SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND PROGRESS.

The schools available for immigrants in Community A are good. There are three public school buildings in the town-one, grammar and primary, situated in the eastern part, while the other two are located side by side in the western section of the urban center, one being a high school and the other a graded school. The high-school building is a comparatively new structure and is well equipped throughout. Besides the high-school students, several lower grades are housed in the high-school building. In addition to the public schools described above there is one parochial school, conducted under the direction of the Roman Catholic Church, and a night school for Italians, maintained by the local Y. M. C. A. In the outlying districts of the community, public schools are within comparatively short distances of the mine colonies.

The scope of the Italian night school carried on by the local Y. M. C. A. is indicated in the following outline:

(a) Membership fee of Y. M. C. A. ($5 a year) covers cost of instruction.

The Americans attend school in the greatest numbers, those enrolled being about equal to the total number of immigrants in attendance. This is a point deserving notice, when it is recalled that the natives constitute only 25 per cent of the total population of the community. Taking the schools of the community as a whole, the following races are cited in their relative order of regularity of attendance: (1) American, (2) Slovak, (3) Syrian, (4) Italian (North and South), (5) Magyar, (6) Hebrew. The reasons assigned for irregularity in school attendance on the part of immigrant children in the community are: (1) Lack of interest on part of parents, (2) truancy, (3) desire of children to earn wages.

The compulsory education law is enforced as far as practicable, but many instances where children remain away from school escape the notice of the truant officer. The consensus of opinion among teachers in the different schools is that the children, in all grades and in all schools, rank by race as follows, with reference to general progress: (1) American, (2) Slovak, (3) Italian (North and South), (4) German, (5) Polish, (6) Hebrew.

The children of all races associate freely in the class rooms and on the playgrounds of all schools in the community. The immigrant children invariably adopt American games and indulge in them with the same zest as the native children. The table following shows the attendance, by race, at public, parochial, and night schools in the community.

a Compiled from statements made by the several teachers in the different schools.

TABLE 276.-School attendance in public, parochial, and night schools in Community A,

by race.

[The table is compiled from figures and statements given by the teachers in the various schools.]

General nativity and race of father and sex of pupil.

Reports in some detail were secured from the public-school pupils in the urban center of Community A. The returns secured from a total of 852 pupils are shown in the table below, by sex of pupil and by general natívity and race of father of pupil.

TABLE 277.-Number of pupils in each grade of the public schools of the urban center of Community A, by sex and by general nativity and race of father of pupil.

Elementary grades.

NATIVE-BORN.

White:
Male.

.Female..

Total....

FOREIGN-BORN.

Grand total.

TABLE 277.-Number of pupils in each grade of the public schools of the urban center of Community A, by sex and by general nativity and race of father of pupil—Continued.

1

1

3

1

1

1

46

2

3

1

1

2

1

10

10

?

10

10

"Other races" comprise 1 Assyrian, 4 Dutch, 3 French, 2 Lithuanian, 6 Norwegian, 8 Polish, and 9 Welsh.

By referring to the preceding table it is seen that about one-half of the total number of pupils represented are native-born of native white father, those either foreign-born or of foreign parentage constituting the remaining half. Among groups of foreign-born parentage the Slovak, Magyar, Slovenian, North Italian, English, Hebrew, and Swedish are numerically strong. The significant feature of the table, however, lies in the fact that of the total number of 415 pupils born of foreign father, 185 are in the first grade, 74 in the second, 34 in the third, 48 in the fourth, 30 in the fifth, and a constantly decreasing number in the sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth grades. In the high school there are only 12 children of foreign parentage, 5 of whom are of parents born in northern Europe or Great Britain. With the exception of 3 Slovaks, 1 Magyar, 1 South Italian, and possibly a few Poles and Lithuanians, no other races of southern Europe are represented in the grades of the grammar school above the sixth. Practically all children of foreign parentage are in the four lower grades of the grammar school and about one-half are in the first grade.

A partial census of the public schools of Community A shows the general nativity and sex of the 16 teachers to be as follows:

TABLE 278.-Sex of teachers in the public schools of Community A, by general nativity and race.

As regards the literacy of the mine workers in Community A, the following table is submitted:

TABLE 279.-Literacy of male employees, by general nativity and race.

TABLE 279.-Literacy of male employees, by general nativity and race-Continued.

The literacy of the employees native-born of native father as compared with those native-born of foreign father and foreignborn is apparent by a glance at the above table. Of 103 employees native-born of native father, only one can not read or write. Of 66 native-born of foreign father, or, in other words, employees of the second generation, all but 8 can both read and write some language; the fathers of 4 of the illiterate persons were born in Austria-Hungary, 1 was German, 1 Irish, 1 Italian, and 1 Russian. Of a total of 2,844 foreign-born employees reporting, 527, or 18.5 per cent, are unable to read any language, and 564, or 19.8 per cent, are unable to read and write. If races reporting data for 50 or more employees be selected and the per cent of illiteracy be worked out, it is seen that from 10.3 to 38.2 per cent are unable to read any language and from 10.7 to 40 per cent are unable to read and write any language. No absolute comparison can be drawn between races, for there is no equality of numbers reporting. On the basis of the number reporting, however, the worst showing is made by the Russian, 38.2 per cent of which race can not read, while 40 per cent can not read and write. The South Italian ranks second in point of illiteracy and the Polish third. A detailed statement as to the extent of illiteracy among the North and South Italians, Magyars, Poles, Russians, and Slovaks (the races for which 50 or more persons report) is given on the next page.