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This is taken from one of the
older annuals.
Chilocco is an incorrect
spelling of the Creek word meaning Cherokee. To a vast army of young
people, however, it has come to mean Opportunity. Ever since 1884 there
have been passing into its doors Indian girls and boys needing and looking
for training to fit them for the duties and obligations that henceforth must
be performed and assumed by them if they are to account at all to whose
natural equipment has been added some learning, some skill, some ideals, and
some courage.
The institution was
established and is maintained by the United States Government, not to
give its students anything but to loan them each a few
hundred dollar's worth of Board, Clothing, and Tuition. The tuition is in
the following lines:
Academic.-This
course is the equivalent of the usual High School Course but not the
same. Non-
essentials are eliminated and one half of each day is given to industrial
training and the other half to academic studies. All effort is directed
toward training Indian boys and girls for efficient and useful lives under
the conditions which they must meet after leaving school.
Vocational.-
Special stress is placed upon the courses in Agriculture and Home Economics
for these reasons:
1. The Indian has nine chances to earn a livelihood and establish a
permanent home in a congenial environment as a farmer to every one in any
other pursuit.
2. His capital is practically all in land, of which he must be
taught the value, and which is appreciated as of any considerable value only
when he has gained the skill and perseverance by means of which he can make
it highly productive.
Our large farm of
nearly 9,000 acres offers unusual facilities for giving practical
instruction in Farming and Stock raising, Gardening, Dairying, and
Horticulture.
The course in
Mechanical Arts offers Instruction in Printing, Engineering, Carpentry,
Blacksmithing, Masonry, Shoe and Harness Making and Painting.
The girls are
furnished instruction in every department of home making including Domestic
Science and Domestic Art and Nursing. Instruction in instrumental music is
provided for those who manifest talent for it. |
