Native American Education Strategies for Change; The Whole Child; 106

A production of K -N -M -E -T -V for the satellite educational resource consortium Native American children are at risk. How do we as teachers, parents, administrators, and communities change the situation? Join us as we explore some of the successful strategies for change. There's the concern about the drug population, there's gang activity and things, even on the television and screen, seem to be more open. We want the child to be able to function and maintain his own self spiritually, emotionally, physically, and educationally. That's our goal. We had a high need drop -out rate and we wanted to lower that.

So that way the students would feel real comfortable and come into a large complex like East. This is when you and it, you know, work with your child, family and child together and there's a lot of growth coming out from both sides and which is really nice to see and it's kind of bringing the community back together. Good afternoon, I'm Conroy Chino, your host of Native American Education Strategies for Change. Thanks for joining us for the sixth and final program in our series. Today we will examine education of the whole child programs that address the physical, emotional, and social well -being of students. Today we are fortunate to have as our guest Dr. Teresa LaFramboi, Professor of Counseling Psychology in the American Indian Studies Program at the University of Wisconsin. Welcome to our program, Dr. LaFramboi. It's a pleasure to have you. This is Interactive Educational Television. Your telephone calls are an integral part of this program. We invite your comments, your concerns, your questions throughout this program and want to remind you that in the one hour afterward, open

discussion will follow this program. So please call us at 1 -800 -516 -1276. Once again, the number is 1 -800 -516 -1276. We want to hear from you. Dr. LaFramboi, I was curious to find out from you this concept of whole child. Why is it important for educators, for teachers to be concerned about the physical, the emotional, and social well -being of a child? Well, I think mainly because we want to have better communities and we want to have people as the goal and education that people can function most effectively, that they can have good relationships, that they can certainly learn things, but that they can get along well with others, and communities are much better off if we have people that are fully functioning rather than just smart kids. I know that you have a broad background in the educational field, but perhaps you can tell us in the audience a little bit about yourself. Okay. Well, I became interested in the area of psychology and counseling psychology after being a teacher. I began teaching at the Turtle Mountain Chippewa Reservation

with middle school kids, and then I also taught, I was a John Stomalli teacher for the Sagna Chippewa tribe in Michigan, and in both of those experiences, in Michigan, the students were just a small part of a public school, but of course, Turtle Mountain students were from the community, the school was from the community school. It was obvious to me that what deterred kids from learning were the problems that they had socially or concerns that they had about the family or things that just struggles in everyday life, and at that time I was younger and students would talk to me, but I really wanted to learn to be able to do more than just listen when they would come to me about their social or emotional problems, so it just seemed to me that a lot of people could teach, but maybe if I would learn in this area that people would be more ready to learn. Yeah. These struggles that you alluded to earlier, what were they? What do they consist of? Well, I mean, you can get into sort of the classic things

about just the hardships of end in life or poverty, but I think a lot of it would be the inattentiveness maybe of parents, because they're busy trying to make a living or else they're distracted or they have their own problems. In a lot of places, I think you could say harsh, you know, a negative or unsupportive school climate. Certainly, you know, the problems of dysfunctional families, just the acculturation pressures, just the problems that many people have, but I think with young people, you know, they're so sensitive, you know, that they really do get affected by these, you know, pretty quickly. These pressures and these problems that you just described, are they any different now than back than what you were a teacher? I mean, have they changed very much over the years? I think they have in that the pressures from the outside world. And I think that one thing that we're starting to, in Indian psychology, that we're starting to get a handle about and even right about,

is this unresolved grief and loss from cultural losses, loss of language, loss of land, the attempts, you know, by the government, you know, to, you know, to change people. And so I think there's a, and then at the amount of accidental deaths in the communities, there's a lot of loss. And so, you know, people, you know, just sort of had to, you know, persevere or just, you know, just, you know, deal with it, go on to the next thing. And I think there's a lot of issues that really aren't dealt with very openly. I would have thought that this, this loss that you're talking about would have been something ramps more prevalent among older generations, like my grandparents or your grandparents and, and perhaps their parents. But I didn't think this was still prevalent among the current generation, is it? I think it is because I think people are more aware of the losses with kind of the revitalization of traditionalism in some, you know, areas maybe that aren't as traditional as here in the Southwest. I mean, people really mourn that, not to know and not to have learned firsthand in the way they should have learned about their traditions. I think that it, I think that there

