paratively large Polish colony, located at Posen. His field notes
supply the following information: There is at the church a four-room
parochial school, housed in a substantial brick building, with five
teachers, including the priest. The school year lasts ten months.
Teaching is in English, except that an hour each day is devoted to the
Polish language and Polish history. The priest admitted that the
teaching of religion is in Polish. The school program is the same as in
the standard public schools of eight grades. The same textbooks are
used. Although the law does not require examination of the children,
nevertheless to appease the county officials and show the efficiency and
value of their school they send the children to the county board of
education for examination, and the county board has always expressed
great satisfaction with the advancement in education of the children of
the Polish school. The teachers are all Poles, appointed by the bishop,
candidates being presented by the priest.

The need of this school the priest explained as follows: It Americanizes
the children more quickly than the American school--that is, it is more
efficient in teaching the children the American ways of life and American
history than the American public schools, for the teachers are all Poles,
know their people and their psychology better than do the teachers in the
public schools. During a later discussion the priest admitted that the
church service is in the Polish language and that the Polish school exists
rather for sentimental reasons of a racial character than for practical
reasons. The settlers also claimed that the Polish school and the church
service in the Polish language are needed, for the reason that they like
this better; they complained that the expenses are too high; they would
have the county or state help them. Sometimes a few adults come to the
school, but they are irregular in attendance.

The priest explained that the issue of the immigrant schools in the
state has become practically a political issue, and to his mind it ought
not to be, at least not in such a sharp form. Prohibition of these
schools would have a bad effect on the foreign-born population. The
schools might be modified and reformed and the state might exercise
some sort of control and supervision over them, but only so far as it is
agreeable to the colonies themselves. In this way the schools would be a
valuable asset to the education of the pe