Both of these articles discuss the issues of eradicating the culture and language of people of color by Anglo-Saxons. Both articles claim that one way of suppressing one's culture and language is through education. These acts of subversion took place through American history and were deliberate (not some 'happy' accident).
In this article Bollinger argues that the Indian Boarding School were barbaric, ineffective and simply a means of eradicating the indigenous people's culture, language, and traditions. This isn't the first time I have heard of these "schools", I knew that Native children where forced to go to these schools, cut their hair, and Anglicize their names. What I did learn, and was happy to hear that, "many parents refused to enroll students in schools". I do not blame those parents for rebelling. These schools were supposedly set in place to educate young children and prepare them for industrial America. But there is very little evidence that any real education took place. Many students spent the majority of there "school day" participating in military drills or some kind of child labor. These schools were very damaging to native children and there culture.
I'm not a history teacher, but I do talk about these boarding school with my ELLs when we do a Sherman Alexie unit. I think it is important for our current students to understand our country's history (even the shameful stuff!).
VICELAND has a series called RISE that focuses on Native Americans. One episode in the eight episode series focuses on these Indian Boarding Schools.
Hello Leah,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your blog on this topic. It is heartbreaking to see how todays educational policies are not much different. I especially love what you said "I think its important for our current students to understand our country's history (even the shameful stuff)" It is this kind of thinking that needs to be infused in all of our educators' minds!
The video was painful to watch. The women's chief did not burn the building down. These women are able to heal every time they visit. We cannot hide the bad parts of history. We need to face them head on. In yoga, there is a principle called tapas which means self discipline. Once we are able to feel the pain and go through the "burn," only then can we rise above it and become stronger than we were. The women do this as they make peace with their childhoods. Although our society has changed for the better in many ways, I often wonder how different we would be if we studied these parts of history and could grow from them. There is still a lot of hatred and prejudice in the US. We have not healed the wounds of Indian genocide and slavery.
ReplyDeleteLeah,
ReplyDeleteWhat struck me the most when I was reading your post was the emphasis on the fact that this deculturalization was happening through education. When I think of education, I usually think of a place where learning occurs for the betterment of ourselves. The education in the boarding schools was not this at all. To use education as a way to oppress a culture is disgusting. Education should never be negative!
The Viceland series is really good -- I recommend it to everyone. Thanks for posting the link, Leah.
ReplyDeleteIt's important to remember that deculturalization -- which linked white supremacy to education -- was about assimilating Indigenous people into dominant (white/anglo) culture in order to get their land. Land-grabs were at the heart of the process, driving it.
I also wonder how your emergent bilingual students experience deculturalization in today's schools/society (though not in your classroom!).