them, as their minds turn toward the new field in the New World. There should be a social worker in the steerage of every ship that is bringing immigrants, to start these new Americans on the road toward good citizenship and to warn them against the dangers that await them.

This plan of placing social workers in the steerage has been put to the test. A Yale student, himself a Pole, made a trip in the steerage of a large steamer bringing passengers from the southeastern parts of Europe. He held classes in English every day. This opened the way to other things, and it was not long before these people began to flock to him for help and enlightenment. He gave talks on American government and citizenship. To illustrate other aspects of his work, I will quote from his report:

Geography is a very fascinating study to these people and is eagerly sought after. The map was in constant use, all being eager to know about the location of their future homes.

Among the things that I have done are taking the sick to the doctor, changing money, addressing letters, correcting misspelled addresses, and advising them about conditions in America, pointing out their destinations on the map and estimating fares, and in general acting as their advisor and protector. Once I had to admonish two young girls for indiscreet behavior, with good results. In reflecting upon my work I am able to draw some conclusions. The worker should be an officer, and could at the same time fulfill the rôle of a muchneeded interpreter. He should have a small library of books and pamphlets in various languages. He should act as the guardian of these people against abuse from deck hands, etc., who treat them as dumb beasts. The main value of the teaching is that many become eager to study and attend night school later, and also become aware of greater opportunities in America. The Young Men's Christian Association could gain many members for its ranks by a distribution of pamphlets.

There should be also stereopticon lectures and the proper supervision of recreation; card playing is now a favorite pastime, owing to the lack of any forms of amusement. A social worker could provide for concerts in which the foreigners would themselves take part. In short, he could change the whole moral tone of the steerage, which is now very low. And lastly, the most important service that such a worker could perform would be not only to protect the women en route, but to warn them against the dangers to which they are exposed in America. When steerage social work is established, no foreign woman will leave the steerage without a full knowledge of the pitfalls that she must avoid, and none need fall victim to the white-slave traffic through ignorance.

From the steerage these future Americans scatter to all parts of our country, and the ideals that they carry with them will surely bear fruit. Is it not of the utmost importance that the steerage should be transformed into a time of inspection for the foreigner? The Government is about to provide for placing officials in the steer

age to see to it that the laws regulating the physical welfare of the immigrants are enforced. It should be provided by law that these officials be trained social workers appointed by civil-service examination, so that they may be capable of performing the larger function of caring not only for their physical, but their mental and moral environment as well.

V. EVENING SCHOOLS FOR FOREIGNERS.

THE NECESSITY FOR EVENING SCHOOLS.

ALBERT SHIELDS,

District Superintendent, New York City Public Schools.

The pupil who comes to us is a whole man or a whole woman, and if we consider the learning side only we fail to get the entire personality of the student. I have often thought of an evening school that would be a sort of glorified public social settlement; a place where the immigrants might come, not only to learn, but to follow their own social instincts; a place where men and women might have the gymnasium and the ballroom, the library, the club, and every form of activity that would make the school the center of their whole life, so far as that could be possible. It is true that, in a city as large as ours, it becomes necessary to divide these activities; but I do not think we should forget the unity which should be back of them.

In New York there are a great many private or civic public agencies that are doing splendid work in aiding the immigrant. There are societies, religious and secular, especially dedicated to the welfare of particular nationalities. There are social settlements, branch libraries, and finally our own public activities. It seems incomprehensible why so many agencies engaged in the solution of a common problem should remain separated. It is true that not a little has been accomplished, and that we have had the opportunity of meeting the representatives of these various organizations. We have tried to contribute our quota of effort, and we have received. considerable help from them; nevertheless, I do not think that we have done enough to justify us in self-congratulation; we should rather stop to analyze our own condition, so as to find what we have failed to do, to discover what possibilities we have not yet realized. I hope that every principal and teacher, therefore, will make it his business to learn what his neighborhood has to offer for the immigrant. The museums, the hospital clinics, the free employment agencies, all these might be added to the others I have mentioned. We wish to make the immigrants understand, at least, that if we

can not as public workers give them all we should like to give we can, at least, be sources of information and direct them.

I can not forbear expressing my appreciation of the help which I have received from many of the cooperative agencies, particularly the North American Civic League for Immigrants. Our first business is to teach English, the colloquial English that will enable a man to go on in life; to get a job, to keep it, and then to get a better one; to find his way about the streets; to overcome that feeling of strangeness which is necessarily a handicap to every new arrival. No other phase of instruction must be allowed to interfere with this primary one. We have learned that immigrants are not all alike, and what should be taught to one may be quite unsuitable for another. The graduate of a German gymnasium should not receive the same sort of instruction that we give a man who is fresh from the plow.

It is generally true that we must not be too anxious to consider details, too insistent on requiring a proper enunciation, too ready to correct every grammatical error; nevertheless, there is a type of students who receive such instruction gladly and profit by it readily. The teaching of English is our primary problem, but we must remember, too, that language can not be taught unless it conveys ideas.

