Evening star., 1938-10-06
Pupils Must
Be Made All
American
Duty of the School
To Develop Spirit
OfTrue Devotion.
Nv ANGELO pATRJ.

MANY duties are piled on the pub
AA lie school. Some of them belong
and others belong elsewhere, but there
sential duty Of the public school as
understood in this country It is the
duty of teaching the children that no
matter what land their ancestors came
from, they are Americans. all Of them.
1t is the duty OF the school to weld the
children together in one spirit, the
spirit Of loyalty and devotion to their
own country, the United States.
Whenever a foreign land is in dis
tress those whose birthplace 1t is vi
brate in harmony with their former
countrymen. Their pain is mutual.
That is accepted. A man can grieve
for the suffering of his friends though
they are citizens Of another country
without disloyalty to the principles Of
government of his adopted country.
Personal affection for persons abroad
need not breed dissension among citi-
sens Of the United States.
Children, hearing discussions Of
foreign policies at home and abroad
by the family and friends, take sides,
not understanding that love for an
old home does not necessarily mean
antagonism toward other people who
have had other homes. One boy calls
another an unlovely name and does
not smile when he says it. Then the
battle begins. What starts in the
playground always ends up in the class
room and the teacher must find way
OF making such experiences valuable
to the education of her pupils.
What is she to do when children be-
gin calling each other such names as
Wop. Ginny, Kike, Frankfurter, Mick
or Red? Take it easy and say to
them. Calling names is always a sign
Of fear If you were not afraid of
this boy you would not call him names
You want to make him feel smaller
and weaker than yourself. That's why
you try to pin a mean name on him.
That never works. If you want to be
really big and strong and proud you
have to make yourself like that. You
can't add penny's worth to your
weight in this class by calling some
body . name. He can call you an
other one and what Of it? Just vast
ing your breath. Imagine one Ameri-
can calling another such names!"
Let's look at the record" An Ital-
ian discovered America: An English
man freed it from foreign rule; a Jew
helped him do it by lending him
money; an American, born in a log
cabin, laid down his life to preserve
its institutions. Irishmen, Italians,
Germans, Swedes. French. Dutch
men and women from every land, Pill
gr1ms, Cavaliers, farmers, engineers,
miners, shipbuilders. laborers. every
body welcome.
When forests had to be cleared,
houses built, railroads laid, ships
launched, nobody asked what country
the man who did the job came from.
His contribution was taken gladly. His
strength was added to the might of
America regardless of who or what he
was. There isn't child in America
who cannot take price in the contri-
button his people made to his land,
America. The whole world has given
Of its best to us and 1t i'll becomes our
children to quarrel about precedence
or importance. The children of the
public schools are Americans first,
Americans always. They are brothers
and sisters under the flag. It is our
duty to teach them that fact, to weld
them into the spirit of Americanism.