Indian Education Response
In this reading, the focus was about Indian schooling from a boy named Junior who grew up on an Indian reservation. It consisted of many short stories of his experiences going from first to twelfth grade. And what he had to overcome while going to a white person school. Even though this is about one kid, it gives the sense of how it really was for Native American children growing up in a place full of white people. He first started going to school on the reservation and then went to a school off the reservation when he realized he wanted a higher education. He later returned to the reservation after he graduated.
Junior graduated as a valedictorian at a farm town high school in eastern Washington. When he went back to the reservation he noticed that the same people he grew up with and graduated the same year with still couldn’t read and got diplomas anyways. Some of them even got diplomas just for showing up to class every day. Even the people that did well didn’t know what to do after graduation and were scared at what the future will bring. This tells me that most people back then didn’t want a higher education and just wanted to party and have a good time. Back then, Native Americans could only get jobs on the reservation, so they knew that they wouldn’t have to go to college or get more education in order to find work.
Junior was a very smart boy and knew he loved math and school in general from a young age. So he decided to go to a school off the reservation where he knew that he would be able to learn all he wanted. He played basketball for his high school team nicknamed the “Indians” and was extremely good.
Hey Kyle,
ReplyDeleteIn some parts you acknowledge this is just a story about one person, and then in others you seem to imply that this story gives permission to make sweeping generalizations about Native Americans.
Sherman Alexie is not, as I'm sure you know claiming that his stories represent the experiences of all First Nations peoples. So, be careful about saying things thats suggest they do.
Also, make sure to double check your facts and timelines. My understanding is that besides job situations varying widely in reservations even today, Mr Alexie grew up before the huge rise in casinos and some of the economic revitalization that has come with them. So, jobs were not as prevalant on the reservation when he grew up. Also I'm not sure what reliable information we have access to that would let us know whether or not people on reservations at the time wanted to go to college or not.
Hope that all makes sense. What do you think of the short story of "Indian Education" compared to the longer The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian?
I have enjoyed both of the stories that we have read from Sherman Alexie, I have also read the full book from which “Indian Education” came from and also liked that book. His books are fun to read because they always keep you laughing and it’s hard to put them down.
ReplyDelete