Not so much higher education as better education is our principal aim. At the same time, pupils who show especial fitness, and who are willing to make sacrifices on their own account in order to take up something higher than our course calls for, are not only encouraged, but a way is always provided for them to do so. Through the cooperation of Dickinson College, and similar institutions, any student who shows especial fitness may take up and complete any course offered by these institutions. A number of our ex-students have been graduated in professional and academic courses at various universities throughout the country.
Merit System
A system of grading, which includes both the daily recitations and the monthly and term examinations, is now in vogue. Merit rolls, showing the name and the grade of each student in attendance, are published each month. The individual and his especial needs are the constant consideration of the teacher.
Daily Program
In arranging their programs, teachers provide for three primary subjects to be recited upon three or four times a week. The remaining subjects, as secondary, are recited upon three (or less) times a week. A plan, or program, of the day’s work is sent to the Principal Teacher’s office each morning.
Elocutionary Work and Literary Society
Pupils receive training in rhetorical work from week to week in their respective rooms; and once a month a public program is rendered in the chapel, at which time the rooms alternate in furnishing one exercise.
Teachers give helpful attention to the pupils’ work in the literary societies. There are four literary societies two for the boys and two for the girls. Meetings are held every Friday evening. The employees, in details of two, take turns in visiting the societies, and they make a written report of their observations and criticisms to the Principal Teacher. The students themselves manage the meetings, and they derive great benefit from them.
Evening Program
Special schedules for evening work, providing for (1) entertainments, (2) physical culture, (3) reading in the library, (4) Bible study, (5) religious meetings, (6) addresses by the superintendent, (7) literary meetings, etc., insure the profitable use of the students’ time outside of that given to shop and classroom work.
Normal Department
The object of this department is threefold: first, that of giving to backward and adult pupils the special help and individual training which such pupils especially need; second, that of giving this special help and individual training in a way most likely to prove of especial benefit to this class of pupils; and, third, to give to a limited number of students training in the art of teaching.
The pupil teachers are taken chiefly from the junior and senior classes. The junior girls come one half day, and the senior girls, the other half day.
The department consists of one large room, where the pupils study and have their general exercises, and six small rooms. Five of these small rooms are recitation rooms; the other one is fitted up as a study room for the teachers.
Here outlines and references to books and magazines, which the teachers use in preparing their work, are placed on the board.
To guard against pupils spending time in this department who are not especially adapted to the work of teaching, the number of pupil teachers is limited to three in the morning and three in the afternoon. The girls who take this special work and are graduated by the school find abundant opportunity under our Outing System of completing the course at one of Pennsylvania’s five Normal Schools.
Language
Primary Grades. The most important work of the lower grades is to teach the correct use of the English language. Since many of our pupils enter the first grade without a knowledge of English, the first work of the department is to give these pupils a vocabulary of the most common words which they need in their everyday experiences. Many conversation and object lessons are given. After several months of such instruction daily, the pupils acquire the use of a number of words, both oral and written, and are ready for the primer (or easy First Reader).
Intermediate Grades. Reading and language are very closely allied. In each grade, the corresponding reader is used, and as much supplementary reading as possible. This supplementary reading correlates with the lessons in industry, geography, nature study, literature, and morals and manners. The aim in elementary reading is to train the pupils so that they may be able to find independently the thought expressed in written or printed words, in order that they may eventually turn to books for knowledge, pleasure, and inspiration. Silent reading is an important feature of the work. Every lesson is used as a lesson in language. A great deal of oral language is used in the intermediate grades, and it always precedes written language.
Departmental Grades. The main objects in teaching English in these grades may be expressed in the words of the late Dr. William T. Harris: “First, to enable the pupil to understand the expressed thoughts of others and to give expression to thoughts of his own; second, to cultivate a taste for reading, to give the pupil some acquaintance with good literature, and to furnish the means of extending that acquaintance.”
Of necessity, the English of the last four years consists largely of reviewing what has previously been carefully developed and thoroughly drilled upon.
Class Recitations. Especially the expressional side of mathematics and the industries is used in training pupils to be concise and exact. Seniors are required to bring synopses of moderately long articles found in newspapers and periodicals.
