The most frequent criticism by immigrant leaders interviewed is the inelasticity of the public-school methods. The classes are usually held three or four nights a week, and no housewife should be expected to leave home as often as that. The groups are composed of both men and women and of all nationalities, disregarding well-known prejudices that have already been mentioned. A more fundamental criticism than these has reference to the failure to adopt or devise new methods of instruction for persons who cannot read or write in their own language, and who have arrived at a period in their lives when learning is extremely difficult. The classes are often conducted in English by day-school teachers, who are accustomed to teaching children and who are entirely unfamiliar with the background of the immigrant woman and her special problems. There are reports also of the unwillingness of the school authorities to relax formal requirements, with reference to the minimum number for whom a class will be organized. Often it is necessary to "nurse the class." In Chicago sixteen women have in the past been deprived of a class because the Board of Education refused at the time to open the schools to groups of less than twenty. THE HOME TEACHER The home teacher in California is an interesting educational device, of which much is to be expected. The Home Teacher Act, passed by the state legislature April 10, 1915,[56] permits boards of school trustees or city boards of education to employ one "home teacher" for every five hundred or more units of average daily attendance. The home teacher is to work in the homes of the pupils, instructing children and adults in matters relating to school attendance and preparation therefor, also in sanitation, in the English language, in household duties, such as purchase, preparation, and use of food and clothing, and in the fundamental principles of the American system of government and the rights and duties of citizenship. She is required to possess the following qualifications: 1. A regular teacher's certificate under the State Education Law. 2. Experience in teaching and in social work. 3. Good health. 4. Ability to speak the language of the largest group in the district. 5. Complete loyalty to the principal of the school. 6. Tact and patience for a delicate task. 7. Ingenuity in adapting all circumstances to the main purpose. 8. An incapacity for discouragement. 9. Comprehension of the reasons and objects of the work. 10. Finally, above all and through all, a sympathetic attitude toward the people, which involves some knowledge of the countries and conditions from which they came, and what "America" has meant to them.[57] Her salary is paid from the city or from district special school funds.