-day Christmas vacation.