OCR Text |
Show ices it will be necessary to offer them better inducenoents to enter the Indian service thau have been offered heretofore. The importance of this matter can not be overestimated, inasmuch as it was tlie intent,ion of the office in creating this posii;ion, among other duties, to intrust to the manual-training teacher the suliervision of all the lllechanical industries of the school, partly in order to render the work of these industries more systematically educative and partly in order to bring ahout in a mutually methodical and egective yay much-needed organic connection between the class-room work and the mechanic indnstries. Without such supervision and direction the mechanic industrieswill rarely rise above the dignity of shops. Their chief aim will be to satis* the economic needs of the school. To these the educational features of the respective industries will ever be more or less subordinated. The Indian boys detailed into the shops will remain mere apprentices, and will rarely, if ever, be students of their trades. As a matter of course, it is perfectly proper that the school shops be made self-sustaining by turning out serviceable vork in sufficient quantity, but in doing this it should never be forgotton that their chief purpose lies in the direction of the educational features of the,ir work, which imply the intelligent comprehension of all that is done on the part of the pupil, his thoughtful attention to the quality of his work, and a constant underlying purpose to save time and material through greater skill and new mechanic devices. Similar considerations apply to the work done by the schools in agricul-ture and stock raising. I find that the best farmers are turned out by schools whose acreage, while ample, is sufficiently limited to afford time and facilities for instruction and experimental work, and 1 a.m inclined to believe that in the study of agriculture an excessise acreage of land is e hindrance rather than a help to a school from an educational point of view. GEADATION OP TEACHERS. Superintendents and agents, I find, are slow to appreciate the purpose of the India11 Oflice with reference to the gradatiou of teachers in the respective schools. The Indian Offife grades teachers on the basis of their exoerieuce. devotion. and efficie~lcy. Quite a number of the suner-incendei~ tsn nil ayeuts, l~okcvers,t ill a&~nt ~ l a b o ru1 111ert1 1e error illat the grttdil~go f the teacller 11:1sr efere11i:e to the grading ot the i*hil~lreu ill lhri~s.c l~ool~T. his lend8 tllem to n8sig.11t he tu;~cl~werit h the lo!vrst ~a l a ryto b e g i~~~l:trurds tho teacller with the higllcst s;~laryto tllu most ailviit~eedg r:lilc, irrespective of rhe ueeds of the c l~i l d r eor~ o~f tho expr-riellee :~n dti perifi~i lhilities of the tcacl~rr. I t id hoped that the strn~l- 11~11esf forcr of rile Ini l iu~O~f ice to rorrect tl1i3 e n . ~ ~ ~ elojruaset ice will before lung I I c~ro w~ledw it11 ti111 suct<esn;u ud that &nl ) e r iut e~~i:tl1e1~<~1 agents generally will learn to assign teacl~ersw ith referexlee to their specificabilities and the needs of the children, irrespective of the salary they receive, which is a reward for earnest and successful work, and hes no reference whakver to the grade in which they teach. The tr;lcller of a nlore allvii~~i~geradd o ~ I ' Ia n Indian sehool'nced& neither ~ l ~ okrneo wle(1ge uor ulore gener:il eillture t l ~ i th~e~ te acher of btlgill-n r . Iuilerd. if tl~creis anv differe~~ctanc, t nnd eso?ri~ncen1 1d broil(1 culture on the part of the tkacher are possibly of more importance iu the primary than in the grammar grades. |