Native American Blog on Just About Everything

The real thoughts and philosophies of a Lakota educator after 20 years in the trenches... By Lynne Colombe I consider myself a survivor of the Reservation education system because somehow, even though most statistics to date purport that the Native American child is years behind his non-Native counterparts across the United States, I managed to score in the top percentiles of any test I ever took as a child, on and off the Rosebud Reservation. Therefore, when students grow into their high school years and ask me for my personal advice on what to do in high school to prepare for college; if the student is one living on the Reservation, for years I have only been able to offer the advice, “Teach yourself.” I realize that my response is an apathetic one; reflecting my preference for the education I received off-Reservation in Apple Valley, MN during my freshman and sophomore years in high school, to the indifference of my junior and senior years at the Todd County H...

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 ...