Evening star., 1934-05-06

turn, Till the teacner can see you. he
sits and when his turn comes it is found
he cannot do third-grade work.
ONE night pale, unkempt man comes
He proves to be the husband of one of
the young girls in the class. 1t is his
first day out of Jail.
One man wants to study interest.
Most of them want arithmetic, and they
know just what part of arithmetic they
like: Cancellation is a major intellec-
tual passion with a number of them.
They will sit, these tired, worn. poverty
stricken people, all through long eve
ming, laboriously canceling out a prob
lem, clamoring for another. Who shall
say what joys are theirs in that simple,
rigid process, with it's fixed forms, its
unalterable answer SO triumphantly ar
rived at? Long division they do not like,
but some of them work with 1t. Strug-
Cling on. And fractions are mysterious
puzzling things to them Their reading
is almost incredibly bad, particularly
when you consider that most of them
had a number of years of schooling in
their youth
But the school is far more than a place
to learn the three RS. It is a center
for ethical discussion as well, for passing
on the morals of the neighborhood This
is what they are interested in-the little
community around them-and the
teacher uses their spontaneous interests
to carry them a little further on the
road to learning. One night they were
much excited because murder had been
committed the night before: Two boys
and two girls, drunkenness, a fight, and
one dead boy. What will his family do?
IF he was in my family, I'd kill that
other fellow" declares a placid, middle
aged woman. The teacher argues the
matter, but it is no use. mo, ma'am,
I don't care if it wouldn't do any good
I'd kill that other fellow" Ancient
tribal justice-an eye for an eye. There
are echoes of the Kentucky mountain
feuds here in this bare school room
They are much agitated over whether
Lon is really married to the girl who
has borne him two children. Lon, are
you married." they demand one night.
He gives them SLY, teasing grin. mo,
I never married" Much exclamation
He grins. mo, Oracle married me, I
never married her" And there they are
obliged to leave the question.
One day woman comes early to the
teacher. Would she please tell her about
the Indians. The teacher tells her all
she knows, and later brings some simple
books about the Indians. Why this con-
Germ? Finally, as a dark, tragic secret
the woman says she has Indian blood
from her grandmother. She does not
want it told. But there is Indian blood
in my family, too,' the teacher cheer
fully assures her. The woman StareS
and stares, and then begins to be COM
forted
FRACTIONS are important in more
ways than in the class room. A
woman brings record of her work in
the mill. The foreman can do fractions
awful fast. He twists them around be-
fore she can understand them But she
thinks he is cheating her, for she is
paid by the hour and half hour, and
it makes 1t hard to figure out right
quick. He is cheating her. The teacher
figures out what she should be paid at
the end of the week considerably more
than she has received. knowledge is
power. She goes back to the factory to
fight for her rights, because now she
knows what they are
II want to raise my children up so