Wisdom – Page 5 – UAS MAT Program ~ 2016 Cohort

Wisdom of our Elders, the reflection

First off, I just want to comment on how lucky I feel to listen to these Elders talk. It doesn’t matter what subject they decide to talk about, I am completely engaged and absording everything they have to say. I think that all three of them had great points to make. The passion in David’s voice and body language is inspiring. He makes me feel like I can do anything, which wasn’t something that was declared during my childhood. If only I had a pocket version of David to take around with me when I’m having a rough day. But, with that being said, I am a huge supporter of everything he has to say about letting the child know they are capable and they are intelligent. Making sure the student knows you have confidence in them helps them build confidence for themselves.

Linda had a couple things that stuck with me, one being the use of the circle drawing when I get stressed out. I have been aware of this concept and thought process but to take the time to physically draw and visualize it brings a whole new aspect. It seems so simple, yet so powerful. The amount of the time she has spent in a school is proof that she has many more tools in her tool belt. Being able to hear the few she shared today is something I will be able to add to mine for my upcoming career.

Selina was able to share something that can’t be put into words. It was the pure emotions that came from her brief overview that has stuck with me. I am lucky enough to say, at this point in my life, I have never been told I can’t speak my native language. I don’t even have anything to compare to what this might’ve felt like. All I can say is: I heard and felt what she said and that I will do everything in my power to make sure none of my students feel that way. And although Selina’s experience was mostly associated with her native language, it is important to me that none of my students have that feeling that younger school-aged Selina felt when she was told her native language was forbidden to use.

Another great day!

Wow! All three speakers were wonderful, thoughtful, moving; there was so much to be inspired by.
I really liked Linda Belande’s vision of a circle: I can control half of the circle- how I take things in and how I respond, but the other half of the circle is beyond my control.
I think this is excellent advice that I hope to carry as I go through hard situations and deal with challenging students. As a teacher I hope to model to my students that conflict can be dealt with positively and peacefully- and that every person is in control of, and responsible for, their actions.
MJ

A Comment Worthy of Reflection

When our class hosted the three Tlingit elders this afternoon, one particular comment by Elder Selina Everson really struck me as worth thinking about. She made a comment about the Presbyterian missionaries that ran something like, “they thought that what they were doing was good, that they were helping us.” And, in context, this “help” that she spoke of was primarily about bringing in Protestant Christianity, Western culture, and the English language. Of the three, she really only deeply addressed the last of these in her talk.

However, it was clear, in her later-life analysis, that the missionaries attempt to suppress Tlingit as a language had left a deep, lasting, and painful wound in her soul. Of course, it was about more than simply the destruction of language, it was about the intentional attempt to destroy a way of life through education. By her account (and by mine), the suppression of Tlingit was wrong and evil, however good the intentions of the missionary teachers may have been.

But this, I think, should give us pause, when we think about going out to teach. All of us have agendas. All of us have axes to grind. All of us have ways that we wish the world were different. And part of the way we’re going to try to make the world different, to “make a difference,” is through our work as teachers. But what if, in spite of our all good intentions, we actually end up doing serious harm to the communities and students we serve?

I think one of the things I will take away from the presentation of the Tlingit Elders is that we need to be very circumspect. The task of teaching is noble and worthwhile, but we need to be very thoughtful (even philosophical) about what we’re doing. The Presbyterian teachers surely felt that they were enacting “progressive social change” in Native communities by attempting to assimilate them to broader American culture. They could potentially talk about all sorts of things like greater access to education, higher standards of living, greater access to technology, etc. that could all be achieved if only the Natives would embrace English as their language and a Western style of life.

I think one of the greatest problems with what was done to the Tlingit is that the suppression of their language was not voluntary or the result of a gradual, natural social process. Instead, it was something imposed on them from without. We should understand, as future public school educators, that what we are about to undertake is not a matter of individual parental or community volition; schooling is mandatory in the United States and parents will be punished severely if they don’t buy in. This puts teachers and school officials in a position of serious social power, and this power can be used for great good or great ill. If we’re not careful and circumspect, we can inflict serious harm on those we intend to help.

Words from the Wise

What advice did you hear that resonated with you?

What implications might this have for you as a teacher?

From the Elder forum, a multitude of advise and wisdom was shared with us. One story I noted stuck with me more than the others as quite relevant to my subject matter of foreign language.

During a Celebration past, a tribe of Maori visited and performed a dance for the group, and the locals were shocked to see them sticking their tongues out at them as part of their routine. One might be offended by this if unfamiliar with the Maori culture, though this gesture is part of a war chant, or haka, to show strength or to intimidate an enemy.

