The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-02-04

1 TTrcle Sam has given the people this new l tongue and it is the United States Eng l fish.
 Filipino Schools
 1 It is necessary to understand the aboNe | conditions to know what we are dolhe
 in educating the islands. My information
 comes from letters and reports just re- eeived by the bureau of insular affairs oi
 the war department, and from talks with Gen. Clarence Edwards and from officers
 who have recently returned from the Philippines.
 The story is one of live progress. We are establishing schools everywhere and that on ehs American plan. Many haze
 been instituted among the wild tribes, ana
 the Igorrotes. the Bagobas and the flu
 gaos have schools Of their own. Some of the wild boys learn their lessons sit ting on the floor of their matched school houses, clad in little more than gee string. Tine Igorrote schoolboys wear caps and jackets and gee strings, but the little ones speak English and they are acting as interpreters for their fathers en- gagged in the government works We are even educating some of the Negritos, the children of our cave dwelling pygmies. and our education of the Filipinos them selves is going on everywhere.
 As it is now we have altogether about sa0,OOO children on the school rolls. This is for one year, the monthly average be- ing considerably less on account Of tie many absentees during a part of the time.
 The New School Buildings New schot. buildings are going up throughout the archipelago and sl,O0o01 will be spest for those erected for pr- mary scholars this year. The school houses of the Spaniards were long. low ltlfldipue of one uyffb walls and roof of tiles thatch. The floor V as the ground, and the windows wer7 CT wooden lars. Many of the new buil- ings are of reinforced concrete. and njt a-few have two stories. The roofs are Q! hon. Some of these buildings are after pans drawn by the students at Manila They are made on the unit system so tha; rooms can he added Gs the school grows II Is said that many of the school houses now going up in the country dis trlcts are superior to the same class in the United States. In many out of the way places there are school rooms still walled with bamboo and roofed with thatch All are built to suit tropical needs. Very few of them have glass win
 dows, and all are well up from the ground and light and airy Many of these school buildings have playgrounds. and others have gardens and ornamental lawn plots which are kept by the children. Some have baseball and football grounds, and the trade schools
 where carried on along industrial lines have shops of various kinds
 Industrial Education
 The most interesting feature of this educational movement is that it is every where carried on along industrial lines The little Filpinos are being educated
 not to become lawyers, orators or clerks.
 but actual working members of an indus trial nation. They are taught the dignity of work. and even the children of well t5 do families and of the rich now go into
 manual training and work on the farms and in the school gardens.
 The manual training begins with the
 primary grades and runs through the
 whole course, the children specializing.
 if they wish as to what they shall do. At the present time there are 3s1,OO0 boys and girls who are thus engaged in learn ing some kind of industry which will en- able them to live independently when their school years are closed. In the primary grades. which include children up to 10 years of age. they spend from one-half to three-quartcrs of an hour a day in industrial work. The little ones learn the hand weaving of the native