Cbool Jf Ournal
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~~~~~ !~~~~ ~be 1Jnbian ~cbool jf ournal Printed by- Students of the Indian School at Chilocco, Oklahoma tAn Illustrated Monthly t/I1agazine About Native tAmericans VOLUME FIFTEEN JANUARY, 1915 NUMBER FIvE RES PONSIBILITIES OF INDI AN SCHOOL EMPLOYEES By SUPT. OMAR L. BABCOCK XPERIENCE is a dear task of teaching the children to store teacher. For the mis up certain knowledge which will en takes we make we, per able them to understand the need of sonally, do not suffer as learning to read and write, and the much as do the pupils many other things that good citizens who are under our care. should know. They must teach them We may suffer in our the beauty of a government like our efficiency records, but own, where there is nearer true liber they suffer in not get ty than inany other country on the face ting the training that of God's footstool. They must also will enable them to live teach them that it is impossible for one the lives we are trying to plan for them. to live without the aid of his fellow When we think of the school life of men. That we are dependent, one up the pupils we have under our care as on another, and the higher the civili a preparatory period for the life they zation to which we attain the greater have to live, we will see the im the dependance. They must teach the portance of keeping the mistakes as child these special things for that is few as possible and we will also see their part of the work we have to do that the pupils will suffer all of their here. They are chosen because of lives; and not only the pupils with their special fitness for that work and whom we come in contact, but those to them we look for results along that older pupils who are the parents of the line. Their mistakes will be almost ones we now teach. wholly borne by the ones to whom they This is a big work we are engaged are imparting the instruction. in. We can not get away from the re The farmer is here for his special sponsibilityof the positions we occupy. part of the work. He is to teach the Each one of us has some particular boys the rudiments of agriculture and part of the training to do. To the demonstrate his work on the school teachers in the class rooms come the farm. He is intrusted with teaching 232 THE INDIAN SCHOOL JOURNAL ABOUT INDIANS the child how to provide for the de to future generations. It is within his mands of the body from the soil, from power to destroy its fertility for many where all human needs are provided. years, or he can make it more and His task is of great importance and he more productive. The forme r is a is responsible for the amount of useful crime and the latter is as true philan knowledge which he imparts to the thropy as are gifts of Carnegie or children. There is no more important Rockefeller to libraries and colleges. task in the Indian Service than that of In short, it is the privilege of the the school farmer. When we consid farmer to implant in the mind of the er the needs of the great human race pupil who comes under his instruction that must be met from the products of a broader outlook than he would have thesoil-thatgreatstorehousein which if he tilled his farm for his own per an all-wise Beneficence has locked the sonal gain rather than for the benefit food for His created creatures and has which he bestowed on society in gen made it obligatory upon them to come eral. The duties of the school farmer at the treasure only by effort-we can are his opportunities to enlarge his comprehend the importance of the own usefulness to his race and gener work of the farmer. The instruction ation. given by him will teach more than the The things that I have said of the combination to the storehouse. He farmer might as well be said of the will teach him the dependance of the carpenter and engineer. It is neces human family upon the efforts of the sary for men to do different kinds of tillers of the soil. He will teach the work. When man was in his primi pupil that he i serving the great hu tive state there was then no need of man family as truly by good farming artisan or mechanic, but as our civil as he would be in any other way' ization developed we had needs of more tbat the President is but the servant things than we had before. From of the people, and so is everyone else these needs arose the different kinds who creates anytbing from his mind of trades. With the building of shel or by his indu try causes the soil t~ ters came the needs of men who knew give its sustaining supply to the hu how to build lasting structures and to man race. He will teach the pupil that make them comfortable in all kinds of although there will be profit to him it climates. This need of shelter gave i but the profit due a good servant for rise to carpenters, masons, plasterers, bis services. That for him to use the painters and other allied tradesmen. soil in such a manner as to get less We are no longer satisfied with the f~m it than it hould produce; or for crude windbrake which our ancestors him to take from the soil and rob it erected, but we demand that we have and thus make it of no use to man is '. , all the comforts possible to put into a cnme agamst all mankind and that a house. The carpenter has studied the ~ce will suffer in just proPOrtion the subject until he is able to make us for hi lack of knowledge or idleness, the kind of a house we demand and in or whatever cau-ed the lesser produc return we provide him with the things tion. The child must learn that the nece sary to his comfort. We are soil i- given to him to use, but in a willing to pro\;de more for the man broader -en;;e it is not his indh'idual who is extra good at his trade than po-session. but rather that it i a heri tance from the past lind must pass on we are for the man who is only med· ium, In other works, the world wiII THE INDIAN SCHOOL JOUR~AL-ABOUT I DIANS 233 recompense the worker according to vice in just the proportion it is ready his ability to give it something that it to pay for any other service, and the wants. It does not matter if the man service rendered by an efficient cook is a farmer, a carpenter, an engineer, or maid is just as honorable as any or what his work may be: if the world other service. The dignity of their wants it it will pay for it just in pro labor should be taught them and the portion to how much it wants it. It fact that women have always been re will pay according to the service ren warded with what they have wanted, dered, and all work is 1V0rld service. and will, in all probability, be so re The engineer who is able to leave this warded in the future, should make thought with the pupils who come un them careful as to what they ask for, der his instruction will leave a far knowing that they will get it. They more lasting mark to show what his sbould be taught what to aim for and services have been than he will if the then how to attain that aim. They pupils get only the mechanical side of should be taught the truth of the old his work. The carpenter who can proverb that "a woman can throw out make his pupils see that they are giv of the window with a spoon faster than ing the world service for which they a man can throw in at the door with have the right to exact from that a shovel." They are throwing the world a recompense is giving some higher priced articles, and waste can thing of far greater value than the not be tolerated--that it makes for mere mechanical instruction of his poverty and its ills. They should be trade. Imagination plays so great a taught the science of cooking. If any part in our lives that we very often part of the world's work is in greater miss the greatest and finest opportu need of such teaching I have still to nities because of the lack of it. What find out what it is. This great need greater incentive can a boy or girl have of society has called forth the various than that they are a part of the great schools of domestic economy, cooking world mechanism and that they have and domestic science because there definite parts to play therein? If they was adistinct need of the promulgation do not do their part it must be done of better ideas and alsoaneed to make ?y some one else, and that boy or girl the most of the things we have to do IS a shirker. with. Almost anyone can provide a Matrons have an especially good op good meal at the delicatessen.