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Show I . 98 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. high-school edncatioa of their youth. A high-school education at pub. lic expense is now offered to the great mass of youth of every race and condition except the Indian. The foreigner has the same privilege as those "native and to the manor born." The poor man% child hasan equal chance with the children of the rich. Eveo the negroes of the Sonth have free entrance to these beneficent institutions. The Gov-ernment, for its own protection and for the sake of its own honor, shonld offer to the Indian boys and girls a fair opportunity to equip themselves as well for citizenship and the struggle for life that citizen-ship brings, as the average boys and girls of the other races with whom they must compete. What then should an Indian high school be 1 The answer is at hand. An Indian high school should be snhstantially what any other high school should be. It shonld aim to do four things: First. Thechief thing in all education is the development of character, the formation of manhoocl and womanhood. To this end the whole course of training shonld be fairly saturated with moral ideas, fear of God, and respect for the rights of others ; love of truth and fidelity to duty; personal purity, philanthropy, and patriotism. Self-respect and. . independence are cardinal virtues, and are indispensable for the eujoy-ment of the privileges of freedom and the discharge of the duties of American citizenship. The lndian high schools should be schools for the calling into exerOise of those noble traits of character which are common to humanity and are shared by the red children of the forest and plain as well as by the children of the white man. Second. Another great aim of the high school is to pnt the student into right relations with the age in which he lives. Every intelligent human being needs to have command of his own powers,. to be able to observe, read, think, act. ,He has use for an acquaintance with the ele-ments of natural science, history, literature, mathematics, civics, and a fair mastery of his own language, such as comesfrom rhetoric,logia, and prolonged practice in English composition. The Indian needs, especially, that liberalizing inflnence of the high school which breaks the shackles of his tribal provincialism, bring8 him into sympathetic relationship with all that is good in society and in history, and awakens aspirations after a full participation in the best 'fruits of modern civilization. The high schoo1,should lift the Indian students on to so high a plane of thought and aspiration as to render the life of the camp intolerable to them. If they return to the reservations, it shonld be to carve out for themselves a dome, and to lead their friends aud neighbors to a bet-ter mode of living. Their training should be so thorough, and their characters so formed, that they will not be dragged down by the hea- , thenish life of the camp. The Indian high school rightly conducted will be a gateway out from the desolation of the reservation into ansimila-tion with our national life. It should awaken the aspiration for a home |
