equate programs, in defective teaching
methods and unsuitable teachers. The knowledge of English, American ways
and standards of living might well be developed in the immigrant
settlers during the process of teaching them something useful,
necessary, and interesting. A simple course on farming methods, local
conditions, and useful information could be given, with the probable
result of awakening their enthusiasm and taste for more.

Such a program makes it essential that the evening-school teacher know
farming and rural conditions in general and be familiar with the home life
of the students and their racial peculiarities, to which he has to adjust
his methods. Possibly the best teacher would be a settler's son or daughter
who, after high school, has had training in agriculture and teaching
methods. The students should be graded according to their race, level of
mental development, and learning ability, whenever this is possible.

The ordinary method now in use consists in imitating and repeating the
words and sentences, often disconnected one from another, and the
stories told by the teacher. The formal copying of the words and
sentences written on the blackboard by the teacher, and reading
children's books are sufficient to discourage the most ambitious
student. Conversation is more successful than the story-telling method,
and exercises in the reading of popular textbooks on farming and of
popular essays on American history, geography, etc., are far more
interesting to the adult settlers than children's stories.

[Illustration: THE ARRIVAL OF AN IMMIGRANT SETTLER IN 1883 WAS SHOWN IN
A COMMUNITY PAGEANT]

[Illustration: THE SAME MAN IS WORKING FOR LAND AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT]

The evening school in the rural immigrant colonies should be provided
and attendance for the adult non-English-speaking immigrants urged,
until they have mastered simple English, the elements of citizenship,
and a rudimentary knowledge of farming.

In almost every colony visited the writer discussed with the settlers
the advisability of compulsory attendance at evening or afternoon
classes. No one was against compulsion, though a number suggested
qualifications. For instance, the evening school should operate in the
wintertime; the teaching should include subjects useful in farming; in
the case of hired men, the school time must be paid for by the employer;
the evening school should be a public institution, not a private,
charitable, o