is, you know, a lot of, you know, kind of just sadness that it hasn't worked out the way that it could have or should have. And it, you know, plays its, it's, I mean, when you're taught that maybe, you know, you, you can pray, but you're, you know, you can, if to really pray to the creator, you have to pray in your own language. And your language is, it's very difficult to learn, or maybe your language isn't even spoken today. I mean, that's a sad, sadness. So you know that there's a certain limit to how much you can develop as a person. And I think that's what people are going through is, you know, maybe not obvious hardships as maybe our parents or grandparents went through, but there still is that, that feeling of, of things not being the way they could have been. In developing as a person, how different are the problems that urban Indian students have as compared to, say, reservation Indian students, other than the fact that you have a rural setting and an urban setting? Are there really distinct differences between the two? Well, I think they do get, I think they get almost fused together some way in

the way that people travel back and forth. I think what do you remember that? A lot of people go back and forth, you know, to, you know, reservation and, and urban life. So I don't know that they're so distinct. But I would say that certainly I think that kids in urban areas are, first of all, that they are encountering a lot of cultural diversity and are really often considered, Indian kids are often invisible. I mean, in terms of the way programming is done, there's a lot more effort and attention paid to African Americans, Hispanic, Asian Americans, et cetera. And even in multicultural workshops today, I mean, I still can't believe it today, that, you know, the person might be in another category. There's certainly no information about Indians until people speak up and say, look, there's nothing you're about Indians for us. And so I think that the idea of, of, that's one thing. And I also think that, I think that often in terms of the way that you're taught to behave and not be, maybe as outspoken, that there's a lot of negotiations that goes on where you can be taking advantage of. I know that one of the things that you've done is

you've developed a life skills curriculum in order to assist students in coping with some of these problems. Can you describe it a little bit? Yes, it's, it was originally designed to help offset suicidal behavior and other kinds of risk -taking behavior of kids. And we were invited to do this with the purple of Zoony. And the emphasis there was to less celebrate life and less learn the protective kinds of skills, the coping skills, the way to solve problems, the way to manage anger, the way to manage stress, so that we feel, you know, so the students feel that they have, they have the resources and the knowledge of other ways to handle things rather than to just, you know, feel like they want to, you know, eliminate the pain on a permanent basis. And that's the way we have developed that. This is consistent, consistent of course work or what's different about this? Well, actually, it's a program that could be used on a weekly basis or two or three times a week for a year -long period of time. And it's, it can be,

it works well in health classes, but it can also be taught in a class. It's best to be taught in a class that every student would have to take such as, you know, language arts or something or history or required course. And basically, it's, it deals with learning many of these other aspects, you know, the kind of things that we're taught in the family and that still are taught, but could be reinforced and strengthened, you know, as ways of dealing with, you know, with the challenges of life. Has it proven to be successful? It's very effective. It's been evaluated in two different schools formally and over a three -year period of time. And it's very effective in reducing the tendency towards self -destruction, but also learning how to manage, you know, increasing confidence around problem solving and things like that. Let's take a look at one of these model programs. In fact, we visited one of them. The first model program that we will examine today is that of Sequoia High School in Telequal, Oklahoma. A boarding school in the capital of the Cherokee Nation, Sequoia High School started a life skills course that we described in response to a series of suicide gestures by students.

The Blindfold Walk that we did with the kids was to develop trust, not only for just the classroom, but to build trust with each other. We try to get that student to communicate to that person and tell that person what's going to happen next, what to watch out for. So they build a sense of trust and the person that's leading them and guiding them. And it helps the class because they become more open in the classroom if they trust people in your class. They found and documented that we had had 19 suicide attempts that year. And when we started the curriculum and actually started serving the students, we found that there were probably more. Some students had attempted and maybe never told anyone. There's the concern about the drug

population. There's gang activity. I think our Indian population are young adolescent Indian population. They have to know who they are, that they can't, that they can function in a quote -unquote dominant society and yet maintain their Indian identity. We needed a program that gave us the opportunity for students to look at their concerns to be able to address those concerns and meet them head on rather than to do something that would not be beneficial. Our students come into this class and it's sometimes kind of a shock to them because it is very different than math and English and social studies. You then toss the ball to someone else. We have several activities that we used to start out the year. One activity we have a ball that we throw around. You start out by telling who you are and what

tribe or tribes you are. And then move on and telling something unique or interesting about yourself. The curriculum is a skills development activity. It contains several lessons and sections which focus on life skills, coping skills, how to deal with various kinds of issues that come up with Indian adolescence. It was developed by Teresa Loughron Boys. It is ultimately a suicide prevention program, although it deals with a lot of different areas. We try to build a community of trust within the classroom, build relationships. We work with problem solving. We work with dealing with anger. We identify depression and we also deal with self -destructive behavior. And we look at the grieving process

