CXXII  REPORT OF INDIAN SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT. 
 
be held responsible for the care of the school property, for the efficiency

of the employe's under him, and for the condition of the school. Every 
candidate for the position of superintendent of an independent school 
should be required to furnish proof of good character and to pass a 
prescribed examination as to his qualifications for the place. 
It would be unwise to take a school located at an agency from the su- 
pervision of the agent without his consent; but all boarding-schools 
located at long distances from agencies should be made independent 
schools without unnecessary delay. By acting on this suggestion the 
Government would give to the schools that do not now re ceive attention 
from the agents superintendents who would have every incentive possi- 
ble to increase the membership of the schools, and also to increase the 
efficiency of the schools as educational institutions and their usefulness

as instruments in the accomplishment of Indian civilization. 
SCHOOL TEXT-BOOKS PREPARED BY THE GOVERNMENT SUGGESTED. 
Under the present system the agent is in effect the superintendent of 
all the Government schools of his agency, and he and his teachers adopt 
their own school methods. The consequence is, that there is no uni- 
formity in the methods of instruction in Indian schools. Each school 
is, in all matters relating to the work to be done by it, a law unto itself.

As a result of this absence of uniformity of methods of instruction, the

school text-books of nearly every school-book publisher in the United 
States are purchased by the Government for use in Indian schools. 
Thirteen kinds of arithmetics are used; eleven kinds of geographies; 
eleven kinds of grammars; nine kinds of primers; fourteen kinds of 
first readers; fifteen kinds of second readers; thirteen kinds of third 
readers; twelve kinds of fourth readers; six kinds of fifth readers; 
twelve kinds of spellers. Many of these text-books are unfit for use in 
an Indian school, and none of the primers, readers, or histories are par-

ticularly adapted to Indian school purposes. 
An Indian school cannot be effectively taught in precisely the same 
way that a white school is taught, and the text-books that are used in 
white schools cannot be used to as good advantage in Indian schools as 
could be text-books especially prepared for such schools. Therefore, it 
is suggested that a set of text-books for Indian schools should be pre- 
pared by the Government, and that the printing of them should be done 
at the Government Printing Office.1 
tUpon the subject of text-books for Indian schools prepared by the Government,

S. C. Armstrong, superintendent of the Hampton school, says: 
HAMPTON NORMAL AND AGRICULTURAL INSTITUTION, 
llanipton, Va., October 22,1885. 
Mr. OBERLY, Superintendent Indian Schools: 
DEAR SIR: Since the Mohonk meeting, where I opposed your idea of making a
set 
of Government text-books for Indians, I have discussed the matter with the
teachers