Arithmetic
Primary and Intermediate Grades. Oral and mental work predominates in the first five grades. Mental work is on par with that of written work in the two grades following. Pupils construct problems in all grades. Accuracy and brevity are essentials. Careless and slovenly work is rejected at all tunes; neatness and orderly arrangement of work receives especial attention.
Departmental Grades. The course seeks to interest the student in the things that have to do with his daily life outside of the schoolroom and to show him that this subject in particular can be made concrete in its daily use and practice. All principles are developed inductively from oral problems, both simple and concrete. The ability to do things is considered of more importance than the ability to express rules, and every effort is made to break down the feeling on the part of the student that the study of arithmetic is made up of many subdivisions with set rules for each.
Freshman Year. In the freshman year, especial emphasis is laid on the three applications of percentage in business; namely first, finding a part of a number; second finding a number when a part of it is given; and, third, the per cent one number is of another. The subjects of commission and brokerage, commercial discounts, profit and loss, insurance, and interest are taught during this year. Profit and loss is taught merely as a means of employing percentage. Insurance is taken up as a commercial factor.
Sophomore Year. The work begun in interest in the freshman year is amplified in the work of this year. The important problem under this subject is to find the interest on a sum of money for a given time at a given rate. Simple interest is more important than compound interest; and as a part of arithmetic the latter is omitted, but it is discussed under the heading of savings banks. Bank discount follows interest. It introduces notes, securities either by indorsement or collateral, and the matter of bank deposits. The more important features of insurance fire, life, and accident, with exercises to illustrate the various policies, are found interesting and valuable. The study of taxation local and state, involving the study of property conditions and valuations, as well as the elementary study of customs, duties, and internal revenue taxes, bringing out the sources of revenue of the national government, forms a part of the work of this year.
Junior Year. Ratio and proportion are not dwelt upon at length. Involution is taken up only so far as will show the use of the terms and the operations. Low powers only are dealt with. Square root is approached through problems. A common form of keeping accounts is taken up, with bills, receipts, and notes.
Senior Year. The greater part of this year is spent in reviewing. The work gives to the student a well developed understanding of the things he has been studying and an idea of the continuity of the subject of arithmetic. The aim is to make the study of this subject less an operation of figuring and more of thinking; a study not of processes, but the use of them.
Elementary Science
Nature Study. Nature Study furnishes the subject for most of our reading and language material in the lower grades. The plant and animal life of the locality is studied. Pupils are led from that to some of the important products of their own home sections. The aim is to cultivate close observation and accurate expression, and to give the student a good foundation for a later work in geography and agriculture.
Geography. Geography is correlated with nature study, reading, language, and spelling. Maps, pictures, specimens of products, current newspapers, magazines, geographical readers, books of travel, and the recently equipped museum, are freely used.
Physiology and Hygiene. In the lower grades, the work is chiefly oral. Talks on the care of the body, the necessity of keeping clean, taking exercise, etc., are given by the teachers. By simple experiments and practical demonstrations, the student is taught the value and the necessity of proper ventilation and pure air, cleanliness of person and house and surroundings, good food, and proper exercise. In the upper grades, emphasis is placed on such topics as the care of the sick, simple home remedies, first aid to the injured, and the nature and measures of prevention of some of the diseases to which Indians especially are susceptible. The resident physician and nurse give illustrated talks and render valuable assistance.
Business Department
The object of this department is (1) to prepare young men and young women for business dealings on the outside, and (2) to specially fit a limited number for the positions of clerk, stenographer, bookkeeper, etc., in the business world and in the government service.
Here is given a definite knowledge of commercial paper and business customs. Method, neatness, accuracy, prompt ness, and quickness are emphasized. A better use of language, more nearly correct composition, exact spelling, correct punctuation, and improved penmanship are insistently urged.
