OCR Text |
Show to the disaster in that city the Tacoma meeting took its place. The proceedings of the institutes, with the exception of those of the meet-lngs held at Rosebud and Pine Ridge in 1906, which were not received in time for incorporation in this report, will be fqund in the appendix. On account of employees of Ind~ansc hools being isolated,the year round from educational advantages, these meetings accomplish work of even more importance than those held for the benefit of teachers m our public schools. The demonstration lessons presented by experienced teachers with classes of Indian pupils, using Hampton, Va., and Tuskegee, Ala. methods of correlating the literary and industrial work, were oj unusual assistance the past year in helping teachers to adapt their work to meet the immediate and practical needs of Indian children. The agricultural exhibits of the Pine Ridge and Rosebud institutes showed that great strides had been made during the past year in the garden work of the pupils. R ~ S U M ~ . VTe are lad to be able to report that more teachers are beginning to realize t%e im ortance of studying the Indian's characteristics and environment, an If as a result in a number of schools better method5 of teaching prevail. In others teachers still fail to see that methods used in the public schools nlust be modified and adapted to meet the needs of a child race, who must first be taught to understand our lan-guage. Therefore a circular bearing on thls subject was sent out by the direction of the Oflice, from which the following extracts are tnlcen : Superintendents are again reminded that the Office expects the class-room work in ail Indian schools to he of a useful character and adapted to the child's ne. eds Instex9a of denline in mlI>iertq in which the Indian is not interested. or ~~ ~- ~ ~ -~ - ~- ~~ ~ - ~ - -~ -~ peoples of whose environment and occu~ations he can have no personai knowl-edpe, teach him the geography of the neighborhood, the history of his tribe, the vaine of irrigation, and give him a linowledge of the industriei that can best be carried on in the locality. Teach him how to get full value for his money in makine Durchases. and encourage him to become an indenendent worker. ~ c o & h y should be the keyno?e in every school. The Ehild who has saved a few dollars each year has learned an invaluable lesson, and no pupil should be allowed to spend more than one-third of his income. The teaching of cookin now occupies a permanent place in the regular course of many o! the best schools in the country. The ad-vantages to be derived from the general adoption of a similar course in the Indian schools are obvious, and more attention has been given to this work the past year; but it is hoped that funds will be avail-able for the employment of additional domestic-science teachers who ran devote their entire time to such instruction. Better facilities should be provided at some schools, but they need not be extensive. A small dining room and kitchen equipped with the furnishings usu-ally found in the home will answer the purpose. In view of the fact that the laundry work at many of the schools ig heav, and that the larger part of it must be done by machinery, which prevents giving the pupils the training they will need at their home.; superintendents hxve been directed to see that tubs and boards are in laundries and pupils taught family washing and ironing. Gratifving results have followed the increase in the number and extent of school gardens, and the system of having individual plats |