Common Ground

Indian education for all

Assessing the year after big changes in Montana’s public school curriculum

Child at Arlee Pow Wow. Photo by Alice Tejkalová.

By Israel Tockman and Alice Tejkalová 
Prague 2007: Common Ground

According to a 1998 Montana history textbook, “The death of the American Indian culture took less than 30 years after its 9,000 years of building.”  Mike Jetty, director of curriculum for the Indian Education Department with Montana’s Office of Public Instruction (OPI), finds a lot to disagree with in that statement.

Not only have Indians lived on the North American continent for longer than 9,000 years, but their varied cultures are still alive, said Jetty. “There was no bad-intention” on the authors’ parts, he said, but the statement is rather an expression of ignorance.

Tribal education supports skills of Indian students

In Browning and on the Flathead, tribal schools are getting results

Symbol of Salish Kootenai College. Photo by Alice Tejkalová.

By Israel Tockman and Alice Tejkalová 
Prague 2007: Common Ground

According to research done in 2003, only 52 percent of Native American girls and less than 50 percent of boys finish high school in the United States. There are various reasons for such a high dropout rate.  Language immersion elementary schools and tribal colleges may help more American Indian students to succeed.  Both types of schools are designed according to the needs of Indian students, with understanding for their cultural backgrounds and differences.

Children who attend Nizipuhwahsin Center in Browning run by the Blackfeet poet, Harvard graduate and Vietnam veteran Darrell Kipp have better chances to succeed in high schools and then at university than their peers from public schools. Their education is based on a language immersion program. That means in grades K-8, all of their studies are conducted in the Blackfeet language.

The Home Schooling Alternative

Home schooling offers flexibility, but some worry there’s not enough oversight

Homeschooled children. Photo by Alice Tejkalová.

By Israel Tockman and Alice Tejkalová 
Prague 2007: Common Ground

Shelley Schenderline decided to home school her two daughters after seeing how they were treated at the public elementary school in Harrison, Montana.  “They were the only Natives,” she said.  “They had a lot of discrimination both from students and teachers.”  Schenderline added that other students often pulled her daughters’ hair.

If you ask two families why they home school, you’ll most likely get two different answers.  Some, like Suzi Schrock, decide to home school because their children have trouble with the pace or format of public school curricula.  Shrock’s oldest daughter had trouble focusing in school.  “She’d come home feeling stupid: ‘I’m never going to learn anything.  I’m always behind,’” said Schrock.  Some parents want more personal involvement in the content of their children’s education.    Others want to protect their children from the negative experiences they had in school.

Interview: Joyce Silverthorne

Prejudice is an equal opportunity problem

Joyce Silverthorne. Photo by Alice Tejkalová.

By Israel Tockman and Alice Tejkalová
Prague 2007: Common Ground

Joyce Silverthorne has been the head of the Tribal Education Department of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai tribes for 10 years.  She spoke about the history and current status of Indian Education For All, American Indian achievement gaps, the public school system and discrimination.

Who was involved in getting recognition of American Indian education to be part of the language in the Montana constitution in 1972? Were you a part of that?

No. There were no Indians at the Constitutional Convention. This was decided by non-Indian people who realized that Indian studies had not been a part of their history [in school]. Legislators have needed to know this for a long time because when they get elected they have from the first week of November until January when they take office to suddenly learn everything about tribes, reservations, land, minerals, water. There is the treaty sovereignty and as legislators they have to understand how those interact with what they’re doing.  There were legislators who realized that it was important to have this knowledge.

Stepping out of the cycle

For inmate Adam Ledeau, a rocky childhood led to problems down the road

Adam Ledeau. Photo by Alice Tejkalová.

By Israel Tockman and Alice Tejkalová 
Prague 2007: Common Ground

Adam Ledeau has very sad, uncertain but friendly brown eyes. He has been incarcerated in Montana State Prison at Deer Lodge for five years. In September he should be free on parole. Ledeau is 37 years old, half Little Shell Chippewa and originally from Great Falls. Both his grandfather and father were alcoholics. The father left the family when Ledeau was about 12 years old. “There was a lot of abuse in our family, even sexual,” said Ledeau a bit hesitantly. “I ran away from home a lot because nobody believed me that I was abused.”

