Re Imagining Education: What Would a Native Focus School Look Like by Alex Landwehr
A native focused school would take common core school subjects and integrate them into native subject education. I believe that to be truly native focused, a curriculum would have to place emphasis on heritage and cultural learning.
Relevant education is subjective, and a relevant skill set and repertoire of knowledge can look very different to a native person who spends their time immersed in culture on a reservation, than one for the majority of non-native students.
Language arts could be based around the art of storytelling, as well as a compare and contrast with other forms of linguistic expression worldwide.
Foreign language classes could be replaced with tribal language learning. Assuming that each school was situated on a reservation, the language offered could be the one(s) belonging to the local tribe(s). For students who's family might be from a different tribe, or who grew up with the language being taught as a first or second language, it could be arranged to learn another language. Using the internet to self teach or to find someone who can help could be arranged one-on-one with students and teachers.
History and civics classes could be mostly focused on native history and culture, learning about them both pre-colonization, and how they interacted with the American genocide.
An art elective could be centered around native styles of art, and creating and learning the history of them.
Math could remain pretty much the same, but there could be less emphasis placed on it in comparison to other subjects.
Of course, there could still be some world learning taking place, but it would be secondary to and usually in the context of native education.
Optimally, each reservation would have an elementary school, a middle school, a high school, and a college/university. Depending on the size and population count, some could have more than one. The goal would be to give everyone living on the reservation the viable option of attending a native based and focused school system, if they so pleased.
To be native focused, a school would have to be TRULY native focused, and stray from the standard USA education model, in favor of one with cultural emphasis.
By Alex Landwehr
Alex is a 17-year-old Menominee youth living in the Seattle area. He is a regular volunteer at Seattle Humane and serves on the leadership council of the Urban Native Education Alliance. He has advocated at the local and state level for improvements to adolescent mental health. Alex's hobbies include drawing and writing.
*Re-Imaging education is a project of the Seattle Clear Sky Native Youth council. The project worked with Native youth to re-think how education for Native youth could look like, adapt them with critical thinking skills, photo journalism skills and journalism skills. In partnership with Last Real Indians, we will be running a series on essays the youth wrote, edited and took photographs for.