Ke Alahou, Volume I, Number 4, 1 February 1980 — the Native Voice [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

the Native Voice

fficial organ ofTheNative BrotherhQod o/B.C.

Helping Native Indians by the late George N. Wilson B.E.D. (from the "Natiye Voice")

GeorgeWilson, who died in March, 1974, was orn into the Bella Bella Tribe of the Northern wakiutl Indians in 1940. After high school *aduation he tried commercial fishing and em'oyment in a fish-packing plant, but in 1960 irolled in the University of Victoria. He taught Prince Rupert and Prince George and became i elementary principaL In 1971 he joined the epartmenl of Education as a curriculum eoniltant on Indian Education. īn 1973 he ,became irector of lndian Educafion. This article was ritten io encourage other concerned teachers ith the knowledge that they now had support. The appoinimenl of a Director of Indian lucation has some important implications. It implies that an equal education for the iequal, particularly in predominantly white hools as opposed to schools for Indians operated i the chufches or the Federal Government, is no nger considered good enough. It recognizes a iecial need. Secondly, it implies thāt native dians must be involved in the decision-making ocesses in the educational system. lt recogzes the fact that the Indian people must be given edibility. lam often asked: Why is there such a thing as dian education? After all, we don't have Italian ucation or Chinese education." The simplest swer is perhaps that it eame about through a ppenstance of la w whieh placed Indian Affairs ■der the jurisdiction of the Federal Government d education under the jurisdiction of the prov:es. For the Indian people of Canada to receive education beyond Grade VII, the Federai )vernment must mpke a contractual arrangemt with the provinces to educate the young dian children, and this has resulted, in British »lumbia, in perhaps 80 per cent of all school age dians being enrolled iil the Provincial schools. us the desirability of integration has become academic question. That there is a special need in the field of

Indian educatiō"n is a fair assumption in view of the alarming statistics on the dropout situation of Indian students. Some 94 per cent of all Indians enrolled in the public schools do not complete Grade VII. The average grade-level attainment of status registered Indians is 8.15 and that of the non-status Indians 7.17. With the great emphasis : 4atr:-soeii6ty' : --pfeces---oil edupatiqn in terms of its potentiai tō develop prodūcTfve citijze?ns of Canada, this dropout rate is both sigoificant and alarming. The dropout process begins early. As every experienced teacher is aware, nalive, children - generally laek the background necessary lo.eope even with the primary grades, where the pattern; of failure and the repetition of grades (sometimes as often as three times] begins, What ean be done to break the pattern,of failure, frustration, and despair? First of all I believe that school districts should take the initiative in UTging the Indian people and the Department of Indian Affairs to start pre-schoolclasses, or nursery schools for Indian children. This is vital, almost as vital as the first eight months of the children's lives. It would introduce them to more regularity of habit than they have been accustomed to, and to a learning style. It would be a readiness program for the kindergartens whieh now must be available off the reserves. Indianparents with a child who has hadboth preschool training and kindergarten may be assured that in either puhlie or parochial school the chiid has a reasonable ehanee to succeed. - . Thus would eome about, to some extent at least, a degree of equal opportunity for the unequal that I mentioned at the outset. It brings me to my next point, that the Indian p_eople are not represented adequately in the decision-making processes of education. As it is 4 Indian people are as a whole, poor. The poor do not often hold property. Generally they do not vote on referendums and, as a result, feel that the school system is not the(irs to interfere with. They ean

only hope that their children will somehow learn something from a system that is not within their control. This should be changed. These are citizens of the Province and havQ. as mueh at stake in the resources of the land, that help pay the cost of education, as their ngn-Indian counterparts. The participation should not stop at referendums no.w at representation on scho£l boards. Where there is an appreciable number of Indian students in a school or district, eftorts should be made by school officials to : establish a mueh needed Indian presence in dignified jobs. This wpuld reinforce measures already taken to make the Indian people feel that the schools are theirs, too, and that they have every right to perform all functions, from school board representation to employment in, thg schools as janitors,* secretaries, teachers, or principals. District should provide in-service training for Indian and white teachers that would encourage the understanding of cultural differences, dispelling the stereotypes of Indians through a greater awareness of eaeh other as people, Those cultural differences, or the stereotypes f are the cause of many breakdowns in eommunication and account for many drop-outs. My suggestion to white teachers with a few Indian children in a predominately white class is to deal with them as human beings, not as Indian beings. Forget, at this stage of the.game, their background and the colour of their skin ; \Vhether they are average students orabove orbelow, deal with them precisely as you eki with otherpupils. That s what they want and need. After all, they have similar desires, similar ambitions, similar sensitivities. They are human. When a white and brown toddler play together they are uncōnscious of any difference between them. That's the way it should be between teacher and pupil in school, whatever the qolour of either.