I am a proud member of the San Poil Band of the Colville Confederated Tribe. I grew up on a reservation and attended Paschal Sherman Indian School. I have fond memories of learning geometry through basket weaving and studying star knowledge as a part of my science curriculum. My school emphasized the importance of aural learning skills and as a child, I developed the ability to focus and recall information as I listened to elders recite descriptive tribal tales. In the classroom, I excelled and worked hard to learn and exemplify the traditions and values of my tribe.
However, when my family and I moved from the reservation to a town an hour south of Seattle, I was faced with a harsh reality. I was nearly three years behind in reading and writing compared to my peers in my new school. Instead of embracing my differences or working with me to overcome my setbacks, many of my teachers decided that there really wasn’t anything they could do to help me. At school, I had few close friends and felt that even they didn’t quite understand me either. When it was time to apply for college, I received minimal guidance or counseling. In fact, I was never asked about my college aspirations, and no one took the time to explain the college or FASFA applications to me. Upon graduation, I had no college plans or a road map for my life after high school.
It was from these experiences that I gathered the determination to succeed, despite the odds, and recognized that the traditions of life on a reservation did not have to determine my ultimate level of achievement…
When I entered the Crazy Horse School on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, I knew I would provide a better educational experience for my students than I had received. My teachers looked at my Native culture as a deficit, but I would use my students’ as an asset… I understand how they learn and what obstacles they may encounter along the way, allowing me to exercise their strengths and quell their weaknesses…
I aspire to be a familiar face of hope and an example of promise for students facing adversity. But the work doesn’t end there, because we have so much more to do as a nation to grow culturally responsive teaching of our Native Students. They are diamonds, and they deserve teachers who excavate their strengths and allow them to shine.
Teacher Jamie Gua, on NBCNews.com, explaining why we must do more to build brighter futures for Native children — and why we shouldn’t regard any child, especially those from poor and minority backgrounds, as not being “college material”.
his March Madness, we’ll be pulling for our favorite teams and celebrating the players for their hard work and commitment – both on and off the court. And, while we may have differences in our final bracket picks, we know one thing is certain: many of the players we’ll be cheering for are student athletes who were given the opportunity to earn a quality education based on their athletic talents. – See more at: http://www.redefinedonline.org/2014/03/jalen-rose-more-school-choice-is-the-remedy-for-educational-madness/#sthash.sYjN0E2e.dpuf
This March Madness, we’ll be pulling for our favorite teams and celebrating the players for their hard work and commitment – both on and off the court. And, while we may have differences in our final bracket picks, we know one thing is certain: many of the players we’ll be cheering for are student athletes who were given the opportunity to earn a quality education based on their athletic talents… Sadly, in the United States, too many children do not have these same opportunities due to gaps in their educational experience that lead to a lack of fundamental knowledge and skills – those same skills that are necessary to be accepted into college and to succeed in life.
That’s why as we focus our attention on March Madness, I hope to shed a light on the true “madness” in this country – the fact that every 26 seconds a student drops out of school… To put it into perspective, an estimated 366,369 kids will drop out of high school while we watch the 63 games throughout the tournament. This is madness.
Charter school operator and former NBA star Jalen Rose, a member of the University of Michigan’s legendary Fab Five of the 1990s, pointing out on the pages of RedefinEd why expanding choice is critical to helping children attain brighter futures.
Loads of interesting stuff in this new New America Foundation report on graduate student debt–a major and under-acknowledged contributor to sky-high national student debt levels. But what strikes me is that a lot of the growth in this sort of graduate debt is directly related to public and licensure policies.
Consider: Fully 16 percent of graduate student debt holders hold a master’s degree in education–many as a direct result of certification policies that require individuals to earn such credentials to become teachers through alternative route programs and/or to earn a certain number of graduate credentials every so many years in order to keep their credential. Others earn masters degrees because of the incentive to do so embedded in most teacher collective bargaining agreements. The crazy thing is, research suggests most of these master’s degrees aren’t doing anything to improve their recipients’ actual skills or effectiveness as educators!
Sara Mead, in Education Week, noting how traditional teacher recruiting and compensation is both costly for kids and teachers, too.
Sadly, in the United States, too many children do not have these same opportunities due to gaps in their educational experience that lead to a lack of fundamental knowledge and skills – those same skills that are necessary to be accepted into college and to succeed in life.
That’s why as we focus our attention on March Madness, I hope to shed a light on the true “madness” in this country – the fact that every 26 seconds a student drops out of school.
Far too many of our minority students are not receiving the education they deserve because for many, the idea of attending a quality school is simply unattainable. I believe that this is unacceptable.
To put it into perspective, an estimated 366,369 kids will drop out of high school while we watch the 63 games throughout the tournament.
This is madness.
- See more at: http://www.redefinedonline.org/2014/03/jalen-rose-more-school-choice-is-the-remedy-for-educational-madness/#sthash.sYjN0E2e.dpuf
Sadly, in the United States, too many children do not have these same opportunities due to gaps in their educational experience that lead to a lack of fundamental knowledge and skills – those same skills that are necessary to be accepted into college and to succeed in life.
That’s why as we focus our attention on March Madness, I hope to shed a light on the true “madness” in this country – the fact that every 26 seconds a student drops out of school.
Far too many of our minority students are not receiving the education they deserve because for many, the idea of attending a quality school is simply unattainable. I believe that this is unacceptable.
To put it into perspective, an estimated 366,369 kids will drop out of high school while we watch the 63 games throughout the tournament.
This is madness.
- See more at: http://www.redefinedonline.org/2014/03/jalen-rose-more-school-choice-is-the-remedy-for-educational-madness/#sthash.sYjN0E2e.dpuf