III. NEW PHASES OF EDUCATION IN BUFFALO, N. Y.

1. DOMESTIC EDUCATION IN IMMIGRANT HOMES.

From the first report and other documents of the Buffalo committee of the North American Civic League for Immigrants, it is learned that the organization has adopted a new way of teaching immigrant women how to become good housewives. The method consists of sending" domestic educators " directly into the homes of such families as are willing to receive them. There the domestic educators show the housewife how to keep her home clean, how to cook, how to vary the diet, how to get the most for her money, how to prevent sickness, how to sew, how to take care of the children; in fact, all or nearly all phases of home making are taken up and thoroughly demonstrated. The work started September 1, 1911, in charge of Mrs. A. L. Hansen, who now has a staff of 3 paid workers and 12 volunteer assistants. The territory is divided into districts, apportioned among the paid workers, who supervise the volunteers. Of the 12 who are giving their services without monetary reward, 6 are working directly with the families, 4 are teaching classes of domestic economy for girls, 2 are waiting for special classes to be formed, and Dr. Mallory, a woman, is giving special lessons in sex hygiene in some of the classes.

The importance of domestic education for immigrants is thus summarized by the Buffalo committee:

Amelioration of the home and living conditions of immigrant families is at the center of the problem of assimilation. Better homes mean better citizens. More serious than the present overcrowding, bad air, poor food, sickness, and the rest is the underlying hygienic and domestic ignorance. Hitherto no adequate steps have been taken to replace this ignorance by intelligence. To be reached effectively for this purpose these immigrants must be reached in their bomes.

Regarding the practical results achieved the most recent available report by Mrs. Hansen says, in part:

It has been found that the teaching given to the mother of a family is passed along to her neighbors and relatives, especially the teaching of food principles. It very frequently happens that a woman's neighbors and relatives are in her home when the educator arrives, and they receive the benefit of the instruction. The news seems to fly along some streets that the educator is in a certain home, and women come flocking into the house to see what is going on, many of them bringing garments to be fitted or altered.

Cereals are now used in 50 homes where a month ago they were unknown. The use of coffee in all the homes the educators are visiting is on the decrease, and cocoa is used in its stead, while fresh milk has been substituted for canned milk. Stews and nourishing soups have taken the place of boiled cabbage and fried pork. Women are baking their own bread and cookies, instead of buying a most inferior quality at the nearest bakeshop. Some families who were left as hopeless by several other philanthropic agencies have been induced to clean up their homes under the educators' instructions. There are numberless children now receiving proper hygienic care who before the educators' visits were strangers to soap and water. Prospective mothers have benefited greatly by the instruction given; several babes born this month have found carefully prepared clothing awaiting them, whereas their elder brothers and sisters found only an old shirt.

Hardly a day passes that the dispensaries are not visited by several patients sent in by the educators.

Lessons in sewing have proved very attractive to a large number of women. The educators have found that after cutting and fitting one garment for a woman, she can generally manage a second very well alone. The children are going to school with buttons on their dresses, whereas before the garments were pinned; the stockings are getting attention both as to mending and washing, whereas previously there was only neglect.

Through cooperation with the Charity Organization Society 20 women are taught how to buy economically. The Charity Organization Society committee have given the grocery order, or cash, for the family into the care of the educators. It has been found that after the aid has been discontinued the women still buy as instructed. In a number of these families regular instruction by the educator can soon be discontinued altogether.

The class work has proved far-reaching. The educators have found that the girls carry home the instructions given in class, so that for every girl in class a family is reached. The classes in sewing are taught hygiene and economy as well as sewing. The cooking classes have been given instruction in preparation of cocoa, cereals, toast, and corn-meal bread. At each lesson the food principle of the food under preparation is given and the girl shown the benefit derived from using these foods.

The classes now number 10 and the total number of pupils 116. As only 3 of these children are in families visited, 113 additional families are thus affected through classes, making a total of 190 families reached.

The families dealt with are usually referred by the Charity Organization Society, social service departments of hospitals, settlements, the District Nursing Association, clergymen, and neighbors. In these families the domestic educators confine themselves to constructive educational work. Where material relief is necessary it is supplied by the Charity Organization Society. Where sickness or ailments exist the District Nursing Association, the tuberculosis bureau of the health department, dispensaries, and hospitals are called upon. Duplication is avoided. Cooperation is the watchword.

2. BUFFALO'S SCHOOLS OF CITIZENSHIP.

According to the Buffalo committee of the North American Civic League for Immigrants, two-thirds of the population of Buffalo are either foreign born or of foreign parentage. The committee claims for Buffalo the distinction of being "the first city in the United States to take the forward step of placing citizenship education on

a clearly recognized and distinct basis." The committee outlines Buffalo's immigrant problem, in the solution of which its schools of citizenship are designed to render aid, as follows:

These immigrants in the Buffalo community are at once a liability and an asset. Most of the immigrants are poor to the point of destitution when they come here. They have been accustomed to agricultural life. They have known only undemocratic government. Their traditions and their whole point of view are foreign. They are dependent on an alien tongue.

