Report of the governor general of the Philippine Islands. [1908]

808 REPORT OF THE PHILIPPINE COMMISSION.
primary schools have concerned themselves with arts and industries native to
the population of the archipelago. The native arts are full of interest for the
educator, the ethnologist, the economist, or the lover of beautiful things. They
vary much from province to province and are frequently narrowly localized.
The objects sought are to preserve, diffuse, and perhaps perfect the practice
of such of these manufactures as particularly commend themselves for their
utility or beauty. These handicrafts are, and should remain, household industries in which all members of the family can participate during the spare
hours of the day when ordinary occupation can not be followed. Every agricultural family is possessed of considerable intervals between the seasons of
planting and harvest, when there is abundant leisure, and this leisure can well
be employed in the braiding of hats, the making of mats and bags, or the weaving of fabrics. It is very noticeable that communities now possessing these
arts are conspicuous for their industry and well-being. Instruction in one or
more of these native manufactures is given in nearly all primary schools during
the first three grades of the course. The standard of attainment set may be
judged from the following regulation: Industrial work designed to increase the
efficiency of pupils and prepare them for better making a living or a home
will be emphasized in this grade. This industrial work may vary according to
the locality,. but should in all cases be carefully prescribed by the division
superintendent and report made to the director of education thereon. It is
recommended that boys be taught to construct useful, even though rude, furniture and be practiced in the repair of fences, bridges, houses, and other buildings. For the girls, in addition to sewing and elementary domestic art, instruction should be given in domestic science, including housekeeping and cooking,
home nursing, and sanitation. Training in weaving cotton and other fabrics
on the upright loom is especially recommended for the girls of this grade.
The fourth year of the primary school is taking on a somewhat distinct character. All of the instruction given aims to prepare the young men and women
for useful life in the rural towns in which they reside. The language and
arithmetic work are based upon the industrial activities in which the pupils
are engaged, or in which they will be employed after leaving school. A series
of industrial leaflets takes up successively the ordinary activities of Filipino
communities. In arithmetic the work has to do with buying and selling, with
loans, commissions, with postal savings-bank accounts, homesteading land,
keeping simple books, and a variety of other useful and practical matters which
can be better judged by an examination of the primary arithmetic made for use
in this grade. Simple physical geography or elementary physics will be taught
and a variety of natural phenomena closely allied to everyday life will be
studied and explained, as well as ordinary mechanical devices and discoveries.
The plan also contemplates a semester's instruction in hygiene and sanitation
and of work by the boys in agriculture and special tool work, for keeping things
in repair; and by the girls of housekeeping, sewing, and loom weaving. A
special type of elementary industrial school is planned. These schools will
teach only the one year-Grade IV. They will take boys and girls from the
barrio schools of the town where they have had three elementary years of
instruction, and by one year of special instruction help to make good farmers,
tradesmen, or housewives in Filipino rural communities. Before such work
can be widely prosecuted there must be a special building provided with suitable grounds and land, and there must be specially trained Filipino teachers.
Current school revenues can not be spared to construct such school plants, but
it is believed that this type of school will be entitled to receive benefit from
the hoped-for congressional legislation setting aside for industrial schools the
receipts from the sales of the public domain. Something is already being done
to train the teachers. For the last two years training classes for just this
work have been conducted in connection with the provincial high school of
Pangasinan. Such teachers' courses are now about to be given in the Philippine Normal School and the Philippine School of Arts and Trades, and teachers
appointed under scholarships for a year of study will in many cases take these
courses. Many towns, which are seeking to obtain intermediate schools, would
do better to make provision instead for the establishment of one of these elementary industrial schools.