The School and the Immigrant
Chapter 3: Efforts of National Groups to Preserve Their Languages
Herbert A. Miller
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Each national group expresses its group consciousness in varying degrees of effort to preserve its language by providing more or less adequate instruction for the children in the mother tongue. Generally there are very strong traditional and historical reasons for devotion to the language. Often the immigrant comes from countries where attempts hove been made to substitute the language of foreign rulers for the mother tongue with the result that the preservation of the language has become a matter of patriotism.
A very large proportion of the inhabitants of Cleveland possess a reading and
speaking knowledge of some language other than English. More than one-half of
the children in the public schools speak, and more than one-third read, some
other foreign language. The economic and social value of this knowledge cannot
be
denied, and in every case, excepting that of German, it has been obtained
absolutely with-
(38) out cost to the school system. The possibility of conserving this economic and cultural asset should not be lost to sight, even though we recognize that the main duty of the school is to give the child a thorough English education. The place of foreign languages in the curriculum of the public schools has been determined in the main by custom and tradition. At one time foreign language instruction was limited almost exclusively to Latin and Greek. Later the study of German and French was introduced, and at present considerable attention is given to Spanish on account of its alleged commercial value. The claims of other languages, several of which are spoken by many thousands of children and adults in Cleveland, are deserving of consideration. In addition to their practical and literary value, they have also a moral value in that their preservation would tend to soften the abrupt transition from foreign to American ideals and ways of thought, and to obviate the breakdown in parental control and discipline often observed in immigrant families. It is probable that before many years the Board of Education will be called upon to decide whether or not instruction in such languages as Bohemian, Italian, Hungarian, and Polish should not be offered in the high schools. The following pages contain a brief descrip-
(39) -tion of the efforts now being made by the various foreign groups in the city to teach their languages to the rising generation, with some mention of the social and educational organizations maintained by each group.
BOHEMANS
The Bohemians, who constitute one of the largest national groups in Cleveland, are unremitting in their efforts to preserve their language. The work is carried on by two quite distinct groups: the Catholics in the parochial schools, and by national organizations without religious affiliation. The majority of the Bohemians send their children to the public schools, but they also maintain five private schools for instruction in the Bohemian language and history. The children attend these schools for three hours on Saturday or Sunday. Each school has a separate organization but there is a central committee to determine the curriculum and choose the teachers.
On Broadway them is a school of 300 children in four grades; on the west side one having about the same number of pupils in three grades; on Quincy Avenue one with 200 pupils in three grades; on Rice Avenue one with 75 children in five grades; and at Mt. Pleasant one with 60
(40) children in three grades. There is also a Sunday kindergarten on Broadway with 300 children meeting in the afternoon.
For older children there is a young people's club maintaining dramatics, singing, and other cultural activities.
Among 5,325 Bohemian children in the elementary grades, 1,278 say that they can read Bohemian. Above the first three grades almost half of them can read the language and in the high schools the proportion is almost two-thirds. In general this ability to read Bohemian is the result of the organized efforts of the private schools that have been mentioned.
CROATIANS
The Croatians belong to the more recent immigration. While their numbers are small, their community feeling is very strong. There are but 218 children in the public schools. In the parochial schools, which give instruction in the Croatian language, there are 354 children enrolled. A society has recently been formed among the young people of this nationality. Its members range in age from six to 16 years and the object of the organization is to promote the study of the Croatian language.
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DANES
There is only a small colony of Danes in Cleveland, and apart from the Sunday schools there are no regular exercises carried on in the Danish tongue. The Danes, like the other Scandinavians, enter easily into the American life and readily adopt our customs and institutions.
GERMANS
The status of the Germans is different from that of any other foreign group. It is the only foreign language in which instruction is given in the public elementary schools. The attitude of the Germans toward their own language has been greatly stimulated by the interest taken in it by non-German-speaking people. Altogether there are in the public schools some 9,211 children from German-speaking families and more than half of these young people can read the language as well as speak it. In addition there are about 6,500 more such children in the Catholic and Lutheran schools.
GREEKS
There are only 57 children in the public schools in whose families Greek is regularly spoken, and of these only 24 can read the language. Within
(42) the past few years a considerable number of Greek women have come to
Cleveland and in the near future the number of Greek children in the schools
will rapidly increase. The Greeks are the only foreign group in Cleveland which
has not formed any organization centering around national consciousness and
aspirations.
HEBREW AND YIDDISH
The Hebrew- and Yiddish-speaking children should be classed together. All who speak Hebrew also know Yiddish. The number from Hebrew-speaking families is 776 and those from Yiddish-speaking ones is 6,795, making a total of 7,571. There are a great many more who know how to speak Yiddish, yet do not regularly use it, and still others who belong to the same general group but do not speak either language. The effort to maintain Hebrew is so closely related to the religion of the Orthodox Jews that it call hardly be separated from their social and religious lives. The orthodox service is conducted entirely in Hebrew and from time immemorial it has been the custom of the Jews to employ private teachers to instruct their children in Hebrew.
