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AMERICA, THE BEAUTIFUL

By EUNICE P. OTIS, Teacher, P. S. 92, Manhattan

Last year a little girl entered my class who was different. Foreign? Yes; but a different foreignness. There was an indefinable something which set her apart from all the other children. Shortly after her admission, her mother came to visit me and the mystery was solved. I thought she was a gypsy; but during the course of our conversation I found she was an Egyptian Jew. Among other things she said, "I hate America! It is ugly! Egypt is beautiful!"

For a moment I felt angry. The thought of the love given and the sacrifices made by my people to this country for generations rose within me. The beauties of New England; the wonderful Hudson and the Adirondacks; the great stretches of the West and Southwest all rose before me. Ugly? My America ugly? And then the anger was gone. I looked at this woman with understanding. "Egypt is beautiful!" She was used to brilliant sunshine, great open stretches of country, waving palm trees, tropical flowers, great fields of waving grain and she had come to what? The lower East Side of New York. With such contrasts do you wonder she thought America-her Americaugly? She did not see the beauties which the artistic eye or the lover of humanity sees there. For her the delicate, lace-like cablework of the Manhattan and Williamsburg bridges meant nothing. They were not beautiful. The "pickle" woman with her scarlet 'kerchief on her head, her blue dress, and her pushcart filled with vivid green cucumbers were not things of beauty. The towering skyscrapers in the west were not awe inspiring. The many incidents of every day life with its kindly acts meant nothing to her. She was seeing her beautiful Egypt. I smiled at her and said, "Yes, Egypt is wonderful. How I should like to see it." After listening to her eulogy of that country I brought some pictures of scenes in America to show her, trying to explain the vastness of this country. When she went home she no doubt still loved her beautiful Egypt, but I hope that at least a beginning of an idea of a beautiful America had been implanted.

As a result of this incident I decided to try to bring to the homes, through the children, some idea of the wonders of

America. These people had a love for the native land of their fathers and knew much of its beauties; but, what did they know of America, especially those who were, or thought they were, too old or too busy to attend the lectures given in our city. My plan is not fully worked out yet. It is being developed week by week and month by month. As a starting point, the pageant, The Making of America, was used in the simplest possible form.

During October we studied Italy because it has given us the discoverer of America. The map of Europe was shown; direction on the map was taught; Italy was located; its climate, products, and the characteristics of the Italian people learned; the name of Caruso as a great Italian singer who became an American was called to the children's attention. The part Italian labor has played in our industrial world during the past few years was emphasized.

The story of Columbus led us to next study Spain who furnished the money for his voyage. The map of America hung by the side of that of Europe. We made an imaginary journey with Columbus to America. We followed the Spanish explorers through the south and southwest of our country.

In November we studied England and the English as we had studied Italy and Spain, the Italians and the Spanish, emphasizing the purposes for which these pioneer colonists had come to America; the great difficulties they encountered; and the lasting gifts they have given to us in our laws, language and education, our religious and social life.

During December we studied Holland because of the Christmas holidays and the gift of Saint Nicholas to us by the Dutch. There is any amount of material here. The settlement of New York is a never-ending source of interest because it is the story of the founding of our own city and state. Did not Theodore Roosevelt, the hero of all boys, descend from these old Dutch settlers? The story of Rip Van Winkle told in language suitable for our children's mentality is as fascinating as Jack and the Bean Stalk.

The French nation will be the people studied during January. On account of our study of the World War, the children already know much of our French friends and love them dearly. Their explorations and settlements; their influence on the life and

culture of America; their gift of the Statute of Liberty; the planning of West Point and the city of Washington by French architects; their assistance to the colonies during the American Revolution; are facts every child should know. The names of LaFayette, Joffre and Foch are already known to them.

