Job Discussion Forums

[sita123]

I have taught on Canadian Indian reserves for 4 years. I have never seen anything like the reserves in my life. They look like Care commercials.
Poverty, filth, and anti white sentiment run out of control. Teachers are treated like animals, beaten by students. Administration are unqualified usualy getting there positions from relatives who are in charge, mostly one powerful family. Drug abuse ,drinking are common place even among the administrators.
They are funded by the Canadian goverment who lavish hundreds of thousands of dollars on the native education boards, one thing is for sure you would not be able to tell any money was given to education at all.

hardly any graduates most children just stay in high school for many years,failing year after year.
Some are better than others, but all are bad. The reserves in Ontario seem to be the worst.
And yes they do consider themselves ESL, but most of the children speak english from day 1. In Ontario Natives do not allow there children to be educated in english until grade 2, then they wonder why children fail the rest of there time in primary and high school in English.

[sweeney66]

Well, I have visited friends who live on Ontario Reserve, and my perception differs considerably from yours. I was warmly welcomed by friends, family and friend of friends and etc. (I am of European descent). The young people were knowledgeable about their language and heritage, as well as well educated in "our" terms. There were schools, hospitals, new roads. It struck me as an involved and activist community, and a proud one. Yes, there are problems, but that's not the whole picture.
In fact the reserve where my friends live is between London and Windsor.
I do sympathize that you are having a rough time there, BTW.
Maybe it's not a good fit for you.

[Symphany]

Its time that we are able to have a serious discussion about the communities that are at a disadvantage in our country. The original poster is speaking of his/her experience working as a teacher in a reservation. Its unfortunate that it has not been a good experience, however one does have the right to expound upon it. I would not go as far as to state that the original poster's experience applies to each and every reserve in Canada, however in cases where there is such poor management it doesn't help to beat up on people who point it out. Just a few short years ago there was a tainted water scandal in Ontario's Kashechewan reserve that made headlines:

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20051026/kashechewanwater_evacuationreax_20051026/20051026?hub=CTVNewsAt11

http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/aboriginals/kashechewan.html

There are individuals both inside and outside the First Nations communities that are responsible for the problems that exist. There are different levels of government, decision makers on the reserves as well as society to blame. On the other hand, I have met people who have visited and lived on reserves that work well and are pleasant places to live. An overly negative media has done alot to focus on the disasters while directing very little attention to the success stories or even those who live average lives comparable to most of Canada's population.

Having a discussion helps however, and its time we had one without bashing and negativity towards either those teaching or living on the reserves. The way to solving problems is to have rational discussions that bring forth solutions as opposed to targeting those who offer dissenting views. To the original poster, you might be able to make the situation for yourself and others by speaking to an administrator, or you may just decide its time to move on.

[Jetgirly]

During my B.Ed program I attended a handful of professional development seminars (these seminars were intended for practicing teachers, not for B.Ed students) on aboriginal education. I was particularly interested in seminars that focused on keeping aboriginal students in school. Let me tell you, those four or five seminars were the biggest waste of my time EVER. Every single session a different aboriginal person, with no formal background in education, would come and tell us about the hardships that aboriginals have endured. Then, they would burn the sage. Then, they would tell us about their families. Perhaps the order of events rotated every now and then, but NEVER did anyone actually give us anything that we, as educators, could use to better reach and teach aboriginal students. Nobody said, "If you do this, this and/or this in your classroom you are likely going to see positive results." I totally understand that knowing something about your students' backgrounds will help you teach them, but I'm quite sure that hearing the same tales of woe and tales of family drama over and over, and smelling burning sage again and again, is not going to do anything to help aboriginal youth at risk of dropping out of school. And frankly, I doubt I'll ever use my own personal time to attend an aboriginal education seminar again. Non-aboriginal teachers can't be expected to understand their aboriginal students well if members of the aboriginal community themselves can't get it together to give the teachers the information and tools they need.

[Dragonlady]

delete

[Jetgirly]

But that is exactly the point. I am VERY aware of the problems facing First Nations people in Canada. As an educator, if I attend a 8:00 am seminar on Saturday morning entitled, "Keeping Aboriginal Teens in School" (real title of a seminar I attended at 8:00 on a Saturday morning, paid for out of my own pocket) I expect to learn something other than the story of the first twenty years of the presenter's life. Because, truly, that is what EVERY First Nations Education seminar I've attended has involved. I am NOT exaggerating AT ALL. Twenty years, thirty years, half their life, their childhood, whatever. NEVER, NOT ONCE, has a presenter discussed things that teachers can do to help their students. How are teachers supposed to help FNMI students if they can't get ANY relevant first-hand information?