In one public school in the Woodland Avenue district where more than nine-tenths of the
(43) children are Jewish, from one-half to two-thirds of the pupils have had this met of private instruction in both Hebrew and Yiddish. The instruction in the former language is frequently most inadequate, often consisting of simply learning to read without understanding. When one knows the Hebrew letters, Yiddish seems to be acquired very easily. It is a language composed of elements of the various languages of the countries in which the Jews have lived and it is now appropriating many English words.
Yiddish literature., which is not over 50 years old, is growing very rapidly. There are many newspapers in the language and one daily— “The Jewish World "—is published in Cleveland. Interest in Hebrew is also reviving and it is rapidly becoming a modern living language instead of an exclusively classical and religious one. There are several newspapers published in Hebrew and a modern literature is developing. There are now in the city three schools in which Hebrew is taught by modern methods. The oldest and largest one has eight grades and is located on 35th Street, between Woodland and Seovill Avenues. There is another school on 55th Street and one on 105th Street. The children attend every afternoon after regular school hours, on Sundays, and all day during the summer. While the attendance is not abso-
(44) -lutely regular, the rooms are crowded to capacity. The instructors are mostly young men who are students in high school or college and have been well instructed in Hebrew before coming to America.
In the first three grades the children attend for one and a half hours a day, while in the upper classes the session lasts for two and a half hours. In the winter months school opens at about half past four and does not close until 8:30 in the evening. In the summer months the session is from nine to one. From 500 to 1,000 pupils are enrolled in the largest school and many more desire to attend than can be accommodated. These schools are secular and while sympathetic with the orthodox religion, they are really nationalistic in purpose.
There are in addition several more or less modern schools connected with synagogues. The Zionist Socialists conduct a school which teaches Yiddish and the orphan asylum on Woodland Avenue has classes in Hebrew.
HUNGARIANS
The Hungarians, with nearly 4,000 children in the public schools, have a historical background for their devotion to their language, but as yet this has not been thoroughly organized. Many
(45) of them are Catholic, while the rest belong to several different Protestant denominations. A majority of the children are in the public schools but there arc also considerable numbers in the parochial schools.
Three churches maintain classes for instruction in the language, history, and geography of Hungary. During the past summer there were seven classes with 546 children enrolled in the Reformed Church on 79th Street and during the other months of the year a school was maintained on Saturday with more than HO children in attendance. Not all the pupils are connected with this church. The West Side Reformed Church gives instruction to about 100 children and in the St. John Greek Catholic Church there is a summer school of four grades. Here a few finish the work in four years while the rest continue for five or six years. The children are taught to read and write and to sing their national and religious songs. There is no religious instruction in the summer time, but throughout the rest of the year religious classes are held on Saturday and Sunday in Hungarian.
ITALIANS
There are approximately the same number of Italian children as there are Hungarian child-
(46) -dren, but since the Italians have no parochial schools their public school enrollment is about 1,000 more than that of the Hungarians. Since there are no opportunities in the city for learning to read Italian, a large part of the children have to get their religious instruction in English although they belong to the Italian Catholic Church. The recent development of national societies of "Sons and Daughters of Italy" is likely to have considerable influence in the preservation of national ideals and traditions. Some of the older Italian children who have attended the public elementary and high schools are now taking up the study of the Italian language.
LITHUANIANS
The Lithuanians have only 148 children in the public schools as compared with 260 in parochial schools. The Lithuanian language belongs in the same clam as the Hebrew and Greek. In some respects it more nearly resembles Sanscrit than any other Aryan language although it has appropriated many Slavonic words. It has a literature rich in poetry and folk lore and will probably come into greater importance in the near future.
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NORWEGIANS AND SWEDES
The Norwegians, like the Danes, have only a small colony and maintain Norwegian instruction in the Sunday schools. The Swedes are somewhat more numerous, with 328 children in the elementary schools and 40 in the high schools. There are five Protestant churches where the services are conducted in Swedish. There is also a summer school with a six weeks' session three hours a day in which iIIstruction is given in Swedish. On the whole, little effort is made to maintain the language after English is learned.
POLES
There is probably no other people so devoted to maintaining their language as the Poles. In their struggle for independence from Germany and Russia, their language and their religion have become symbols for freedom. It is hard to distinguish between their devotion to their language and to their church. It is estimated that 99 per cent of them are Catholics. More than half of their children are in the parochial schools aIId almost all of those who attend the public schools also spend some time in the parochial schools. It is reported by the librarians that the Polish children are the only ones who draw juvenile books in their native language for
(48) their own reading. It is said that pupils of other nationalities draw foreign books only for their parents.
RUSSIANS AND RUTHENIANS
There are 957 children in the public schools who claim to come from homes where Russian is spoken and 43 from Ruthenian homes. Nevertheless it is probable that there are not more than 100 Russians from Great Russia in the entire city. Almost all of the Russian-speaking families in Cleveland came from Galicia in Austria. Historically this belongs to what is known as "Little Russia." On the Russian side of the border the people are called Ukrainians and on the Galician side Ruthenians. There are some religious divisions that tend to draw the two groups apart. The language uses the same alphabet as the Russians, but differs from official Russian almost as much as Polish and Serbian do. The people belong to the Greek Catholic or Greek Orthodox churches and send their children to the public schools. Both groups maintain schools for teaching their own language. Since the religious services are conducted in old Slavic, instruction in this language is given in the higher grades, while in the lower ones only Russian is taught.
