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l."{rr I talian-Amer ican E ducatorAngelo PatriBy Ciuseppe Prezzolinicloes not mean that they alreadyknow ftalian! Thev areof the second and third €ienerationof ftalians, and their pari\CELO PATRlis a rcal{ illrrstr.ation of ttalian+ -I- gfrnta uI)'. Inla€{lne n-' * rrf shephercls in the vicinit_v: \trples, brought to this. .rlt1'r when but a child, rvho:.', ,ules the oracle of an Amer-- :,rr .chocl ! People corne from, -. i,alts of America ancl the; r.,1 to visit it; and even if.: ,s onlv an American junior:-glt school, sre can be proucl of' ' fact that what gives it a. 'r1 is Italian artistic feeling.: rt:l'i has given the school;t'ir:h comprises some thous-'":r ls rrf stuclents) a character- =nontaneit_v ancl industr-v.,:1rr', insicle the school, is nat-. r r..1 llhc chilclren havc:rt1'n€d to mor'e about rvith-::e Brcl self-possession, with-',: fear of the instructor.:-r.im top to bottom the school- :." hr-nn to industr.v and au-- ,r, rtrl]-. tllhc stuc'lents x'orh--i:,r wood, rvith iron, rvith clay.;-il, marble ancl with rl'ir,e.T :tr draw ancl paint, thev:; l'\-e tlnd thev construct. And: r in play or in infantile pr.o_rtilns, but in earnest. Fr,om,* school's print-shop there is-- i. r'eal books clecorated with-' ,,rr'l-cuts ancl etchings, which-r ,:-rlcl clo honor to man-v artis-, irrinting piants.PLrhlic School 45 in theLil'onr (the schools here are:rrrrrlrered, like the streets) is..-:,t the school in New Yorkl-,,,.1 frequentetl for the teach--t-g of Italian. There are nowr':,i1111 a thousancl students tak-.rg eolLrses in ftalian, and inir e majority tliey are of ftalianorisin. This, it is understood,Angelo PatriN. \,. Etening po:t-Cotrrtc,tyents, very ofterr' har.e ner''erknorvn ltalian: that is to sav,at home the,v spoke a clialectrvhich, little by little, becamefillecl ri'ith forms borrowerlfrom English.A ntoNG tlLc variorrs irrstr.uc-I \ trr'.. all skilled, l'lro rleserYecreclit for having madeItalian popular in that school,there is one who cleserves to beremembered apar.t for an origirLalcreation of his. This isAntonio Calitri, who has thesoul of a poet ancl who is oneof the few who, from the lifeof Italian immigration, hasdrar.vn some expressions of realpoetry. But rvhat makes us recallhim at the present momentis his little newspaper, ,,Il67Convito," which is somethingso charming and so impregrratorlrvitlL tlre persona I spiritof its director, that one feelslike sa.ving: examine a numberfor yourself, it will be bettertJran m1. words. ,,Il Convito.,'rr'iil try to describe it, even-I though badly-is a miniaturt:newspaper for children, intorvhich Calitri transfuses hissoul of a teacher of Italian, thelanguage of a poetic and artisticcivilization. Through mvths,legencls and stories, he speaksto his chilclrerr. tr'rom his children,then, he selects competitivelytheir best rvorks, ureirpoetr;' (they succed even inwriting poetry, these little oriesso fal from Italy), and publishesit. And through tht-,chilclren it also reaches theparents. You must not trelievethat "fl Convito," .althouglrmade for and by chilclren, isnot reacl b.v adults; for example,I read it alwavs, antl Iwill not sa1. I have not learneclanvthing from it.To come back to Patri, whomI lefl by' llie wa;-side, I rnustadcl that his activities are notlimited to tiis orvn school alone.I{e is a director of schoolsancl families eyen outside of hishome. And this he is throughhis little s,vndicated arl,icles,l'lrieh he writes every day for, agroup of the most reputablenewspapers in the UnitedStates: that is, according tousage here, the same article ispublished simultaneously in aseries of dailies in iariousparts of the United States;(Continued on page Bg)