The “Four Upper Grades” are taught how to keep an accurate account of their own personal cash (receipts and expenditures); how to open a bank account; and how to write checks properly, keeping an exact record on the stubs of all transactions which affect their bank accounts, and their balance there at all times. They are acquainted in detail with notes how to write them and how to handle them. They are made to read of and to examine chattel mortgages, liens, and contracts, and are impressed with the dangers that lie hidden within their great number of words peculiarly put together. They are drilled in mental arithmetic the rapid calculation of simple problems, and adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing, rapidly and accurately. In fact, the aim is to prepare students to meet and to observe properly the business customs and practices with which they will come in contact in their daily life outside.
In addition to this regular work, typewriting is given to a few selected students in whose line of work it is known conclusively that writing on the machine is a decided advantage.
The special work of the department is confined to a very small number of specially prepared, postgraduate students whose capabilities and general characteristics have made sure their successfully mastering the business branches and “making good” in office positions if they elect to follow this line of work; and it consists of thorough, down to date courses of bookkeeping and business practice and shorthand and typewriting, supplemented with the auxiliary branches.
The fact that there is an urgent demand, both in the government service and elsewhere, for just such trained help as this special work is aiming to supply, not only justifies the existence of this feature, but also gives assurance of profitable employment to all the students who master it.
Civil Service examinations are held regularly, and an effort is made to secure employment for all graduates of this department.
Synopsis of Course of Study
First Year.
Mornings.
Plain English. One hundred nine written exercises on common, everyday English, including punctuation, paragraphing, etc.
Typewriting. Sight and Touch Methods. One hundred graded lessons, copying, slow dictation, transcription, etc.
Shorthand. AM the principles, and slow dictation confined chiefly to busmess letters.
Afternoons.
Penmanship. Business Spelling. Rapid Calculation. Business Letter Writing. Commercial Arithmetic. Commercial Law.
A First Book in Business Methods. A dictionary of business forms and business transactions, dealing with business matters in a plain, simple, practical, and interesting manner.
Elementary Practical Bookkeeping and Business Practice. Manual of 115 pages and all blanks necessary to work out the Fuel and Feed Business, the Jobbing Grocery Business, and the Produce and Commission Business.
Second Year.
Mornings .
Business Letter Writing. Filing. Duplicating. Plain English. Discrimination in in the choice of words, punctuation, sentence structure, paragraph building, and theme writing.
Typewriting. Copying, dictation, tabulating, transcription, etc. Shorthand. Advanced. Varied dictation, consisting of letters, newspaper and magazine articles, lectures, addresses, sermons, etc.
Afternoons.
Penmanship. Business Spelling. Rapid Calculation. Commercial Law Commercial Arithmetic Commercial Paper. Business Letter Writing.
Advanced Bookkeeping and Community Business Practice. Dealings with the Bank and the Wholesale Department are important features of this year’s work.
Telegraph
The Department of Telegraphy was first opened in January, 1910. The students who were then enrolled have made splendid progress, and three of them are already filling positions with the Cumberland Valley Railroad Company. Admission is limited to students in the departmental grades.
The work is carried on in a large, airy room in the academic building, adjacent to the rooms of the business department, so that the two may cooperate in their work. The room is equipped with twelve desks and twelve instruments. There is also other equipment; such as signals, charts, etc.
There is a large demand for trained telegraph operators, and it has been found that the Indians are especially well adapted to this work.
A trained instructor of ten years’ practical experience in railroad telegraphy and its associated work is in charge. The Morse alphabet is taught, and instruction is given in sending and receiving, together with general railway and commercial methods of block signaling, train signaling, and general railway orders. The students also receive instruction in the billing of freight, elementary accounting, reporting, etc. The course is thorough, and the number of students admitted is limited.
An effort is made to provide employment for all who finish the course.
Native Indian Art
The department of Native Indian Art aims to develop and improve the native arts and industries of the Indian. Instruction is given in weaving both by the Navaho and Hopi methods, and by the Persian method with the application of Indian designs. Training is given in bead work, the weaving of rag rugs, designing and making felt cushion covers, etc., and in photography. The boys are given instruction in copper and silver smithing.
The students in this department also make original designs for the various school publications; such as. The Carlisle Arrow, The Red Man, and pamphlets and programs issued by the school.
