Mrs. Adda Wilson Hunter, _Principal_, Moneta School, Miss Mary A. Colestock, _Principal_, Hewitt St. School, Miss Mary A. Henderson, _Principal_, Amelia St. School, Miss Lizzie A. McKenzie, _Principal_, Hobart Blvd. School.
A communication has been received from Dr. T. Iyenaga stating that he is collecting data on the intellectual and moral status of American-born Japanese children. He is anxious to know the average record of American-born Japanese children in the schools and how it compares with the record of American children.
Will you kindly send me statement concerning the results in your schools?
Very truly yours, _Assistant Superintendent_.
_Office of the Principal of Hewitt St. School, District No. 151_
Report of American-born Japanese Children.
The American-born Japanese children, who are enrolled in this school, compare most favorably with the American children both intellectually and morally. They are like all groups of children. We find some very bright children and some very dull ones. As a whole, they are more persevering and more dependable than the class of white children found in this school.
Miss Oliver, who has been working with the Japanese for the past four years, said, "When with them I feel that I am in the company of well-bred Americans."
MR. HARRY M. SHAFER, _Assistant Superintendent_, Los Angeles City Public Schools, Los Angeles, California.
My general observation has been that given anything of an equal chance, children are children, human nature is human nature, and brains are brains--whatever the mother tongue may be. Compared with our other foreign children, or with other children born in America of foreign parentage not Japanese, keeping in mind the differences in social position that exist in all classes, whatever the nationality may be, I cannot see much difference along any line between our Japanese children and our Mexicans, our French and our Italians; nor do I think any of them differ radically from what we are apt to term "American" children. Few families are many generations away from some foreign ancestors....
Our Japanese children are called brighter and more studious, sometimes, than the others. I think this is due to the fact that they have, in many cases, ambitious, educated parents who follow school work up very closely in the home. Where home restrictions are lifted, such conditions do not always prevail, any more than in cases of other neglected children. _They must_ be studious. Discipline of American-born Japanese children is not so close in the home as it seems to be with children born in Japan and reared along Japanese lines, yet such children show much more initiative in all of their work at school. They catch the American spirit.