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ROUMANIANS
Cleveland has been the leading Roumanian city in America although it has now dropped into second place. There are probably some 10,000 of the people in the city. Since most of them are recent arrivals, there are comparatively few of their children in the public schools. The number reported is 159, although this must be an under-statement. Many Roumanians belong to the Greek Orthodox and Greek Catholic churches while others have no religious affiliations. Few of them came from Roumania proper, but instead from Transylvania and Bukowina in Austria-Hungary. Many who learned Hungarian or Magyar in Hungary are now learning Roumanian in America and it is probable that there will be a great increase of interest in the language in the near future.
SERBIANS
The Serbians have only 31 children in the public schools, but nevertheless they are already planning to start a private school in their language. Except for the alphabet, their language is identical with that of the Croatians, but on account of the difference in religion few of the children atteIId the Croatian parochial school. A library is maintained oII St. Clair Avenue by the Ser-
(50) -bian Educational Society of New York and there is talk of using the library room for a school with volunteer teachers. Almost none of the Serbians come from Serbia proper but from Austria.
SLOVAKS
There are approximately 1,600 Slovak-speaking children in the public schools and a large number in the parochial schools. The Slovaks coming from Northern Hungary are like the Hungarians in being divided into Catholics and Protestants, but linguistically and nationally they are very closely related to the Bohemians. Approximately half are Roman Catholic. In Hungary they have made a great struggle to maintain their language, and large numbers of them have come to America in the past few years in order to escape oppression at home. There have been some Slovaks in Cleveland for 20 years or more. Like the Roumanians, many of them have learned to read their language since coming to America. Last fall the Slovak paper published in Cleveland was changed from a weekly to a daily. Most Slovak children study Slovak. The Protestant churches maintain afternoon and evening classes throughout the year. The instruction is of a high order and is rapidly improving.
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SLOVENIANS
Cleveland has a larger Slovenian population than any other city in America. Practically all of these people have come within the past 20 years and many very recently. There are 1,239 children in the public schools and a somewhat larger number in the parochial schools. So far no classes have been organized for the children to learn the language except in the parochial schools, but the national feeling is being rapidly developed and schools will probably be established en the near future.
SYRIANS
There are only 142 children from Syrian-speaking homes in the public schools, but the Syrians, in spite of their division into four religious groups, have a strong national consciousness. These religious groups are the Catholics, who constitute about one-third; the Maronites, who are a sect of the Catholics; the Greek Orthodox; and a small group of Mohammedans. By mutual agreement many parents who had begun to speak English in the home now speak only Syrian in order that "their children may not get away from them." St. George's Society has bought a house on Cedar Avenue to be used for a school as soon as the money can be raised to
(52) maintain it. The majority of the members of this society are Catholics but the activities of the club are not religious and all divisions of the people will use the school.
OTHER GROUPS
There are several other linguistic groups in Cleveland, but they are of less significance than those that have been described. It is interesting to observe in the light of the recent agitation for the introduction of Spanish into the public schools that there are in the city only 17 children from Spanish-speaking families.
USE OF PUBLIC SCHOOL BUILDINGS BY NATIONAL GROUPS
One important problem which should be faced by the Board of Education and the people of Cleveland is the formulation of a policy with respect to offering the use of public school buildings for the nationalistic expressions of the different groups. In the opinion of the writer of the present report, it is important that these buildings should be so used more generally than they are at present. It seems a pity for the Syrians to purchase a house on Cedar Avenue and 22nd Street in order to teach their children the Syrian language when far better quarters are available
(53) within two blocks in the Eagle School. Similarly the Hebrew building on
35th Street is used to its utmost capacity for carrying on work that could be
done much better in the evening in the Longwood School only three doom away.
Among most of the nationalities there are singing and dramatic societies and
literary associations which could properly meet in public school buildings and
which would in no way interfere with the regular work of the schools.
SUMMARY
The different national groups express their group consciousness through varying degrees of effort to preserve their languages by providing instruction for the children in the mother tongue. More than half of the school children of Cleveland speak some foreign tongue and a large proportion of them read some language other than English.
Most of the important national groups send large numbers of their children to parochial schools conducted in foreign languages. In addition they maintain part-time schools for giving language instruction to those of their children who attend the public schools. These part-time schools hold sessions in the afternoon, in the evening, on Saturdays, on Sundays, and during the summer months.
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Many of the national groups are divided into different religious sects and some are split into political divisions having their inception in old-world politics. In order to understand the social and educational problems of the different foreign groups, it is necessary to study their origin and history. The necessity for some special knowledge of this sort is indicated by the fact that many of the immigrants speak the language of one country but come from a different country. Thus the Russian-speaking children in our schools came from Austria; the Roumanians did not come from Roumania but from Austria-Hungary; and almost none of the Serbians came from Serbia.