[Vanica]

The seminar you attended was bad, and I think that is typical of Canadian programmes aimed at assisting First Nations communities and indicative of profound racism and prejudice. I think your workshop was only funded because it did nothing more than burn sage and did not upset the status quo, and I'll bet that most of the funding went into the pockets of non-Native persons.

[cassava]

[Dragonlady]

delete

[shantaram]

Cassava's advice is glib.

[Jetgirly]

I'm sorry, but I think that's crap. If, as an educator, I am expected to reach my First Nations students by understanding their backgrounds and tailoring my instruction to their strengths and interests, why would the same not be expected of a First Nations presenter speaking to a crowd of white educators? I say it is the role of the EDUCATOR (be it the presenter at a seminar or a classroom teacher) to adapt and meet the needs of their students (be it seminar attendees or high school students).

[Vanica]

The POINT of the lecture was to waste money and not change anything. Sorry you've been ripped off, but you'll know better next time, eh?

You have two options:

educate yourself about First Nations communities on your own; or

expose the fraud in the government who claim to be helping them.

[Vanica]

This was written to someone I know a year or two ago, about teaching on an ''Indian reservation'' in the US (New Mexico, I believe):

My husband and I both taught and lived on the Navajo reservation, hubby in high school and I in elem. I am now a stay at home mom and he teaches at an 85% native school right on the rez border. He has been teaching Navajo students for 20 years. Living on the reservation, on school grounds usually means dry, dusty landscapes, no trees, brown- no green, hot and windy summers dry cold winters and a LONG LONG way to rent a movie, go to church or get groceries. Teaching Navajo children is very different than any other ethnic group. Their non competitive culture means they will not answer you out loud in class (so they do not show up a tribe member), they are hard to engage- noisy classrooms are not usually a problem! You have to work hard to draw them out and gain thier trust. They often have very poor English skills and therefore reading skills and yet they are loosing thier own language too. You absolutely have to learn about their culture and respect it, yet not try to become one of them. You will be accepted in the community if you speak softly, shake hands gently- the white man's firm grip is impolite in Navajo society- respect their religous beliefs (I could not step into another classroom with a pet frog when I was pregnant- TABOO for expecting moms!- and it would have upset my Navajo peers. If you learn these types of things you will be accepted just fine. You cannot barrel in roughly on a white horse to "save" them and be loud and competitve and aggressive. You have to learn their many non verbal language cues. All my children "speak " Navajo body language -its very handy!

It can be lonely and hard living on the rez in teacher housing. You usually get extra pay. The housing is not great, especially if you are single, they give you the worst houses! But you usually have only a pittance taken out of your check for it.You need to stay on very good terms with the other staff- you live, eat, socialize, do everything together. You can save alot of $$-there is not much to spend it on! The children can be very rewarding and fun if you don't try to make them into someone they are not. You can learn so much if you do this. It can be a very positive experience BUT many, many teachers do not last more than one year. You have to be prepared for culture shock like you were going to another country ... because you are!! Well I'm rambling I'm sure! Hope this helps- come visit and see if you are romanticizing or if it still appeals when you see it in person. The ones who don't last are the ones with some romantic ideal about "saving" the Native people and then find out they really don't want our saving! Or the ones who have no idea how different the cuture is. Expectations are very important to how you will do.

Someone else wrote:

First of all, imho, working on an Indian Reservation such as at Zuni, would be a job best suited for a single male - but, that's just my 2cents

There were so many challenges that we faced while we were out there, but we also met some great people and saw some amazingly beautiful places.

Prob the greatest hardship was the stress on our children. There were only a couple of other white children in the entire district, besides ours. The Zunis were very reluctant to accept any 'outsiders'. The girls were teased and tormented on a daily basis. They had all sorts of profanity directed at them - things my young daughters had never heard and still don't know exactly what all of it meant. They were told to 'go back where they came from' and were let known in no uncertain terms that they weren't welcome. Don't get me wrong, there were a few amazing kids (and teachers/staff) that were wonderful to our kids and I was extremely thankful for them. But the things they had to endure was very hard on them. Not only were they called names, but they were hit, kicked, had things stolen from them, etc.

The reservation is very poor. Almost every one is unemployed with their money coming from the government and any extra coming from jewelry, fetishes and other items that they've sold. We had 'sellers' that came to our house on a daily basis. Some of them were extremely nice, others came when they were drunk or high and would become angry if we would not buy from them. We had things stolen from us, we had someone break into our yard - neighbors had windows busted out and things stolen, houses broken into...that sort of thing - it's a rough area.

Alot of the kids come from homes were drug and alcohol abuse is very prevalent. Alot of the kids are abused - sexually, physically and/or mentally.

[cassava]

[Jetgirly]