True Story 7.09
Native American pupils’ behavior perplexes a new teacher
The setting for this story
On a Native American reservation in a primary school staffed by Anglo12 teachers, Pamela was a new first grade teacher whose prior experience had only been with Anglo pupils. She found that these native pupils responded to her quite differently from her previous ones. Pamela explains:
A story of misaligned minds13
When I’m dealing with the entire class or a small group, these pupils are way less talkative than my Anglo kids were. I’m adapting to their reluctance to respond to my questions. But what really gets to me is that, when I try to get them to join in show-and-tell, they just shut down. Point-blank refusal. I’ve stopped trying. What a shame! Show-and-tell had been very effective with my Anglo kids.
However, if I give them reading or writing assignments at their desks, individual pupils actually are much more likely than my Anglos were to ask me questions on their own initiative, either by waving me over to their desk or by approaching my desk. This is great! But why is it happening?
Pamela’s question
Why are these Native American pupils responding to me so differently from my Anglo pupils?
Critique of story 7.09
Like all young children, the first graders at this reservation school had already internalized the relationship norms of the adults in their lives, norms animated by the high value Native Americans place on individual freedom. If you’re thinking, “Individual freedom? That sounds exactly like a key value of mainstream Americans,” you are both right and wrong: the words are identical, but their two possible meanings comprise a substantial difference.
If you’re a mainstream American like me, “individual freedom” includes that it’s acceptable for you to tell others what to do (though it’s not guaranteed that they’ll do it), and to be told what to do by others (though you won’t necessarily do it). We fully expect direction-giving to occur in senior–junior relationships – supervisor and employee, parent and youngster, etc. – but it’s also OK in more or less equal-status relationships (especially if “please” smooths the way).
Many Native Americans are not accustomed to, nor do they find acceptable, being told what to do by anyone else – anyone. So ingrained does this norm become during childhood that they also never tell anyone else what to do. As soon as a young child appears to be comprehending reasonably well what is going on in the vicinity, his or her intentions begin to be respected by parents and other adults (with a few exceptions). Rarely is a child told directly what to do or not do.
Pamela’s first graders suddenly found themselves in a situation in which their adult teacher, Pamela, decided dozens of times each day what everyone else in the room would do next. Such a pattern was unknown to these pupils! It created high ambiguity that made them uncomfortable. Worse, one of Pamela’s directives was that they engage in show-and-tell, in which one pupil was expected to seemingly usurp her leadership role – and to be in a dominant role vis-à-vis his or her peers!.
On the other hand, when all the pupils were doing desk work and Pamela was relatively passive, each pupil had an opportunity to independently decide whether or not to engage Pamela with a question or comment – which they often did.
Upper-grade teachers in this school said that, during small group projects, Native American pupils never elected a group leader yet collaborated well and efficiently completed their projects.
For thought
Show-and-tell obliges one pupil to fill a seemingly dominant role over the other pupils and even the teacher. For Pamela’s pupils, such an arrangement created a moral dilemma. If they did as Pamela expected, they’d be acting in a way that, at home, was wrong. But if they did not do as she expected, they would be disobeying their teacher. If you were one of these Native American pupils, which of these two bad options would you choose?
Related stories
Stories 1.15, 4.14, and 10.12 also discuss Native students’ classroom “passivity.” Stories 1.06 and 4.10 concern the Native American norm that no person should tell another what to do or think.
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Endnotes:
12 “Anglo” is defined in this book’s Introduction.
13 Philips, 119–21. This school was not operated by the U.S. Burean of Indian Affairs.
Full citations are available at misalignedminds.info/References.