from a general point and also from a cultural point. Then we deal for about six weeks with suicide prevention. And we end the year with goals and expectations for themselves as well as for their tribes. The activity we did today was called Face Talk. A lot of times people will talk to you without communicating to you and you can read your facial expressions to the body language. And a lot of times we tend to not see a student that might be having a problem or a friend that might be having a problem because maybe they're quiet, maybe they're not talking, but by understanding their facial expressions, their body language we can sometimes help that person. Teenagers have enough problems and we need to realize it's not an easy life for a teenager to be growing up in. It seems like they have many, many problems. Things that they have to confront that many other

people might do not have to confront or to deal with. We talk about where do you get help versus what do you do if you have a friend who has shared that they may be considering suicide as a way to cope? What do you do with that? And the life skills curriculum does teach kids how to reach out to other sources that are available in the community. In fact, in one of the lessons there will be like a community resource sheet that is handed out. And it identifies all the different people that they could seek assistance from if they had a really stressful, traumatic kind of problem and they just didn't know what to do with it. We also have an activity where we go outside and like to go outside and we go out and do a human knot where they start out and they end up entangled, intertwined, holding on, connecting with the ends and

they just end up in a knot, all knotted together and they start working together to get out of that. It's from a teaching standpoint, it's interesting because you start seeing who your leaders are, who start just with the directions, who's actually making suggestions and who's who's willing to work with whom and that helps a lot. And it's fun, they laugh, they have a good time, they always ends up with them laughing but feeling a great sense of accomplishment when they come out into the circle holding hands. We had a number of suiciding gestures a few years ago. The first year of the curriculum we had 19 incidences occur. The next year, the second year after implementation of the curriculum we had three and then last year we had three incidences occur. So that tells us that we were successful. I learned a lot in my

skills, how to cope with things, how to work things out, how to trust people. It's just basically learning to work together when you can't trust no one else. We just work together. As always, we invite your questions and comments. So please call us. The number to call is 1 -800 -516 -1276. Again, the number on the screen is 1 -800 -516 -1276. And I'm told that we do have a caller, a phone call for our guest who is Dr. Theresa LaFranboy from the University of Wisconsin. The call is from a Steve LaBuff here in Albuquerque. Steve, what's your question? Well, actually I have two short ones. One of them has to do with, I'm familiar with the program Zuni. And when I looked at it, the teaching of life skills is especially important coping strategies.

And I wondered whether it was a chance at getting that in the mid schools as opposed to the high schools. Both needed that I think that it would be more effective at a younger age. And then the second part of it has to do with, I do some working communities on suicide prevention and crisis intervention. And the kids are always very straightforward about what's going on. The drinking, dysfunctional families. There's a lot of abuse, sexual abuse, and incest. And yet when you talk to the adults, there's a denial, not of the suicide, but there's a denial. And they don't really take responsibility for it. They want to look outside to outside programs rather than making lifestyle choices themselves. And I'm just wondering if Dr. LaFranboy would comment on these two points. Certainly. The first one's easier obviously than the second. We were asked, we

designed the curriculum because we were asked by the high school and that was the area of focus. But when we designed most of all the lessons, we evaluated them and we also asked the question of the teachers and the students whether they thought the lesson might be relevant for middle school students. So we know which ones are relevant for middle school students. And you're correct about the time to intervene. Actually the time to intervene is as early as possible. With prevention, the most effective life skills programs that are used in various parts in the country start as early as possible. Ideally, it would be K -12 if you could interspers a little bit of information about this throughout a person's time in school. So that's definitely true that the sooner the better. And often this becomes a lot more obvious at middle school. Now the question concerning what happens once all of the when students start talking and are more

open about the concerns that they have and how this makes them feel very negatively about themselves is an important one. It will. I mean it will open up issues in the family and certainly within the community. And I think that one thing that students are learned in this curriculum is how to look at sort of the healthy resources that they do have. So I may have an uncle that is you know bothering me. But within my family's structure who can I go to to tell this to so that that person can confront the other person. Now there's what can I you know who can I go to that can help intervene in the situation. And it all it isn't always you know formal service delivery system such as a school counselor or the school or a mental health worker or social worker or whatever. Sometimes some of this has to be handled. But the curriculum like this not only looks at opening up the issues but also really spending a lot of time about what are my resources who are people that can help me who are people that will support me nurture me

you know. And that's why we also look at you know what is a dysfunctional family so that students know like the definition of it so that they don't necessarily blame themselves for having a lot of these problems. Indian tribes and Indian people always seem to head the list of a lot of things we seem to be high in unemployment high on poverty rates and high when it comes to teenage suicide. Is that the reality out there or do you believe is just part of a long standing myth. Okay well the reality is that certainly with adolescence suicide that the rate is three times of the rate for Indian students is three times that of students in the general population. And when you look at younger kids say you know in the say 13 to 16 year old the lower end of the pre -adolescent it may be as high as four times the general population okay. The rate in the general population is higher than that of African

