How do Native Americans

attitudes towards education affect

their success?
Chloe Larson, Bela Propst, Jessie Devereaux, Lauren Black
How do Native Americans attitudes towards education affect
their success?
In general, negative attitudes towards education result in less success
and limited options for the future. Attitudes of young Native
Americans are affected by those of peers, parents, and the rest of the
community, which are often negative towards education.

The history of white assimilation through education has resulted in an

urge to resist the efforts of the U.S. government to provide education
to reservations, resulting in negative feelings toward education in
general.
Evidence
Lee, Tanya H. Trumps Education Pick of Betsy DeVos Could Fail Native Kids. Indian Country Media Network, 5 Jan. 2017,
www.indiancountrymedianetwork.com/education/native-education/trumps-education-pick-betsy-devos-fail-native-kids/. Accessed
8 Feb. 2017.

The Education Departments programs and initiatives affect the 50 million elementary and secondary students who attend the
nations 98,000 public and 32,000 private schools. The vast majority of American Indian and Alaska Native students go to public
school.

Tanya H. Lee in her article, Trumps Education Pick of Betsy DeVos Could Fail Native Kids, outlines the history of Donald
Trumps choice for Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, from a Native American standpoint. Lee supports her story by analyzing
the actions that DeVos took on the education system in Detroit and other cities, and explaining them from a Native American
point of view. The authors purpose is to reveal DeVoss extreme views on public education and the charter school system, and
how they could negatively affect Native American students should DeVos become Secretary of Education. Lee writes in a warning
tone, informing her Native American readers of the potential danger of Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education.

This source was useful because in the early stages of research it gave us an idea of the state of education for Native American
students and the different types of schools that are available for them. This specific quote showed how the U.S. government
controls most of the reservation schools, and gave us statistics for use in our presentation which relied heavily on knowledge of
the different types of schools that Native American students go to.
Evidence #2
A Brief History of American Indian Education University of Minnesota, Expanding the Circle. University of Minnesota.
etc.umn.edu/resources/briefhistory.htm. Accessed 8 Feb. 2017.

The American Indian boarding school, as an institution of assimilation, was designed to suppress the culture, language, and spirituality
of American Indian nations throughout the United States.

In this article published by the University of Minnesota, the author analyzes why and how most Native Americans statistics concerning
their education are very poor. The author uses the logos appeal to validate their argument that the negative attitudes in Native American
boarding schools lead to inferior performance in school and later in life. An honest approach to this issue utilizing facts and objectivity
makes it easy for the reader to draw the conclusion that the author of this article recognizes the struggle Native Americans go through
due to the deficient BIE system.

This source was important to our research and in constructing our answer because while other resources had contributing perspectives,
this particular article provided statistics and a passive point of view on the situation. Specifically, the quote stated above sheds light on
part of the authors thesis that boarding schools were meant to limit Native American opportunities. Combined with our other sources,
this article led us to conclude that restricted possibilities for Native American students and general negative attitudes toward education
result in unsuccessfulness.
Evidence #3
Alexie, Sherman, Superman and Me: The Joy of Reading and Writing. Los Angeles
Times, 19 April 1998.

If hed been anything but an indian boy livin on a reservation, he might have been called a prodigy, but he is an indian boy living
on a reservation is simply an oddity.

Sherman Alexie in the excerpt, Superman and Me, argues that it has become a societal norm for non-indian people to assume
the natives kids arent as smart as others, are expected to sit quietly in class while other kids participate in class and work hard.
Sherman argues that they are destined to fail in the non-indian community and that is just a accepted ideal. The author supports
his claim by providing examples of natives in school versus home life, and explaining how, despite the kids difficulty with basic
school principles, they show great intelligence in their culture. This is in order to show that the school's negative attitude and
environment toward the Native children, plays a large role in how well they do academically.

This excerpt was useful in constructing our answer to our question because it shows that most Natives dont feel motivated to do
well in school because that has become the cultural norm that many people have accepted, which affects their success overall. This
specific quote shows that book smarts is simply considered uncommon in the Native American community, and they are seen as
weird or strange. This excerpt depicts the corruptness of the education systems approach to Native American education and
learning ethics.
Evidence #4
In the essay Native American Students Perspectives on Higher Education by Lesley A.
Morrison, the author claims that the treatment of Euro-American towards Native
Americans has had the largest impact on their negative attitude. The author supports
their claim by giving short examples from history of the Euro-American belief that
Native Americans are less than them, and the push for assimilation. The authors
purpose is to explain the reasons for negative native perspective, and the high dropout
rates. The author writes in an informative tone towards a mainly white american
audienceto help them better understand the native perspectives.
Audience and Product
Our audience was the middle school at Austin Montessori School. We chose this
school because it has an enthusiastic but relaxed environment, and the students
are eager to learn about any topic presented to them. Their curriculum involves
learning about Native American issues already, and so our presentation could
have been a good supplement and discussion topic for the students.

Our presentation revolved around a role-playing game, in which the students

were divided into groups, each of which represented a character of a young
Native American student. The characters began at middle school age, which we
did purposefully to connect to our audience of middle school age students.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1yqP_2O6AorSw_rlBqVMOp-
QFu7zjsnkv3LcHY0Djvdo/edit#slide=id.p
Product Delivery
We presented our project on
Tuesday at the Austin Montessori
Middle School.

Our audience was incredibly

enthusiastic and willing to be
interactive and share ideas with us
and their group members.
Group Reflection
What we learned: Our group learned that sadly, the effects of boarding school assimilation are still
making a large impact on Native Americans today. Additionally, there has not been a significant
change in statistics regarding success in school which shows that there is little being done to fix
the situation. It was surprising to find out how many Native Americans struggle for education
solely due to their economic status.

What we would change: Next time we might narrow down our question, because while it was
specific enough to conduct good research and form a strong answer, it would have been more
conclusive to gather data on a smaller area of people.

What we would do to gain a better understanding of the topic: Next time to understand our topic
better, we would probably spend more time researching and interviewing people in Austin for
Works Cited
A Brief History of American Indian Education University of Minnesota, Expanding the Circle. University of Minnesota.
etc.umn.edu/resources/briefhistory.htm. Accessed 8 Feb. 2017.

Alexie, Sherman, Superman and Me: The Joy of Reading and Writing. Los Angeles
Times, 19 April 1998.

Education Week. Diplomas Count 2013. Editorial Projects in Education, 6 June 2013.
http://www.edweek.org/media/diplomascount2013_release.pdf. Accessed 8 Feb. 2017.

Guillory, Raphael M., and Mimi Wolverton. "It's About Family: Native American Student Persistence In Higher Education."
Journal Of Higher Education 79.1 (2008): 58-87. Academic Search Complete. Accessed 6 Feb. 2017.

Lee, Tanya H. Trumps Education Pick of Betsy DeVos Could Fail Native Kids. Indian Country Media Network, 5 Jan. 2017,
www.indiancountrymedianetwork.com/education/native-education/trumps-education-pick-betsy-devos-fail-native-kids/. Accessed
8 Feb. 2017.

Rebarber, Ted, and Alison Consoletti Zgainer. Survey of Americas Charter Schools 2014. The Center for Education Reform, 2013,
https://www.edreform.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/2014CharterSchoolSurveyFINAL.pdf. Accessed 8 Feb. 2017.