So has the Department of Education of the city of New York.
In the Bureau of Standards, Washington, D.C., a considerable number of scientists have declared in favor of Esperanto, and are adepts of the language.
My experience is that in this country the informed public warmly approves of Esperanto and the ideals it stands for, but expects the spread of the language to come through the schools. There is consequently in this country a special inertia in this matter, in spite of approval; this makes organised propaganda extremely difficult in such a vast territory.
Accordingly the national organization, the E.A.N.A. (Esperanto Association of North America), central offices, Newton Center, Mass., has so far had but a checkered and precarious existence.
A rival society, the U.S.E.A. (United States Esperanto Association) has its headquarters at Shaller, Iowa.
(5) If I were asked how Esperanto could best be introduced into the schools, I should suggest that a limited course of lecture lessons, say, from 6 to 12, to the teachers would suffice to give them all that is necessary to enable them to practice the language until complete proficiency is attained. In many places there is even now a supply of local Esperantists ready to cooperate with the schools.
After a month's study any teacher should be able to teach others and perfect himself in the process. At that I would teach the language only to the pupils in their last year of school; many of them could make immediate use of Esperanto on entering business; most of them would probably get enough of the language during the last session at school to engage them to keep up the practice afterwards according to local opportunities.
Please do not judge of this probability by your experience with other languages, which most students drop as soon as possible. Their endless complications make the study and practice irksome and futile, while Esperanto is positively fascinating.
In my opinion two lessons of 45 minutes a week would amply suffice to secure practical results never dreamed of in the French, German, or Spanish classes. After a very short course of study, the boys and girls would get an opportunity to correspond with scholars of their own age and station in many lands. There are even now hundreds of school boys and girls in France, Germany, Austria, Spain, and even in China and Japan eager for such interchange of thoughts by means of Esperanto.