Americans and higher than that of Hispanic students so it varies. But that's that's across the board that's overall. And I think an important part here is the idea that that Indian Indian youth or suicidal is a myth because there's a lot of variability. Some tribes have no incidents of suicide some have high even among the pueblos there's differential rates okay. And even maybe in a community where there's a high rate if you start to look where is this concentrated it might be certain families that are high in substance abuse and a lot of other kinds of problems. So I wouldn't I think the idea that Indian people are suicidal is a myth because there's a lot of variability but definitely within adolescence suicide it's very it's it is high. Yeah this life score life I'm sorry life skills course that we saw featured at Sequoia High School and it's been very successful in changing a lot of behaviors among students. How do schools begin to start up something like what happened or what's going

on at Sequoia High School? Well fortunately the curriculum is it could be available to people if they would like and they could contact me and I'd be glad to give them the information about how they might secure it. But in this case both that zoonie and at Sequoia I think the first step was that people were willing to deal with the problem openly. Unfortunately sometimes it takes a number of suicides or suicide attempts before people want to even deal with it. At Sequoia they immediately developed a crisis team and these were people within the Cherokee Nation that worked in social service agencies that were willing to be trained and to be available around the clock to try to deal with it and then within that community group they said okay what are the resources that are available and then they sort of got were referred to us. But I think a major step is for people to acknowledge this happening. I mean some some rather odd accidents or I know some where I come from in Wisconsin sometimes I sometimes hunting accidents when you get really get down to the bottom they weren't and you know rather than just sort of

cover it up just to say look we have you know we need to find out what you know how how how prevalent is it and when we worked in high schools it's amazing. Anywhere from 40 to 60 percent of students if you give them an inventory about suicidal thoughts may say that at some time they thought of it and there was a national study on American Indian health that's been conducted by the National Center for American Indian Alaska Native Mental Health Research and it's substantial for kids across the board maybe 25 percent have attempted at some time. Quickly how effective is this kind of program when it comes to gang activity and drug and alcohol abuse. Well this program does not have a high emphasis in substance abuse and it could but there's no sense in duplicating efforts that there are already a lot of programs on substance abuse prevention but it's really important because it almost always co occurs and we certainly see with young Indian girls that they use substances throughout the day more frequently than young Indian boys okay.

The hopefully with the anger management that it'll begin to get at some alternatives to violence that I think often often happens with the gang activities. Another thing with gangs is that I think it's kind of become a new way of having clicks. I mean some of it is you know the drive -by shooting some things like that but the gangs that I see on reservations are sort of you know clicks that were formed anyway that now have you know where different colors and have different symbols and that kind of thing so that if people had a sense of belonging and a strong sense of self -esteem which this curriculum does emphasize maybe they wouldn't have to belong to this to feel okay. But early intervention is a real key. Definitely. Get back to them just a second. The second model program that we'll examine today is Face or Family Children Education Program in Kenan City to New Mexico which is located on the eastern edge of the Navajo Nation. Developed by the BIA's Office of Education Programs this early childhood program focuses on strengthening families and children before

they enter the school system. Face stands for the Family and Child Education Program. In our home -based program we have two parent educators. They provide services for children of families 0 to 3. They schedule weekly home visits. They go out into the home and they provide child development information. They work with families to instill the belief in the family that the parent is the child's first teacher. What I see the program providing for them is an awareness of the growth patterns, growth and development of the child from birth to grade 285 rather and how those changes will relate to the child success in the educational setting. In following the children that started the program that have gone on to the kindergarten and now into first grade we have seen a different difference in terms of those children. They are prepared,

they're confident children. I'm getting more involved and I know what my child is learning. I think they'll probably know that mom and dad are both here for them. I mean throughout their education support them while they go to school and that will always be behind them. From birth it's important that we educate and reinforce the issue that parents have a very effective role in their children's educational process and what better time to start than at day one. Good morning. Hello. Hi Peter. Hello Bill. How are you doing? I wanted to find out more about my baby. They teach you what to look for in your child, what your baby should be doing at a certain age. A lot of times I get discouraged because she doesn't do

