Cultivation of the German Language in the Schools.

Abendpost, July 15th, 1897

Codes: i.a.1.b ii.b.2.g iii.a

Groups: German

During the German Teachers Day in Milwankee, Mr. Emil Dapprich, director of the German-Teachers Seminary, gave an interesting lecture on the State of German instruction in city and country. The statistics were obtained through answers to about 3000 circular letters sent to the schools of the United States.

A survey of the statistics obtained, which will be published in detail, as a handbook of German school affairs in America, contains the following table:-

States	Elementary Schools	High Schools	Total	Elementary Schools	High	Total
New England	50	70	120	2805	4268	7,663
New York	837	71	908	83966	4607	88,573
New Jersey	56	16	72	3209	935	4,144
Pennsylvania	519	57	570	28289	3964	32,253
Ohio	919	60	979	71337	4397	75,774
Indiana	595	20	615	28786	1173	29,953
Illinois	1292	51	1343	83733	2650	86,383
Wisconsin	957	56	1073	63092	2099	65,191
Michigan	446	12	458	21324	821	22,145
Minnesota &Iowa	802	35	837	26268	1974	28,342
Southern States	489	54	543	25053	1321	25,404
Western	779	60	839	34036	4243	38,279
Total	7741	622	8303	471038	32472	503,510

Mr. Dapprich called his statistical information incomplete. He said:-

"As a report that stretches over such a wide-spread territory, cannot reach all necessary points in one short year, the defect of incompleteness is attached to it. We know through personal experience, that, in hundreds of schools, German is taught but this could not be taken into consideration, as the teachers concerned neglected to give us their answers. If we had received from all schools, especially the public institutions, accurate reports, the result would be more gratifying. The number of pupils and teachers would be much larger, for instance, in Texas where there are counties, in which nearly every public school has German as a subject of education. As in cities, with considerable German population, the cultivation of the German language stands in no proportion to the population, it is evident, that one could bring these cities into three groups according to the rating of German as a means of culture." In the:-

1. Honor group: Cincinnati, Belleville, Cleveland, Indianapolis, New Braunfels, Saginaw, Erie, Evansville, Tell City, Columbus, Hamilton, Dayton, Milwaukee, Baltimore, Davenport, Carlsstadt.

2. So-So group: New York, Buffalo, Hoboken, Chicago, Sheboygan, Akron, Lancaster.

3. Mourning group:- Detroit, Dubuque, St. Louis, Quincy, Newark, St. Paul, Pittsburg, Brooklyn, Peoria, Allegheny, Rochester, Covington, Galveston.

The above notices show, that by such incomplete school statistics, this classification also, cannot make a claim to correctness.