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Show REPORT OF SUPERINTENDENT OF INDIAN SCHOOLS. 337 greatest of these difficulties is the tendency of sehools to fall into rou-tine and to take their criteria in these matters from considerations of the subjects of iustrnction, which is easy, rather than from the shifting considerations of local conditions and needs, which is difficult. There is a tendency to count the subjects of iustruction, to divide the time at the daily disposal of the children for class-room work by this number, aud then to bring each subject each day for the very limited period of ten or twenty minutes. The pernicious character of such mode of procedure is almost self-evident. The children are rushed daily through a series of subjects of instruction. The interest of "getting t l~rongh'i~s so intense that i t overshadows all natural interests in the work in hand. The child is rushed from subject to subject and from iuterest to interest, and in his , consequent bewilderment he becomes indifferent to all but the merest routine features of the work. There is no time for instruction, for the clearing up of doubt, for relating new points with the child's expeneuce, for applying them to the many practical concerns of life, forconnecting them with what may have gone before or with other related subjects. There is time onlvfor hastv "hearing of recitations" and hastv assiw- I 0 I I I S S ~ I I . ' 111 duetiure e : ~ e ln~uq ject stands i l l $18 cl~ilcl'sm enlory i n ~ O I I C I ~ YisOo lat~on(,l ivorced frou~11 11 else in the child's experience, holding no place in his joys and hopes, a thing to be laid aside as soon as the recitation is over, and to be forgotten when school days come to a close. Thus i t happens that in many i~lstaucesw hen the child leaves the school the things he takes with him to help him in his practical life are not traceable to the class room, but rather to other iuflneuces. In the framing of time tables the school should divide up subjects of instruction over a larger period than a day, more particularly in the Indian schools, in which, as a rule, the child has only half the day for class room work. The school should consider the relative values of instruction with reference to the child as well as with reference to each other. It ahould take into account the relative difficulties for master-i r ~teh e lessons on the wart of the children. It should make for inten-s i 6 of instrnction and- permanence of results rather than for '(getting over the ground." It should assign to each lesson sufficient time to euablc it fo secure and foster soonfaneons interest in the ~ o i n tosf the lenson nut1 a vital connection of new I~~~onl eadugdc s kill \;it11 previou8 gains iu this direction :lnd with the pmctical life of the child. MbNUAL TRAINING TEACHERS. Unfortuuatelv I am unable to eire a favorable renort couceruiu-a the ~ rlerelol,rncs~o~ft" t11e nlnnu:t1.trainhg movemeut iu tLe 1ndia11s c~too~ass u whole. A few scl~oolsw e doiug~:reditablow ork i l l this ~1irectio1h11, 1t in the maioritv of schools. evenihere manual-training teachers have heen erul~ioyeJr,c sults i~re'c~uintele ager. 'Pl~isis due l;;trtly to t l~ela ck (11 t'wilities at t l ~ cs cl~oolat hemselvt.~f or systvlllaric mar~ual.tmiui~~g n,ork.a~,o~1l1 t l ~ eot her llal~dto the fl~iloroef the Civil Service Commis-sion to secnre eligibles for this important branch of the Indian-school work. The former obstacle, thanks to your enlightened view of the i~l~portar~ofc c1 n:i11ua1t r ~ l l l i ~igs ,h e i ~ ~O g\ ~ ~ ~ C O I I I tRi .s~t S2 s t l ~ em ealls 111;1ced 111 thc dispiaal of the 1ndi:ln Ollice may per~nit. The failun, of tlte (.'ivil Se~viev(: 'ot~~nlissitou~ t~:~ r~l issnlt~is filcrory eligibles can, hox-ever, be overcome onlv bv making the aosition more lucrative than is the Lase now. ~ c l l . e ~ u i ~mG~neudal- %rainingt eachers find a ready marlcet for their knowledge aud skill, and in order to secnre their serv- |
