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Positive News was handed the guardianship of Global Village News and Resources in summer of 2004. Although we would like to continue to make the archives available to subscribers and readers we would like to point out that stories published prior to issue 89 were not under our editorial guidance and would like to make a distinction that these are not necessarily a reflection of the current opinions of our editorial team. Holistic Education - The Native American Model Native America - As Americans become increasingly aware of the failures of traditional education and traditional schools in meeting the needs of a growing number of young people, there has been an explosion of alternative models in education. One, which is only recently gaining some attention, is the traditional Native American approach. Far from the rigid, sit-in-a-row, memorize-by-rote & don't think approach of traditional schools, the traditional Native American approach is holistic and based on the concepts of inquiry and intuition. Today it would be called a right-brain approach to education. Compartmentalization is a product of western scientific thinking. Everything is broken down into its various parts to be analyzed and understood. This extends to all aspects of life. Education, religion, medicine, politics, economics, etc. all have their separate compartments which are often separated by a firewall. While this approach has been helpful to understand the minute, it has sacrificed an understanding of the inter-relationship of everything to everything else; what Native Americans would call 'the web of life.' In the indigenous tradition, education, like medicine and spirituality is an integrated part of life and learning which is the result of first-hand experience and inquiry rather than memorization and 'book-learning.' Traditionally, among indigeous people, most teaching was done with stories. Before learning the name of a plant, one had to learn what it was good for, how and where it grew, the best time to pick it, in short, one had to merge with its consciousness. Before learning its name, it had to be totally understood in the context of life. Tom Brown Jr, noted author of Native American ways, notes that his Apache teacher would only give him enough information to fascinate him with a subject, and he would have to find the answer on his own. For example, Brown wanted to understand owl behaviour. His teacher said, rather casually, "I don't know, go ask the mice". Brown, puzzled, went off, and began studying mice. In fact, he studied mice habits for six months, and developed calluses on his chest from being on the ground so much. A sudden realisation hit him, when he realised that the owl's habits were a precise mirror reflection of mice habits. Owls had no choice; mice are a main food. He felt then the interlocking webs of existence - how many different animals mice feed, and how they were all tied together in the web of life. This kind of teaching - enticing students to learn, letting them find answers that may prove to be better than those of their instructors - is radically different from the measured spoonfuls of knowledge dolloped into young skulls, uniformly in assembly line schools. It is very much intuitive, and heart-based. Adapted from an article Michael Patterson appearing in The Global Ideas Bank) |
