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Show 40 OOMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. children. Particular attention has been given to the instruction of Indian pupils in English early in their school life. It has been felt that heretofore teachers have been content with very meager accom-plishment in the acquiring of a vocabulary by the first and second grade pupils. No teacher should he content unless she has led her pupils into a knowledge of a large vocabulary during the first school year. The early years of child life are the most valuable in acquir-ing a language, and special effort has been made to increase the effi-ciency of primary instruction in our schools. There were purchased for use in Indian schools 30 stereopticons with reflectoscopes. These are just such machines as are used in giving illustrated lectures and are to be used not only for entertain-ment, but for purposes of instruction. Something like 7,500 slides have been purchased, covering all features of educational work, travel, biography, history, commerce, manufacturing processes, the growth of industries, etc. These will be used as far as practicable in each school, and, with such additional purchases as may be made from time to time, a great source of valuable information will have been provided. To these slides will be added many others made from photographs taken by our school supervisors, who now use cameras in connection with their inspection work. Such scenes or activities at Indian schools as are of educational value or interest to other schools will be used under this general plan. The contest among the schools in the writing of essays on the sub-jec of tuberculosis has already been referred to on page 25. &pec ial attention has been given to the instruction of Indian girl he home conditions of the Indians is one of the most unsatisfactory 4 features of the Indian problem. To affect this directly the character and efficiency of the training given the Indian girls must be im-proved. The schools have made a careful study of all phases of education which bear directly on the improvement of the girls. It is realized that for them even more than for the boys the instruction should be of an intensive form, for at best girls can be kept in school only for a few years after they have developed into womanhood. P omestic-science cottages have been constructed at a number of schools. Cottage homes are also common. In these a half dozen or more girls live as a family for two or thrce months at a time, per-forming all the household duties in connection with the care of the house and the preparation of meals for not only themselves but others, either pupils or employeesj/Special attention has been given to procuring efficient women instructors who can direct Indian girls in such practical training as they should have in home making. Industrial instruction for boys has already been given very careful consideration, and this feature of the school work continues to be the marked characteristic of Indian schools. |
