This might be a bit too heavy for a Friday night, and I might be too tired to do it justice, but I'm going to try anyway.
It's easy to look back on the late 19th and early 20th centuries and see the role that education played in supporting and promoting European imperialism around the world. Missionaries "educated" indigenous cultures about European values and religions, supplanting the values and traditions of the people and thus impressing the idea that European ideas and peoples were better than those of other peoples. Meanwhile, in their home countries, these imperialistic nations focused on indoctrinating their own children in the concepts of nationalism and exceptionalism, justifying the erosion of other cultures and the exploitation of other people and their resources.
Recently, the tragedy of Canada's boarder school education system for native children received a great deal of attention. Similarly, the United States had an educational policy to "Kill the Indian in him, and save the man." The results were predictably disastrous. However, even though the boarding school programs have been almost completely dismantled, the underlying idea is still there.
Let's take Alaska as an example. Even with strong native corporations who still hold considerable political power, Alaska's educational curriculum (as loose as it often is) holds many of those imperialistic ideologies at its core. The curriculum does not call for teaching students any of the languages native to Alaska. Instead, it holds standards for thirteen years of English development. Even in the villages, students are not taught in their native languages. By its very nature, the state and its educational system indicate that English is better than the language spoken in their homes. Nor do the "language arts" give equal credence to Native Alaskan stories or native methods of story-teller; however, it certainly provides plenty of focus on white (and usually male) authors and their stories. Don't worry; student do get one entire semester for Alaska history--which has a predominant focus on the times after European contact.
Of course this is how it is done, right? How will these young people succeed in the world if they don't learn English? Don't we have an obligation to teach them "modern" ways of doing things so they can survive in our materialistic culture? ... To me, it's no wonder that so many Native Alaskans are struggling with identity, with depression, with substance abuse and suicide. Our system is still trying to "Kill the Indian" within.
It's easy to look back on the late 19th and early 20th centuries and see the role that education played in supporting and promoting European imperialism around the world. Missionaries "educated" indigenous cultures about European values and religions, supplanting the values and traditions of the people and thus impressing the idea that European ideas and peoples were better than those of other peoples. Meanwhile, in their home countries, these imperialistic nations focused on indoctrinating their own children in the concepts of nationalism and exceptionalism, justifying the erosion of other cultures and the exploitation of other people and their resources.
Recently, the tragedy of Canada's boarder school education system for native children received a great deal of attention. Similarly, the United States had an educational policy to "Kill the Indian in him, and save the man." The results were predictably disastrous. However, even though the boarding school programs have been almost completely dismantled, the underlying idea is still there.
Let's take Alaska as an example. Even with strong native corporations who still hold considerable political power, Alaska's educational curriculum (as loose as it often is) holds many of those imperialistic ideologies at its core. The curriculum does not call for teaching students any of the languages native to Alaska. Instead, it holds standards for thirteen years of English development. Even in the villages, students are not taught in their native languages. By its very nature, the state and its educational system indicate that English is better than the language spoken in their homes. Nor do the "language arts" give equal credence to Native Alaskan stories or native methods of story-teller; however, it certainly provides plenty of focus on white (and usually male) authors and their stories. Don't worry; student do get one entire semester for Alaska history--which has a predominant focus on the times after European contact.
Of course this is how it is done, right? How will these young people succeed in the world if they don't learn English? Don't we have an obligation to teach them "modern" ways of doing things so they can survive in our materialistic culture? ... To me, it's no wonder that so many Native Alaskans are struggling with identity, with depression, with substance abuse and suicide. Our system is still trying to "Kill the Indian" within.
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