What Is 11-Month-Old Child

Education has been a topic of controversy for many years now, and will continue to be for years to come. The modern American society is best defined by its education. A good part of the average person’s life is spent at school, going to school, and paying for school. However, even though education is so obviously very important, there are many groups in America that are getting shorted. The Native Americans are a key group that has struggled the most. The largest obstacle they face is lack of proper education. The standard educational practices being used for the instruction of Native American peoples are not effective. There are many pieces to this road-block, and many solutions. This can be rectified by having more culturally

“There’s a distinction between an education and school. Education is what Native people have been doing for their children since the beginning of time. School has been what has been imposed on people from outside” (Garland). This thought from Garland’s article “In remote Alaskan villages, teachers struggle to make school meaningful,” eloquently lays out how many Alaska natives regard the operation of collecting knowledge. Remarkably, Garland’s notion also offers great insight as to why the U.S. education system seems to fail Alaska natives altogether. It is this “distinction” (Garland), between education and school that seems to actively disconnect the ancestral cultural values of Alaska natives from the mainstream education system in this country. An impression of this broken connection appears in Kleinfeld’s The Teacher who Came to Rivertown. Here, Bob Perthall and his family move to Rivertown, Alaska, a remote village of 75 people. Accepting the position of teacher/principal, Perthall’s good intentions collide with subsistence, alcoholism, hardship, long-held customs and personal crisis. At schools end, the people of Rivertown finds no surprise in Perthall’s ending defeat. However, what really concerns us about the “teaching case,” is Perthall’s lack of preparedness for the students and culture of Rivertown, ultimately continuing the cycle of an ineffective school.

The way students are grouped in the classroom has changed seldom in America since its inception in the seventeenth-century. Students had an education system that worked like the following: children from a young age would go into a schoolhouse and learn mostly analytical subjects such as history, science, and literature. If the students passed their grade, they would then move up with their age group into the next grade. But should this system of education be the one people should be sending the next generation of adults into; some would argue “no.” If the student possess the ability to finish English I in the matter of seven months (from the academic year) rather than the normal nine months, why should he or she be held back from continuing and going into English II. The problem lies in capping the student’s academic potential and lowering the bar for these students. This is creating a generation of kids that are a carbon-copy of each other, helping the students that may not do so well in the classroom while neglecting the ones who are often doing better.

Education is an essential aspect in our ever-changing societies. It is used as a means of transmitting concepts, knowledge, and values, often to younger generations (Ravelli & Webber, 2010). Education and schooling differ in all societies, varying based on the methods of teaching of different cultural groups. For instance, Canadian Aboriginal people were taught based on the needs of their individual families and class. This greatly differed from the European system of education, which stressed adequate involvement with all of society. Though the Aboriginal manner of education was efficient and effective, the Europeans wanted to bring a change to their previous practices. As seen in the film, Education As We See It, European missionaries

Taking away Native American children’s language caused many challenges at home. Many children were confused, homesick, as well as resentful. Many of the children attending these boarding schools did not understand why their parents sent them to boarding school. For many it was because family members were, “sick then. He don’t want to take care of a little one so he pushed me to school” (Burich 5). Many children would not understand why they were being sent to these schools, especially since the schools were changing their worlds

26) ‘these influences are intrinsic to human development’ and even of Bronfenbrenner (1972, p. 51) ‘with respect to human development, neither factor can exert an influence without the other’.

In the speech On Colonizing Education, the Native Americans explain how their values differ from the white men. Despite this difference in lifestyle, values, and education the Indians were willing to send young men to American colleges and they hope that the white men send some of their young men to learn from the natives. The main appeal used is ethos with some utilization of logos.. For example, Chief Canasatego proposes that “Virginia shall send us a dozen of their sons” (1). This exchange appeals to the reasoning of the intended audience, Virginia, that sending their sons would be beneficial to learn the native culture similar to how native sons went to American colleges.

History class is not the only issue among students; the nation’s standardized test also leaves Native students behind their peers. Many questions are “Eurocentric and culturally bias” resulting in many students who have grown in a traditional customs unable to answer the questions (Robertson). Many school curricula does not build on the students strength of the student, it is only if the strength and skill is of the dominate culture that it will get attention (Landsman and Lewis 182).

