OCR Text |
Show care of milk, to make good butter and cheese, and to keep the ntensils of the dairy in a san~taryc ondition. I n a few of the schools this work has been taken qp by the class~room teachers and correlated with language, numbers, etc., and it is hoped that another year a much larger number will do so. DAY SCHOOLS Most of the day schools have continued their record for good work during the past year. As I believe you deem the civilizing and ele-vating influence of these schools upon the older Indians to be a most important part of their usefulness, me have urged teachers and housekeepers to follow the instructions of the Office and make it a part of their duties to visit regularly the homes of their pnplls and instruct the parents in proper modes of living-keeping their huts or tepeesneat and habitable, how to prepare and cook their food, how to sew, etc. Each year the influence of these schools becomes more apparent, and onevery reservation where they have been establ~shed the ood effects upon the adult Indians can plainly be seen. The chi1 f , on going to his home at night., carries with him, consciously or unconsciously, the civilizing atmosphere of the school. The lessofs of cleanliness and neatness especially are not lost. The love of home and the warm reciprocaI affection existing between pafents and chll-dren are among tlie strongest characteristics of the Indian natu~e. It is not strange, therefore, that the motheris frequently unwilling to be parted from her children.for the time necessar to cover a term at a boarding school, but she usually makes little oijection to them at-tending the day school, knowin that they will come home to her each evening. By bringing civfiization to the door of, the Indian, instead of attempting to take him to civilization, family ties are mam-tained, while the industries and habits of civilization are given an early start; and your policy of extending the day school system wher-ever practicable can not bnt result in great good to the Indian. INSTITUTES. A great deal of attention has been given to the si~pervision of institute work, which has been carried on for a number of years, in order to bring the Indian workers together and get before them methods of instruction which are particularly adapted to the teach-ing of Indian children. In com liance with your directions, insti-tutes were held as follows: stan$ing Rock Agency, N. Dalr. ; Rose-bud Agency and Pine Ridge Agency, S. Dak.; and the general insti-tute, or department of Indian education, at Los Angeles, Cal., in con-nection with the annual convkntion of the National Educational Association. A11 of the institutes were well attended, and employees manifested reater interest in the proceedings than heretofore. Demonstration kssons were presented to emphasize methods of instruction which it is hoped will secure a closer correlation of the literary and industrial instruction, and thus will give to pupils a training that will better fit them for the work in which they will most probably engage after leaving school. |