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Show REPORT OF GUPF,RINTENDEXT OF INDIAN SCHOOLS. 369 chism. In a few instances. I have fo~uid occasion to obiect to tl~n amo ~ ~onf t time devoted to the catecldsm, and in no instil~leeh ave I& objections been disco~~r teoutsrle~a ted I do not think i t the Duraose of-the Gover~~mensto, long as it accepts the contract schools'as they are conducted, to severely disparage the religions exercises. The prayers, scripture passages, and religious songs are helpful, not only in teaching the English words, but also elevated sentiments. The Gover~l~ncsncth ools have tllis advanta.ge: they have been clas-sified more thoroughly, according to the scheme of the public schools, ancl the rules and regulatio~~ofs t he same system have been more rigidly applied to them. The Government schools hwe been in closer toucl~ with the school admirristration of the Department daring these late years, when etldcatior~h as been ~nademoreofa s]?ecialty by the India11 Bureau. Hence this greater progress. Moreover, none of the contract schools, so far as 1 have inqnired, pay so good wages to their teachers as does the Government, and this tends to m ~ k eth em, as a whole, inferior. Of course there are some Government schools that are vet very poor and inefficient, even some of t,he t,rainiug scl~ools. The training schools should bemuch in advance of the other Gover~l-lnent schooIs,~b~th~its is not true of all. Some have not yet reached the grade on which it vas intended for them to run. &uut.eanumber-some of the oldest and largest-have a largo proportion of pnpilsright from the camps, pupils who have never bee11 in even a reservation scllool. Some of the newer training ~ ~ l i o oalrse , therefore, very like the reservation schools. Reservation schools might be mentioned which ha,ve a bet,ter average scholarship than luauy of the training schools, and in respect to solid scholarship, a few asefully up to, if not iu advance of any tr;&ining school, though not equal, perhaps, in some spectacular exercises. Bot there is a great differeuce in Indians. Those of some tribes and reservations aremucl~in ferior i~~tellectualtloy t hose of other tribes, and therefore schools ou those reservations, sud eveu training schools. filled from the same source, will long be inferior. When the true ideal is reached, the training sohools will enroll only pupils who have been in reservation schools for a given term of years. Then these schools will load all the others. I n all my previous annual reports, 111a~ea dvocated the superior claims of the RESERVATION SCIHOOLS. After another year of observation, I see no reason to change this opinion. They are the most important for many reasons. Without attempting to discuss tl~is question exhaustively, I mention a few points. Cl~ildreltln ught in reservatio~s~ch ools arc Kept in touch with their people, and thus mauy elements of the better life are conveyed to the parents. By this co~~s tantot uch with the parents, the shock and revulsion, sp severe vhen pupils who have been for five, seven, or ten years at a d~sLantr ainiug school returu to the reservation, is avoided. The stories of this revulsioo-the terrible sufferings of the returned students. under the ill treatment of nonoronressive Indians. the fatal ~ ~~~~ 1 lapse of "cry many, and the great lossin~lnmberlessoilses-iannot be 1 fiully written. Such stories woulcl disclose tragic ex~eriences. I A good school right on a reservation is a grand o5ject lesson to the I 111dians around. The old Indians learn more in this may than by any other method. None of them learn rapidly, only by littles and very i 7899 I A-24 |