Chapter XI: Appendix: Suggestions to Teachers

The citizens of America are one and all the descendants of immigrants, and they must never lose their sympathy with the things that are best in foreign lands. Italy has sent us hundreds of thousands of new citizens; and these people and their children are among the most loyal Americans. Between the United States and Italy there has been a long friendship, without mistrust and without strife. This is because the national ideals of the United States and of Italy are so much alike, and because each country possesses a great, industrious, peace-loving population. In America, the Italians "find an opportunity to go forward in those paths which most warmly appeal to them, and which they can follow with no breach of tradition, no break of affections, no sundering of ancient and beloved ties." Italy, like us, has her great national heroes-- Garibaldi, Mazzini, and Cavour, to mention only a few--whose deeds may well inspire our people. Italy's music, art, and literature are priceless possessions which are adding richness to our American civilisation.

"Americanisation" in its best sense is the need of the hour; but this word means not alone the converting of the foreign-born into voters in this country, but also the fusing of their highest ideals into our own. Teachers can use _The Italian Twins_ as the earliest introduction to Italian homes and ways, and can build up from the impression it makes upon children, a full appreciation of the sterling qualities of the Italian people.

_The Italian Twins_ can also be correlated with American government through the use by teachers of Webster's _Americanisation and Citizenship_; pupils can read Bryant's _I Am an American_. History can be correlated through the reading, either to the pupils or by them, of Tappan's _Story of the Roman People, Our European Ancestors_, and _American Hero Stories_; also Moores's _Christopher Columbus_ and Stevenson's _Poems of American History_. Italian art is well illustrated by several volumes in the _Riverside Art Series_, and in Hurll's _How to Show Pictures to Children_.

For a background of Italian history teachers are referred to Davis's _History of Mediaeval and Modern Europe_ and to Sedgwick's _Short History of Italy_. Certain aspects of Italian literature are introduced through Kuhns's _Great Poets of Italy_ and Crane's _Italian Popular Tales_. Numerous books interpret Italian life and manners; for example, Hawthorne's _French and Italian Note-Books_, Forman's _The Ideal Italian Tour_, Potter's _A Little Pilgrimage in Italy_, James's _Italian Hours_, and Howells's _Italian Journeys_.

Pupils will delight in reading "The Buried Treasure," in the _Riverside Fourth Reader_; "An Italian Boy at School" (De Amicis), in Bolenius's _Sixth Reader (The Boys' and Girls' Readers_); and the play, "Christopher Columbus," in Stevenson's _Children's Classics in Dramatic Form_, Book III.

Earlier books in the Twins Series contain many other specific suggestions which teachers can readily adapt to the present story.