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Show 442 REPORT OF SUPERINTENDENT OF INDIAN 8aECOOLS RETURNED STTUDENTS. It has been claimed by some that graduates of Indian schools return to their respective reservations and become once again "blanket" Indians, often worse than before education. It is not to be expected that every Indian who has received an education will avail himself of its advantages. Not every educated white child, even thou h sur-rounded by refining influences, moves in the right course. ~ 7 r1ace s have their individuals who revert to the lower type, while the masses move on. The majority of Indian students, upon leavin school, have adapted themselves to circumstances and become self-supporting men and women, thus exerting a wide influence for good in the reservation carnus and the uueblo homes. From the different schools have come minfsters, missionaries, teachers, doctors, lawyers, farmers, matrons, mechanics. musicians. stockraisers. a11 makins their imnress wherever 0 they have &ken up their abode. ' As to the educational method pursued with these pupils, the honor-able Commissioner, in his report for 1898, says: TRANSFER OF PUPILS FROM DAY TO RESERVATION SCHOOLS, AND FROM RESERVATION TO NONRESERVATION SCHOOLS. I would suggest that the teacher of the day school furnish a list of those who have finished the course laid out for them, and that they be transferred to the nearest reservation school. When pupils have attended a reservation school long enough to have availed themselves of the advantages there offered, the superintendent should prepax: a list of those whose mental and physical condition glve specml promise and call for further advancement. These should be sent to a nonres-ervation school where the climatic conditions are similar to those to which the children have been accustomed, and the pupils promoted from the highest grade at the reservation school to the one next higher at the industrial school. I am of the opinion that, under the system suggested, reservation and noureservation schools would be filled in an easy and natural man. ner by children promoted from the lower schools on the reservations. THE OUTJXCI SYSTEM. The benefit to be derived from placing Indian boys and girls in f ood white families can not be overestimated, and I would respect ully recommend that an attempt be made to place the "outing" system, as put forward by Major Pratt, into effect in every nonreservation school. If only two or three students can be put out as a beginning their going will lead to the placing of greater numbers each year. |