The Santa Fe New Mexican from Santa Fe, New Mexico • 100

Page 12 THE NEW MEXICAN Sunday February 16. 2003 INDIAN EDUCATION AT THE CROSS Tesuque Day School ROADS Voices I personally feel that weve got to move out of the way that weve been assimilated to believe that education only comes from the European perspectives. Myself, I grew up with a father who never spoke English at all. But he was in my public school at least onpe or twice a week to see how I was doing. Im also a product of the government boarding school so I know what its like to be raised in a very oppressive environment in which your language and cultural identity are destroyed.

But thank God for my father, who made certain that he was in the public schools. So, for myself, I invite parents to come invite them to walk the school hallways. I tell them you have every right to be here as every non-native parent. Make it your place. Anna Dorame, left, who teaches kindergarten through third grade at Tesuque Pueblo Day School In Tesuque, helps Victor Gonzalez, 7, with an alphabet puzzle.

Dorame says Its Important to create a homey environment so students arent too intimidated to learn. Martha Many Grey Horses Canadian Blackfoot, coordinator of Indian Education research, Albuquerque Public Schools Little progress has been made in the centuries-long attempt to remake the Indian into an Anglo, and correspondingly little progress in the Anglos understanding of the Indian and the reasons why he has resisted the melting-pot process. Differences in values persist and can be expected to persist. Emphasis on cooperativeness rather than competitiveness; the nonmaterial values rather than material; a contemplative rather than a utilitarian philosophy; the strong extended family as opposed to the Anglo, isolated, nuclear family; respect for age and experience rather than the worship of youth; emphasis on sharing rather than on acquiring these values with their accompanying attitudes and behaviors mark the sharp differences between the lifestyles of Indians -and Anglos. Tesuque Pueblo Day School makes efforts to weave Indian culture with modern education, but some say a lack of diversity might lead to isolation By Jenna Naranjo The New Mexican i Anne M.

Smith Indian Education in New Mexico, published in 1968 If it is true that society as a whole in this case each separate tribal society with its own history, language and system of beliefs and behavior is inescapably the major shaper and educator of a child educational policy should seek to strengthen and develop and ennoble the social structure. The opposite strategy efforts to weaken or bypass the Indian social structures and lessen its influence on the child inevitably deprives him of his main source of growth and strength. ESUQUE PUEBLO Aesthetically, the Tesuque Pueblo Day School isnt much different than its public-school counterparts. A few dusty-brown portable buildings are nestled beneath a grove of trees, and an old adobe building sits in the heart of the campus. There is a playground, a library and a room equipped with computers.

The school cook says pizza is a lunchtime favorite and, during recess, the laughs and screams of children pierce the air. But the schools staff say there is more here than meets the eye. They say the tiny BIA school provides an optimal education for American Indian students. With 25 day schools similar to Tesuque and 16 boarding schools, New Mexico has the second-highest number of BIA-funded schools in the United States. Arizona has the most.

The school, officially known as the Te Tsu Geh Oweenge Day School, was established in the 1950s, but area residents have been seeking an education there as early as the 1800s. Within the boundaries of Tesuque Pueblo, the 10-member staff oversees the education of 19 American Indian students enrolled in kindergarten through sixth grade. While the schools population is small, size is one of several attributes woven into a traditional education. This is a teachers dream, said Glenda Dickey, an instructor with 25 years of experience who left retirement to teach at the day school. She heads a class of fourth- through sixth-graders who differ from their public-school peers.

These kids still swing and play tag, she said. Absent are cliques, makeup obsessions and premature fixations with love. Within one classroom, Dickey instructs several reading groups and one level of math, but that doesnt mean older students arent learning more advanced concepts. These kids have already done geometry and algebra, she said of the entire group. Anna Dorame instructs kindergarten through third grade.

My husband went to school here and my inlaws went to school here, she said. Dorames class is set in an adobe schoolhouse built in the 1930s by community residents. Years ago it served as home to the schools teachers, she said. Julio Gonzalez, 5, a kindergarten student at Tesuque Pueblo Day School, plays with blocks during Dorames class. With 25 day schools similar to Tesuque and 16 boarding schools, New Mexico has the second-highest number of BIA-funded schools In the United States.

