CO-OPERATION OF AGENCIES
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.