COMMITTEE ON COURSE OF STUDY. H. B. PEAIRS, Supervisor of Indian Schools, Washington, D. C. E. A. ALLEN, Superintendent Indian School, Chilocco, Okla. F. M. CONSER, Superintendent Indian School, Riverside, Cal. CHAS. M. BUCHANAN, Superintendent Indian School, Tulalip, Wash. 4 COURSE OF STUDY OUTLINED FOR UNITED STATES INDIAN SCHOOLS. INTRODUCTION. The need of a standard and uniform course of study for the Indian schools of the country has long been felt. Such a course must be definite in character and yet sufficiently flexible to make it adaptable to local conditions in an area as extended as the United States. At the same time it is realized that an outline too general in character would be of little or no actual value for its purpose. Indian schools must train the Indian youth of both sexes to take upon themselves the duties and responsibilities of citizenship. To do this requires a system of schools and an organization capable of preparing the Indian young people to earn a living (1) among their own people or (2) away from the reservation home and in competition with their white brethren. This does not contemplate a college or university, or even a preparatory school for college entrance, but a practical system of schools with an essentially vocational foundation. In other words, the Indian needs a school that will fit him as fully as possible for the life of his immediate future and the changing conditions that may mark his remoter future. The school should accomplish this as quickly as is compatible with thoroughness. The economic needs of all people of the Indian especially-" demand that the schools provide for instruction along eminently practical lines. To this end industrial schools have been established in which the culture value of education is not neglected, but rather subordinated to the practical needs of the child's environment. They aim to provide that form of training and instruction which leads. directly to self-support and productive efficiency." In our Indian schools a large amount of productive work is necessary. They could not possibly be maintained on the amounts appropriated by Congress for their support were it not for the fact that students are required to do the washing, ironing, baking, cooking, sewing; to care for the diary, farm, garden, grounds, buildings, etc.— an amount of labor that has in the aggregate a very appreciable monetary value. This plan requires the Indian student to work half a day and to attend classroom exercises during the other half. With studies properly adjusted to the student's mental status and with nonessentials and useless repetition eliminated from the courses, this condition is not a handicap to the progress of the student. Indeed it has been demonstrated in schools for whites that pupils can complete a grade a year even when taking academic work but half a day and doing vocational work during the other half. In his annual report for 1913 the United States Commissioner of Education makes this statement: Careful studies in different parts of the country and in schools of different kinds indicate that children really do not study in school more than an average of three hours a day, whatever may be the length of the daily session. For children in the primary grades the time is less; for the high-school grades somewhat more. This includes not only the time children give to their studies out of class, but the time when they are really attending their work in class. This indicates the desirability of reorganizing school work in such a way as to give three hours a day for intensive school work of the ordinary type and to provide four or five hours of productive work suited to the capacities of the children either at home, in shops under good conditions, in outdoor gardens, or in shops provided by the school. DIVISION OF THE COURSE. The course of study is separated into three devisions—(1) primary, (2) prevocational, and (3) vocational. The primary division includes the first three grades, the prevocational division includes the next three grades, and the vocational division contemplates a four-year course above the sixth grade. The first group is the beginning stage, the second group is the finding stage, and the third group is the fitting stage. In the first six years the course parallels the publicschool courses in the essentials of the academic work. During this period the principles are to be taught and the application of them is to be made just as soon after instruction as possible. The knowledge of industrial and domestic activities at this stage center more or less around the conditions essential to the proper maintenance and improvement of the rural home. This is the period when the boys and girls, through trying out their capacities, are finding that activity to which it is thought best to apply themselves definitely in the vocational period. The course has been planned with the vocational aim very clearly and positively dominant, with especial emphasis on agriculture and homemaking. The character and amount of academic work has been determined by its relative value and importance as a means of solution of the problems of the farmer, mechanic, and housewife. All effort is directed toward training Indian boys and girls for efficient and useful lives under the conditions which they must meet after leaving school. In the first or primary period the Indian child comes into what is to him a strange land with a strange tongue, strange habits, customs, and standards. He is lacking that five years or so of fundamental home education which most white children receive in our American ways of thinking, doing, and living. Those who have taught only white children do not always appreciate the influence which this preliminary home training has upon the later results when the child enters the primary grade. The Indian child comes to school lacking that important foundation; therefore we must accomplish all that the white child has gained at home in addition to the normal work of the primary grades. In order that the course of study may be understood as an articulated whole, it is requested that all instructors in day schools as well as boarding schools familiarize themselves with the entire course. GENERAL SUGGESTIONS. HEALTH. In his native state the Indian led an active life in the great out of doors. He lived close to nature and developed great physical endurance and bodily vigor. With the coming of the white man the Indian was forced gradually to change both his occupation and his mode of living. Restricted to reservations he no longer follows the chase as his chief occupation or locates at will his camp, selected and frequently changed to meet the varying demands of his economic conditions, but he lives on a farm or in a village and the house has taken the place of the more simple habitation, the tepee. He could move his tepee at will, but his house, no matter how insanitary its surroundings, must remain stationary. Without a knowledge of the laws of health and sanitation or the capacity to adjust himself properly to his new type of home, many tribes of Indians have gradually degenerated physically until to-day we find confronting us the great problem of restoring his health. This can best be done, perhaps, through the medium of the schools. This course of study contemplates the emphasizing in the schools of all subjects relating to health and sanitation. It aims to prepare students to return to their homes with very definite, practical ideas and with fixed habits as to correct living and good health. VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE. Assisting pupils to find themselves, and in the selection of the course of study leading to a profession, business, or trade to which they are to devote themselves, and to the building of a successful career in their chosen vocation, is of such great moment that each school giving a prevocational course is directed to establish a vocational guidance committee which shall consist of the superintendent as chairman, and not less than three other members appointed by him. Pupils should be carefully guided by their instructors in their work during the prevocational division in order that at its close they may have a good knowledge of the demands which will be made on them if they are to be successful in the different vocations. During the latter half of the last year of that division they should be directed to seek counsel from the committee on vocational guidance. 8 |