[b][/b]Ira I have my own story about "Poles in America". Circa late 1970s/early '80s. I was being driven by one of my sales reps, a Jew, on a business trip in the NYC region. We were listening on the car radio to a New York former commissioner of education. The subject was "Teaching of English". The commissioner was 100% Polish and arrived by sea in NYC at age 7 with his parents. None of them spoke English. The 7 year old lad was sent immediately to a NYC school (the Bronx, I believe). Less than two months later he was teaching his parents English. His speech on the radio was indistinguishable from well educated NY types. Now I remember this man when educators blather about the difficulty and cost of teaching our language to immigrant kids. The commissioner did not claim special talent . . . "all the Polish kids did the same". Such activity, widely applied, used to be called: "Just do it!" Ivan From Ira PS My grandfather could read & write in Polish/English & speak Ukrainian, Russian, Italian & Armenian. He left the old world at 16 in 1916, he landed April 06, strangely my mother was born April 6, 1916. A HIGH percentage Poles are born under the sign of Aries. Besides working in steel mill & foundry he took up carpentry. My mother & aunt Alice 'transdlated' English language book to grandfather so he got the concepts because some times just reading it you lose something. He never was on welfare, he was out of work many times, in those times he used carpentry to feed his family. He also traveled New England with crews who put roofs on barns, usually Sears or Wards. We use to joke "the old man" spoke like a high born European Jew. My mother & aunt Alice all their life knew carpentry. Like I said, if Polaks are dumb what must Americans be. Beyond dumb. Do you get the feeling everyone everywhere tells American jokes? Ira  |
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