The Importance Of Native Americans In Public Schools

Improved Essays
“Excellence in education requires equity, not elitism” -Pasi Sahlberg (“Blogger” 1). Equity among students will be one thing children obtain from their educators as they mature. However, children are being treated unfairly all because of their ethnic background. Children attending public school systems are becoming more divergent than ever before.While Americans argue that Native Americans are equally viewed in school because they are offered the same materials as them, Native Americans question their treatment in required public schools due to the lack of cultural background of the Americans. Native Americans are lacking basic educational skills and Americans are to blame for it because of their discrimination against minorities. In public school systems, “Native American students’ performance still lags far …show more content…
Not only are Natives being affected, but Americans in these classrooms as well. The other students are getting frustrated when they see Natives falling behind in class because they cannot help them. Americans are not providing sufficient enough resources to Natives in order for them to excel in school. President Obama recently declared “a crisis in Native American education”(Ackerman-Brimberg 1). To counteract this crisis, President Obama increased the Bureau of Indian Education’s budget “37.6 million [dollars], for a total of $2.9 billion”(“Indian Country” 2). He has recognized that this has an become an issue and increased their budget to try and

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    Imagine one, dwindling culture that has a 152% higher chance at winning the lottery compared to another population. Except the reward they win is not wealth, it is the rate of injury. For the Native American people, this statistic is true when juxtaposed to other Americans (Demographics). Similar to this, many unbalanced problems where Native Americans are on the inferior side of the scale compared to Americans with an alarmingly superior side, have appeared in native culture. The roots of these issues can be found starting in 1860, when the United States government established American Indian boarding schools to help bring education to the “lacking” Indians.…

    • 1304 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the video “Our Spirits Don’t Speak English,” Native Americans who had to go through boarding school were interviewed. From what they said, the conditions at the school were terrible. The children were cold and hungry and were made to forget their Native American identity. They were taught English and the ways of the white man. This had a huge impact on the Indians because, from birth, they were taught the ways of their elders and taught to have pride in their background and who they are.…

    • 1060 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    How Old Is Junior A Hero

    • 828 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Arnold (a.k.a Junior) is the witty and colorful protagonist of Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part- Time Indian. The first thing Arnold refers to is that he is a hydrocephalic (1.1). However, instead of referring to his disorder as the name given to it by the doctors of the scientific world, he instead refers to it as “water on the brain” (1.1), immediately capturing the reader’s attentions. Junior’s actions, thoughts, and problems do relate to most of the readers of the book, Junior undergoes many problems that common youths face, which is enough to make him a hero to many. According to Merriam Webster’s dictionary, a hero is someone who is “a person who is greatly admired for great or brave acts or fine qualities.”…

    • 828 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    As the seventh president of the United States, Andrew Jackson is arguably one of the most imposing figures in United States history and historians regularly debate whether or not Jackson was one of the best U.S. presidents to date. Founder of the Democratic Party, only president to entirely eliminate the United States National Debt, and was involved in over 100 duels in his lifetime, Jackson definitely left behind an interesting legacy for historians to study and research for years to come. Unfortunately, despite his success throughout his career, Jackson’s legacy continues to be shrouded with the controversy of his decision to sign the Indian Removal Act of 1830, a decision which lead to the death of over 10,000 Native American Indians. This…

    • 1523 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Great Essays

    THE CULTURAL SHOCK OF NATIVE AMERICAN BOARDING SCHOOLS Native American Boarding Schools in the United States was an American effort to assimilate the Indian children, ages three through the teen years, into becoming Americans. In these schools, they would strip the children of their Native culture and introduce American culture. The American government would take the children from their parents to schools that were not located on reservation property, but rather on United States property. The goal was to transform the children into the American way of thinking, looking, and acting. They hoped by getting the children before they were too saturated in their native culture; they would have greater success in accomplishing their agenda.…

    • 1619 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Great Essays

    The Native American plight seems to end with the settling of the reservation territories, but that is far from the truth. Americans now turned their attention to forcibly integrating the Native American people into American society, especially their children. Many children were taken from their parents and put into boarding schools that were supposed to assimilate them into the American society but essentially robbed them of their heritage. They were not just taught basic writing and reading skills, but they were dressed and told to act like Americans as well; they could not “ ‘be Indian’ in any way”. This left many Native American children with a loss of identity.…

