Chapter 12: The Alternatives

from the book "RootEd: How Trauma Impacts Learning and Society" by S.R. Zelenz

Creative Collaborative Environments

In this chapter I will criticize the competitive emphasis that exists in current schools such as letter grading, standardized tests, etc., in contrast with more natural approaches such as experiential learning, student leadership, and intrinsic motivation. First and foremost, "the teacher cannot be the only expert in the classroom. To deny students their own expert knowledge is to disempower them" (Delpit, 2006, pp. 32-33). Jacobs reinforces and adds that "ultimately, most studies conclude that transformative learning is most apt to occur when courage is associated with any and all aspects of being, thinking, doing, and believing" (Jacobs, 1998, p. 169). In order to obtain such transformative learning within the classroom, the teacher must allow the students to participate in the teaching and exploring of material or ideas, even if it means that the students may find their original thoughts incorrect upon completion of the discovery period. The opportunity to participate as a teacher also reinforces the learning for the student who teaches. Another aspect to consider is the environment. Students need a supportive environment which enables them to freely express who they are, while simultaneously enabling them to engage in the responsibility of their learning experiences. If the classroom offers support and life exploration without coercion, the students will naturally grow with a sense of responsibility (Harrison, 2002).

Some teachers have experimented with different approaches in their mainstream classrooms. Researchers such as Philips have spent considerable time on Native American lands, observing, and listening to the interactions of the students in the classroom as well as in their tribal community. She describes how students respond when given the ability to control their own educational process.

The Indian student verbal participation in group projects was not only much greater than in either whole-class or small-groups encounters, but also qualitatively different. As a rule, one could not determine who had been appointed as leaders of the Indian groups on the basis of the organization of interaction, and when the students were asked to pick a leader, they usually ignored the instructions and got on with the task at hand. In essence, they transformed the group-project organizational format so that it could no longer even be said to be a variant of the small-group participant structure. There was never any conflict over who should be directing activity or over who should be carrying out what task. Suggestions were either ignored or supported verbally and carried out. The students worked quickly and effectively, and completed their tasks without intervention from the teacher. They often turned the activity into a competition between the groups, verbalizing their desire to finish what they were doing ahead of the other groups (Philips, 1983, pp. 119-120).

She then contrasted their behavior to those of their Anglo-Saxon counterparts. The behavior was strikingly different. The Anglo children would attempt to identify a leader quickly, who then would control interactions with the other students. Students often disagreed with approaches to the task, and leaders were challenged with administering their authority. This behavior resulted in the teacher's involvement in resolving disputes. The students did not complete the tasks in the allotted time and did not engage in the same type of competition as their Native American counterparts did (Philips, 1983).

Community Based Education

Another observation found by many researchers is that non-Western educational traditions utilize communal or community focused learning. They do not identify educational specialists (teachers). Education is deemed a social responsibility of the entire community. If their culture did utilize formal educational structures, the instructors did not receive formal training (Reagan, 2005). Indigenous education relies on unity to inspire a self-realized potential that intertwines with the community, the self, and humanity's place in the world (Mezerow, 1991).

There are numerous varieties of community-based education that also work in conjunction with collaborative learning environment philosophies. Many of these describe themselves as democratic or learner-focused schools. Students are given options for classes they can take or suggest classes they would like to have. If they can bring together enough students interested in the subject, then a teacher chosen by the students who also agrees to teach the class will create the student-generated class. Once they commit to the class, they must complete it. They chose it. They created it. They must finish it. If the student cannot find others to join them, they can pursue the topic on their own and find a mentor in the school who is willing to work with them on their studies. There are no limitations to student learning focus and the focus frequently encompasses numerous subjects simultaneously, so it is a whole-curriculum type of learning experience, rather than a segmented learning experience. This helps the student to thoroughly understand the concepts and be able to apply them to real world situations. 

Grades are not frequently given in such schools. If they are required by the government to issue grades, they frequently will issue them solely for the government, and give the students and parents the option to see these grades. They have found that by giving grades, the students are less motivated and become less cooperative with their fellow classmates. One could easily say grades also incite narcissistic behavior. Students who feel inadequate may try to manipulate the teacher or fellow students to make themselves feel more powerful in order to make up for their feelings of failure. That is not to say that failure isn’t a helpful learning experience. It is more impactive through failure in action rather than a piece of paper with a letter. Failure in action offers an immediate opportunity to assess the issues in real time, analyze for possible solutions, and the chance to correct the issue immediately. This isn’t punitive, but immersive learning in real time. 

