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Show REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. 21 VOCATIONAL TRAINING. For all pupils in and above the third grade industrial training occupies at least onehalf their time. Superintendents are giving careful attention to the selection of the k i d of training taken up by the different pupils. If a boy has an allotment, he is advised not to take a regular trade coune, but to take such training in carpentry, simple blacksmithing, etc., as would be of value to a farmer, for it is expected that he will return to his allotment. If a boy has no land, then he is encouraged to take up one of the trades. The vocational training for boys includes carpentry, blacksmithing, masonry, harness making, tailoring, plumbing, tinning, steam and electrical engineering, printing, and agriculture, and for girls house-hold economy. Many Indian pupils are the possessors of considerable land, and the boys, unless they have no land, are taught the wholesomeness and value of agricultural pursuits. Each girl is given the actual care of a group of rooms comparable with what she might have in her own home and taught how to care for them; she prepares and serves meals, preserves foods, and cares for poultry; also the proper care of the household from a sanitary point of view is taught. ACADEMIC T R A m G . Pupils are given such training as will enable them to acquire a ready use of conversational English. Many pupils come from Indian homes in which no EngIish is spoken, and great care must be given to the h t year's training in English. A satisfactory standard of acquirements has been set in many schools where pupils of this k i d have learned to use, actually, at least 280 English words in one year. . Two new words can be mastered each school day during the &st two years by the average Indian pupil. This is the time when he can acquire more readily than at any other a knowledge of a new lan-guage; and every effort is being made to develop the pupils during this period. Better textbooks and supplemental reading matter, more black-boards for the clasgrooms, and primary equipment suitable for use in the primary grades have been in use. To prevent the spread of any contagious diseases from the handling of books, superintendents have been directed to reissue no soiled book or any book which has ever been in the hands of a pupil who might have such a disease. The counes of instruction followed in most Indian schools have con-formed quite closely to those used in the public schools of the State in which the school is situated. |