what's listed on there but we work at it and the more we work at it the better person she becomes because she's more able to do things for herself. The most successful part of the program and the positive part of the face program I believe is they work with the individual children and they're coming out and they're actually expressing what they have seen or what they have experienced or what they have learned with their children. The changes that we've seen in the parents are number one that they're more involved as parents. In addition to being more involved they're more aware of what they as parents can look for in the education of their child. It makes both of us good parents even for someone as small as she is as opposed to my son who is 10. You can use that same parenting skill with them. We're trying to like say you know this is when you and it you know work with your child family and child together and there's a lot of growth coming out

from both sides and which is really nice to see and it's kind of bringing the community back together you know I would say. As a teacher I started with this program I've seen a lot of growth. At first we used to have kids not listening to the mother or not the respect I guess and then a parent for me the program my daughter has learned a lot you know she's independent she's just gained skills. We get involved we don't just put it on the grandparents like maybe some people will say oh you're young and you know you don't need to take care of your kids your moms here they can do it but you know instead we do it we do it and it makes it gets us involved more and we feel like it helps us to be more involved also. A lot of times children are taught to just kind of sit and listen and

people don't have don't have the insight of knowing that that a child can teach you a child can teach you a lot of things like she wants to go to bed now. We have a lot of families who are trying to meet their economical needs and when you know you can't tell somebody well quit your job and come to school for a little while you know their primary need is economics but these parents still wanted to be involved in the program so we we we developed this this section so they're involved every day but not to the extent of what the day parents are involved in they come for Wednesday night class and they work through all of the components of the program parent time pack time as well as adult time. Some of the parents did not finish high school so what I do is I work with them on preparation for GED for the GED testing that is taken

place. Other parents what I do is I work with them on parenting skills sharing with each other how we can be a better parents and then other parents I work with them on life skills. The families here in the community are becoming more aware of the school because we have all kinds of activities going on they they attend activities so then they're interested in their other older children's activities they recognize that they there's other families out there with the same age child and if there's a problem they talk among each others and so they're becoming more close together and they're asking for each other's help. With the program we kind of tell each other well I'm having this difficulty with my son and my daughter and another parent might have a suggestion and through that we're working how to work together as a community as well as a little family I value the

program because it's given me a lot of insights as to not just me and the baby but as a as a family. I talk with pet teachers and they tell us gosh I can hardly wait to have your kids in there and I've I've taught to the kindergarten teachers and and they're really really pleased that they just they wish that every child in their class could be a face student. I'd like to remind you that your comments and questions are important part of this program so invite you to call us at 1 -800 -516 -1276 that number again is 1 -800 -516 -1276 and I guess this afternoon is Dr. LaFram Boy from the University of Wisconsin. I was curious to find out from you Dr. LaFram Boy how important is it for schools to get involved in the education of preschool kids seems awfully young I mean three and under. Why is that important? Well you know we used

to have this idea that the magical years were one through five and I think now we know as developmentalists that the years one through three are more critical even than on up to five and this is you know a time I mean the effective early childhood program so they're you know those that are are fairly good can make a lot of difference in terms of the the success the academic success and the adjustment of of children in school and certainly you know then you know they're motivation to learn etc so it's it's certainly been you know worth all the effort that's been put into Head Start and other kinds of early childhood programs when they when they've been good at least the in the first few years that you can see the gains they may it may not continue as long directly but it's there. Can you effectively teach a child at age one or age two? What the point is is stimulating it isn't so I mean learning learning is by you know being inquisitive and curious and

so by being involved in encouraging kids to explore they learn so much more there's so much more aware of their environment and I also think the the part that's so interesting about you know the the phase program is that the parents are learning how they themselves can learn from their children I mean it's a real reciprocal process and it's and they learn and the children learn more things happen more communication it's just it's a it's a more vital kind of way of being. It also seems to be that these parents pick up a pick up a additional parenting skills something that they may not have been taught when they were growing up I mean or I know for example that many of us go through high school in college never ever haven't taken a parenting class and all of a sudden it just happens would become parents and I would imagine this true with a lot of people out there. Oh yeah and then we're terrified I mean even though we've seen other people do it when there are children you know or else I think that I mean when you think about it schools prepare people for many things in