These schools also infrequently use testing. Testing is used only as the students and the teacher feel it is necessary to ensure learning, but more often than not, learning is demonstrated through the daily efforts and interactions among students as well as the teacher. Since there is no competitive hierarchy to prove one knows more than others, the entire group (who chose this class and may have arranged it) are invested in the entire learning process and facilitate it collaboratively. Anyone who misunderstands something will be identified throughout the process and aided by peers or the teacher at the moment of discovery to help them to understand. This doesn’t have to involve the entire class. It could be a student peer helping the student, or it could be the teacher. They can even do this outside of class time and often it is done during their more communal activities. There is no limitation to learning time and no limit to methodology. 

Governance

Students were also charged with the management of student behavior. The teachers and administrators participate, but this democratic environment ensures that everyone has a voice and is heard. This is where our original student councils derived from. These schools hold what they frequently call “meetings.” If there were issues that day or week, they would bring the issue before the school in a meeting to discuss the problem, and everyone has the opportunity to suggest solutions. After all options are heard, they vote on a group decision. The decision is then implemented. This means that school rules are voted on by the students and teachers combined. Students are more inclined to follow their own rules because they also chose them. If they violate them, they have to face their peers as well as the adults to have the group meeting to decide what should be done. It has been found that students are more humane to their fellow classmates than traditional schools are with their punitive measures. As a result, students do not continue to behave poorly. Classroom behavior and classroom management isn’t a real issue.

While it goes without saying that not all Native American tribes are or were the same and this is likewise true for all the African tribes, I choose to focus generically on these two cultures because  broadly speaking, both come from a more chronologically recent tribal living standard, both tribal cultures utilized generally similar educational methods, and both have statistically scored lower on standardized examinations than their Asian and Caucasian counterparts (National Assessment of Educational Progress data, 2007). In these respects, they are similar.

Tribal Concepts

I will first discuss what the general aspects of indigenous education were for both the Native American people and the African, then go on to cover in some detail the role that epigenetics may be playing in Native Americans’ and African Americans' success (or lack thereof) in the Western-style education system, then finally conclude with a potential solution to this challenge which suits these cultures' epigenetic and historic traditions while encouraging their highest self-expression in our modern society.

Another term that has been used in light of the experience of Native American cultures is "ethnostress." Ethnostress, as defined by Cajete, "is primarily a result of a psychological response pattern that stems from the disruption of a cultural life and belief system that one cares about deeply" (Cajete, 1999, p. 190). This disruption and creation of ethnostress occurs quickly yet continues to be transmitted through future generations. Although one might be able to notice the effects immediately, the long-term effects can vary and impact future generations' perceptions of their own self-image and their understanding of their culture's global identity and place in the world (Tribal Sovereignty Associates, The Power Within People, 1986).

Pre-Colonial Learning

Compulsory education began in the 1850's with the primary focus of providing much-needed factory workers for the budding industrial revolution (Gatto, 1992). One exception to this purpose was the boarding schools which were created to remove the Native American children from their tribes, and the primary intent was to "Kill the Indian in him and save the man" - Captain Richard H. Pratt (Adams, 1995, p. 52). Freire elsewhere points out that violence has never been initiated by the oppressed. Rather, the violence is initiated by the oppression itself (Freire, 1970, p. 55). More specifically, those initiators of the compulsory education laws and boarding schools did so to force change upon all cultures. The aim was to create a unified nation with one cultural identity. 

Prior to colonization, these societies had a common method in educating their youth. They utilized oral tradition, a communal approach to childhood education, and non-formal educational experiences (Reagan, 2005). Another reason I chose to focus on the two generalized tribal cultures of Africans and Native American people is that these two groups were both imposed upon by Western colonization. Africans were uprooted from their native land and shipped to North America while the Native American peoples had their land, way of life, and culture taken away by the European colonists who displaced them in North America. Both received significant life-threatening shocks from their prior existence. This shock manifestly included their educational practices. I will first discuss African culture previous to European slave raids.

