Sometimes co-operation among several agencies may be advantageous in
meeting the various difficulties presented by the task of teaching
adult foreign-born women. Such co-operation was developed between the
Immigrants' Protective League of Chicago, the public schools, the
Chicago Woman's Club and the Women's Division of the Illinois Council
of Defense.
The Board of Education of Chicago, in 1917, passed a resolution to the
effect that whenever twenty or more adults desired instruction in any
subject which would increase their value in citizenship, the school
would be opened and a trained teacher provided. The Immigrants'
Protective League then undertook to organize groups who would take
advantage of this opportunity and to keep the groups interested after
they had been organized.
The Chicago Woman's Club and the Council of National Defense undertook
to supply kindergarten teachers to care for the children whose mothers
were in the class, and the Visiting Nurse Association supplied nurses
to examine the children, to advise mothers with reference to their
care, and to make home visits when the condition of the children
rendered this necessary.
The League visitors made very definite efforts to organize campaigns
for acquainting the housewives of various neighborhoods with the
opportunity thus provided, and for persuading the women to "come out."
The services of the foreign-born visitors have been particularly
valuable in the work of organization. These visitors certainly put
forth valiant efforts in behalf of the plan. The Lithuanian and
Italian visitors, for example, made in three instances 40, 96, and 125
calls before a class was organized, and even then less than twenty
enrolled for each class. They have found it necessary to make visits
in the homes of women whom they hoped to draw out, and have also used
posters, printed invitations, and advertisements in foreign-language
newspapers. Nor have their efforts ceased when the class was
organized. Often misunderstandings occur, the attendance begins to
dwindle, and great efforts must be made to discover the cause and to
bring back the members.
The classes organized in this way have usually been small, composed of
housewives of a single national group. Considerable individual
attention is given the members of the class, and the foreign-speaking
visitors attend the classes so that they may interpret when necessary.
The plan has been carried out, of course, on an extremely restricted
stage. The efforts have been limited almost entirely to English and
cooking classes, and instruction in other phases of household
management has been quite incidental.
The teachers supplied by the Board of Education have not, of course,
always possessed social experience and training. The classes are
sometimes short lived. In the case of a Lithuanian cooking class, to
which the teacher came too late to give the lesson, or too weary to
give the lesson, it was necessary to reorganize the group. Where the
teachers change, the group will dwindle, and the efforts of the
visitor will have been substantially wasted.
The subject matter is often poorly adapted to the needs and desires of
the foreign housewife. A new domestic-science teacher, for instance,
gave to a group of Lithuanian women seven consecutive lessons on pies,
cakes, and cookies, in spite of the organizer's request for lessons
on "plain cooking." At times, as has been pointed out, the teacher is
wholly ignorant as to the habits and tastes of the immigrant. There
is, sometimes, an ill-advised attempt to substitute American dishes
for foreign dishes instead of modifying or supplementing the
well-established and perfectly sound dietetic practices of the
foreign-born group.
The Lithuanian visitor of the Immigrants' Protective League, in
speaking of the difficulties she had encountered in keeping together
the classes she organized for the public school, says she has often
been able to get together a group of women who want lessons in English
and in cooking. The plan has been to give cooking lessons in English.
The women have come, perhaps, three or four times. The first lesson
would teach the making of biscuits; perhaps the second dumplings; the
third sweet rolls. The teacher would be very busy with her cooking and
talk very little. Then the women would not come back. They did not
want to learn to make biscuits, about which they cared nothing; they
were busy women and were aware that they were not getting what they
wanted or needed.