No one has a higher respect for those
efforts than I have--few, other than educators, know of them better
than I do, since I did not make my five-year study of the American
public school system for naught. But I am not referring to the
exceptional instance here and there. I merely ask of the American,
interested as he is or should be in the Americanization of the
strangers within his gates, how far the public school system, as a
whole, urban and rural, adapts itself, with any true efficiency, to the
foreign-born child. I venture to color his opinion in no wise; I
simply ask that he will inquire and ascertain for himself, as he should
do if he is interested in the future welfare of his country and his
institutions; for what happens in America in the years to come depends,
in large measure, on what is happening to-day in the public schools of
this country.
As a Dutch boy I was taught a wholesome respect for law and for
authority. The fact was impressed upon me that laws of themselves were
futile unless the people for whom they were made respected them, and
obeyed them in spirit more even than in the letter.
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