A Stake in the Land Part 16

[22] John P. Gavit, _Americans by Choice_ (in preparation).

[23] Minnesota Department of Education, Nineteenth Biennial Report, 1915-16, p. 84.

[24] Superintendent of Public Instruction, South Dakota, Report, 1916.

Report of Superintendent of Hanson County.

[25] Minnesota Department of Education, Nineteenth Biennial Report, 1915-16, p. 85.

IX

PRIVATE SCHOOLS

One of the greatest negative agencies, and in a large number of cases consciously negative agencies, affecting the Americanization of immigrants in our rural districts has been private schools. Among these--the writer wishes to be entirely outspoken--the most conspicuous have been immigrant Catholic and Lutheran parochial schools and Hebrew schools.

Many of them are run in the spirit of preference for the old country and for the immigrant race or nationality to America and the American nationality. Furthermore, the very spirit and aim of their methods are foreign to America. In their training of children they lay special stress on discipline, obedience, on the form of things, on punctuality, on memory, and on mechanism. All these qualities have been desirable in the "subjects" and in the small "subject nations," from the point of view of the monarchical and aristocratic European regimes, with which Catholicism and Lutheranism have been identified, or of the Talmud, upon which extreme Hebrew nationalism is based.

The authorities of parochial schools, especially the higher authorities, such as bishops, allow themselves to criticize sternly the American public schools for looseness, too much freedom, lack of moral teachings, etc. A prominent German Catholic bishop, who has been for thirty years in America and who can hardly speak English, stated to the writer that the American colleges, high schools, and even public schools are no good, that their aim is to prepare children and students to get easier jobs, to get along in life without labor and effort. Religious and moral teachings are entirely lacking in his opinion and the schools work against these teachings.

Especially, the training of girls in America is entirely wrong. They are not educated to be good housewives, but are just reared for an easy and joyful life; in fact, girls are too lazy to do family work or any work. The severely nationalistic churchman was unable to approve the democratic spirit of the American public school with the stress which it lays upon freedom of action, self-reliance, initiative, and imagination in children.

He looked upon children as if they were somebody's property or tools, not human beings with individual destinies.

How important the parochial schools are considered to be by certain immigrant nationalistic leaders and high clergy is shown by the speeches delivered at the southeastern Wisconsin district conference of the Evangelical Lutheran Joint Synod of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, and other states, held in the summer of 1918. Prof. A. Piper stated that,

we must concentrate all our powers upon keeping our hands on our schools. To hold our schools we must compete with the public schools, must hold cla.s.ses five days a week, and must work with all the strength that is in us. The most important part of all of our missionary work is the work in our schools.

The importance of concentrating effort on the parochial schools was further emphasized by W. Grabner, Milwaukee, who asked:

What has made Chicago the greatest Lutheran city in the world? [and replied] I say it was the Lutheran parochial school. It has served as a nucleus for all Lutheran families to settle about. Round it all life and activity centered. Our Lutheran forefathers nourished the little Lutheran schools with all the powers they possessed.

The situation in the rural districts of various states in regard to the private and especially the parochial schools in connection with the Americanization of the children of immigrants born here and abroad is shown by the following field notes and material collected by the writer.

NEBRASKA

The Nebraska State Council of Defense made a report on the foreign-language schools in Nebraska, dated January 14, 1917. The data were secured through the personal investigation of Miss Sarka Hrbkova, chairman of the Woman's Committee, aided by Miss Alice Florer of the State Superintendent's office, and through the efforts of the county chairmen of educational propaganda of the Woman's Committee. Professors Link and Weller and other representatives of the German Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Missouri Synod co-operated with Miss Hrbkova. The following facts indicate the extent of parochial schools in Nebraska.[26]

Foreign-language schools are located in 59 counties of Nebraska.

There is a total of 262 schools in which it is estimated that 10,000 children receive instruction in foreign languages, chiefly the German. In these 262 schools 379 teachers are employed. Five thousand five hundred and fifty-four children are attending the schools of the German Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Missouri Synod, this number including those in the summer sessions as well.

About 20 teachers give instructions in their homes or in church buildings. Of these 379 teachers in private schools, 2 give instruction in Danish, 6 in Polish, 14 in Swedish, and 357 in German. Less than 2 per cent of the teachers of these schools are certified. About 120 of the German teachers are likewise ministers in the German Lutheran parish where the school is located. The county superintendents of the 59 counties in which the foreign-language schools are located reported that in only a few cases do these schools give the equivalent of the eighth-grade public school. For the most part, the eight years' attendance at such a school fits pupils for the sixth grade of the public schools.

In certain schools in Fillmore, Ca.s.s, Franklin, Gosper, Jefferson, p.a.w.nee, and Wayne Counties the instruction is given entirely in the German language. In about 200 of the schools three hours daily is devoted to instruction in the German language.

In Deuel, Fillmore, and Jefferson Counties the superintendents report that the German national hymn is sung in certain foreign-language schools. In Nance and Was.h.i.+ngton Counties they report that it was formerly sung, but not this year. In Cedar Creek District No. 88, Ca.s.s County, Reverend Kunzendorf, teacher, states that they do not sing the American hymn because they do not sing any hymns at all. The American national hymn is not sung in about 100 of the German-language schools. Over 100 foreign-language schools lack an American flag. One minister, Rev. J. Aron, from Wayne County, writes, "We have no flag, but will see to it that one be put up, if requested to do so." In Madison the minister declared foreign-language and parochial schools are not required by law to have an American flag, and therefore he does not display one.