Music
Music at Carlisle plays no small part in the life and happiness of the boys and girls. It invades almost all the social and religious functions and the athletic and military exercises. The musical influence has a tendency to develop the finer qualities in the natures of the students, and this means much to the Indian.
The United States Carlisle Indian Band has an international reputation its services not only being sought for some of the great events in this country, such as the Columbian Exposition, Pan American Exposition, national and state inaugural exercises, and other important affairs, but in Europe also, negotiations having been entered into for the band to appear at the Paris Exposition.
In conjunction with the band, there is an orchestra which plays for the school entertainments, Sunday services, etc.
There is, too, a vocal department, which includes the class work and singing exercises, where all are taught the rudiments of music. Each school class meets twice a week for this purpose, and songs are learned which are sung by the entire school at the monthly school entertainments. Special music is also prepared for Christmas, Easter, and other holidays.
Quartets and choruses of boys and girls both sing at the Sunday Chapel Exercises, at the Y. M. C. A. and Y. W. C. A. meetings, and at the different societies, and add variety and pleasure to the lives of the students.
Private instruction on piano and violin is given to those who show talent on these instruments. The aim is to give them enough training to enable them to play for the religious services and little entertainments at home.
There is a Girls’ Musical Club composed of the girls who possess talent for stringed instruments. This club takes an active part in the musical numbers of many programs, to the delight of all.
Agriculture
As practically all Indians possess more or less farm land, and because of the fact (based on experience) that large numbers of students return to their homes to settle on their allotments, a thorough course in agriculture forms one of the most important departments of the school.
Carlisle’s aim in this branch is to teach the young men who choose this vocation to master thoroughly the work of a farmer. Through three channels, it teaches those things which a successful farmer must know and must be able to do.
First. A course of agricultural instruction runs through the work of the academic department. Beginning with nature study in the lower grades, which may be called “elementary agriculture,” the work continues through all the grades of the school. A large school garden, adjacent to the academic building, provides practical experience for the boys and the girls both, whereby they learn all the practical operations incidental to the successful raising of such vegetable crops as beans, beets, cabbage, lettuce, onions, peas, potatoes, radishes, tomatoes, etc.
Elementary instruction in nature study is given in the class room. For students in the four upper grades, a thorough course of agriculture is provided by a trained teacher of agriculture. This instruction is given in an addition recently erected to the academic building and provides a class room, laboratory, agricultural museum, and greenhouse. By means of this equipment, a most thorough training is given. No ultra theoretical course is provided, but those matters which every farmer should understand are studied.
Farming
Second. The work in the academic department is supplemented by practical farming operations carried on in connection with the two school farms. These farms contain 285 acres and are farmed successfully by student labor. On them are carried on the various activities connected with the raising of general crops; such as, alfalfa, barley, corn, oats, timothy, wheat, etc., and a large variety of vegetables.
Hog Raising
On the First Farm, immediately adjacent to the school, is located the Dairy. This dairy has just been erected, and it is one of the model dairies in this part of the country. It has been carefully planned to provide down to date instruction in modern dairy practice. Thorough instruction is given in milking, the care and the bottling of milk, butter making, and breeding. There is a large herd of cattle, containing Guernsey, Holstein, and Durham breeds. There are also several registered bulls.
Near the Dairy is located the Piggery, a large specially constructed building divided into pens for breeding purposes and for fattening hogs. It provides thorough facilities for studying this valuable branch of farm industry. The students not only study hog raising by means of this large structure, but also by the methods of raising hogs which prevail on small farms.
The Piggery is well lighted and thoroughly ventilated, and it is provided with sanitary equipment and a specially constructed slaughtering room.
Poultry Culture
Practical instruction is given in poultry raising. The poultry industry is equipped with three large, specially constructed henhouses, with scratching floors, nests, etc., and a brooder house, with an incubator room and three incubators. The equipment is complete, and the present stock numbers about 1500 birds. Chickens, geese, and turkeys are raised.
By means of small henhouses, kept in several of the larger fields, thorough instruction is also given in that which will be of use to the students in applying to their home conditions what they have learned on the school farms.
