OCR Text |
Show I 50 REPORT OF THE COMMISSION?3R OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. , schools usually serves to remove forever from the mind of the visitor the prejudice, however deep-seated, against the Indian as a natural savage, and a necessarily inferio~b eing. The problem of industrial training in connection with these schools is not yet fully solved. The general idea of work is awakened in the minds of all the pupils, and habits of industry are formed; bnt there are numerous problems connected with industrial education that yet await solution. Thus far the idea that has been most insisted upon, and which has beeu most fully carried out, has been that it is a great service to the Indians torequire them to perform some form of manual labor in order that they may acqulre a taste for work, and be willing to perform it as a meam of livelihood. It has been found practicable in many cases also to teach trades so far as to impart a moderate degree of ski11 aud to make it possible for those who have been under training to follow their trades, under favorable ciroumstances, after leaving school. Of course, however, the one great drawback to this is that generally the trade which has been learned by the boy or the girl 1s not founduseful on rc-turning tQ the reservation, either because there is no demand for the labor or because the returned student has neither the capital nor the in-- dependence to establish himself in business. Doubtless many of these pupils could find remunerative employment, if they were willing to seek it, in whitecommunities. In some instances the work of the pupils in the school has been made to yield a profitable return to the institution. This is particularly the case in the matter of farming. In other cases, however, owing to the youth of the pupils as well as to their lack of training and the necessity of constant oversight, their labor is not remunerative to the school. The great cost of any scientilic industrial training of a high order will newssarily hinder the carrying of such work in these schools very far. Technical education is an expensive luxury. One general remark ought to be ma& here as applicable not only to these uonreservation schools but to the reservation schools, even in a higher degree, namely: The necessity of a much larger teaching form than has beeu heretofore employed in these intititutions. Indian chil-dren taken from the camps, where they have hadvery little home train-ing, require an amount of care and oversight that is little understood by any who are not actively engaged in the work. Mrs. Dorchester, special agent, who has traveled so extensively and observed so care-fully, has insisted with great earnestness and force upon the absolute necessity of increasing the number of employ& connected with these Government schools if they are to do the work which they ought to perform for their pupils. The responsibility and labor connected with the management of a large Indian boarding sehool are simply enormous, and I know of no - place in the e d u ~ a t i ~ nwdor k where the exactions are so many or so |