*The views expressed in this discussion response are strictly intended to meet the requirements

established by the prompt. In other words, I do not actually agree with the argument made below
opposing the ideas of Jane Addams!*

Jane Addams boldly claims our immigrant students are treated unfairly and are consequently ill-
prepared for the future under the current curriculum in America. She makes three points to conclude
our government––and by extension, our tax dollars––should be used in the form of a “helping hand”
to artificially generate success for immigrant students in modern society. The three points she makes
include: immigrant students need to have a closer relationship with their family’s cultural heritage,
immigrant students need to be prepared more specifically for entry into the workforce, and that
teachers and native students should be more sensitive to the conditions immigrant families face. I
argue that her general analysis and resultant diagnoses regarding these three “issues” are incorrect
and unfounded.
To begin, Addams (1908) stated how “...it is the business of the school to give to each child the
beginnings of a culture so wide and deep and universal that he can interpret his own parents and
countrymen by a standard which is world-wide and not provincial,” (p.26). To challenge the role of
the parents in terms of implementing proper discipline and guidance for their children supplants the
very foundation of the morals comprising our Republic. Immigrant students are presented with an
equal opportunity to acquire knowledge within our institutions––to provide special attention to these
students would tip the scale and leave our native students at a deficit. Furthermore, teachers would
become exhausted having to interpret the home environments each immigrant student is subjected
to and have no energy to teach the proper subject matter. 
In terms of changing our curriculum to direct immigrant students more effectively into specific
vocations within our workforce, I also disagree strongly. Students must be assessed by their
knowledge of subjects within the curriculum and be given equal opportunities to master content. If
these immigrant students cannot adapt to the American traditional curriculum, how are they to
prepare for life on their own after the school stops guiding them so aggressively? An excerpt from
the Pittsfield Journal (July 3rd, 1915) shows the emboldened, radical ideas Addams pursues to
implement in America, including how “Her dabbling in politics, her suffrage activity and her ill-advised
methods of working for peace have very materially lowered her in the esteem of hundreds of former
admirers,” (Carbon Innovations, n.d.). Her status is questionable at best and her ideas are far too
radical and demanding to be met.
In response to her final point of making our school’s teachers and native students become more
sensitive to the heritage of their fellow immigrant students, we must take caution. Our citizens value
life, liberty, and property above all other ideals. To bend our freedoms to the mercy of newer,
immigrating populations within our schools is to abandon these ideals completely. Students must
grow strong as individuals by standing up for themselves and determining their own life’s course
based on the amount of effort they put forth into doing so. The American way necessitates individual
perseverance and hard work, including the ability to rise above issues of adversity. In sum, Addams
maintains an idealistic, childish, and anti-American point of view regarding treatment of our students.
We must be cautious not to spoon-feed our youth and subsequently lose the ability to persevere to
achieve true success in our country.

References

Addams, J. (1908). The Public School & the Immigrant Child. Retrieved from
https://educ820in2015.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/addams-1908-the-public-school-and-the-
immigrant-child.pdf
Carbon Innovations. (n.d.). Criticism of Jane Addams. Retrieved from carboninnovations.net.
http://carboninnovations.net/node/270