Public schools have been closed and forced out by German parochial schools in Cedar County, Cheyenne County, Clay County, Colfax County (No. 36), Gage County (No. 103), 2 in Johnson County, 5 in Platte County, District No. 99 in Saline County, 8 in Seward County, No. 38 in Stanton County and Wayne County. In Cedar County the Bow Valley, Constance, and Fordyce schools are taught by Sisters. In the following counties there are public schools with only four or five pupils, because the German-language schools absorb the pupils: Clay, Cedar, c.u.ming, Dixon, Howard, Nuckolis, Platte, Polk, Seward, Stanton, Wayne, and Webster.

The following statement was made by Prof. C. F. Brommer, Hampton, Nebraska, president of the Lutheran Synod of Missouri, at the hearing before the state Americanization Committee held in Lincoln in September, 1918:

I think we have more parochial schools than any other Protestant body in this state; between 150 and 160, with about 5,000 children in these schools.

In answer to a question by a member of the committee, Professor Brommer said:

I know of one [public school] district where there is no public school. There is no need of one, as the children all go to parochial school. There are a few such cases.

George Weller, of Seward, Nebraska, stated to the same committee:

German has never been taught in our schools [German Lutheran] as an end, but as a means to an end. We could not teach the old folks English, and in order to allow the children and the parents to wors.h.i.+p together we taught the children the German language.

J. W. Robb of Lincoln informed the commission that in one district the Germans control the public-school board and they closed the public school two months in a year, and the children are deprived of two months in English schools or must go to a German parochial school during that time.

NORTH DAKOTA

The situation in regard to parochial schools in North Dakota has been and still is, perhaps, more serious than in Nebraska. The writer in his field study in North Dakota was impressed that the public officials were afraid to do anything more than recommend certain desirable changes in these schools; some were even afraid to visit the German counties or sections on public business, such as Liberty Bond or Red Cross drives. Several reasons were given, such as politics, ignorance of the German language, and even care for their own safety. Therefore an English-speaking German woman was engaged to speak for Liberty Bonds in North Dakota German sections. She was successful only because in her German public speeches she praised the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty and condemned the Czechoslovaks in Russia.

"Well, she brings home the bacon. For what else do we care!" ironically exclaimed a North Dakota man to the writer.

The State Superintendent of Public Education made the following statement to the writer when he asked for data on the foreign-language schools in the state:

The State Department of Public Education has no authority whatever over the private and parochial schools in the state. There is no legal ground for collecting information in regard to them.... There have been cases when children of immigrant groups, attending a private or parochial school, had to learn the foreign tongue of other groups.

A Catholic bishop stated:

The first grades in the parochial schools use German because the children who enter the schools do not know English, and it is far better and more successful to start work with them in their mother tongue as a teaching language. At the same time, they teach them English. As their knowledge of English gradually grows, the teaching in the higher grades is transferred to the English language.

To the writer's question whether the non-German children in their parochial schools--for instance, Bohemians and Hungarians--have also to start in German, the bishop said that in some cases this is true, for they are not able to find teachers for each language.

In the bishops diocese there are 37,000 Catholic families. Among these are 2,000 Indian families, about 2,000 Bohemian families, and between 300 and 400 Hungarian families. The rest are German families, over 100 of whom are from Germany; about 2,000 were born in America, and the rest are Germans from Russia.

An American church head made the following statement, in reply to an inquiry about the schools:

Strasburg, Emmons County, has a large parochial school where German is the only language both for teaching and speaking. The public school there has only a handful of children. There are plenty of parochial schools in which German is taught exclusively in McIntosh and Emmons Counties, and in the western counties (in the town of New Salem, etc.). Some of the teachers, of whom a goodly number are Sisters, cannot speak English at all. Children of other nationalities would also be under German influences. There is undoubtedly German propaganda in these schools, and American or other children become Germanized. Every graded school, private and public, should be conducted in English exclusively. Every teacher need not be American born; many foreign-born people are better citizens than some native Americans. But every teacher should have to understand and speak the English language. No one should teach, preach, or hold public office who cannot speak English.

The editor of an English daily in Bismarck, North Dakota, said:

The Americanization work is weakest in North Dakota, and yet it is more needed here than anywhere else, for the population is mainly composed of foreign elements. Foreign-language churches, parochial and other private schools, and certain American public schools in which, as it is in a number of places, the teaching language is a foreign language, very often German--are keeping the old country alive in the state. We have a large number of the second generation, grown-up people born here of foreign-born parents, who do not know how to write or read English, who do not know anything about America, but know well the history of Hohenzollern and Hapsburg dynasties in Europe.

A leader of the Women's Organization, North Dakota Council of Defense, made the following statement:

The Red Cross work, food-conservation work, and child-welfare work are organized in every county, a wide-awake woman being chosen as county head. Great difficulty is experienced in reaching the foreigner. A large number of them, especially women, do not understand English, and do not know enough about the country, its traditions, and spirit. Aside from remaining foreigners, they are in many cases unbelievably ignorant. For instance, the organization undertook a baby census, which included weighing the babies. The baby of a German housewife was underweight--that is, below normal.

When its mother learned of this she began to cry hysterically.

After the other people succeeded in quieting her she expressed the fear that the American government would kill her baby for being below normal weight.

MINNESOTA

The statistical data on parochial and other private schools in the state of Minnesota for 1918, compiled by the Department of Public Instruction, are as follows: