Education
The curriculum included subjects such as English, math, history, drawing and composition. Carlisle students produced a variety of weekly and monthly newspapers and other publications that were considered part of their "industrial training," or preparing for work in the larger economy. These featured their artwork and writing. Angel DeCora (Ho-Chunk) was a Native American art teacher, who fostered cultural pride in her students. After many years of a program emphasizing assimilation into mainstream culture, Carlisle allowed Angel DeCora to teach students about Native American art and the students' tribal cultures.
Music was a part of the program, and many students studied instruments. After some time, the Carlisle School developed a band, which performed locally. The band was invited to perform in every national presidential inaugural celebration until the school closed.
Students also learned trade and work skills, such as artisan and domestic crafts, which were considered useful at the time. They were taught Christianity and expected to attend church, but had their choice among those in town. The school also had an outing program where the Indian children could go live with white families in the attempt to Americanize them. Pratt believed that the outing experience would help accelerate his students’ progress toward complete assimilation, one of his main goals. The outing system won praise from reformers and administrators alike, and it helped increase the public’s faith that Indians could be educated and as similated.
The industrial school movement was later criticized for training graduates for lower-class jobs. This argument also took place regarding the institutes established for freedmen's children. At the time, many founders and benefactors believed that such skills training provided practical steps for jobs which the students might realistically get after they returned to their families in home environments, whether Indian reservations in the rural West, or farms and villages in the rural South.
Read more about this topic: Carlisle Indian Industrial School
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