Letter from Dr. Alfred E. Stearns to Hon. Sao-Ke Alfred Sze, July 12, 1926
Dublin Core
Title
Letter from Dr. Alfred E. Stearns to Hon. Sao-Ke Alfred Sze, July 12, 1926
Subject
Letter from Dr. Alfred E. Stearns to Hon. Sao-Ke Alfred Sze, July 12, 1926
Description
Typed letter sent from Dr. Alfred E. Stearns to Hon. Sao-Ke Alfred Sze about arrangements for the Tsai children. Promises to do everything he can for the Tsai children. Explains finding homes for early Chinese that influence American life and education are rare. Relies on smaller home-schools to prepare Chinese students. Asks if it necessary to enroll children in same school as co-ed schools are hard to find. Has 2 small home school in mind, which aren't in the same town, but are close by. Will also try to keep school expense reasonable. Asks about the requirements by the Department of Labor in regards to approved schools. Explains Andover was not on this list until the previous year, but took Chinese students many years before.
Transcription
Hon. Sao-Ke Alfred Sze
Chinese Legation
Washington, D.C.
My dear Dr. Sze:
On my return to Andover Saturday, I found on my desk your two telegrams relating to the children of Admiral Tsai and wired you at once: “Wil be glad to do what I can for children of Admiral Tsai.”
This morning’s mail brings me your letter of July 7 with further details, and I am writing simply to say that I shall be ready to do everything in my power to carry out Admiral Tsai’s wishes, though I am not sure that I am wholly competent to handle effectively the problems of Chinese girls. Under the circumstances, though, you may count on me for whatever help you feel I am competent to offer.
A word as to the schools and surroundings to be selected for the first year. As you probably know, it is almost impossible to find the type of homes today which welcomed the early Chinese to this country and which figured so influentially in their American life and education. Where there are such homes, the domestic problems have so completely changed as to make it very difficult to add to the size of the family circles without upsetting the kitchen, if you can understand what I mean. For the past ten or fifteen years I have found it increasingly difficult to make arrangements of this kind for boys who needed just this kind of a start, and in consequence I have had to turn to smaller schools of the home school variety. Such a course, it seems to me, would have to be adopted in the present instance, though here again there are some obstacles, as you have intimated in your letter to Admiral Tsai.
May I ask one or two definite questions. Would you consider it necessary for the two visitors to be enrolled in the same school or even in the same town? C-educational schools, in this part of the country at least, which can be unreservedly endorsed are very hard to find. Further separate schools for the girl and the boy, if they are to be in the same town, must again limit radically the range of the selection. Under the circumstances, I should be disposed to recommend two small home schools, not necessarily in the same town but not too far apart, permitting at least occasional visits back and forth. Do you think I am right in assuming that such an arrangement would, under the circumstances, meet best the necessities of the case?
Here again the question of expense naturally enters in, but I will try, of course, to select schools where the expenses would be kept as reasonable as possible and which would at the same time be regarded as first-class. As you doubtless know, a good many of these schools, especially for girls, today charge from $1200 to $1500 for the regular tuition alone.
I am not quite sure about the steps that must be taken with the Department of Labor in regard to securing so-called approved schools. It is my impression that in the past these Chinese students have some directly to me, giving Phillips Academy as the school which they propose to enter and then when not quite ready for our work entering temporarily other schools recommended by me but not necessarily on the approved list of the Department of Labor. As a matter of fact, Phillips Academy was never on this approved list until last year when, through the question of the return of one of our boys resident in Jerusalem, the matter was called to my attention and the necessary official requirements met. So far as I can recall this particular factor has never come up in connection with some sixty or seventy Chinese boys who have come to Andover during my connection with the school. Very probably the requirements are more exacting today than they have been in the past. In any case, I am anxious to do nothing that shall leave any possibility of embarrassment lately to either Admiral Tsai or his children.
Very sincerely yours
Chinese Legation
Washington, D.C.
My dear Dr. Sze:
On my return to Andover Saturday, I found on my desk your two telegrams relating to the children of Admiral Tsai and wired you at once: “Wil be glad to do what I can for children of Admiral Tsai.”
This morning’s mail brings me your letter of July 7 with further details, and I am writing simply to say that I shall be ready to do everything in my power to carry out Admiral Tsai’s wishes, though I am not sure that I am wholly competent to handle effectively the problems of Chinese girls. Under the circumstances, though, you may count on me for whatever help you feel I am competent to offer.
A word as to the schools and surroundings to be selected for the first year. As you probably know, it is almost impossible to find the type of homes today which welcomed the early Chinese to this country and which figured so influentially in their American life and education. Where there are such homes, the domestic problems have so completely changed as to make it very difficult to add to the size of the family circles without upsetting the kitchen, if you can understand what I mean. For the past ten or fifteen years I have found it increasingly difficult to make arrangements of this kind for boys who needed just this kind of a start, and in consequence I have had to turn to smaller schools of the home school variety. Such a course, it seems to me, would have to be adopted in the present instance, though here again there are some obstacles, as you have intimated in your letter to Admiral Tsai.
May I ask one or two definite questions. Would you consider it necessary for the two visitors to be enrolled in the same school or even in the same town? C-educational schools, in this part of the country at least, which can be unreservedly endorsed are very hard to find. Further separate schools for the girl and the boy, if they are to be in the same town, must again limit radically the range of the selection. Under the circumstances, I should be disposed to recommend two small home schools, not necessarily in the same town but not too far apart, permitting at least occasional visits back and forth. Do you think I am right in assuming that such an arrangement would, under the circumstances, meet best the necessities of the case?
Here again the question of expense naturally enters in, but I will try, of course, to select schools where the expenses would be kept as reasonable as possible and which would at the same time be regarded as first-class. As you doubtless know, a good many of these schools, especially for girls, today charge from $1200 to $1500 for the regular tuition alone.
I am not quite sure about the steps that must be taken with the Department of Labor in regard to securing so-called approved schools. It is my impression that in the past these Chinese students have some directly to me, giving Phillips Academy as the school which they propose to enter and then when not quite ready for our work entering temporarily other schools recommended by me but not necessarily on the approved list of the Department of Labor. As a matter of fact, Phillips Academy was never on this approved list until last year when, through the question of the return of one of our boys resident in Jerusalem, the matter was called to my attention and the necessary official requirements met. So far as I can recall this particular factor has never come up in connection with some sixty or seventy Chinese boys who have come to Andover during my connection with the school. Very probably the requirements are more exacting today than they have been in the past. In any case, I am anxious to do nothing that shall leave any possibility of embarrassment lately to either Admiral Tsai or his children.
Very sincerely yours
Creator
Dr. Alfred E. Stearns
Publisher
Phillips Academy
Date
July 12, 1926
Rights
All Rights Reserved By Phillips Academy
Language
English
Type
Manuscripts. Correspondence.