Sherman Alexie On Native American Education
Education in Native American Societies:
A History of Neglect
Timothy Bateson
Southern New Hampshire University
*** The titles “Indian”, “American Indian”, and “Native American” will be used interchangeably. When the word “Indian” is used it is not a label or derogatory term, merely an abbreviated version of the full title.
The cultural assimilation of American Indians is the biggest scar that the United States of America carries to this day, dating back to the Pilgrims and Plymouth Rock. Four centuries of population decline in American Indians was due to America’s ignorance and avaricious ideas, all the while being blinded by Manifest Destiny. Native Americans were …show more content…
The narrator is a small, disfigured, and disproportionate child who is nicknamed Junior. The book’s main theme is about education in Native American youth. Aside from the page by page cartoons and the enthusiasm on adolescent youth humor, the book is essentially about the transformation that Junior undergoes by switching from a Spokane Native American Reservational school to a private caucasian “White” school. There is a particular chapter where Junior is still at the Indian public school, Wellpinit. Junior is given a textbook in class and his jaw drops at the name he finds in it. His mother’s first and maiden last name are Sharpied on the front inside of the cover. In short, Junior goes balistic and throws the book at the teacher, thus creating a series of events that inspire Junior to reach the decision that he must change schools to survive. Before he transfers schools though, the teacher he threw the book at comes to meet Junior on his front porch. He and Junior have a long discussion, but in the end “Mr. P” tells junior “Son…You’re going to find more and more hope the farther and farther you walk away from this sad, sad, sad reservation” (Alexie, 2007). Junior should not have to transfer schools and go through hell for being Indian. Throughout “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” (Alexie, 2007), Junior is ridiculed and neglected for being Native American not only by his peers, but his teachers as well. There is a quote that makes one quiver and is much too vulgar to state in an educational composition, which happens to be a true statement that was said to the
A History of Neglect
Timothy Bateson
Southern New Hampshire University
*** The titles “Indian”, “American Indian”, and “Native American” will be used interchangeably. When the word “Indian” is used it is not a label or derogatory term, merely an abbreviated version of the full title.
The cultural assimilation of American Indians is the biggest scar that the United States of America carries to this day, dating back to the Pilgrims and Plymouth Rock. Four centuries of population decline in American Indians was due to America’s ignorance and avaricious ideas, all the while being blinded by Manifest Destiny. Native Americans were …show more content…
The narrator is a small, disfigured, and disproportionate child who is nicknamed Junior. The book’s main theme is about education in Native American youth. Aside from the page by page cartoons and the enthusiasm on adolescent youth humor, the book is essentially about the transformation that Junior undergoes by switching from a Spokane Native American Reservational school to a private caucasian “White” school. There is a particular chapter where Junior is still at the Indian public school, Wellpinit. Junior is given a textbook in class and his jaw drops at the name he finds in it. His mother’s first and maiden last name are Sharpied on the front inside of the cover. In short, Junior goes balistic and throws the book at the teacher, thus creating a series of events that inspire Junior to reach the decision that he must change schools to survive. Before he transfers schools though, the teacher he threw the book at comes to meet Junior on his front porch. He and Junior have a long discussion, but in the end “Mr. P” tells junior “Son…You’re going to find more and more hope the farther and farther you walk away from this sad, sad, sad reservation” (Alexie, 2007). Junior should not have to transfer schools and go through hell for being Indian. Throughout “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” (Alexie, 2007), Junior is ridiculed and neglected for being Native American not only by his peers, but his teachers as well. There is a quote that makes one quiver and is much too vulgar to state in an educational composition, which happens to be a true statement that was said to the