The Native American children were educated at Carlisle in order to make a “better” transition into society for post-bellum America. Carlisle was located in Pennsylvania and was a reform school for Native American children. “Carlisle fills young Indians with the spirit of loyalty to the stars and stripes, and moves them out into your communities to show by their conduct and ability that the Indian is no different from the white or colored, that he has the inalienable right to liberty and opportunity that the white and the negro have (Paul Prucha 68).” The Native Americans didn’t have the liberty to live on their land as they were before the whites arrived; “By 1979, my people were no longer free, but were confined on reservations under the rule of agents (Standing Bear 69-71).” The Native American children such as Luther Standing Bear were taken from their families, land, and tradition to be reformed into a civilized American. Luther Standing Bear recalls his time at Carlisle; “The task before us was not only that of accepting new ideas and adopting new manners, but physical changes and discomfort had to be borne un complainingly until the body adjusted itself to new tastes and habits (Standing Bear 69-71).” The Native American children’s names, attire, religion, and diet were changed to that of the white Americans. “…the change in clothing, housing, food, and confinement combined with lonesomeness was too much, and in three years nearly one half of the children from the Plains were dead… (Standing Bear

The Carlisle Indian School in Carlisle, PA became the first boarding school for Native American children in 1879. Here deculturalization methods were employed. From this methodology and perspective, the patronizing term cultural deprivation has come to imply that a group is without culture altogether (Nieto and Bode, 2008, p. 176). One of the perceived deficiencies of Native Americans was their propensity to share which caused the European Americans to label them as socialists which was anathema to the dominant group’s philosophy. Richard Pratt, the founder of the Carlisle School, sought to instill individualism and self responsibility in order to break Indians from a socialist style of sharing.

Education is a wonderful asset to anyone. With a good one the sky is the limit, and without one opportunity may never come knocking. In today’s society, so much emphasis is put on education. How many times have we heard the saying “if you get a good education, you’ll get a good job and make a lot of money”? Even today, my parents remind me of how much a college degree would add to my marketability. But when does it become too much? Is it possible that one could overlook the more important values in life in search to become a “learned man”? In Richard Rodriguez’s story Challenging The Traditional Classroom he examines his life as a student, and the affects his learning has towards his attitude about family and heritage.

School and education was a big topic in Sherman Alexie’s, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, as the author reflects his personal life story into the protagonists’ story in the book. In the novel, Junior is a teenage kid who loves to read, but every time he goes to school in the Spokane reservation, he notices the poor education that is offered. From unmotivated teachers, to using the same textbook his own mother used to use, he knew he would end up like everyone else at the reservation, depressed, having low paying jobs, not motivated to make a change in the world. In order to be able to go to college, he knew he had to study at a high school outside of his reservation, because he would not have the education the college demanded if he stayed. During his years at the new high school away from his home, he missed a lot of school days due to funerals and ceremonies he had to attend back in his reservation. Even if Junior understood that, going to college might be difficult to do so if he was going to be attending the events at his reservation, he knew he was able to go to college from the education he gained at the new high school he attended. Similar to the article by Guillory and Wolverton, Junior, or Alexie, were able to attend college because of the high school transfer, which gained them higher quality education. Something not many Native American teenagers have the opportunity to do so, or the self-motivation, as they are still, more than likely, accepting

Education has been the subject of some of the most heated discussions in American history. It is a key point in political platforms. It has been subject to countless attempts at reform, most recently No Child Left Behind and Common Core. Ardent supporters of institutional schools say that schools provide access to quality education that will allow the youth of our country to gain necessary skills to succeed in life. Critics take a far more cynical view. The book Rereading America poses the question, “Does education empower us? Or does it stifle personal growth by squeezing us into prefabricated cultural molds?” The authors of this question miss a key distinction between education and schooling that leaves the answer far from clear-cut. While education empowers, the one-size-fits-all compulsory delivery system is stifling personal growth by squeezing us into prefabricated cultural molds.

Children were taken away from their homes and told everything they knew was wrong. They were sent to boarding schools to change their culture. These boarding schools were run by the United States government. The government's goal was to civilize Native Americans. They sent children to these schools against their will. Native American children were educated like Americans and they had to change their native ways to be more like whites (Cayton 266). Teachers abused their students and beat their native ways out of them. They were not allowed to see their families so they would try to escape, but their attempts were unsuccessful. The United States government’s Boarding Schools of the mid-late 1800s irreparably changed Native American culture.

Over a thousand years ago, two similar letters were written. The pieces were “Educating Sons” by Chief Canasatego and the other was “The First Americans” by The Grand Council. These two texts are similar in that they are both about education and they are both critical about the white men and their mentalities. However, “The First Americans” had stronger and better supported arguments.