cannot attend any organized classes. Where there are infants or very small children the mother can neither take them with her nor leave them behind. The futility of drastic compulsoryeducation laws applying to all immigrants must be recognized in view of the possibilities of compliance in the case of mothers of families. In recognition of such conditions the Massachusetts legislature amended the compulsory illiterate-minor law in 1913 to exclude married females, who were formerly included.

The home-teacher project is too valuable to be abandoned merely because unforeseen difficulties have been encountered. The home teacher can be an influence for the Americanization of women in the home, where no other agent can be so effective; and even though she does not teach the mother English, the home teacher can demonstrate by action and friendliness the benign intent of the state in offering helpful services to all strangers who have come among us. There is much social service which the home teacher can perform, such as explaining to immigrant mothers the laws and customs of American life, the school-attendance requirements for children, the meaning of report cards sent from the school, the existence and location of public baths, libraries, dispensaries, clinics, and many other institutions intended for the comfort and pleasure of their families. There is no reason why public agents should not perform in part these functions which hitherto have been considered to be wholly in the field of social service

and carried on by social workers. It is to be noted that there is a growing tendency to place public agents in this field; it is the reluctance of the public to recognize the extent of its obligations that has made it necessary for private agencies to dominate this department of service. The performance of social work by the home teacher may not displace the private worker, but it may supplement and make more farreaching the good will and assistance which everywhere should be extended to the immigrant. There is one advantage in assigning social service to the home teacher instead of to the social worker: the private agent's concern with the home suggests charity or patronage, and sometimes gives offense; the public agent represents a service which may be claimed as a right and not a favor. Furthermore, the public agent is freer from suspicion of any possible ulterior motive.

DAY SCHOOL, CENTER OF SYSTEM

At this point we may proceed to point out further advantages of the day school for immigrants discussed in Chapter II. The day school for immigrants may be described as something similar to a holding corporation for a number of subsidiary enterprises, such as the factory class, the day class for mothers, the class for employed adults who cannot attend evening school, and the evening-school class. There may be considerable doubt as to whether the home teacher

should be attached to the regular day school in the immigrant district or to the day school for immigrants. From the point of view of organization and environment, the choice at present would seem to fall upon the day school for immigrants. The home teacher will secure largest returns in her educational task by bringing the immigrant mother into a convenient mothers' class, and this is an additional reason why she should be the agent and representative of the day school for immigrants. It will depend upon the development of the function of the home teacher whether she becomes an instrument primarily for education or for social service. Americanization, of course, means both influences, though the question of proportions is still undetermined. In the past we viewed the educational function as of larger importance, but increased experience is showing us that instruction in English is but one of the factors in the process of national unification.

The day school for immigrants should have a principal or director who is a specialist in Americanization, and who may devote attention exclusively to the one problem, as do principals and directors of other special phases of work in our public-school systems. The country to-day contains almost no examples of such organization. The last report of the Commissioner of Education contains no instance of a clear-cut assignment of the functions concerning immigrant education to one executive. A number of cities report having directors of evening

schools, but detailed inquiries almost invariably bring out the fact that the director of immigrant education is at the same time an elementaryschool principal, as in Rochester, New York, or an assistant superintendent with other and usually many assignments. Boston has a special director of evening schools of all types and of immigrant education; Los Angeles has a supervisor of immigrant education.

We may again call attention to the opportunity presented in the day school for immigrants for maintaining a distinct and professional corps of teachers whose function is solely part-time education for non-English-speaking immigrants, native illiterates, and adults with defective elementary education. The evening high school is a distinct and separate problem; on the other hand, all part-time instruction of academic grade below the high school may best be the function of the day school for immigrants. Since this school is operated throughout the day (morning, afternoon, and evening), full-time assignments to teachers may be made, so that the per capita expense of instruction need not exceed the present cost of high-school instruction.

The term “day school for immigrants” is practically unknown throughout the country, and the practice implied is not less so. This fact may justify more specific description of the single instance existing in Boston. The director of evening schools of Boston is likewise in charge of the day school for immigrants. As stated previously, this institution was the result of the

extension of the idea of part-time education into the day period for considerable groups of adults who were engaged in evening employments, such as work in hotels, restaurants, theaters. The day school for immigrants was not an invention, but rather a discovery, for it was not deliberately planned to perform what has now become its function. The first teachers assigned to the Boston school were selected and trained from the staff of the continuation school, a part-time school for working boys and girls between fourteen and sixteen years of age. The background which the continuation-school teacher brings to the problem of the education of the immigrant is not inappropriate. The part-time teacher deals with people who are not primarily school pupils, but chiefly wage earners or home makers. The similarities of procedure in the continuation school and in the day school for immigrants are more significant than are the differences. The continuation-school teacher needs, in addition to her general background, special training in methods of teaching English to foreign born; but the transition to the new task is far easier for her than for the regular day-school teacher. It is not at all impossible to predict that our present evening schools for immigrants will become evening classes of the day school for immigrants, a lesser instead of a greater agent as at present.

The weakness of organization of the present evening school is the temporary and makeshift character of its personnel. The teachers in most