OCR Text |
Show xvi FIFTY-SEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE PLATFORM OF THE MOHONK CONFERENCE. .. Nothing, it is maintained, should be done to impair or weaken any of the agencies at present engaged in the work of Indian education. It is therefore concluded that the contract system ought to he continued until the Government is prepared with adequate buildings and competent teachers to assume the entire work of secular education ; but the duty of the Government to undertake the task of furnishing primary and secular education for all Indiau children of srrhool age on the reservations un-der Federal control must he constantly insisted upon. In thelauguage a€ the platform of the Lake Mohouk Conference, at its sixth annual ses-sion, held last October, the Goveroment "has no right to thrust this bur. den [of Indian education] upon the pioneer population in the midst of which the Indians happen to be located. It has no right to leave this burden to be carried by the churches and private philanthropic socie-ties which hare taken it up only because the necessity was great and the neglect absolute.. The cost of education is immeasurably less than the wst of war; the cost of educating the Indian for self-support is less than one-tenth the cost of keeping him in pauperism." With that conference this office is also in full agreement upon the following propositions: (1) That Indiau education should be compulsory ; hut on those priu-oiples of wmpulsion which are recognized as legitimate in the free oommonwealths of the world, which principles, while they would require the Indiau child to receive such education as would fit him for civilized life and self-support therein, would leave with his parents the liberty to choose betaeeu the Government and the private school, so long as the private school furnished the elements required by civilized life and -conformed to a uniform standard prescribed by the Government and maintained in its own schools. (2) That a uniform standard of qualifications should be required of all teachers receiving appointments, and should be enforced by rigid .'.and impartial examinations. (3) Tbat the official tenure of the teacher should be permaneut, and removals should be made only for inefficiency, incompetency, or other unfitness. (4) That the whole educational service should, in the interest of just administration and efficient work, be exempt from those changes and that instability of tenure which appertain to partisan appointments.' PROHIRITION OF THE VERNACULAR IN INDIAN SCEOOLS. In this connection, notice may be taken of the discussion that occurrea among some of the religious denomii~atioosd uring the past fiscal year on account of a lnisunderstanding by them of the intention of the This sul~jjeejts more particularlg referred to hereafter on papa lxxxiii-lxxxvii. |