Arizona has the most. Bruce Gaarder In 1967, Gaarder, of the U.S. Office of Education, denounced the practice of alienating children from their culture, which he said creates misfits in either society. He recommended Indians participate in running schools that offer bilingual education. We are shocked at what we discovered.

have developed page after page of statistics. These cold figures mark a stain on our national conscience, a stain which has spread slowly for hundreds of years. They tell a story, to be sure. But they cannot tell the whole story. They cannot, for example, tell of the despair, the frustration, the hopelessness, the poignancy, of children who want to learn but are not taught; of adults who try to read but have no one to teach them; of families which want to stay together but are forced apart; or of 9-year-old children who want neighborhood schools but are sent thousands of miles away to remote and alien boarding schools.

1969 Report of the U.S. Senate Committee on Labor and Public Welfare, Indian Education: A National Tragedy and Challenge The authors That isnt the case today Dorame lives on the pueblo with her husband but she said its important to create a homey environment so students arent too intimidated to learn. In one half of the room, a group of four older Students sits silently writing letters to Santa while listening to Christmas music. Across the way, kindergarten students and first-graders sprawl across the carpeted floor, piecing together a puzzle of the solar system. Although principal Joe Robledo III said learning opportunities at the day school are optimal, not everyone agrees.

Geronima Ortiz of Thos and San Juan pueblos works as an Indian Education administrator for the Espanola School District. She said day schools do not provide enough cultural diversity. This world is not made up of Native Americans its made up of all kinds of people, and you have to deal with all kinds of people, she said. Ortiz said she has noticed more parents choosing public schools over community day schools. This year alone, the Tesuque Day School suffered a severe drop in attendance.

Last year, 34 students attended the school; this year the number is 19, Robledo said. Freddy Cardenas, principal of the San Ide-fonso Pueblo Day School, said day schools provide an education comparable to private schools regardless of their lack of diversity. The San Idlefonso school is similar to the Tesuque Day School in size and philosophy. The pueblo is their culture, and thats where they learn to value their history, Cardenas said. In public school you become part of the masses; theres less time for culture.

A true sense comes from knowing who you are. I would take my kids, and theyre not Native, he said. Its a good place to be." Diana Hail PROFILE Diana Heil, 36, of St. Louis is a graduate of the University of Missoun and lived on the Navajo Nation for nearly three years as a reporter. She covers education for The New Mexican.

The importance of language Jenna Naranjo Jenna Naranjo, 24, of Espafiola is a graduate of Pojoaque High School and The University of New Mexico. She covers tnbal and Native issues for The New Mexican. Delfino Casiquito is a gregaridus 10-year-old who will sing you a song or hand you his e-mail address the first time you meet him. Once a student at the local BIA Day School, Casiquito attends San Diego Riverside Charter School because his parents felt its curriculum was better. At the day school he seemed to be memorizing things more than learning the concepts, says his mother, Audry Casiquito.

Now a fifth-grader, Casiquito made the honor roll for the first time. As a reward for his hard work, his parents bought him a Denver Broncos jacket, which he wears proudly. Audry Casiquito and her husband, Warren, say they are happy their son seems to be taking school more seriously. They agree that when their son sets his mind on something, hell usually accomplish it. Like most kids his age Casiquito hasnt set his mind on a career, but he thinks he might be a firefighter or even serve Jemez Pueblo as a tribal official'.

In order to accomplish those things, or anything at all, he says he will have to learn the language of the tribe. When you grow up theyre going to talk to you in Towa and theyre going to waqt you to say something but you wont be able to say anything, says Casiquito. You wont be able to be governor or a policeman. Youll just be plain old you. Warren Honaberger Warren Honsbeigsr Warren Honaberger, 21, is from Alcalde and graduated from the Native Amencan Prep School in Rowe.

He plans to continue his education this fall at UNM. Kathy De la Torre I rrni i w'-wrfi ugmw mb.