Chapter 1: Civilization
During the seventeenth century there were cultural conflicts which were more complex and devastatingly one sided between the Indians and the whites. The whites were superior technologically, and were very ethnocentric.
The threat that the white man imposed on the Indians came in the form of diseases, the influence of the missionaries, locomotives, and eventually the introduction of schools. Education history can be traced from the origins of civilization that was mainly carried out by missionaries but it was challenging due to lack of resources, and the presence of land hungry, Indian hating frontiersmen, and the assumption that once the Indian students are civilized they would produce disappointing results to the whites.
After the civil war, a new phase of a policymaking emerged among the Indians. The policy included an expansion of federal support for education programs and an appointment of eminent philanthropists to administer the Indian policy (Adams 5). The journey to new reforms led to conclusions that the Indian culture could easily be adapted to the American life.
Later, a new reform organization emerged, the Indian Rights Association, which was to secure the civilization of Indians in the US and prepare for the population assimilation with the American culture. The association later supported educational programs. The first priority of education was to provide an Indian child with the rudiments of an academic education including the ability to read, write and speak English in order to acculturate them into America life and institutions.
The focus was on the education of the Indian girls perceived to be crucial to long-term business of cultural changes. Beyond the language instructions, the Indian schools were to introduce the Indian child into all the branches of civilized knowledge including arithmetic, science, history and arts. The main aims of education were;
- To teach the Indians civilization.
- To cut costs of feeding and clothing Indians, and that it was less expensive to educate the Indians than to kill them.
- To facilitate individualization among the Indians
- To convert Indians to Christianity
- To provide citizenship training to the Indians.
Chapter 2: Models
The initial education models included an elemental approach, which was the reservation of the day school that served as educational outposts of civilization (Adams, 28). Most attention was given to language instruction, later there were reading and writing. The day school approach had many merits; it was cheap to operate and seemed to produce the least opposition. The day school advocated for the reversal of the traditional educational design in the relationships that existed between the parents and children.
The reservation boarding schools were seen as the best method of education. The major advantage of the boarding school was that it established greater institutional control over the lives of the Indian children. Moreover, it removed the potential for serving an uplifting authority on parents. However, boarding schools later faced criticisms because they lacked sufficient influence on the minds of children.
Children were still not sufficiently barred from the degrading influence of the tribal life. The boarding schools provided children with an opportunity to be civilized. Later, there was a vision of creating a prototype of a third approach to the Indian school system, known as the off reservation boarding school because it favored the rapid and absolute assimilation of the Indians to the American way of life.
Chapter 3: Systems
The rapid growth of schools led to difficulties in coming up with a genuine education system. There was a minimal relationship between the various types of schools and no standard policy in the manner in which children were to be recruited in the schools. However, the need for a school system was influenced by the rapid increase of the educational program.
A school system would promote a smooth running and an efficient system of the Indian schools. Reformers envisioned a three-tiered system whereby the two lower institutions became feeders for the level directly above them. The system required a spread across the three institutions. Focusing on the primary grades, the new outline of studies emphasized on
- Language skills
- Academic subject matter
- Moral training
- Industrial training
The new course study deviated from the original plan because the primary curriculum that was originally considered to be equivalent to six years of white schooling was now spread over an eight span for Indian schools. The curriculum was to be divided into four levels;
- Day school
- Primary school
- Grammar school
- High school
All these required a standard curriculum (Adams 68). The second issue was that attending schools was compulsory. Availability of educational facilities and the nature of assorting students for the various types of schools influenced education enrollment. This led to the creation of a more efficient method of recruiting students. Financial constraints became an impediment in establishing a greater systemization; hence, causing specification of rules and regulations for field operations.
Other reforms in education system included the elimination of the position of a school’s agent to a school superintendent. There was also a desire to create machinery for managing and monitoring the growing educational bureaucracy. An inspection report was at the centre of the inspection system. Thus, the reformers had hopes to create a genuine education system.
Works Cited
Adams, W., David. Education for Extinction: American Indian and the Boarding School Experience, 1875-1928. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1995. Print.