Aside from a number of lower parochial schools, there is one parochial high school and one parochial college, Hope College. The high school is a preparatory school for the college. The college prepares ministers for the village churches. The language used in the high school and college was formerly Dutch. They taught Dutch history, literature, and mainly religion—Bible study. But during late years English has become the teaching language, and the Dutch language has remained only as a subject of study. Up to this time the leaders of the colony have been working toward Americanization unconsciously, but now they have awakened to the fact that the Dutch are rapidly Americanizing. They accept this fact as a desirable one, and are now working consciously toward the end of Americanization. They realize that even if they would like to keep the Dutch nationality alive in the colony, they would not be able to do it, so that they yield to the inevitable. The activities in the church and parochial schools have now to be turned more toward Americanization.
In a German colony at Au Gres, Michigan, the writer learned that the colonists have a parochial school in which the teaching is in German. They teach the German language, the Lutheran religion, and the rudiments of sciences. The church is composed entirely of Germans. Both ministers are appointed by the German Synod. The Congregational church has Saturday and Sunday school. The Saturday school lasts from nine until twelve in the morning, and the Sunday school from nine until ten in the morning. The teaching is in German; the subject is Bible study, and also the learning of the German language and the singing of hymns. The meaning of these schools was explained to the writer by the settlers as follows: The parents would like to have their children know the German language, be able to read and write German, and be instructed in religious matters, for neither German nor religion is taught in the American schools. The local native settlers stated to the writer that the German parochial school ought not to be there. It is a Germanizing school, opposed to America and Americanization, they argued.
WISCONSIN
The Superintendent of Public Education of the State of Wisconsin told the writer that there is no law enabling the public authorities to supervise or inspect the private schools or even to collect information in regard to them, except in a roundabout way. There is a law requiring that the county boards keep records of school attendance and this law enables the county boards to learn the attendance of every school in each county. The enrollment in private and parochial schools in Wisconsin was as follows:
| 1914–15 | 1915–16 | |
|---|---|---|
| Number attending private or parochial schools only—counties | 24,370 | 25,373 |
| Number attending private or parochial schools only—cities | 21,736 | 18,556 |
| Number attending both public and private, or parochial schools—counties | 34,335 | 34,958 |
| Number attending both public and private, or parochial schools—cities | 1,441 | 3,276 |
| Teaching force of private and parochial schools in counties: | ||
| Men | 288 | |
| Women | 600 | |
| Total | 888 | 909 |
There was a case in Wisconsin in 1918 of a German father sentenced to five years in the penitentiary for persuading his son to evade the draft. An editorial commenting on the case said:
This man, though German in every sense of the word, was born in America. Yet when he was on trial he had great difficulty in understanding questions put to him in English. Born in America, educated in American schools, nearly fifty years old, yet "he had great difficulty in understanding questions put in English!" Why? Because in the German—not American—community in which he was raised the education of American citizens was conducted in German.
A rural postmaster of German descent in a small backwoods town in Wisconsin, who claimed to have lost long ago his faith in "the Kaiser's Fatherland," as he put it, stated that there are thousands and thousands of such victims of the German parochial schools in the state, who, though born and brought up here, are unable to converse freely in English. This is especially true among those who live on farms in a German colony and go only to a German school and church.
Now these people suffer and are ashamed of themselves. But who is responsible? I think both the German clergy and other leaders for victimizing these people, as well as the American public for allowing such mischief.