Third. Besides the academic work and the practical training on farms, the young men who come to Carlisle for training are given an opportunity to become thoroughly familiar with practical farm operations and the farming industry through the Outing System. During the spring and summer months, employment is found for our students on carefully selected farms throughout the state of Pennsylvania and contiguous states. In this way, they not only earn wages and become familiar with the methods of some of the best farmers in the country, but, under the direct eye of the Outing patron, they learn to do by doing.
In all our work in agriculture, especial attention is given to the environment in which the student is to live when he leaves the school. In addition to the definite farming training, the young men are given instruction in carpentry and in blacksmithing. This trades’ instruction is of a limited and elementary kind, but it is provided to enable the boys to handle the ordinary repairs and other work which is present on the farm, and which it is sometimes difficult to have done by skilled labor on the outside on account of the inaccessibility of some of the homes of the Indians.
Horticulture and Greenhouse Work
The Greenhouse equipments’ complete, with everything necessary for successful work. Instruction is given in the different methods and processes of flower culture; proper kinds of soil and suitable fertilizers, with their component parts; time and manner of planting; sowing seeds; cultivating and keeping favorable conditions for plant growth; hybridizing as a means of improving and producing new varieties; selecting, planting, and cultivating shrubbery; budding, grafting, propagating, and pruning trees for lawns and orchards.
The opportunity for practical application of this knowledge by actual experience on the large campus and in the orchards is added to the instruction.
Instruction and practice in decorating and beautifying the grounds are given with a view to arousing the ambition of the students to improve and beautify the surroundings of their own homes.
Boys’ Industries
For instruction in the boys’ industries, the Carlisle School has one of the best buildings and equipments in the country.
All the young men, unless taking special courses in business, telegraphy, or agriculture, are expected to take up some trade.
The instruction in most of the trades is given in a large, “U shaped” building, built of brick, two stories high, which, in its largest dimensions, is 186×149 feet. In addition to this building, there is a separate building for instruction in printing and a large building for instruction in steam heating and plumbing.
Students who have sufficient education may be granted special permission to work at their trades all day; all other students spend one half day working at their trades and the other half day taking up work in the academic department.
It is the policy of the Carlisle School to emphasize the instruction in the industries; its aim is to impress continually upon the students the fact that the industries are not subordinate to instruction in literary work. The work of teaching the dignity of laboring with the hand is fundamental, inasmuch as it is the aim of this school to prepare its students for self support.
There is constant cooperation and correlation between the work in the industries and the work in the class room, each ministering toward the success of the other.
After successfully completing the term of instruction in a certain trade, students are given a certificate of proficiency. This is given only after a student has successfully mastered the details of the trade and has completed the entire course of instruction. The school stands back of the certificate, and, by this means, indorses the student’s skill.
Practically all the new buildings erected on the grounds are put up by student labor. In addition to this work, new furniture, and other equipment, is made in the shops. Vehicles, harness, etc., are manufactured for the smaller schools in the service and for the older Indians on the reservations.
All the repairs to property valued at nearly $1,000,000 are performed by student apprentices. In this way, the young men receive thorough practice and experience. They get the theory and technique in the shop, and by means of this practical work they learn the actual operations of each industry.
Through the Outing System, whereby young men are placed out with contractors, mechanics, and in shops and manufacturing establishments, for from three to six months in the year, the boys earn wages, realize the meaning of a full day’s work in the busy, workaday world, and learn the actual processes of construction and manufacture as practiced on the outside.
A thorough course of instruction, which is carefully followed, has been prepared for each trade, so that the student masters his work in its entirety. In all the building trades and constructive industries, full courses of blue prints are in use, which the students follow, and thus learn, step by step, their chosen vocation.
Students are expected to select a trade on entering the school, and they are not permitted thereafter, unless it is found for their best interests, to change to some other trade.
In addition to the regular work of instruction definitely pertaining to the various trades, special business training is given to the students in estimating material, cost, etc.
Regular courses of instruction are given in the following trades:
Baking
The Bakery occupies two large rooms in the basement of the dining hall and is equipped with a 16ft. rotary bake oven, a Triumph four barrel dough mixer, a Queen City feed wire cake machine, a Day’s Economy cracker machine, a No. 3 Safety dough brake, and other smaller machines and equipment used in a modern bakery.