Having studied the four nations which most influenced the colonization of our country, we shall have several short talks on the other countries which contributed to the making of this country, always keeping before the children the fact that the peoples of Europe came to America because of conditions in their various countries which oppressed them or deterred them from growth in civil or religious freedom; from economic betterment; from better living conditions; from education. These are reasons which made them willing to leave their homes and seek a new land. Having come here, what do we all owe to America? All that we are, intellectually, financially, civicly, socially, spiritually, all these most of us owe to America. Could we have attained these in the old world? No, if we honestly face the facts we could not. What then do we owe in return for all these benefits? First of all, love and loyalty; then obedience to law, unselfishness in service and brotherliness to all men. The study of famous Americans, such as Washington and Lincoln, naturally presents itself as patriotic work for February.

During the remainder of the year we shall study America, the Beautiful as to

(a) Beauty of scenery:

The seashore,

The lakes,

The mountains,

The prairies,

The rivers,

The Yellowstone Park,

The Yosemite Valley,

The big trees,

The Grand Canyon,

The desert,

Niagara, etc.

(b) Beauty of the wild flowers of America.

(c) Beauty of birds and other animals.

(d) Occupations of the people:

Manufacturing,

Cotton raising,

Sheep raising,

Lumbering,
Agriculture,

Fruit raising,

Ship building,
Mining.

(e) Transportation.

All of these will be largely taught by pictures, most of which will have to be provided by the teacher, but the children should be encouraged to bring in post cards, pictures and advertisements which can be pasted in scrap books entitled, America, the Beautiful.

Visits to places of beauty in or near the city will give the children of our foreign neighborhoods a different idea of our country and its people.

I heard a Chinaman once say, "You (meaning the American people), judge the Chinese by the laundryman. The Chinese of Chinatown judge you by the people they see on the Bowery."

The blessings of religious freedom, political freedom, lack of social caste, free education and higher living standards should be emphasized.

The love of humanity in our country is shown in our hospitals; homes and institutions for orphans, old or infirm people; societies for the prevention of cruelty to animals as well as to children; organizations for the relief of poverty; the Red Cross; bureaus for unemployment and so on.

The center-America, the Beautiful-may be used in classes of all grades. Of course, each teacher must adapt the subject matter to the mentality of her class. It may be made largely a matter of story telling with cutting and pasting of pictures for little children, while it also may be used for history, composition, geography, reading and spelling in classes of the higher grades.

You ask, "Can these children learn and remember all of the facts here presented?"

No. Like many children in the normal classes they will forget much of it. But the spirit and the impressions, plus those facts

which they will retain will make for our boys and girls a new world, a new conception of the country in which they live. They will not be so likely to believe the false stories so often circulated among them by people who wish to use them as tools. It will give them a new self-respect to feel that they individually are a part of this great nation and can help to make it what they will.

Even my little Egyptian girl and her mother may come to see that most of America is outside the lower East Side, but that even there, many things are wonderful and beautiful if one only looks at them with sympathetic and understanding vision.

As the children study these subjects and collect their pictures the enthusiasm of the teacher will not only inspire the pupils, but will extend into their homes so that America, the Beautiful will not exist in name only, but in fact, to these our fellow Americans.

EXCHANGES AND PAMPHLETS RECEIVED

The Hospital-School Journal. December-January, 1922.

The Catholic World. February, 1922. The Catholic Social Worker in an Italian District, by Daisy H. Moseley.

8. C. C. A. News. December, 1921. The State as Social Worker. Canadian Journal of Mental Hygiene. October, 1921. Mental Disturb ances of Childhood, by H. B. Moyle, M. D. The Gifted Child, by W. D. Tait, Ph. D.

The Elementary School Journal.

January, 1922. Project Teaching: Pupils Planning Practical Activities, by Samuel C. Parker. Improving the Ability to Read Arithmetic Problems, by Estaline Wilson.

Bulletin of Information, Columbia University. Annual Report of the President, 1921.

Manuel General de l'Instruction Primaire. December 24, 1921. January 7, 1922. January 14, 1922.

Department of the Interior. Bureau of Education.

Organization for Visual Instruction, by W. H. Dudley.

Educational Work of the Boy Scouts, by Lorne W. Barclay.
Educational Work of the Girl Scouts, by Louise S. Bryant.
Monthly Record of Current Educational Publications.

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