He attended public schools and had big troubles there. Ledeau gave two examples of discrimination: “White children didn’t want to play with us because the parents were worried that they could catch some kind of disease from us. In the gymnasium, white kids had never had lockers next to us. I’m left handed and we had a teacher who used to slap us with a ruler, whenever we started to write by this hand. We also weren’t allowed to wear moccasins to school.” Memories of nice teachers are not frequent, but Ledeau met one who fully accepted his Indian identity and tried to help him. However, he dropped out of school in the 10th grade.

An educational morass

The success of Roma students depends on parental support and teacher sensitivity

Kids in DomeËek. Photo by Alice Tejkalová.

By Alice Tejkalová and Israel Tockman
Prague 2007: Common Ground

There is a debate in the Czech Republic about whether the school system discriminates against Roma children. Charges of Roma kids being arbitrarily placed in special schools for the “mentally retarded” are countered with suggestions that Roma parents are not doing their part to make sure their children get a good education. In truth, more Roma children can be found in practical and special elementary schools than in regular elementary schools.

In the Czech Republic every child must have nine years of primary education before moving on to higher education. It is a punishable crime for parents not to send their children to school.  When a child starts having trouble learning and gets a few Fs on his report card, he might be placed in a practical or special elementary school, depending on the level of his learning disability. Special schools are for kids who usually have developmental disabilities.  Practical schools are for those who are just behind their classmates in the regular elementary schools.

‘Microphones Don’t Talk’

Visiting schools in the Czech Republic

By Israel Tockman
Prague 2007: Common Ground

The voices of students and the sounds of skis slapping the floor mingled in the gymnasium at Prague’s Practical Basic School on Vinohradská Street. A group of children clad in winter trekking gear shuffled about at the foot of a small stage. The kids were rehearsing for a performance of “The Voyage to the North Pole,” “written” by the invented Czech playwright Jára Cimrman. The drama teacher directed half of the kids to pretend to be microphones so that the actors could get comfortable using them and she arranged the group into two rows that faced each other. “Microphones don’t talk,” she said when the children began to chatter back-and-forth.

The bell rang and most of the kids disappeared. We were treated to a short concert by a Roma girl who sang “Killing Me Softly” by the Fugees while accompanied by a teacher with a guitar.  Her fine voice filled the room as she tapped her foot along with the tune.  Zuzana Fořtová, the school’s vice principal, said that the girl had missed a lot of school over the last year because of problems at home.

Interview: TV reporter Richard Samko

“Skinheads didn’t know what to say to a Roma journalist”

Richard Samko. Photo: Czech Television.

By Alice Tejkalová and Israel Tockman
Prague 2007: Common Ground

Richard Samko (29) has worked for Czech Television (the largest non-private Czech TV station) for almost 8 years. He started there as a writer of small news pieces and has managed to become a respected reporter and the second Roma anchor in the history of Czech TV.  He spoke to us about his childhood in Náchod, preparation for graduation exams, his nephews and about covering skinhead meetings for Czech TV.

What were your first few years of school like?

I’m from Náchod, a town 150 km from Prague near the Polish border. For four years I attended a small elementary school, and it was very good. There were just three Roma students – me, my brother and another child.  I’m from a traditional Roma family.  My father has nine siblings and my mom has eight. But I grew up in a block of flats among “gádžos” (Roma term for non-Roma people) and I had two siblings – a brother and a sister. My father separated a bit from his family. He built us a block of flats with another man. He didn’t want to live with his whole family in the center of Náchod. So we lived in that block of flats among “gádžos.“ I only lived there till I was 15. At school I had no trouble. Sometimes kids laughed at me because of the color of my skin, but there weren’t serious racial problems.