A regular course of instruction is given to a limited number of mature students, which includes not only theoretical instruction, but actual practice also. The bakery turns out nearly nine hundred loaves of bread daily, together with rolls and pastry; such as cakes, crackers, pies, etc.
Blacksmithing
The Blacksmith Shop occupies two large rooms on the first floor of the shop building, and is equipped with twelve downdraft forges, a power hammer, an emery grinder, a power press, and other small machines, beside full complements of small tools on racks for each forge.
A thorough course of instruction has been mapped out, and the students carefully study the exercises for which working drawings have been prepared. After completing the practice work, students are given practical training in the erection of wagons, carts, buggies, carriages, and other classes of vehicles, which are sent from time to time out into the Indian field and sold to the smaller schools, or to other purchasers. There is also a large amount of repair work, which gives the students necessary practice.
One of the rooms is used for horseshoeing, and thorough instruction and practical work is given for this work. The students are taught to make special shoes to overcome defects in feet; corns, contractions, etc. They are shown how to shoe so as to overcome interfering, stumbling, knee knocking, etc.
In addition to the work in making vehicles and shoeing, a course is given in tool making, tempering, etc. Every student is expected to make his own set of tools. The work which comes into the shop from the farms and from the other departments of the school gives to the students practical experience in their trades.
Bricklaying and Plastering
The Mason Shop occupies a large room, with granolithic floor, on the first floor of the shop building. It is equipped with booths especially erected for giving practice work in plastering. The students put the lathing on the frame partitions, and then plaster this in the various ways and with the various kinds of plaster used in actual work. These operations are continued, and the work is pulled down and re-erected, until a certain degree of proficiency is attained.
In the same way, the work in bricklaying is carried on from a graded course of blue prints. The students begin by laying up a plain wall, then different kinds of arches, chimneys, mantelpieces, quoins, etc., until both skill and speed are attained. When the student has thus far progressed, he is put to work on building construction, some of which is going on at all times on the school grounds. In addition to this instruction, the students of this department also learn how to lay granolithic floors.
Carpentry and Cabinetmaking
The Carpenter Shop occupies a large room on the first floor of the shop building, and is equipped with twelve double cabinet benches equipped with Tole’s quick action vises and with modern machinery for mill practice. This includes such machines as band saw, circular saw, joiner, planer, tenoning machine, mortising machine, molding machine, and a gang of lathes. All of this machinery is run by individual motors.
Every student is supplied with a complete set of hand tools, for which he has a place in his bench that can be locked, and for which he is responsible.
A complete series of exercises, carefully graded, has been prepared for the work in this shop. Thorough instruction is given in the use and care of tools, in the simple operations of carpentry, in the making of joints, and in their practical application to practical work. All the exercises have practical bearing on actual work, and theory and practice are so combined as to result in the greatest good to the student.
A course in Cabinetmaking is provided, and abundant opportunity is furnished in the making of furniture, so the student may learn his trade in a practical way. Instruction is given in the use and care of the various machines and in turning.
As the students carry on the repair work of the school property, and find real practice in the erection of new buildings, they are fitted to step into remunerative positions on the outside immediately after leaving school.
Carriage Trimming and Upholstering
A separate room is fitted up for instruction in this branch, which includes work with the needle and the sewing machine, and cutting, drafting, and trimming, with all the various materials used.
Students taking this work may also take the course in carriage painting, so that they are masters of both branches.
Harness Making
In a large, thoroughly equipped room, on the second floor of the shop building, instruction is given in harness making to a small number of students. This includes both the manufacture of new harness and the repair of old harness.
As the school manufactures harness for the smaller schools and reservation schools, and for the older Indians, thorough practice in actual work is provided. Students are not only given training in work harness, but in the manufacture of special kinds of harness, such as heavy harness for express purposes and the lighter harness for buggy and carriage horses.
Mechanical Drawing
A well lighted room on the second floor of the shop building, equipped with twenty-four individual drawing tables, models of various kinds, etc., is used for instruction in mechanical drawing.