    • 1710 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the past three decades, the United States has experienced a fundamental shift in immigration policy, with a rise in the number of new immigrants and major changes in their countries of origin. These immigrants, primarily from Asian and Latin American countries, have a profound impact on the ethnic, racial and immigrant composition of public schools in many major US cities. Immigration induces “native flight,” especially among white natives, from public schools into private schools, thus altering the ethnic, racial and immigrant composition of public schools. The less affluent students of color who remain in the public school system face debilitating repercussions to their livelihoods and quality of life if the number of native born schoolchildren who opt to attend private instead of public schools in response to immigration continues to increase.…

    • 1447 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Short Story: “The Only Traffic Signal in the reservation doesn’t flash red anymore” Topic: The various ways that Native Americans have been oppressed. Thesis: Native Americans are the most oppressed minority in the United States. They suffer from horrible living conditions, plagued by poverty, sickness, terrible housing, and alcohol/drugs.…

    • 1006 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The mistreatment of Native Americans is a prevalent issue transcending time in the United States, but is often forgotten. Racism within American society taints Native American culture because it denies a whole ethnicity equality, and stems from the average person choosing to assume rather than understand. It’s also important to note that a lack of understanding the Native American cultural circle causes the weight of the conflicting American philosophies to deteriorate their identity. White Americans have no right to determine the appropriate action to repair the circle because it was their own marginalization that eroded Native American culture.…

    • 852 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Native American Education

    • 821 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Native American students are extremely underrepresented in postsecondary educational systems nationwide. There are many personality traits, psychological and social factors influencing this divide. This paper identifies various psycho-social influences in attempts to help Native students better prepare as well as strengthen key traits in order to successfully complete postsecondary education. The academic difficulties and non-persistence of Native Americans in college have been well documented (Huffman, 2003.)…

    • 821 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Tlingit Education History

    • 816 Words
    • 4 Pages

    There have been infinite control policies over the course of the Tlingit people’s history that effected their schools and educational system. Before Alaska was purchased by the United States, formal education came primarily from the efforts of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian-American Company. The Russian Orthodox Church through Bishop Innocent (Veniaminov) created the first alphabet for the Tlingit language and developed a Tlingit literacy program. Additionally in the nineteenth century, the first attempts were made to communicate in Tlingit through writing. The Orthodox Church supported bilingual education in its schools, but the Americans didn’t and sought to eliminate the use of the language completely.…

    • 816 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Native American Addiction

    • 971 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Native Americans need to be informed that not get an education stop you from developing and stop you from furthering their personal self-worth. Allowing yourself to stop growing and learning is allowing those naysayers have control over them. They are allowing the stereotypes challenge Native Americans possibilities, future, and the opportunities they can become something…

    • 971 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Native American Sociology

    • 502 Words
    • 3 Pages

    I was sitting in my Sociology 119 lecture, Race and Ethnic Relations, with Dr. Sam Richards, and in walks a Native American man. He looked defeated and tired. He began to speak, but I could hear the despair in his voice as he told us his story. He came from Northern Minnesota Native American reservation, and he explained what it was like growing up in that environment. He was a recovering alcoholic and drug user, which he explains is a very common thing on the reservations.…

    • 502 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The California Department of Education requires high school students to take one course of U.S. history in order to graduate and move onto college (California Department of Education). These classes often explore the histories of the living or, more famously put, the winners. However, many American history courses fail to mention the effects of settler colonialism on racialized groups, specifically the Native Americans, resulting in the deletion of their existence and stories. Through her memoir Bad Indians, Deborah Miranda thoroughly brings forth the continuous oppression and experiences of Native Americans by revising the version of U.S. history that many are taught with her counter-narrative, which brings a new perspective and more knowledge…

    • 1265 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Native American groups are very close, especially the family unit. Most life decisions and consequences involve the whole family so individual priorities are often set aside to aid the family. Often this means that families experiencing hardship will be supported by younger members at the expense of their education. This also unfortunately means as the cycle of hardship continues and without adequate support to pursue educational advancement the issues of today’s generations will continue to perpetuate. Native Americans just simply view social institutors differently than we do and as a result are in need of a system that better fits their way of life, however neither the US nor the tribes themselves lack to ability to make it come to…

    • 980 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays