Valdez daily prospector., 1915-10-25
NATIVE SCHOOLS DISCUSSED
 BY SUPT. w. c. BEATTIE.
(By Supt. w. G. Beattie. )

|
 (By Supt. w. G. Beattie.)
 l In Alaska the school service is subordinate to the United States Bu- reau of Education and has under its charge only schools for natives. That is, the descendants of the aboriginal peoples of Alaska.
 F The work done in these schools is of a practical character. Sewing, cooking, and general home keeping for the girls and useful hand work in wood and metal for boys are applied and emphasized as rapidly as equip ment and conditions will permit. Stress is also laid upon elementary English subjects, for the natives must learn to speak, read and write En- glish, since they are compelled by force of circumstances to deal with English speaking people. It is also obvious that they should learn prac- tical work in numbers. Not only are there provisions and clothing to be purchased, but fish are to be counted and their value reckoned; there are boats and houses to be built and re- paired, and an ever increasing num- Der of problems to solve as these people are thrown more and more into the difficulties of the complex civilization of the whites.
 The work is conducted for the ben eft of the adult as well as children. The development of native industries is encouraged, principles of personal hygiene and village sanitation are taught, and their value to the indi- vidual, family and community are constantly set before the people. Ill fact, as far as possible, the schools are endeavoring to promote the men, tai, moral, physical and industrial welfare of the Alaska natives.
 The special aim of these schools is to train the child to think, to pre- pare to make a living for himself, to understand his environment as far as possible and to become skillful factor in the betterment of that envi- ronment. In brief it is to give to the children increased powers and to train them to apply such powers to- wards the development and enrich ment of the life of their own commu- mites.
 The first school was established a third of century ago. The progress seems slow when measured by stan- dards of schools among peoples who have flowing through their veins cen turies of civilization and education and culture, but rapid, indeed, when it is realized that the work has been in progress for less than generation among people who had no means of communication but the spoken word of a meagre language and whose veins were sluggish with an econom- ic and sociM system and religion so foreign to that which has been thrust upon them since Alaska became a part or the UnlteQ states.
 Today there are about eighty na- tive schools with total of more than twenty-five thousand natives in Alaska. Probably twenty thousand of these live along the coast in will lages from two hundred to five hun dred population, from Metlahaktla on the southeast, approximately 55 de grees north latitude, 131 degrees west longitude, to Atka on the south west, latitude 52, longitude 174, and to Point Barrow-the northernmost school in the world-on the Arctic coast, latitude Fl degrees, longitude 154. The remainder are scattered through the river valleys of the in- terior of the Territory. Nearly four thousand pupils have enrolled iii these schools but the average attend ance is far below this, due to various local conditions and the fact that mrny of the natives do not realize the value of sending their children to school regularly. The attendance in some places has risen in the past four years from 35 per cent to 40 per cent of the enrolment to an average of |. aid 75 per cent.
 Thus slowly but surely the native is Ieing brought to realize the need of Hitting himself for the new condl- ti Us of life that are rapidly sur rounding him as the white population of Alaska increases and changes his old environment.
 Frank Watson, general agent of the Admiral Steamship company is in fhn {nf cfc nf