A Stake in the Land Part 15

In another report[22] of this study there is evidence which points to lack of educational and social opportunities in rural districts. The average length of time after arrival in the country before pet.i.tions for naturalization papers are filed is tabulated by occupation for more than twenty thousand cases. These figures show that, for all occupational groups of any size, agricultural workers take the longest time, about fourteen years, before pet.i.tioning. The average length of time for workers of all occupations is about ten and a half years. Back from the currents of life, with fewer opportunities to overcome disqualifications, the farm worker does not become a citizen as quickly as his city brother.

The term "education" as applied especially to the rural population is a very broad one. It comprises everything which helps to elevate the people materially as well as mentally and spiritually. In this direction various educational agencies are working. The most important of them might be cla.s.sified as follows:

1. Schools:

A. Public:

(1) general.

(2) evening.

(3) home teacher.

(4) vocational (training in agriculture).

B. Private:

(1) general.

(2) church or parochial.

2. Churches:

A. American, service in English.

B. Immigrant, service in foreign tongue.

3. Libraries:

A. Public:

(1) community or town.

(2) traveling.

(3) package.

(4) school.

B. Private:

(1) church.

(2) school.

Among these agencies the public school is the foremost in the Americanization process. It directly influences the children and through them their parents--the adult immigrants.

BRIDGING DIFFERENCES

An observer of the home life of immigrant families finds a marked difference between the parents and the children who attend American schools, as well as between the American-schooled children and their European-schooled brothers and sisters. These differences lead often to friction and dissension in the families, and though each difference may be concerned with a trivial matter, yet in their entirety they represent the variation of the American from the immigrant.

The writer once entered the home of a large Russian immigrant family just when a quarrel between two sets of children was going on. The European-trained children wanted the window shades rolled entirely up, for the sake of more light, while their American-bred brothers and sisters insisted that the shades be left halfway up, as the Americans have them.

Another ill.u.s.tration of these differences is found in the fact that the immigrants are conservative in clinging to their old-country diet. The first breach is usually occasioned by pie--the American national dessert. The immigrant children learn about it and taste it in the school cooking cla.s.ses and also in the neighboring American families, insisting that their mothers make it also. As a result the pie appears on the immigrant table, though in the poorer families only on holidays.

In the case of language, the parents and their European-schooled children continue to speak at home their old-country tongue and read newspapers and books in the same language. The American-schooled children prefer to speak English and read American newspapers and books, taking a special pride in this. They answer their parents in English, although the latter do not always understand English. They call themselves Americans, in distinction from their European parents and older brothers and sisters. "My father, mother, and older sisters are Poles, but I am an American!" answered an American-born Polish boy of about twelve years when asked about his nationality.

"How do you know that you are an American?"

"I was born here and I speak the American language."

In the Italian colony at Vineland, New Jersey, to give only one instance, there was marked conflict between the children who went to the public schools and their parents over the use of the Italian language.

The children wanted to speak English and some even refused to talk Italian, though their parents wanted them to and tried to teach them.

The children commonly acted as interpreters between Americans and their parents, especially their mothers. Unfortunately, they did not conceal their contempt for the latter for failing to understand and use English.

Often such differences are so p.r.o.nounced that the immigrant parents are greatly grieved over the "estrangement" caused by the influence of the American public schools. This dissatisfaction takes an especially acute form among the sectarian immigrants. In San Francisco there are over four hundred families of Russian sectarian peasants--Molochans, Jumpers, etc.

Their religion opposes war and military service, and on that account they were exempted from the draft. Notwithstanding this, four or five of their young boys volunteered, in spite of the opposition of their parents and of the whole colony. When the writer visited the colony last year the colonists were much agitated and upset. They openly cursed the American schools and the city streets for ruining their boys spiritually. "If we can't settle on land in the rural districts, then we have to get out of America!" exclaimed the aged leader. In rural districts, they think, they would be able to keep their children from going "astray." The street influence is absent and the school-attendance law is not so severely enforced as in the city, the immigrant leader believed.

In the Polish farming colony centered at South Deerfield, Ma.s.sachusetts, where the Polish children all attend the American public schools, the children learn English quickly and prefer everything American to everything Polish. The parents are very much distressed over losing their children as Polish people. For this reason the parents stated that they were extremely eager to establish their own Polish school where they could teach their children the Polish language and Polish history. Only lack of money has so far prevented the founding of such a parochial school.

PAROCHIAL SCHOOLS

When an immigrant group is planning either a parochial or some other type of private school of its own, one of its arguments is always that this school will keep the children in its own group, racially and religiously.

The North Middle Western states--Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, the Dakotas, Nebraska--have large immigrant groups. In the rural districts of those states it is a fact that where there exists a private or parochial school, the public school is neglected, poorly equipped, and has a very small attendance.

A county superintendent of schools in Minnesota reports:

One of our greatest drawbacks in attendance is the parochial schools.

These r.e.t.a.r.d the attendance and keep the school terms down.[23]

A county superintendent in South Dakota writes:

In a number of districts the attendance is so small, owing to the fact that many attend the parochial school, that interest and enthusiasm are lacking.[24]

Another report from Minnesota states that,

the poorest schools in the country are in communities where there are private schools in connection with a church.

The children attend these for years at a time, and when they return to the public schools find themselves behind their former companions.[25]

In 1915-16 there were in the state of Wisconsin 78 rural public schools enrolling five or fewer children, and 445 rural public schools enrolling six to ten children. The state school authorities explained to the writer that the small enrollment in certain public schools does not always indicate that there are not enough children of school age in the district or that the children do not enroll. Very often in the same district there is a well-developed parochial or private school attended by immigrant children. The parents prefer these schools to the public schools for racial and religious reasons, and contribute liberally to their development and maintenance.

In a number of cases where there are public and private schools in immigrant localities, the writer observed an active and intentional neglect of the public schools by the local school authorities. For instance, in some cases where the state gives a certain sum of money for the support of the public schools, the money is deposited in the bank instead of being used for the development of the public schools. Such deliberate neglect of the public schools by the immigrant local school leaders was quite conspicuous in the state of Wisconsin.

[21] _Thirteenth Census of United States_, 1910, vol. i, p. 1279.