Pre-Colonial Africans

Pre-Colonial Africans, broadly speaking, utilized four major types of political organizations: stateless societies, chiefdoms, kingdoms, and empires (Ayittey, 1991). The most unlike our Western approach is the stateless society. These stateless societies were intended to prevent autocracy and tyranny. With no "authority figure" representing the tribe, communal governance flourished (Ayittey,1991). These stateless societies were instinctively democratic in nature (Williams, 1987). This statelessness brought about a natural evolution of democracy. It was therefore in the societies without chiefs or kings, where African democracy was born and where the concept that the people are sovereign was as natural as breathing. This is why in traditional Africa, the rights of the individual never come before the rights of the community. These self-governing people did not have a utopian society in any idealistic sense. Theirs was a practical society in every way. Their laws were natural laws, and order and justice prevailed because the society could not otherwise survive. Theirs was not a theory, but a government by the people and it was a government for the people (Williams, 1987).

It would become obvious then that education in traditional Africa would prepare the children to live in such a society. Everything that the child was taught involved socialization in the material and spiritual sense, taught the child to think collectively, and progressed with the natural development of the child as they matured (Moumouni, 1968). The effectiveness of this education was possible because of its very close relationship with life. It was through social acts (production) and social relationships (family life and group activities) that the education of the child or adolescent took place, so that he was instructed and educated simultaneously. To the extent that a child learned everywhere and all the time, instead of learning in circumstances determined in advance as to place and time, outside of the productive and social world, he was truly in the "school of life," in the most concrete and real sense (Moumouni, 1968).

Another educational component that reserved high importance in many African tribes was the development of character in children. Fafunwa identified this as "the corner-stone of African education" (Fafunwa, 1974, p. 21). "Sociability, integrity, honesty, courage, solidarity, endurance, ethics and above all the concept of honor are, among others, the moral qualities constantly demanded, examined, judged and sanctioned, in ways which depend on the intellectual level and capacities of the child and adolescent" (Moumouni, 1968, p. 22). Okeke stated similar sentiments in his writing on "Traditional Education in Igboland". In his writing, he emphasized sociability, truthfulness, bravery, stamina, the ability to maintain humility and irreproachable conduct was of such importance that all members of the community would take it upon themselves to address the child (praise or correction) as necessary. There was no separation of responsibility in the rearing of children. (Okeke, 1982)

Education in Africa was not separated from living. Just as the political structure was communal, so was the educational approach. Education was very interpersonally collaborative and connected very closely with the natural and spiritual life of the community. The implementation and focus of education were characteristically multivalent. Progress was gradual and conformed with the child's physical, emotional, and mental development (Moumouni, 1968). Education had to be practical and germane to actual life in the community. In "pre-colonial settings, such education was generally highly effective" (Reagan, 2005, p. 62).

What made this type of education effective? The entire focus of the lessons was imminently practical and therefore applied directly to the child's life, even to their and their tribe's very survival. There was an immediate and obvious purpose to it. The children learned everywhere all the time. This culture, therefore, could be said to embrace whole life learning.

The story the Leavers have been enacting here (earth) for the past three million years isn't a story of conquest and rule. Enacting it doesn't give them power. Enacting it gives them lives that are satisfying and meaningful to them. This is what you'll find if you go among them. They're not seething with discontent and rebellion, not incessantly wrangling over what should be allowed and what forbidden, not forever accusing each other of not living the right way, not living in terror of each other, not going crazy because their lives seem empty and pointless, not having to stupefy themselves with drugs to get through the days, not inventing a new religion every week to give them something to hold on to, not forever searching for something to do or something to believe in that will make their lives worth living. And - I repeat - this is not because they live so close to nature or have no formal government or because they're innately noble. This is simply because they're enacting a story that works well for people - a story that worked well for three million years and that still works well where the Takers haven't yet managed to stamp it out (Quinn, 1992, pp.147-148). 

Daniel Quinn's Ishmael describes Leavers as the indigenous cultures and the Takers as the "civilized" society. This theme is actually found frequently in many Hollywood films and numerous stories.

