Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1940-05-16
MRS F. STOTTRUP.

| ClOneQ was Culture-OOIlIllCt anu
the Public School" by Otto G..
Hoiberg, superintendent of
schools at Askov. 1t appeared in
the February issue of The Jour-
nal, published by the National
Education Association of the
United States. 1t follows:
| Numerous communities still exist
throughout the United States in which
children of foreign-born parentage
predominant in the schools. In many
such communities the parents them
selves no longer use the mother
tongue but have swung entirely to
the English language. Not infre-
quently, however, one encounters
localities in which not only the par
ents but the children as well under
stand and to some extent still use
the non-American language.
1t seems that educators and school
boards have frequently lacke d
breadth of vision with regard to the
| language question in communities of
the latter type. In a community
where a foreign language is still
spoken in a large proportion of the
| homes, school authorities are faced
with situation requiring careful
consideration. Too often our public
schools have developed their cur
riculums and activity programs with
out the slightest regard to the Gull
tural background of the surrounding
population. How many German, DAN
iSh, Polish, or Italian communities,
for example, are found where the
European culture in question is given
very little recognition, if any, in the
local public school, or is, in fact,
even suppressed?
This lack of recognition has led
children to look down upon the cul-
ture of their parents and has often
engendered sense of shame or tim
idity regarding the use of the an
cestral tongue. Is it not odd that a
democratic educational institution
should have become party to Great
ing a feeling of shame in any Amer
lean youth because of his ability to
| SPCdh q lOiClSll 1dilSooSC.
We are informed by sociologists
that the disproportionate high crime
rate among children of foreign-born
parents is due largely to the conflict
of cultures in the immigrant home.
The plastic nature of the child is
rapidly Americanized through his
daily contacts outside the home, but
the ideas, behavior patterns, and Ian
guage of his parents change more
slowly because the roots here are
deeply imbedded in European past.
The younger generation has difficulty
in recognizing the significance of this
difference and tends to lose patience
with the parents because of the lat
ter's slow progress. A loss of re-
spect for the elders ensues, seriously
weakening that vitality important So
cializing influence-parental control
over offspring. This problem is I'M
doubleday most aggravated in local
tiles where extreme differences exist
between the ancestral culture pattern
and our typical American standards.
The public schools have in this con-
nection passed up an excellent OPP
harmony in home situations other
wise apt to be characterized by in
ternal strife. Might not this knotty
social problem have been ameliorated
somewhat if more public schools in
these transitional communities had
given formal recognition to the for
eign language of the area through
club activities, group singing, or &C
tual classWork in such language?
Certainly policy of this character
would have indicated clearly to pupils
that America really values worth
while cultural contributions from i'm
migrant groups. And the ability to
speak two languages might have be-
come source of pride and satisfac-
ton to the pupil, instead of thing
to be regretted.
A case in point is found in the small
rural community of Askov, Mime
sofa. There virtually every adult one
encounters on the street speaks flu
emily the Danish as well as the Eng
lish language, and over 90 per cent
of the pupils enrolled in the public
school understand the Danish tongue,
many of them speaking it also. While
the culture-conflict between old and
young in Scandinavian communities
seldom reaches serious proportions,
the problem does, nevertheless, exist.
This group of Minnesota Danes has
gone long way toward solving the
problem by offering in each elemen-
tary grade in the public school half
hour of instruction daily in the Dam
ish language and by providing a two
year course in Scandinavian compo-
sition and literature in the senior
highschool. In addition, assembly
periods are devoted to singing our
better American songs and Scandi-
navian folk songs and Christmas
carols. Scandinavian folk dances and
gymnastics are enjoyed regularly by