(NAME-MCE) Middle Ground Project Greeley CO

[Anselmo Villanueva]

Published: June 24, 2007
Culturally Relevant
By The Associated Press  Denver CO

http://www.teachermagazine.org/tm/articles/2007/06/24/06apnavajo_web.h18.html?tmp=415489749

Teachers from Navajo Nation schools in three states are meeting this
week to discuss how to make their classes more relevant.

"Research indicates Navajo students learn better when it is culturally
relevant, starting with what they're familiar with and expanding that
to the national level and global," said Elvira Bitsoi Largie, a
consultant and executive director of the New Mexico-based Navajo
Education Technology Consortium.

Twenty-nine teachers are attending the meeting, 23 of them from
schools in Arizona, Utah and New Mexico, The Denver Post reported. The
federally funded, $2 million "Middle Ground Project" is based at the
University of Northern Colorado in Greeley.

The plan is to train 125 educators over five years to teach history in
ways that are culturally relevant to Navajos—for example, teaching
them about Indian history in South Dakota at the time that the 13
colonies were rebelling from England.

A middle ground is needed so that students will remain engaged,
sponsors say. Ultimately, the methods developed will be used with
other minority students.

Indian students lag far behind others in academic performance, both
nationally and in Colorado and the Four Corners.

Colorado's Southern Utes opened the Ute Indian Academy several years
ago to deal with a loss of culture and high dropout rates. Pearl
Casias, a founder of the Montessori school, said before it opened
students "were taught Colorado history and American history and they
weren't taught anything about Ute history on the territory of
Colorado."

Loss of culture has been an obstacle to learning for Indian students
since the late 1800s and mid-1900s, when Indian children were sent to
boarding schools, said Michael Welsh, director of the Middle Ground
Project. "The theory was, the quickest, cheapest way to civilize them
was to move them away," Welsh said.

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