Each student has a complete set of drawing instruments, and a thorough course is given to all the boys in the shops.
It is not the aim of this department to turn out designers or architects, although some students who are especially gifted follow this work after leaving the school, but it is believed that every trade student should have a working knowledge of the principles of mechanical drawing, so that he will be able to make a rough sketch or drawing of any object which he is to construct, and is further able to interpret a blue print or drawing when placed in his hands for execution. A mechanic who is able to do this is worth more than the one who is ignorant of this subject.
The instruction in this department is adapted to the special trades followed by the various students.
This room is also equipped with complete apparatus for making blue prints.
Painting
The instruction in painting is given in several large rooms on the second floor of the shop building. These rooms are thoroughly equipped for carrying on practical work and for giving instruction in all the details of the trade. There is a separate room for varnishing; and in the large room adjacent to it a number of booths have been erected and a section of a house built, so that students may get experience both at outside and indoor work.
The various booths which have been erected afford experience in painting and tinting different kinds of walls and include work in interior decoration. One of the booths is fitted up for instruction in paperhanging.
The course in painting is divided into two branches: house painting, including both exterior and interior work, and carriage painting. The preliminary work in house painting is given in the shop; and after students have had thorough training in mixing colors, use of the brush, etc., they are given the practical training which is afforded on the grounds. The fifty buildings which we have are repainted regularly and afford extensive experience for our students.
The students of house painting also receive instruction in lettering and in finishing furniture. Hundreds of pieces of furniture are finished each year, which afford practice and training in the technique of this work.
This school manufactures each year a large number of vehicles of different kinds, and those who desire to specialize in carriage painting receive practical training in all the different branches of this trade.
Both of these branches of painting are remunerative ones, and our students have no trouble in finding lucrative employment.
Photography
In the well equipped Photograph Gallery, a limited number of students are taught the theory and practice of this art, in the following order:
1. Lessons in Printing. The use of the different kinds of paper; printing out developing paper; and the proper mounting for different sized photos.
2. Developing and Toning. Treatment of printing out paper; caring for plates; and the use of dark room.
3. Retouching.
4. Use of Camera. Adjustment of screens and curtains. Taking of Portraits. Position of subject, pose, etc. Outdoor Work. Focusing; selecting object and perspective; length of exposure; etc.
By this time, the student has become a good operator, re-toucher, and all around photographer. During the various steps, he is taught the component parts of the chemicals used in developing.
Plumbing and Steamfitting
Instruction in plumbing is given both by a course of exercises in the shop and by the practical work afforded in the various building and repair operations carried on in connection with the upkeep of the school plant. It is aimed to make this instruction thorough.
Students of plumbing are also afforded the opportunity of thoroughly mastering the principles and practical work connected with steamfitting.
The shop is equipped with modern appliances and machinery.
Printing
The Printing Office occupies a separate building, 43×83 feet, which is devoted entirely to the work of this department. The building is one and one half stories high and is built of cream colored brick. The upper half story is used for storing stock, while the first floor is divided into a long composing room and press room, cutting and stitching room, business office and mailing room, wash room, etc.
Thorough instruction is given in composition and presswork.
The school publishes a weekly paper called The Carlisle Arrow, which is edited by the students, and a monthly publication, The Red Man; both of which are printed by the students in the printing department. In addition to these publications, a large amount of job work is done for the school and for the smaller schools and reservations in the West. The Indian Office at Washington also sends up, from time to time, job work for execution. I n this way, thoroughly practical experience is afforded to back up the preliminary instruction which is given to students.
This is one of the best equipped printing offices of its size in the state, and students who learn the trade of printing find no difficulty whatever in securing employment.
Shoemaking
A large, airy room, well lighted and ventilated, thoroughly equipped with sewing machines, stitchers, and other kinds of shoemaking machinery, affords instruction to a limited number of students in this trade.
The work in cobbling is thorough, and the large number of students’ shoes which are to be repaired each week furnish practical experience. In addition to the repairing work, instruction is given in making new shoes of various kinds. Students are instructed in drafting and cutting out the various parts and in assembling them, both by hand and by machinery.