Pre-Colonial North Americans

Similar to African political structure, Native American cultures also tended to be what we now call democratic. For example, the Iroquois Indians are known to have used a democratic system. In fact, this system is what the United States' founding fathers utilized to create the democratic governmental structure that we have today. "Although each tribe had leaders, they did not have control over the population but acted instead in accordance with the wishes of the tribe" (Caskey, Rapida, Wubbold, 2001).

Education in Native American cultures encompassed the complete person which meant awareness of a mind, a body, and a spirit. The goal was not merely to acquire specific skills, but to learn how to be a complete human being. The belief systems were very deeply imbued with spirituality, meaning every physical thing was endowed with a spiritual component.  It was believed that a person's mind, body and spirit must be in harmony in order to have wellness. Without this harmony, it was thought that anything learned could be used to hurt others. "Knowledge without the spiritual core is a very dangerous thing" (Forbes, 1979, p. 11). Another important factor is that each person was also considered to be their own teacher and so the lessons learned were connected to individual life experience (as with the African approach) (Cajete, 1999).

What made this type of education effective? Students learned how to become self-reliant, independent, aware, and connected to their community. It was education for living that addressed each aspect of the person. Skills were more easily acquired because the student was harmonized in his or her body, mind, and spirit. Native American cultures, therefore, also embraced whole life learning.

Native American and African students came from very different yet similar educational belief systems prior to this colonization. In the Native American cultures, students learned how to become self-reliant, independent, aware, and connected to their community. It was education for living that addressed each aspect of the person. Skills were more easily acquired because the student was harmonized in his or her body, mind, and spirit (Cajete, 1994; Reagan, 2005). Native American cultures, therefore, embraced whole life learning. The African child's lessons were imminently practical and therefore applied directly to the child's life, even their and their tribes' very survival. There was an immediate and obvious purpose to it (Reagan, 2005). The children learned everywhere all the time. This culture, therefore, could be said to embrace whole life learning as well. Both cultures had immediate purpose and application to their education. Upon subjection to the Westernized educational systems, they no longer had immediate purpose and application to their education. This is a cultural shock to their historically natural learning styles and methods.

The Western mechanistic separation-oriented way of teaching, learning and living is very contrary to what the African and Native American cultures were all about prior to colonization. It is no surprise that they would have difficulty adapting to something so completely foreign to their historically successful way of understanding and living life. What is more fascinating to me, is that their holistic way of living and learning is perfectly aligned with the new concepts recently discovered with the realization of quantum physics. 

European settlers had dismissed the Africans' and Native American peoples' way of living and understanding as something antiquated that would delay progress. This very Newtonian view of the world propelled by Western schools is now being proven drastically incomplete and has contributed greatly to the physical destruction of our planet (Kornblith, 1997). The product of such schools are students who do not see the whole picture. They are so narrowly focused on specific subject concentration that they do not realize the implications of these efforts on other very important areas of life. Indigenous education relies on unity to inspire a self-realized potential that intertwines with the community, the self, and humanity's place in the world (Mezerow, 1991).

Oppression

African and Native American children were initially forced into colonized or Western-style educational institutions starting in the mid-1800's. Some were completely removed from their families and cultures. Native American children were forced to speak English, cut their hair, wear western-style clothing, and punished for speaking their native tongue. "Only by attending boarding school could Indian youth, stripped bare of their tribal heritage, take to heart the inspiring lessons of white civilization. The educational solution to the Indian problem appeared to be at hand" (Adams, 1995, p. 59). This initial exposure to Western-style educational institutions, not to mention the genocide described by Guenter Lewey, could easily have created a traumatic enough experience to affect future generations and their abilities or desires to resist conforming to Westernized education.

