Chapter 7 of the Foner reading discusses the differences between the education of the old immigrants and the new immigrants. Foner speaks about Eastern European Jews of the wave of the late nineteenth/early twentieth century and how they are viewed today. The chapter begins with a quote from Nathan Glazer and Daniel Moynihan which says that Eastern Europeans Jews showed a “passion for education” from “their arrival in this country” (Foner 188). A good note made by Foner is that our perception of this part of history is very much forged by historians who themselves are Jewish.
The truth about this time is that receiving education was rare for immigrants. “Few Russian Jewish children went to high school, and even fewer graduated,” says Foner (Foner 190). The reality of this period was that there were few kids who were actually able go to college. Many jobs accepted workers even right out of the eighth grade; something unheard of in today’s society where one needs at least one degree to get a decent job. City College of New York became a largely Jewish school even though Jewish undergrads were a select few. Not many of them made it to graduation. These poor education conditions were a result of the poor elementary education system at the time. The elementary schools did a terrible job of educating the immigrants. Although there were programs put in place for immigrant children to enter in to learn English and assimilate into society, they would only keep the students in for a five to six months before they had to transfer into the regular classes–regardless how they did in these classes.
There is a reasonable contrast with the education of immigrants of today and those of yesterday. Those of today do not have to worry about getting a job right out of middle school to help support the family. Many of the immigrants of today excel in school and go on to college and become very successful in the work force, something is different from many of the immigrants of the past. Although the past had its success stories, predominantly the eduction of immigrants was deplorable. Many of us are the children of immigrants and we should count ourselves lucky that we have been raised and have grown up in this time period: a time period where our level of education is directly correctly correlated with our occupation and our success.
