would be a much unappreciated bit of literature. There was once a large bulky superintendent in a Western agency who referred to school teaching as a woman's work. He did not do this for the proper purpose of exalting womanhood but spoiled what might have been a splendid speech by saying that school work made men effeminate. In other ways this "Major" indicated his lack of respect for schools and the work and workers therein. Incidentally it may be mentioned that the school of which he was nominally superintendent was in keeping with the sentiments expressed, lacking sadly the virility which the personal attention of this really forceful and sincere man might have given it. It is gratifying that so strong and busy a man as our present chief looks upon this hoped for vitalizing of our school work as it shall be done under the guidance of the newly arranged course of study as the most important achievement of his administration. The writer realizes that no printed instructions, plans, suggestions or exhortations will make any lasting impression on the situation without a continued following up of the impetus now given to systematic industrial teaching, yet cannot pass this subject without an acknowledgment of his gratitude to the Commissioner and the committee responsible for so good a piece of work. The course is eminently sane and practical and the details as to time for instruction are carefully worked out by men who have managed good schools and know what can be done. The Phoenix School feels personally and institutionally flattered by the course in arithmetic, not solely on account of what is in it but equally because of things left out. There is an abundance of suggestion for the guidance of the new teacher and yet enough of flexibility that the resources of the trained and experinced one may be utilized. The general outlines and purposes of the course of study have been so generally commented on and commended in the public press that extended explanations along these lines will not be attempted at this time. The Indian school public is already fairly well informed as to the new organization for school supervision the formation of which was one of the objects of the conference. There are now twenty-one districts assigned to as many supervising superintendents. The district assigned to the superintendent of the Phoenix School includes the schools of the White Mountain and San Carlos reservations, the Pima and Papago, Salt River and Camp Verde, all in a rather compact territory in Southern Arizona. An interesting feature at the close of the conference was in the nature of an experience meeting with Commissioner Sells and his field force of inspectors and special agents in which former inspecting officials spoke of their methods and opinions as to inspection and supervision. In these informal talks there was the utmost freedom of expression and by no means uniformity of judgment as to details. Those who are now responsible for the work of inspection and investigation were listeners for the most part and either approved or were kind enough to reserve criticism for their future meetings. J. B. B. New Text Books WE have recently purchased a supply of books containing instructions with reference to painting, cabinet making, electricity, plumbing, bootmaking, cement work, etc., for use in the various industrial departments. Among the books are the following: Elementary Cabinet Work, F. H. Selden A. B. C. of the Steam Engine, Hasluck Practical Cement Work, W. B. Henry The Campus Miss Carmelita Ward is teaching the piano to pupils at the East Farm sanatorium school. Mr. Bunnell, dairyman, has moved into the quarters formerly occupied by Mr. Francis. Miss Clara Priest, who is taking the public school music training course at the School of Music, will come once a week to the Indian School to teach music in the grades. Elizabeth Anton, one of the capable Phoenix outing girls, was married in the city Monday, February 7, to Frank Lewis, a Pima reservation farmer. They will live at the home of Mr. Lewis. Inspector Coleman of the Indian Office talked to the pupils at the assembly last Friday afternoon. He pointed out how many Indians had "made good" after leaving school and engaging in various pursuits among their white brethren. William A. Williams, Choctaw, arrived February 7 from Hugo, Oklahoma, having been appointed to the position of assistant disciplinarian at this school. Mr. Williams is a graduate of Haskell Institute and until recently was a teacher in Jones academy at Hartshorne, Oklahoma. There will be a moving picture exhibition in the school assembly hall Friday evening, February 25, to which an admission of 10 cents will be charged the proceeds to be used toward purchasing the new screen. Tickets may be obtained from Miss White, Mr. Grinstead, Miss Mayham or Mr. Scott. Charles Cedartree, Arapaho, from Geary, Oklahoma, has been a student at Bacone College, Bacone, Oklahoma, since leaving Phoenix, and expects to complete the English preparatory Charles still retains his interest in Phoenix school and wishes to be remembered to his former schoolmates and all who knew him here. course. L. S. Parke of the Department of Agriculture