Thus, according to Ward Churchill, a Professor of Ethnic Studies at the University of Colorado, the reduction of the North American Indian population from an estimated 12 million in 1500 to barely 237,000 in 1900 represents a "vast genocide . . . , the most sustained on record." By the end of the 19th century, writes David E. Stannard, a historian at the University of Hawaii, Native Americans had undergone the "worst human holocaust the world had ever witnessed, roaring across two continents non-stop for four centuries and consuming the lives of countless tens of millions of people." In the judgment of Lenore A. Stiffarm and Phil Lane, Jr., "there can be no more monumental example of sustained genocide—certainly none involving a 'race' of people as broad and complex as this—anywhere in the annals of human history." (Lewey, 2004, para. 3)

John Holt alluded to the notion that some children were intentionally withholding their intelligence and abilities from their rulers (teachers, etc.) as a means to declare their minds free of their enslaved bodies (Holt, 1964). Perhaps some students do intentionally withhold their full capacity from the educational institutions that demand their attendance. I believe, however, that with the emergence of epigenetics research, it will be found that these students are unconsciously resisting the authoritarian school model due to epigenetic pain memory. I also feel that they are resisting this Western-style educational format out of sheer subconscious survival instinct. Freire states that:

The oppressors do not perceive their monopoly on having more as a privilege which dehumanizes others and themselves. They cannot see that, in the egoistic pursuit of having as a possessing class, they suffocate in their own possessions and no longer are; they merely have. For them, having more is an inalienable right, a right they acquired through their own "effort," with their "courage to take risks." If others do not have more, it is because they are incompetent and lazy, and worst of all is their unjustifiable ingratitude towards the "generous gestures" of the dominant class. Precisely because they are "ungrateful" and "envious," the oppressed are regarded as potential enemies who must be watched (Freire, 1970, p. 59).

 I agree with Freire's view on oppressed peoples and so believe that it is very likely that the African and Native American peoples (students) are instinctively resisting the education that was created by their Western oppressors in America. They somehow know deep down that it is detrimental to their own survival to succumb to this hierarchical structure which intentionally kept their people oppressed for generations. 

Tribal Culture

All people come from tribes. In America, the general population primarily identifies Native Americans as the only tribal people. This is a direct result of compulsory education in America. The influx of immigrants around the turn of the 20th century brought an increased pressure on schools to unify instruction. Simultaneously, the effort to “kill the Indian and save the man” meant that the eradication of tribal culture in America was also to be abolished. It would appear that the purveyors of education may have vainly attempted to create a unified nation by removing all people’s tribal identity in order to create one narrative. This includes all of the European tribes as well. 

It is easy to see how effective this has been with the White population in America. Most may have some concept of what their ancestral culture may have been, but they don’t really know much about their beliefs or traditions. The countries in Europe that currently hold fast to their traditions are frequently looked down upon by Americans as simple or uneducated. This was intentional. Without having reinforced the denial of ancestral traditions, unification of the American population could not be met. This can also be found in the numerous African Americans who actually do not know which African nation or tribe their own ancestors have come from. This is why you will see African American people do things that align with the same goals and objectives as the White population. In this manner, education has been effective. The goal was to reinforce a similar aspirational focus point in all students. To give them the same traditions to celebrate with and to unify the nation with a common religious focus, Christianity. 

It is also easy to see the way in which Americans behave fearfully and aggressively toward immigrants who still remain steadfast in their cultural heritage while living in America. The immigrants are mocked for their clothing, for their language, for their holidays, and for eating different foods. This is a clear example of narcissistic injury in the citizens who feel they have to reinforce one belief system since their own was taken from them in previous generations. 

Additionally, immigrants tend to be business owners. They do not typically come to America seeking jobs. Some do, but many have family-owned businesses that they run as a group. This is how they were also supporting their families in their homeland. This is quite common in many non-Western nations. Western nations tend to have education systems that promote the creation of employees, not the creation of business owners. 

This is interesting when looking at Asian cultures. They had compulsory education first. They also have family-owned businesses. There is a balance in these nations that seems to encourage both finding work through increased education and family-owned business. Perhaps the ideal reason for having an employer is the belief that earnings will be higher. This certainly can be true but isn’t always the case. They do seem to be highly competitive to the extent that their suicide rates are the highest among school children worldwide (World Health Organization, 2019). The World Health Organization (2019) states that “suicide is the second leading cause of death among 15–29-year-olds in 2016.” The highest suicide rate in the same age group in America is found with the American Indian/Alaskan Native women (American Psychological Association, 2012).