life but certainly not you know not one of the most important roles and so now fortunately there are some parenting classes for high school students so they might even consider that when they decide you know if they're going to be active in a way that might you know render them parents fairly seen so they're more informed about that answer but you know it's a very very important time I mean how and when you think about it and even in within psychology or you know there was I read the other day that there has been information transmitted about how to be a parent for more than two thousand years and there's something like 800 parenting programs in pamphlets so it's there if you want it unfortunately or they're beginning to be some Indian parenting programs and and that you know that our children are you know the the future they're their gifts of life and you know and and we have a role in in touching them being with them. I know one of the things that the video tape pointed out was the ideal building on the

strengths of a family I know that when I was growing up at Akima I was raised basically by not only my mom but by my aunts and my grandparents and my grandmothers and other clan related individuals within my family but you don't see that very much or that going on as often as much on reservations or do you or in Indian communities. Well I think you do I mean I think there still is a lot of taking care of children among a variety of people and but I think you know you can have a number of people in the family that are there that are present that are watching and maybe but then not stimulating the child okay and I think in you know years ago that's the difference. I think that's the difference. I think that's the difference. It's supposed to just taking care of them disciplining them. That's right and I think also there are generations of of we've lost some generations of parents because of the well the number of Indian children have been removed from the home for whatever reason and then the boarding school experience and so you know even though there are people

within the extended family that are parenting maybe they aren't parenting that well because they certainly learned a lot about negative reinforcement when they were away at boarding school and that's one thing I think you know that if you could see that a lot of times when kids are communicated to it's about what they're doing wrong that you know we've kind of gotten away from praising and encouraging kids to and praising them when they don't misbehave and so you know I think that it's important I also think that it's important for young adults and new parents to you know to exercise that role it empowers them and you know this the series is on education and I think something that's a difficult role as a parent is to be advocates for our children and by empowering them early on as in this face program then they become advocates for their children when they encounter in schools and that's very hard I mean I myself have a PhD in education and when I go for a

conference about my daughter I feel so intimidated I've been through she has the learning disability I've been through IEPs and it's a very very difficult role to be in and I think that's what a lot of you know these programs can help with increasing confidence besides stimulating your child or at least using a program like face to assist you in learning a variety of different skills which ones do you think are more important I mean if you were to I'm sure they all are but if you were to list them prioritize them which ones would you consider the most important terms of becoming a better parent I think really honoring and respecting your child is the one is primary okay and that comes from being generous with them praising them supporting them admiring them when they do something good giving them a lot of nurturance and support I also think really communicating with your children letting them know what you think is proper behavior not waiting until they do something wrong and then not letting them understand why they did it

and I think really communicating so they can begin to talk to you when other you know so that it's an open communication so that they realize when as problems come in that they can begin to discuss them with you and that can be done a lot through just the kinds of discussions that go on at dinner and in just storytelling but allowing them to be part of it not just to be you know not just to listen I think that we we have that sort of issue around telling stories and I think it's very important and also thinking you know I think it's very easy nowadays not to operate as a family and to have some rituals as a family around around being together as a family and working things out as a family having family meetings are really key family gatherings right okay listen we'll come back to you just a second here but let's go to another video tape here up another another another program that we have lined up here the last model program that we'll examine today is the Elignric within East school within a school East High School as we will show you as located in Anchorage Alaska now this program was designed to reduce the dropout rates of

native students many of whom were having difficulty making the transition from small Alaskan villages to an urban high school setting with over 2000 students you jump up with two feet you kick the balls one foot and then on that same foot you kicked with that simulates when a hunter goes out hunting before they reach the village they signify that they didn't have a successful hunt we had a high native dropout rate and we wanted to lower that so that way the students would feel real comfortable in coming into a large complex like East the students were not doing as well academically as we wanted and nor were they getting as involved in the extra curricular activities of the school as much as we wanted and what we really felt and based on advice of Native American staff members that a lot of that was caused by cultural problems he has students who come in from rural Alaska who feel that they're they come from a small village probably two three hundred and they

come to a school that's like 1800 and they're overwhelmed by the the intensity of people and classes and teachers and all the activities and native games they're able to have that in the smart for the preliminaries April for the finals for the competition of games that the natives use and then they can also go on to the world s for Indian Olympics in the summer if they want to compete with that elitna vick with an east commonly known as ewe was begun the fall of 1988 elitna vick is a epic word meaning a place to learn and so that term is our school name basically the ewe program is for students that are

