Twenty Years at Hull House · Chapter
XI: Immigrants and Their Children explained
Addams explores the challenges faced by immigrant families in Chicago, particularly the generational divide between parents who cling to Old World traditions and children who embrace American ways.
What happens
Addams explores the challenges faced by immigrant families in Chicago, particularly the generational divide between parents who cling to Old World traditions and children who embrace American ways. She describes Hull House's efforts to bridge this gap through cultural evenings, the Labor Museum, and other initiatives that honor the skills and heritage of immigrant parents while helping their children appreciate their roots.
Themes in this chapter
Immigration and Cultural Assimilation
The chapter focuses on the generational and cultural tensions between immigrant parents and their Americanized children, and Hull House's efforts to bridge the Old World and the New.
Education and Self-Improvement
The Labor Museum and cultural evenings are educational enterprises designed to foster understanding and respect for immigrant heritage and skills.
Art and Culture as Social Force
The Labor Museum uses traditional crafts and spinning to connect immigrants to their cultural past and to educate their children.
Characters to notice
- Jane Addams
Narrator and founder of Hull House, reflecting on immigrant life and the Labor Museum's origins.
- Professor Masurek
Lecturer from Prague who gave a course at the University of Chicago and spoke at Hull House about Bohemian materialism.
- John Dewey
Educational philosopher consulted by Addams about the Labor Museum; his definition of education is cited.
- Angelina
Italian girl who initially hid her mother's identity but later took pride in her mother's spinning skill.
Key passages
“An overmastering desire to reveal the humbler immigrant parents to their own children lay at the base of what has come to be called the Hull House Labor Museum.”
The Labor Museum was created from a strong wish to help immigrant children see and appreciate their parents' backgrounds and skills.
Addams explains the founding motivation for the Labor Museum.
“If these young people could actually see that the complicated machinery of the factory had been evolved from simple tools, they might at least make a beginning toward that education which Dr. Dewey defines as 'a continuing reconstruction of experience.'”
By showing factory workers how modern machines developed from simple hand tools, the museum could help them understand the continuity of human labor, as John Dewey described education.
Addams connects the Labor Museum's purpose to John Dewey's educational philosophy.
“I have seen sons and daughters stand in complete surprise as their mother's knitting needles softly beat time to the song she was singing, or her worn face turned rosy under the hand-clapping as she made an old-fashioned curtsy at the end of a German poem.”
Children were often amazed to see their mothers perform traditional songs and crafts, which fostered new respect for them.
Addams describes the positive impact of cultural evenings on family relationships.