Cheryl Crazy Bull, president and CEO of the American Indian College Fund addressed the issues in school policies that negatively affect Native Americans’ educational outcomes. These policies focused on anglocentric norms instead of embracing cultural diversity of education. Native American students have some of the highest dropout rates in the country and are disciplined more often than their white peers- second only to black students. Barack and Michelle Obama launched an initiative called Generation Indigenous, which brings more resources to indigenous families.
Addressing the problem as a problem is the first step to making significant change. Michelle Obama stated, “Folks in Indian Country didn’t just wake up one day with addiction problems. Poverty and violence didn’t just randomly happen to the community. These issues are the result of a long history of systematic discrimination and abuse”. Schools with predominantly Native American minority students are often dilapidated and unsafe. Lack of adequate resources and safe, stable learning environments are proven to result in significantly lower literacy rates, yet misrepresentation of Native Americans leads less educated Americans to lean into stereotypes regarding their NA peers.
2 thoughts on “The Subtle Evolution of the Native American Education”
HI Milo
I enjoyed reading this discussion and learning the struggles of Native American struggles in education I personally did not know they had such a high dropout rate. and your discussion board has given me new information well done.
I enjoyed reading about the Native Americans and their struggles in education and what hey go through in their society.