Jun 1, 2016 - Traditional Indigenous Style Education by Damon Corrie

Here below are some photos from a educational workshop the Caribbean Amerindian Development Organization (CADO) sponsored in an Embera Tribal Village in collaboration with one of the most famous Kuna Chefs in Panama – Senor Stanley – which closely mirrored the traditional educational modality in most Indigenous societies that I described below…. and it was a resounding success….we shall do it again in the coming weeks with our Kuna allies once again.

I have also seen Amerindian children in traditional communities thoroughly enjoying the very laid back and flexible traditional educational modality…where no child is physically or verbally punished for arriving late – just politely told “You may have missed something so you may have to stay a bit later than the others so you learn what you missed”…..and I saw these children laying on the floor in a very relaxed state listening to their teachers and writing notes in their books, and the correct way they answered every question the teachers asked them demonstrated that they were UNDERSTANDING what they were being taught …NOT the regimented way we force children to learn in so-called ‘civilized’ countries – on hard chairs or benches with back erect and the children arranged in martial style rows of ‘conformity’.

These Amerindian children in more traditional societies are being taught about loving themselves, their tribes, their environment – and all their fellow different life-forms in it, and they are being taught how to LIVE by a code of honourable conduct that admonishes them to put the higher good of the people collectively OVER their own personal interests – and this leads to harmonious societies united in a deeper love and understanding for life – and each other – than any western educated child will ever learn in school.

If the child is HAPPY to go to school and is LEARNING BETTER in some OTHER way (such as this indigenous example) – why not try this approach? Why the inflexible attitude of ‘This is the way it MUST be done’ almost religious devotion to someone else’s dogma for a micro-managed ‘educational system’ – that teaches our children to be obedient WORKERS in the Social Corporate beehives!

by Damon Corrie

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