spoke to the pupils in assembly hall February 8 and announced that the Phoenix Indian School Grain Sorghum club composed of Edmo Jeans, Adelbert Walker, Santiago Cata, Jose Elario and George Day, had won the state championship and a silver cup which will be presented to the club Monday evening, February 21, in the school assembly hall. Mr. Parke will also give an illustrated stereopticon lecture at that time. Inspectors Sweet and Coleman departed for Sacaton Thursday evening. Miss Emma Moore, who has been appointed to a position at Western Navajo agency, was a guest of Mrs. Posey today. Miss Rockey entertained the children at morning and afternoon assembly yesterday with fairy tales of India where she was born. Katherine Emerson, Pima, Blackwater, Arizona, has been appointed assistant seamstress at this school succeeding Esther Davis, transferred to Horton, Kansas. Miss Dora Porterfield, who taught for many years in the same school with Miss Ritter, our head matron, accompanied a pupil from Colony, Oklahoma, to the East Farm sanatorium last week. Beside the regular industrial meeting last Saturday the farmers' group, Messrs. Waite, Wade, Williams, Bunnell, Lester Pfeifer and Cook of East Farm, held a meeting as did also the matrons' section consisting of Misses Ritter, Mayham, Clausen, Thompson and Mesdames Standage, Gilham, Posey, Moon, Needham, Howard and Eisenhower. Mrs. Percival, assisted by her daughter, Mrs. Loyd Elliot, entertained the ladies of the campus Tuesday of last week at her cottage in a most pleasant manner. Those present were Mesdames Brown, Breid, Marden, Krebs, Williams, Oliver, Lawrence, Smelansky, Grinstead, Waite, Wade, Pfeifer, Farless, Scott, Anderson and Needham, and Miss Ritter and Miss Sarah Oliver. Hospital Notes Juan Jose of Gila Crossing is here for treatment for an injured ankle. The six girls working at the hospital and learning to be assistant nurses have their new uniforms. Ethel Milton, a girl belonging to an Omaha Indian family who are passing the winter in town, is a patient at the hospital this week. Mojave Mike and his wife from McDowell have been at the hospital for the past two weeks. He is here for surgical treatment and they occupy one of the tent houses back of the hospital. Mrs. Coe Crawford from town has been at the hospital for several days recovering from an attack of pneumonia. Coe is in the employ of the Goldman Company in Phoenix, where he has worked for two years. He is a returned student of Grand Junction school, Colorado, and his home is at Blackwater on the Pima reservation. The Native American scrapers and an outside platform are Entered at Phoenix, Arizona, as Second Class Mail Matter JNO. B. BROWN, Superintendent. An Illustrated Fortnightly Magazine, Devoted to Indian Education and Printed by Indian Student-Apprentices at the United States Indian Training School, Phoenix, Arizona, under direction of E. W. Lawrence, Instructor of Printing. TWENTY-FIVE CENTS A YEAR The Needs of Rural Schools WE DO not always need to provide more expensive buildings but in many cases much improvement could be made by using better plans with no additional expense. It costs no more, for example, to place windows in rear and to the left of pupils' seats than to have the objectionable cross light so commonly provided. A modern heating and ventilating system economizes space equal to the additional cost of installation, besides being a necessity if we care for fresh air and a comfortable temperature. We need to prevent dust in all our school rooms and this is easily done by oiling floors in lieu of scrubbing or dry sweeping. Five galFive gallons of floor oil, costing $1.50 to $2.50, will answer the one-room school for a year. We have Indian boarding schools where oil has been used for nearly five years with no scrubbing and absolutely no water on the floors. I put in that word "absolutely" merely to clear myself of carelessness and because of the way so many good housekeepers look at me when I tell of this method of cleaning floors. Don't put the whole five gallons on at once, expecting it to last all winter. Oil should be applied in a very thin coat, well rubbed in and applied as often as needed to keep down dust. Walks, foot helps to cleanliness, and cleanliness means health. Health requires that children play. No calisthenic drill can take the place of any play because it lacks the mental exhilaration. Our rural schools need to give this matter serious consideration. Boys leave the farm sometimes because there are not enough boys together to make up a good ball game. Let me suggest in such cases indoor baseball and the game of volley ball. Of course, play the games outdoors, regardless of the name. Play everything outdoors wherever possible. Each rural school needs five acres of ground and a teacher's cottage. The United States Government has made this provision for teachers in its Indian day schools for the past twenty-five years and public school authorities should do it for the same reasons. there is no other place for the teacher to live, and we expect the teacher to be an example to his community; to teach his neighbors how to live. Should we not expect the rural teacher of white