Page:Czecho-Slovak Student Life, Volume 18.djvu/20

A summer course for nuns teaching in the Czech and mixed Czech parish schools of Cleveland was given at St. Adalbert’s School by the Rev. Ernest J. Zizka O. S. B., a member of the faculty of St. Procopius Colege, Lisle, Ill.

REV. FR. ERNEST ŽIŽKA, O.S.B.

REV. FR. ERNEST ŽIŽKA, O.S.B. The course began on June 28th and lasted six weeks. It embraced three subjects: 1. Sociology (social and cultural life of the Czechs in America); 2. Czech American literature; and 3. Czech history. The course was sponsored by the American Alliance of Catholic Czechs, with headquarters in Chicago.

Two credits were granted for the completion of each of the three subjects in the course by St. Procopius College, which is accredited with the North Central Association of Secondary Schools and Colleges.

Father Ernest Zizka lectured not only himself but also secured prominent speakers to address the nuns. One of the first was the Rt. Rev. Abbot Valentine Kohlbeck O.S.B., who spoke about the work of the Czech Catholic newspapers in the United States, with which he had been connected for more than twenty years. Other lectures given were those by Mr. Vincent Kolda, president of the First Central Union of Catholic Men; and Mrs. R. Nedved, for a long time president of the Women’s Catholic Union. Doctor Theodore Kuska, Czechoslovak consul of Cleveland, spoke on “the Commercial, Political and Cultural Relationship of Czechoslovakia with America”. Dr. Emil de Sauze, professor of foreign languages in the Cleveland public schools, described the development of the “Cleveland plan”, of which he is the originator. He said that the principal aim of this plan is mental growth and thought stimulant, and the secondary thing is ability to read, understand, speak, write, and to acquire familiarity with the culture, ideals, and literature of the particular nation. The Rt. Rev. Msgr. Peter M. Cerveny spoke on the theme “Czech Builders of the