Page 162

162                 REPORT OF CARLISLE SCHOOL. 
We have carried forward our shop-work much on the same plan as last year,
and 
have increased the number of apprentices to the limit the room and facilities
we have 
been able to create would allow. We are now able to give instruction to about
100 
apprentices. 
For information in regard to our school-room work, I respectfully refer to
the report 
herewith of Miss C. M. Semple, the principal of that department. 
Your attention is also invited to the sanitary conditions during the year
and some 
views and deductions in the report of the school physician, hereto appended.
Very respectfAilly, your obedient servant, 
1R. H. PRATT, 
Captain and Superintendent. 
The COMMISSIONER OF INDIANI AFFAIRS. 
INDIAN TRAINING SCHOOL, CARLISLE, PA, 
August 20, 1883. 
SiR: In reviewing the work of the school-rooms the points which seem of especial
interest and importance are those which relate to the classification of pupils
and ar- 
rangement of studies. It has been extremely difficult to secure uniformity
in the 
sections of approximately the same grade either in methods or rate of progress.
This 
difficulty has arisen from several causes, the chief of which, the frequent
admission 
of new pupils at irregular periods, is made apparent by the following table
showing 
agencies from which they came and dates of entrance: 
Kiowa, Comanche, and Wichita, October 6, 1879; October 27, 1879; April 3,
1880; 
September 9, 18$0; August 31, 1882. 
Sioux, October 6,1879; November 30, 1882. 
Cheyenne and Arapaho, October 27,1879; September 6, 1880; February 3,1881;
August 31,1882. 
Ponca, October 27,1879; February 20,1880. 
Pawnee, October 27,1879; August 31,1882. 
Sisseton Sioux, November 6, 1879; November 6,1880. 
Menomonee, November 6, 1879; November 6, 1880. 
lowas, February 25, 1880. 
Pueblo, July 31, 1880; February 4, 1881; January 28, 1882; October 21, 1882.
Creek, January 22, 1881. 
Osage, February 26, 1881; June 9, 1882. 
Northern Arapaho, March 11, 1881. 
quapaw Agency, December 20, 1881. 
Omaha, August 19, 1882. 
Navajo, October 21, 1882. 
Crows, February, 1883. 
To find place and proper instruction for each company of new comers without
any 
especial provision for individual teaching, and yet maintain anything approaching
to 
a good system of grading, has been almost impossible. At the beginning of
the year 
the boys learning trades and girls regularly detailed for half-day work were
graded 
and divided into half-day schools, each teacher having charge of two sections.
Be- 
fore the close of the year the school resolved itself into seven of these
half-day schools 
and two composed of younger pupils whose details were less regular. The average
number of pupils to each teacher has been 37; the average attendance nearly
the same. 
I think it very desirable that we should have experimental shops for the
boys not 
learning trades, where, under the care of a teaeher, even the youngest pupils
might 
have some kind of manual training daily. I do not doubt that the gain in
health, 
energy, and clear-headedness would make any expenditure in this direction
an ulti- 
mate economy. We invariably find that when an idle or mischievous boy is
put to work 
at a trade his standing is raised in scholarship as well as conduct. In some
cases the 
improvement has been very remarkable; in not one has it failed of good results.
At your request, I have put in the form of a schedule the course of study
which we 
have attempted to follow, or toward which we have worked. Some exceptionally
quick pupils have done a little more ; a few, mostly adults or irregular
in attendance, 
much less than the amount laid down. In the light of our experience and acquaint-
ance with the results of Indian teaching elsewhere, this course seems all
that ought 
to be expected of the average Indian pupil coming into school ignorant of
English, 
and giving at least half the time to manual training. Further experience
will prob- 
ably show that in the case of large numbers it will be impossible to cover
the ground 
fully. 
FIRST YEAR-First session.-Objective study of language, writing words, phrases,
and sentences upon slates or blackboards, and in note-books, in script. Number:
By the use of objects and numeral frame, addition and subtraction orally,
counting, 
writing, and reading numbers.