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Show Even at nonreaervation achools, where ihe evening hour must be utilized largely as a study hour, a l~mited number of evenings during the month are devoted to social entertainments of an elevating and cheering character, in which the lantern is (or would be) of inestimable v.a laa. In this connection it is g r a m n g to note that at a majority of reser-vatiou schools which I have visited. or eoncernin~whiehI have reoorts from ~uprrvisorst,h e practice has k e n thol.oiighl~c stal~lisliedo f eicus-inr vors a~nalrl l~ilrlrenf rom the evening hour in order to ellable them toeecure the greater amount of sleep which tender years require. DOMESTIC INDUSTRIES. I note throughout, from the reports that have reached me, as well as in my personal inspection of a number of schools, that there has been a marked improvement in the department of domestic industries for the girls. In the sewing room, in the kitchen, dining room, and laundry increasing portions of time are devoted to more or less sys-tematic instruction. The girls are less and less mere unthinking helpers and are more and more taught reasons why they do things and how to plan on the basis of given conditions and with reference to given results. It must be admitted that this is an exceedingly ouerous ta8~. more oarticularlv in some of the smaller schools in mhT6h the emolovee ~ ~ ~- for& is so liuitih ~ b a tth e time OF the se:~n~strcslsa,o ndress, a u i cook is of uwwi t r wh~l lgo oc~~i~hiye da t tc~~t ioton 1 110i ma~ecliaten eeds of of t,he school: The burden thrown upon the seamstress in preparing garments for the childreu and in fitting up linen for dormitories and dining room is so heavy that no time is left for the systematic instrua-tion of the rrirls. mho must be t a n ~ hat s ranidlv as oossible afew simale uses of t h e~~e e dt4l1e b e ~itiliredi n tho iuitituho~~afa'lc tory work. ' Similiar couditiolid l~iudcrs ystematic instruction in the kitchen, din-ing room, lnundry, aud i~.o~~rionofloi . 111 :,I1 thrsc cases 111ucL &~uld be gai~lcdif s:iperintendenm and agents c-ould be fiirllisl~edA sufficient force of :iudidtants who could rrl~evct llc neamstresa, cook, and 1:1un-dress of a oortion of their burdens and thus enablethem 'to do more etfective te3cl1iug. This nee11 not il~volvoiu ucli expellsc, io;lslunch as fairly skilil'ul Tudinu as~iarantutr ;linod at the ~~onrescrvut ia~eh~ooo ls are available at moderate salaries. Much, too, could be gained for this purpose if superintendents and agents could be furnished for the sewing room, lauudry, and kitchen labor-saving machines and appliances to be used in finishing a large amount of strictly institntional work. It has been argued that, inas-much aa Indian girls have no opportunities at their homes to use wash-ing machines and mangles, sewing machines, slid other labor-saviug appliances, it is improper or unwise to use these things in the work of the school. When one considers, l~owevert,h e large amount of strictly institutionalwork to be done in these departments (even in a boarding school of only 100 children), as well as the tender ages of the girls, and the fact that it is not possible uidcr ordinary circumstances to make a detail of more than 6 per cent of the children in attendance, it will appear that ta limit such schools to the washboard, the flat-iron, the needle, and the common kitchen stove is a means of ((practi-cal" school economy that falls little short of cruelty. From sheer pity for their little helpers the emk. pees will be compelled to devote their entire time to thecrudest forms of menial work, leaviug them practically no opportunity for instruction. |