of Native American descent that are enrolled in an academic setting and we have a coordinator, a counselor and academic classes that are native emphasis ewe is really a school within a school concept i think it's very apropos for native students native students do need the feeling of closeness within their community the concept of a smaller school within a school i think is the way we got to go we you need to have that personal contact that face -to -face contact otherwise you're just a number and this is not only kids but adults i feel it's important because it's a part of our ancestors lifestyle they've did that for many years and i think it's yoga that it's still going on and it's it's a fun sport we are a family within the school it's a small school

we have a core group of teachers who track and work with and teach the students and their sense our sense of belonging within the group is it's mutual with the staff and the students you've got losing an eggness to help you out i mean they're they're willing to listen and they'll make time for you and it's it's just a comfortable environment you're not so stressed out like these teachers have a lot so many kids to think about they're not going to even remember you or think about you i have students again with different problems whether it's alcohols drugs you know basic boy and girl problems you know and so it's each child is unique and so you look at that that student and then go from there the native youth Olympics what i like about it it it's concentration and strength it keeps the natives off the drugs and alcohol

and it's a good good way to stay off that's the lyrics is very important i feel that if a person is a real good physical sound in the body they're physically sound in mind and but they know that in order to participate the education has to uh have to meet a certain requirement in the education my self -esteem has come way up since i first started participating in my games we teach native culture within the curriculum is because the students need that for their identity and the other students also need to know where students are coming from and so therefore our

students would have better self -image and the other students also won't have the scary types of our laskan native people if they have emerged into the teenage years as someone who has an identity with as a person who is proud of their culture then you know that that strength is going to allow them to deal with the adversities of their daily life and and also with just the tensions of going to school and a big sitting high school once i started to get to know myself in my culture i got more confidence in myself i'm not as shy as i used to be i'm more outspoken i'm still quiet but i'm more outspoken and i've um i've grown up a lot here um it's it's just really important i know who i am it's always been very important for native

children to start learning about their culture because the um for one thing gale there's always taught a self -respect and to respect um everything else around you my urban students are interested in village customs and village ideas all of them have friends and relatives who have spent a lot of time in the village i have more respect for the the ancestors more than i used to because i really didn't know much about them you know it just makes you stronger person you know where you come from as american indian or alaskan native if you have a self identity and you're proud of who you are and you're um proud of where you come from then you could if you have that basis as a foundation other things will fall in place your participation is a vital part of this program the number the number to call us that is is one eight hundred five one six one two seven six

want to remind you that at the end of this program we'll have a special one -hour telephone conference with dr treesa law from boy who is our guest today from the University of Wisconsin i understand dr law from boy that we do have a call for you uh it's from fill luarco from here in albuquerque uh fill uh yes i basically wanted to find out um you know we know of you know i'm aware of cuts that are going to be coming in from uh from washington of uh cuts in uh in the public health service is that going to affect a lot of problem you know is that going to affect a lot of programs such as what canyon c2 has been doing uh uh as far as financially you have an opinion this is something you probably better pay than i do um well definitely but you know i think uh especially like if if we look at the uh uh parenting

skills and some of these programs i mean yes it's nice to have people that are specialized to be doing the training but i think there are ways to get training um for instance with the parenting skills if there are some uh parenting programs that would be very happy to have uh Indian people trained as trainers and would pay their way for them to go through the training i mean um with the life skills i mean you get the curriculum you have people that have already you know teachers have human relation skills counselors have these kinds of skills and you know i think it can continue um it's unfortunate whenever there are other cuts but i also think that people have the ability to keep many of these are very very low low cost once they've been developed and you can keep those going if people have the commitment to the issues um it's always tough when you go when you have to defend depend on federal funding for your programs because you never know from year to year whether or not you have the money there to continue what you're doing even though it may be as successful as a face program i can see too that's right but you know one thing about i will have to say about the life skills i mean that wasn't a fed i mean it was

funded by the tribe and a private foundation almost equally funding it wasn't a large major grant um and and i think if i think there are um even private foundations that would be interested in promoting and continuing this kind of work the school in anchorage i was kind of curious to find out from you um you know the whole concept of a school within a school um how fair is that really to to native students i mean aren't you sort of separating them from the rest of the student body i mean wouldn't it be better if they were able to assimilate and do stuff with the rest of the of the student population rather than pulling them aside and separating them well i think it's i think it could be a student's choice if that school within a school were available and Alaska native students were enrolled in the school could opt either to go through the other classes or to be in you know in this uh specialized program they could choose and i think whenever uh often when it's offered people do are pleased to have it