Because of their poverty they have to find the cheapest living quarters. Because they have had only agricultural experience, in the city they are fitted only for common labor and so they get only minimum wages. Minimum wages mean that they must continue to live in the poorest quarters, which in turn means overcrowding and disease. Long, grinding toil, overcrowded homes, and the lack of wholesome recreation inevitably produce a crop of saloons, and the saloons lead. to drunkenness, moral degeneration, and crime. Ignorance of democratic government retards the development of intelligent citizenship. Foreign traditions and viewpoint, and dependence on an alien tongue, result in segregation in semiisolated colonies. This segregation aggravates and perpetuates the other evils. Buffalo's immigrants are in the community, but not of it. For purposes of progressive citizenship they are in large degree a dead weight. In short, they are a serious civic liability.

The single fact, however, that these immigrants provide half of the community's common and semiskilled labor shows that even under present conditions they are an asset of great value. The city's industries are largely dependent upon them. Their present value as an asset is small in comparison with their potential value. They are capable of being developed into intelligent, alert citizens, who, instead of in many ways holding the community back, will contribute actively to its advance. For the community as a whole, improvement of the conditions of the city's immigrants means a gain in community coherency, strength, and effectiveness.

Independently of the economic problem involved, the civic condition of the immigrant is susceptible of improvement through education, and this angle of attack, among others, has been adopted by the Buffalo committee by the establishment of a specialized school, which it describes as follows:

Under present conditions the proportion of immigrants who become naturalized citizens is very small. The proportion of those naturalized who have an adequate understanding of the meaning and obligations of citizenship is still smaller.

The New York-New Jersey committee has for some time been working on a plan for establishing schools of citizenship to deal with this situation.

The Buffalo committee proposed to the department of public instruction last spring that it try some citizenship classes in the evening schools. The department agreed to be responsible for supervision if the committee would bear all expenses except the cost of heat and light. The experiment was made on this basis, with the cooperation of the Young Men's Christian Association, which provided part of the teachers. The classes were held in May and June. Approxi

mately 250 Polish and Italian young men were given instruction in naturalization and citizenship, combined with English.

Though the difficulties involved in the entire newness of the undertaking were many, the experiment was regarded as on the whole so successful-thanks chiefly to the fact that Principals John J. Walsh and Charles L. Ryan were constantly at the helm-that the department decided to make citizenship instruction a permanent and regular part of the evening school system. Last fall classes of this sort were organized in the majority of public evening schools in immigrant districts.

Buffalo is the first city in the United States to take the forward step of placing citizenship education on this clearly recognized and distinct basis.

Inasmuch as this departure is closely connected with the evening school and extension work of the department of public instruction, and as this work as a whole is such a vital factor in the Americanization of the city's immigrant population, the committee has made the following recommendations, with a view to getting the largest profits from this part of Buffalo's educational machinery: 1. Perfecting the organization of the instruction in citizenship.

2. Extending the teaching of English as far as possible and raising it to the maximum of efficiency.

3. Lengthening the evening school season to the degree that the attendance warrants.

4. Making use of school buildings every week-day evening by organizing twoevening and three-evening groups of classes and holding on Saturday evenings neighborhood gatherings on the social-center plan.

5. The appointment of a director of evening, vacation, and other extension work, to give all his time to these matters.

Supt. Emerson has expressed his approval of these suggestions, and his intention of putting them into effect as soon as possible. The department's budget for the ensuing year provides for requisite appropriations.

IV. JUVENILE LABOR BUREAUS AND VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE IN GREAT BRITAIN.

In Great Britain the problem of juvenile labor has reached the same stage as in the United States, hence special interest attaches at this time to measures adopted by British authorities to conserve and direct the future working force of the nation. These measures have been excited by the alarming increase in the number of the unemployed.

Repeated investigations have proved that the idle army is constantly recruited from the ranks of the young who are not fitted for skilled labor of any kind. As regards the children of the poor and the shiftless, education and labor present, in fact, two aspects of the same problem. This relation is now clearly recognized in Great Britain, and legal measures have been taken to use this relation for the benefit of juvenile workers.

By the labor exchange act of 1909, authority was given to the board of trade to establish and maintain labor exchanges; to assist exchanges established by public bodies or by private agencies; to make general regulations for the management of labor exchanges established or assisted by the board; and also to establish and support advisory committees in connection with the management of labor exchanges. The education (choice of employment) act for England which went into effect. November 28, 1910, authorized the local education authorities" to make arrangements, subject to the approval of the board of education, for giving to boys and girls under 17 years of age assistance with respect to the choice of suitable employment, by means of the collection and the communication of information and the furnishing of advice.”

As a result of the two measures the board of trade was brought into direct contact with the educational authorities, which in many places had already set up a system of labor exchange in connection with the public schools. After much deliberation, a joint memorandum was issued on the part of the two central authorities, the board of education and the board of trade, determining their relations in respect to juvenile employment. The memorandum provided that the right of directing pupils, boys and girls, in regard to employment, for 6 months after the close of their school life, should be reserved to the education authorities.