OCR Text |
Show 8 COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. an entirely new course of study will be introduced in harmony with a comprehensive plan of industrial and vocational training for In-dian youth. Its features will be systematic three-year courses in agriculture, mechanic arts and home economics. Special instruction given in connection with the industrial work will be organized and correlated with the literary courses. Arrangements have been made whereby 19 boys, under the outing aptem, are receiving training as apprentices in the shops of the Ford Motor Co. at Detroit, Mich., and others are working as apprenticw in the shops of the General Electric Co. at Lynn, Mass. Twelve boys and girls are attending the summer school at the State normal school at Millersville, Pa. VOCATIOWAL TRAINING. The development of the plan of improved vocational trainig along limes of practical endeavor will be extended to aU Indian schools as rapidly as possible. Before an Indian boy or girl goes to his or her home a thorough grounding of how to work to the best advantage should be made in our schools. This should be a practical education which, in the great majority of returned students, in a ,few years will be translated into comfortable homes and productive farms. The majority of pupils in the schools will eventually return to their homes, and if there is an adequate acreage of land adaptable 'to agriculture awaiting them the educational training received dur-ing their student days should be developed, and a desire and howl- ' edge of how best to reap the advantages due to the owner of a farm should be carefully instilled. Home and farm economics must be emphasized and correct habits of right living made a part of every-day life. The aim at ouf Indian schools is perfect housewife, but the development of industrial &ciency to enable the returned pin- and comfort from a home created is attempted by thorough instruction in md domestic arts, and an adequate balance of practical field and shop work. This will involve a somewhat radical chahge in the course of study, on vocational li, which is now being formulated and will be established at many of the schools during the next school year. 1 INDIAN CHILDEEN II? PUBLIC SCHOOLS. In the Indian appropriation act approved August 1, 1914, was a provision allowing the expenditure of not to exceed $20,000 for tuition of Indian children enrolled in public schools. This was to enable the Government to encourage attendance of these children in |