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.
INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTES
Another specialized agency for work with the foreign-born groups is
the International Institute of the Young Women's Christian
Association. This association has attempted in a short period of time
to develop over a wide area this form of service, so that between the
spring of 1913 and March, 1919, there had been established 31 of these
organizations, most of them in industrial centers in different parts
of the United States. In general, their work, as outlined in the
After-War Program of the association, includes (1) a foreign-language
information office, (2) home visiting for newly arrived women and
girls, (3) case work in connection with legal difficulties, sickness,
and emergencies, and (4) work with groups, including organized classes
and informal gatherings. The last are to be especially designed for
women and girls unable or unwilling to attend night schools, and there
is to be a persistent urging upon the public school of the importance
of socialized methods in work for women.
The use of foreign-language visitors is considered to be one of the
most important features of these undertakings. Although few of the
institutes have been able to secure enough workers to reach all the
language groups in the community, provision can usually be made for
the most numerous groups. Among the 18 replies to questionnaires sent
to these institutes only 4 show less than 3 languages spoken by
visitors, 10 have as many as 4 or more, and 4 have 8 or 9 languages.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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