The foreigner has a large stock of ideas and experiences, and it is from these that we must work. An immigrant, for instance, who has been the victim of unfortunate social conditions will readily learn to contrast them with those in his new home. Supplementing this, he should learn something of the city in which he lives, and this brings up the subject of civic instruction. Probably as many educational sins have been committed in teaching civics as in any other branch of elementary work. An immigrant should not be fed upon such dry bones as the term of a Senator or the powers of a Federal justice. Civics, as he knows it, means the letter carrier, the post office, the policeman, the regulations of the city that touch him closely, such as those of the tenement-house department or of the board of health. In teaching civics, therefore, we must remember that we should deal with something with which he is in a degree familiar and that our instruction should be made useful. Moreover, instruction in civics should be filled with a fine spirit of patriotism. Such instruction should not be merely a matter of cheering for the flag or of boasting of our material wealth, but of something much more real than that.

Some immigrants, when they first land, know little of their rights, and it is appropriate that they should be enlightened; but they should hear, too, something of their duties. Although the immigrant comes here to improve his material conditions, it is most important that he understand that he should become a contributor to the social welfare. Finally, it is not amiss to include in our instruction that sort of practical guidance which will save the immigrant from unfortunate

experiences with unreliable bankers, unscrupulous intelligence offices, so-called, or from possible schemes of his sophisticated countrymen who sometimes with great shrewdness and little scruple do not hesitate to prey on the recently arrived victim.

It is undoubtedly true that in all foreign classes a few students are apt to lead in discussion, and that in a sense of temporary triumph we may forget that there are many who remain dumb. We know the way to do a thing is to do it, and this is essentially the way to learn to speak any language.

The selection of teachers of English-to-foreigners classes is made through a system of examinations by the board of examiners. In no other branch of instruction does the personality of the teacher count for so much. It goes without saying that he should know how to teach. He should know the methods by which he can instruct immigrants in the language when a great majority of his pupils know nothing of its literary aspect. As a matter of fact, few of them know the grammar of their own language, and many of them do not know how to write and read it. Far more important than methods of instruction, however, are interest in the pupil and enthusiasm in the work. Immigrants are truly strangers, and they must feel not only that they are learning, but that the instructor has a peculiar interest in each individual. He should know something of each pupil's life, occupation, and home surroundings. The teacher, too, should be able to realize what the background of the immigrant's experience is.

It is a debated question whether the teacher should be familiar with the immigrant's own language. It is obvious that a knowledge of that language is not a handicap, and there are times during the process of instruction when the ability to translate some peculiar idiom may save considerable time. On the other hand, it is a fact that many of our most successful instructors have no knowledge whatever of the language of the pupil. If this statement surprises you, it is because you do not realize how important it is that the pupil himself should be the active person during the process of instruction. Moreover, a teacher who finds refuge in translation is apt to do poor teaching. There are practical reasons which make it impossible to limit the selection of teachers to those who know the language of the student; but aside from the fact it may be stated with certainty that such a knowledge is not essential. I am aware that not everyone holds this view, and in some of the private institutions with which we are glad to cooperate, the selection of a fellow countryman as instructor is the rule. So far as such a method may help in solving a problem of teaching, I think we should welcome it so that we may gain whatever knowledge may come from actual experience.

One of the worst errors that an instructor can make is to adopt toward the student an attitude of patronage. Immigrants are men and women who have the same passions, the same desires, the same fundamental social relations that the teacher himself has; and in many cases they have acquired an experience of life which is itself an important element in education. The teacher can do his best work if he causes the immigrants to feel that he is working with them toward a higher level of ability, but not by lifting them from above. I know of no place where a fine spirit of comaraderie will be more fruitful. The teacher's relation should be a fraternal one.

SELECTION OF EVENING-SCHOOL TEACHERS.

I. By JAMES C. BYRNES,

Secretary, Board of Examiners, New York City Board of Education.

The right professional spirit is the most important requirement of a teacher of foreigners; the spirit of earnest sympathy with the work which evening schools are attempting to accomplish among immigrants; the spirit of one who assumes the work, not for the compensation, which is often inadequate, but for the love of the work and for the sake of doing good to the State and to his fellowmen. The mere requirement of a high-school education, with either experience in teaching the special branch or a special course in methods of teaching, does not insure preparation for such work. The young men and young women in the senior classes of the colleges form a very large class of applicants. The largest class, however, consists of day-school teachers, who by reason of the fact that they hold a regular license to teach are eligible to positions as teachers of English to foreigners in the evening schools. There is of course a written examination. From such written examination holders of day-school licenses are exempt. The examination is in English, phonetics, grammar, composition, meaning and use of words, with a question or two in methods of teaching. The day-school teachers are required to pass an oral examination. That oral examination is designed to test the familiarity with the means, agencies, and instruments for imparting a knowledge of our tongue to foreigners, without being able to speak their tongue.

Years ago it was thought necessary for the teacher to have knowledge of the foreigner's tongue, but we found that many of the foreigners who were accepted as teachers because of that requirement were very poor in other respects, and that we did better with our own teachers who know how to go about the work and how to manage a class.

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