Learning as Science

John Dewey is heralded by educators across the nation as someone who promoted healthy learning. Although this is true, much of his work has been ignored by the modern schooling system. In his book, “How We Think” (1910), Dewey explained childhood learning as a modern representation of scientific thought. His description of this process consisted of five steps. 

• A felt difficulty

• Its location and definition

• Suggestions for possible solution

• Development by reasoning of the bearings of the suggestion

• Further observation and experiment leading to its acceptance or rejection; that is, the conclusion of belief or disbelief. 

This is now known as the modern scientific method. Dewey’s intention wasn’t for this to be exclusive to scientific inquiry. He was describing how people think, which includes children. Alison Gopnik (1996) wrote The Scientist as Child stating, “that scientists are big children.” Dewey saw the classroom as a laboratory. This method can be seen in popular Montessori education, which has been around since 1912. Dewey also pointed out that the teachers were also experimenting with the students in their classrooms in order to test new ideas and material (Dewey, 1897). As such, students and teachers were collaborative in classroom experimentation. Dewey found that when children and teachers were given free rein to foster spontaneity, it gave the students the opportunity to create novel solutions (Dewey, 1915). Psychologists in the late 1800’s included Darwin’s work on evolution in their understanding of how spontaneous ideas were critical to mental development. “Child study” found that when experimenting with children, the children were not filled with self-conscious hesitations the way that adults were. Their ability to communicate and banter ideas helps them to learn and explore ideas. He found thinking to be very social in nature. Schools should be a community of co-investigators since all learning is inclusive of the society in which the application is immediate.

Guides

The predominant aspects found in the previously mentioned methods are highly focused on respecting the child. To that end, if a child is respected, they also learn how to respect. When children are allowed to respect their own interests, curiosity, autonomy, and physical body, they develop healthy boundaries and know how to respect healthy boundaries in others. They learn to collaborate, work out solutions respectfully, and inquire without feeling shame. This is the opposite of the dominance model found in most school settings and family homes. This also teaches the students to respond to what is asked of them instead of reacting. 

There are numerous schools around the world that offer this type of educational format. They are categorized as democratic schools. Democratic in that the students have equal voice in their educational experience and the management of their educational society. More independent-minded families will choose to do what is known as unschooling. Unschooling does not exclude the attendance of school. Unschooling respects the child’s interests, and the parent guides the child through support of their interests. They do not teach utilizing curriculum unless the child is interested in learning that way. Instead, they provide resources and opportunities for the child to explore their interest the way that pulls out their highest scientific inquiry capacity. Then there are some families who take this to a global level. These families are utilizing unschooling (with or without curriculum), but also exposing their children to different countries and cultures in order to expand their child’s learning and comprehension of the world in which they live. Worldschooling is also similar to the way in which nomadic tribes explored and survived. It is as natural as the migration of birds and very strongly rooted in human behavior throughout history. 

Another subset focuses on peaceful parenting. This is a method of parenting that does not utilize punishment, but nurtures parent and child relationships. Adults learn to utilize appropriate responses that correlate with the child’s current developmental abilities. This relationship is built on a strong foundation of love, trust, and respect. Parents model empathy and cooperate with their children in finding solutions that work for the entire family’s needs. Adults have no more say than the children. Everyone’s needs are met, and no one feels controlled, ignored, or disempowered.  Strategies that peaceful parents utilize look like the following: 

• Listening instead of assuming

• Guiding instead of controlling

• Connecting instead of punishing

• Encouraging instead of demanding or ordering

• Responding instead of reacting

• Parent and child discover solutions to problems together instead of children being punished for problems. 

• Children learn from their mistakes rather than being punished for them. 

Children raised in such an environment develop resiliency and become healthy adults who are capable of respecting themselves and others equally. Parents who have opted for this method also find that they heal their own childhood wounds and heal from trauma experienced early on in life. The goal is to build relationships that foster the following traits:

• Compassion

• Emotional regulation

• Intrinsic motivation

• Critical thinking skills

• Conflict resolution skills

• Resiliency

• Responsibility 

• Respect of self and others

Families that participate in these types of relationships find that their families are literally more peaceful, cooperative, and do not suffer the complaints most traditional parenting families have. The same can be said for democratic schools. Their use of respect for all members of the community prevents many of the issues traditional schools suffer from. 

References