Educating Native Americans

It’s still hard for me to imagine with everything we know about how the brain works and how learning happens that we as a society would continue to perpetuate the model of public education we have today. I know there are pockets of people all over the country doing engaging, experiential, project and brain based learning activities. However the majority of the education that is taking place in this country is NOT education at all – but schooling.

Given the brain research and the knowledge that all people learn in their own unique ways, it is no wonder there are so many young people ‘failing’ this current system. It would be too simplistic on my part to suggest the solution is simply that many of those failing the system simply learn in a different manner and the educators working with them haven’t taken the time to find that style and work with it.

I just read an article about a conference held in South Dakota in which the topic/focus was strategies for teaching Native Americans. As one might imagine some people argued for a strict disciplined approach to academics while others argued for a more culturally sensitive approach.

I had been thinking a lot about educating native peoples – even before I read this article. My intuition has been that putting native people in a classroom, sitting them in rows, forcing them to sit still and then pushing content at them is just wrong. This ‘style’ or ‘method’ of teaching/learning does not take into consideration the cultural background let alone the learning style of the learners.

It appears to me that the way this subject (educating native people) is being approached is a perfect example of forcing a way of working (learning) onto people instead of designing a system that works for the people in it. I can imagine, if we really cared about the education of Native People, that we would design something completely different from what we see today.

Here is the article:

Varied Strategies Sought for Native American Students
Some focus on culture while others emphasize strict academic approach in raising achievement.
By Mary Ann Zehr – Rapid City, S.D.
Educators working to improve the performance of Native American students are struggling to find the right balance between core academics and attention to native culture as a way to help engage and motivate children, according to those at a multistate gathering on the topic here last week.

Improve, Change or Redesign Schools?