um they would want it so i think as long as people have choices about what they do of course then you have to deal with some of the pure pressure in terms of what you know what is the you know uh the outcome of your choice but i think if people uh look at it that way and it's structured in such a way that that people have options that that should be fine it appears to me that that that Indian students in urban areas if given that opportunity would probably be very pleased yeah your background is in counseling psychology i was curious to find it from you if there were any special words of advice you had to not only counselors but teachers dealing with with students like the ones that we saw uh coming in from from reservation settings or rural settings to the to an urban setting for the first time i would imagine that their their their needs are pretty unique and that counselors and teachers should be aware of those or at least somehow be aware of the of the differences and so you you're wondering about how would account i mean in terms of how they would operate how would you what would you tell them okay well i think one i would say that trust is very big issue

and that most of the students will be operating from a position of distrust and that's not personal to them it's just the history of what's happened and uh the way people approach others that are trying to help you okay and i know i train counselors and often in training counselors you teach them how to reflect feelings and things like this and that's not at least we know from our studies that that's not seen as effective that that Indian students pretty much would like you to help them make decisions to be somewhat directive not to ask a lot of question personal questions and the students once they've sized you up as to whether you're someone that they can trust will let you in so i think part of it is you know relaxing uh your expectations and allowing the person to get to know you and if they choose to tell you things that they will they will tell you another issue is that counselors have to be very flexible in terms of where they would even work with students it's very important for for uh students to feel like you would respond to them if they ask you a question and you know at a game uh or on playground or that you'd meet with them you you don't they're not going to come to your office

so i think uh a lot of it is being being flexible not taking it personal and that you do need to understand cultural knowledge but you don't have to know in depth cultural knowledge if anything you convey that you're open if people want to talk about it and you're open if people even want to talk about issues concerning spirituality but a lot of it is how you convey your openness and flexibility in the videotape we saw students participating in a lot of physical education type of activities i think i was mentioned at the native native Olympic Games up in Alaska but how important is that when it comes to dealing with the whole child this this physical education aspect it's critical it's critical i mean you know we're looking at i mean when the medicine wheel i mean we're looking at spiritual emotional social and physical and you know if we're going to have energy if we're going to be sort of uh the peak of readiness to learn things i mean you have to you know you have to be fit in some way and it's certainly better

for a long you know long -range health and so all of this is is very critical and uh and one thing the schools are are just any oh i guess health educators are competing with this sort of you know people sitting in front of the tv all the time and or driving around in cars listening to the music that turned up i mean so that has to happen and i think when people are in good physical condition they learn a lot more right but i noticed that you also have the community being involved in this whole school within a school type concept as well as the various activities that students were involved in how important is the community it's critical a lot of these programs are only as good as they can be reinforced within the community i mean the life skills you learn all these wonderful skills but if you go home and there you're you know you're punished because of it or you're made fun of or if you're in a community where people are modeling a lot of behavior that isn't necessarily reinforcing these the sort of well -balanced you know holistic principle then you know it negates everything that's been done so it's very critical

for the community and and also you know for the sense of well -being i mean it's it's everyone working together in essence you know um we'll listen to Dr. Loughram boys uh we've run out of time and um i just really want to thank you for being here with us this afternoon it's been a pleasure and i think what you had to say was it was very very important so thank you all right i'd like to remind you in the in the audience that a one hour telephone conference with Dr. Teresa Loughram boy will follow immediately after this program to participate please call 1 -800 -516 -1276 now this program has been the last in our series Native American education strategies for change and personally it's been a real pleasure to see and explore the programs and the schools that are changing the face of Native American education and i want to thank the teachers the administrators and the staff members whose hard work is responsible for improving the education of our children i hope that we've helped you achieve your goals so thank you once again and thank you for joining us we'll see you

you Anyway

i'll find a okay yes Are there any colors on the line? Hello. Hello. Yeah. I was just watching TV. I was watching after doing my homework. Yes. And I was wondering where I could get a series of... I didn't know that they had a series. And I was wondering where I could get a copy of the series. The series of the presentations, the tapes? Yes. Well, I believe that you could get the series through the station. Is that right, Larry? Okay. K and B. W? Yes. K and M E TV. K and M E. Okay. In Albuquerque and the number is... Oh, it's the address is 1130 University.

Boulevard. Boulevard. Northeast. Northeast. Albuquerque 8702. 8 Albuquerque and then the zip is 8702. Okay. Okay. I'm a New Mexico State University graduate student and social work. And I was supposed to be studying, but I just got tired and checking in there. And I'm from Alaska, originally. Uh -huh. And I know some of those people on there. And I was wondering if there's a way that maybe they had thought about...