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Showing posts with the label Historical Trauma

Indian Education: Old Tricks in a New Era

I came from a different school of thought each time I embarked on a teaching job with Native American students in a State-run school.  I never seemed to fit the structure of the school, or the expectations of the top administration.  I saw the status quo floating all the while above the state-run educational system and I felt powerless to impact or change it. As a child, I was very bored in reservation schools.  I became a teacher in first grade, and being one of the best readers, I was given the task of spelling-test-giver-outer to the lowest reading group.  I bought stickers for my "students" one day in the grocery store for the ones who got were to get a "100%" the next Friday, and took these to school.  I showed them to the teacher, more for the go-ahead, and she responded: "You will make a very good teacher some day." I was angry.  I didn't want to be a teacher at six-years-old.  I wanted to be a "dinosaur scientist." I grew up in ...