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Show SUMMER 8CHOOL8. 497 for a Qovernment employee; and substitute the fact that the money spent for his education is to enable him to be an honorable and successfol farmer. While it is not the policy to give the Indians at Government expense more thsn the rudiments of education, I believe that we mightprofitably and properly change our system of tra~xbferso, r rather establish a system of transfers that will bring together pnpib requiring in their education the same kind of training and in this way specialize the work at a few of the smaller nonreservatiou schooh having the best farms and facilities for agricultural instruction. I shonld like to see the credit system applied requiring each pupil to give bome tangible retuin for the education he is receiving. STUDIESO N INDIACNHI LDREN. [Lours* MoDsaxow, Port Lewis achwl, Colorado.] The three qnestiona I had in mind while working on "Indian children's amhi-tions and ideals" r e d aa follows: 1. Do different schools give different ideals of life and occupation? 2. How far and at what time should prospective occupation influence ednw tion? 3. Is there anyrelation between thechoiceof ~rofessiouamadeb vachild and his mtnal ability? - I asked pupils what oocupation they preferred to follow after leaving school. Of the Nebraska children tested less than 34 oer cent chose industrial lines of work, while of the ~n p i l isn the nonreservatiori Indian schools who were tested something. over 811 @<cent named industrial orcupatlons. Thia ia the amount of contrasr that ohta~nisn tho results d literary education and industrial trnininr. There 18. tolra snrr. a rnca dlfferance rhat should nut h ignored, bnt 1 think iiconnts for "cry little'iu the cltoi<teo f oecul,ations. In the separate ~tudies I have made on Indian. cllildrcn many things go to llrore the orerwhrlminn force of environment. Tho acoool literallv forms tho character of the pupils. - The student who has had several years' training in an industrial school and then returns to the reservation and the blanket is suonoaed to be on a level with the reservation Indian who has never left his holne liar o~nitted the blanket Prom his war~lroh. All the gears of industr~al training connr for nothing, so they say. Thero is a meat deal of vicious nutruth in such sweeninn statements as that. Every s1tua6on has its inwardness as well as its outw~rd~esaen,d observation should include mom than the blanket before such sweeplng generalizations are made. If some indnstrisl work on the reservation calls for Indian labor, it is not such a difficult matter to separate returned students from reservation ludians, the blankets notwithstanding. Years of re ular industrions habits of life will leave the returned student a fairly calculable%uman beint and he will generally work if the work is set for him to do, though very often e bas not enough push and enterprise to find work for himself. .r Observation of returned students on a reservation convinced me that they fail not so much because they are lazy 8s bwause they do not know how to apply their knowledge of life and their habits of industry. The returned stndent is oivilized, but he seea life in the light of hia school expe-rience. His knowledge of civilized life has come in the communal life of a large boarding school. His training hns been such as to make him orderly, obedient, and industrious, but there is little in it that makes for independence and resource. Pupils in the schools are not made to rely enoughupon themselves. All that they need is furnished them; all that they are to dois portioned out to them. They are trained to industry and obedience, but away from self-reliance and resource. What Professor Demolins says is suggeativa, and while we may not accept ae ideal his very definite aim of education, we must admit that it is superior to the general aim as exemplified in our academia training. The aim of Indian education is to train the Indian boys and girb for the duties of citi,enship; to fit the men for the field and the workshop, and the women for the home. This is the aim of the Government school; and it is not in thwry,and never shonld be in practice, the aim of our industrial schools to train Indian boys and girls solely for Government positions. Sooner or later the large majority must leave the special environment of the school and stand or fall in broader. cruder. and coarser conditions of life. The men shonld be trained in agricultnre and induatdalpursuits; the womeniu all that goes to make and keep a home. My own opinion is that more all-round training ia needed before the pupils receive special training for certain trades, and moat emphatically there is needed |
