Welcome back, everyone to one thousand one classic short stories and tales.

This is your host, John Hagadorn.

Think about what it might have felt like to immigrate to the United States just over a hundred years ago. One immigrant named Mary Anten

wrote a book called The Promised Land. It was her 1912 autobiography, which told the story of her early

life in what is now Belarus and her

immigration to the United States in 1894. The book focuses on her attempts to assimilate into

the culture of the United States. Immediately after that book, she wrote a story called

The Lie. In this story, which we offer today, an immigrant father named Mr. Rudinsky

lies about his son's age in order to keep him in the American school system for two more years,

because he wanted his son to have an education. This story in two parts gives a very intimate

look at what went on between that boy, his school teacher, and that family.

Today, part one of The Lie by Mary Anton. Part two will come in just a few more days.

And now our story.

The first thing about his American teachers that struck David Rudinsky was the fact that they were women, and the second was that they did not get angry if somebody asked questions.

This phenomenon subverted his previous experience.

When he went to the Hedder Hebrew school in Russia,

his teachers were always men, and they did not like to be interrupted with questions that were

not in the lesson. Everything was different in America, and David liked the difference.

The American teachers, on their part, also made comparisons.

They said David was not like other children.

It was not merely that his mind worked like lightning.

Those neglected Russian waifs were almost always quick to learn,

...