children to render a like service? I have not forgotten the self-imposed limits of this discussion. This is not the narration of a dream but a practical business proposition. We know many times, but we do not know how many times, we lose an opportunity to secure a good teacher because there is no place for him to live. If you object to my use of the pronoun "him" it only gives me another opening, for when we provide a home for the teacher we will keep men in the profession. The teacher should be the farm demon In the Indian country strator. Of course a school thus equipped will become a consolidated school before long by the force of its own usefulness and still utilize a proper proportion of women teachers. A resident teacher would provide protection for property and grounds and make it possible to beautify the premises, now ordinarily the most desolate in the neighborhood. Our schools, then, are sadly lacking in the matter of illustrative material and refer ence libraries. At least a beginning is even now feasible; say maps, a globe, a large dictionary and a standard cyclopedia. As we pass on our needs become more important. We need teachers. Socrates had no modern heat or ventilation, no school house, no farm, no cyclopedia, but he got his heat direct from the sun and had all outdoors for ventilation. He had the earth for his globe but didn't know it was round. Had he lived he would have learned it or compelled some pupil to learn it by his relentless questionings. Socrates made his own maps, in the sand, with his walking stick. He had no free transportation to his school but he transported the school. Socrates had no printing press, no telegraph or telephone, but he did well without them by going to people with his message and giving it to them in person. There was no hurry. He had the time. My point is that with none of what we deem necessities and what to us are necessities, Socrates was a great teacher and taught a great school. He beat us 2,000 years to an understanding of the importance of industrial training, saying to Alcibiades, the rich man's son, when he found that the latter could neither drive a mule nor a chariot, could not carve a statue nor cook his own dinner: "How sad a thing it is that your father has given his hired servants so much better an education than he has his son." We need teachers who deliberately select their vocation and who think well enough of it and of themselves to make a suitable preparation for the work. We will get these teachers, too, just as soon as we who employ them learn to discriminate. When I was a boy, attending a rural school, the board inquired as to whether two of the more advanced pupils would remain in school for the ensuing year. If they were to be taught the board contemplated the employment of a "college graduate" but if not a 17-yearold girl, one of the pupils in the same school, at $20 per month, would answer. For too long the ability to solve the necessary arithmetical problems and to control the pupils has been the main desideratum. A community in southeastern Oklahoma hired as a teacher a Choctaw Indian boy who when in school had completed the third grade. All went well for a few weeks during the cottonpicking season when only very small children were in school but the teacher ran up the white flag one day when a boy appeared who said he was in the fourth grade. Whether the teacher laid down his ferule and became pupil to the new arrival my informant did not state, but it was not until the arrival of the fourth grade pupil that the employers had any uneasiness about the qualifications of the teacher. A Chinese young man in an American mission made such rapid pro gress that he soon set up shop as a tutor, his business card reading "English taught as far as 'g'." So much by way of antithesis, to illustrate the need of scholarship. In the most primary school there is room to utilize the broadest and deepest culture. Before the teacher's scholarship comes his health, bodily and mental vigor, and with the scholarship must be sympathy. I speak of this because there are many teaching rural schools who are not in sympathy with rural life. The woman teacher who is willing to take and spend the money earned by the toilsome processes of the farm is not made of such tender fiber that she cannot live in a rural community where primitive conditions exist and become an integral part of its social organism. Whether the school board knows it or not, no teacher of a rural school has a right to leave her school at 3:45 on Friday to catch the 4:30 train into town where she may enjoy the comforts of a modern home until Monday morning. If she has culture her school community has paid for it. Anyway, the only love we keep is the love we liberate and the only culture worth while is that which we radiate. The rural school neighborhood may have a Sunday school, a singing school or a quilting party that needs you and which you need. The neighborhood has homes that need you and which you need to know. WE ARE in receipt of a series of excellent lessons in blacksmithing from Superintendent Lipps of Carlisle, prepared by Roy H. Bradley, director of mechanic arts in that school. Thank you. |