Stationary Engineering
The school is heated and power furnished by four 150 horse power, Roney boilers, equipped with mechanical stokers. A limited number of students of robust health may here master the work of caring for boilers.
Several steam engines, together with a large number of individual motors, etc., afford training in this sort of outside work which the student may happen to be called on to perform when he takes employment on the outside.
All the details of pumps and boilers are mastered, both in theory and in practice.
Tailoring
A course in tailoring is provided in a shop which is complete in equipment and facilities. The student is given training in stitching of various kinds and in the repair of clothing. When he is proficient in these branches, he is given further training in the use of the needle and the sewing machine, and toward the end of his course is given instruction in one of the modern schools of cutting.
Practice work in abundance is supplied, because the students in this department make the uniforms for the cadets. In addition, a large amount of repair work is constantly done. There is also much work on civilians’ clothing. Instruction is also given in cleaning and pressing.
Timsmithing
The Tinsmith Shop is thoroughly equipped with hand tools and with machinery for carrying on the ordinary work brought into a shop of this kind, which includes the making of tin ware, the various kinds of cornice work, roofing, etc.
Tin ware has been manufactured for smaller schools in the service, and practical work in roofing and repairing is afforded on the grounds.
Only a limited number of students are admitted to this department.
Wheelwrighting
The Wheelwrighting Shop is equipped with cabinet benches, and each student is given a complete set of hand tools. In addition, a few small machines are provided of the kind which students are expected to find in outside practice.
A preliminary course is given in the use and care of tools; after which, the students are put to practical work in making the body and the woodwork for the vehicles manufactured in our shops. In addition, repair work is supplied, so that students not only become familiar with new work, but also with the large variety of repairs which every shop of this kind is constantly given.
The trade is learned systematically and thoroughly.
Girls Training
The girls receive training in cooking and serving in the students’ dining room and at the Teachers’ Club. However, the most practical part of the training in this branch is received in carefully selected homes under the Outing System, by means of which our girls enter families, becoming a part thereof, and receive all the care and training that a mother would ordinarily give to her own daughter. Our girls thus learn cooking, laundering and housekeeping in such a practical way as could never be taught them in any domestic science department, no matter how thoroughly or elaborately it might be equipped.
The Carlisle Indian girl is known far and wide for her proficiency in household arts, and her training is largely received under the beneficent influences of the Outing System.
Housekeeping
The girls receive careful training in the care and arrangement of their own rooms in their dormitories and the reception rooms in the various buildings, and further practical training is secured out under the Outing System.
Laundering
Instruction in laundering is carried on in a separate building which is equipped for work in steam laundering and for hand work. The building is large and well lighted and well ventilated, both by natural and by artificial means. The girls not only receive instruction in machine work, but a large amount of diversified training in washing, ironing, and dyeing by hand. They are carefully taught all the details of laundry work, including rinsing, bluing, starching, and the preparation of clothes for ironing. Fine ironing is also taught them.
Nursing
A limited number of girls are admitted to the hospital for training as nurses. The hospital is a large one, and the girls find abundant opportunity for extensive training in this very important branch. They are trained in cooking, in the care of the wards and the building in general, and how to care for the sick properly, including the dressing of wounds, etc. After completing the work in our school hospital, admission is gained for many of our girls into some of the best hospital training schools in the East. In this way, a large number of them become graduate nurses and hold their own in competition with the whites.
Sewing
A systematic course in mending and dressmaking is given to all girls. The sewing rooms are located on the second floor of the dining hall. They are large and airy, and are thoroughly equipped with sewing machines and other accessories of a dressmaking department.
The girls are taught first to darn and mend. They then proceed to plain sewing, in the making of such articles as towels, napkins, tablecloths, sheets, pillowcases, etc. As they progress, they are given more advanced work in general sewing, abundant practice being found in the manufacture of boys’ shirts and all of the various kinds of girls’ clothing, including the cutting and fitting of skirts, waists, plain uniform dresses, and the more complicated work incident to the making of evening dresses.