Though the Maori’s certainly were not trying to scare the attendees of Celebration, it is none-the-less important to look through other cultures with a different pair of “lenses” than one’s own; one could easily apply the American “lenses” over the Maori action and take offense by an out-stuck tongue.

The lesson here being to respect other cultures.

In my own future French classroom, students will be exposed to numerous cultures in the francophone world from Europe, the Americas, and Africa. Some things, especially food, may be easy for Americans to ridicule or revolt from, but they should be exposed to these things and taught that the way other peoples live their lives, on a cultural level, is no thing for outsiders to ridicule without full understanding of the complexities and intricacies of the host environment.

Source for Maori culture

Photo Credit.

Nourishing Souls

I really treasured soaking in the wisdom of the three Tlingit elders- Selina Everson, Linda Belarde, and David Katzeek- today. Because I grew up on the East Coast/in the Midwest, I still have much to learn about Tlingit culture. Experiences such as today teach me so much about the wonderful Alaska Native beliefs.

In addition to learning more about this culture (such as more of its language and views of gender and elders), I took away many nuggets from the elders’ talks. I want to focus on one golden nugget that really stuck with me and even affected the way I approached teaching my group cello lesson directly after class. I also hope it will continue to inform my teaching for the rest of my career. This nugget is one that David spoke of toward the end of the talk: the idea that we are all desperate for love.

David alluded to this topic during his talk on Monday when he spoke of needing to love ourselves in order to love others. However, he offered it with a beautiful metaphor today: “If love is food, we are starving.”

If love is food, we are starving. That is powerful. This statement applies to every human being. We all desire and crave love, and it is no different for our students. Our students seek affirmation, care, and investment- from their parents, their peers, and from their teachers. When we recognize this need for love, we treat our students differently. All of a sudden, the student who seemed to be acting out just to ruin our day is looked at with a sense of compassion, and the possibility that the student is lacking love from a key figure in their life may be entertained as a factor of their misbehavior. And when a student struggles to understand a concept, we are led to guide them through with patience and empowerment.

I think that this truth should affect every interaction we have with humans. It reminds us that we are all imperfect humans with hopes, dreams, baggage, and fears. A little more indulgent love never hurts.

Elder Wisdom

Listening to the visiting elders toady I am reminded of the wealth of knowledge and experience that the senior members of our community hold. I have also been reminded of something an elder in my life conveyed to me. He said, “A funny thing about wisdom, no matter how much you want to or how hard you try you simply can’t just give it away.” Like many wise words, they may be heard long before being understood. Today I came to understand a little more about what he was getting at. I believe it meant that the the gift of wisdom is only a gift if there is someone waiting to receive it. Otherwise it was just simply words that were spoken.

Many thought provoking things were shared today when elders from the Tlingit community visited us and we were ready recipients. We were gifted with lessons in history, strategies for success, insight about the Tlingit language along with its deeper cultural implications, and more. The three most striking bits of information that I am taking away from this are:

That of the recollection of a once forbidden language of an entire culture, nearly lost in a single life-time but now in recovery. How much meaning and emotion that experience can evoke.
A way to cope with how you receive and respond to things around you. Reminding one’s self about the limits/boundaries between what you can and cannot control or how you are received.
Most temporally relevant message. That of a people who are fed yet starving.

How these messages may resonate in my future as a teacher:

A call to remember how social values shift, how swift and deep they can cut into a culture and bare its roots to the sun. What that exposures effect is, as expressed on a personal level from a first-person account.
Well as the stress levels build I hope to recall the exercise, where I am compared to that line, everything else.
The message that The People are starving for love reaches far beyond the smokehouse and far beyond the boundaries of the Tlingit. This message, need not simply be heard -but felt by everyone. Kusaxa’n

Wisdom of our Elders

I love how David keeps going back to the empowerment of a child with the words “you are intelligent”. Self esteem is a huge issue especially for preteens/teenagers. Focusing on building up their self esteem and confidence, seems to be vital to reaching them and helping them reach the goal of thinking through myriad of topics.

Hearing Grandma Salina’s first hand account of her people’s Tlingit language being banned where they had spoken it for thousands of years in Angoon, struck a chord. I have heard and read about missionaries banning the use of native languages before, but never have I heard the quiver in someone who has lived the trauma. Thankfully, the Tlingit language survived through that period through Elders like Grandma Salina. It is uplifting and inspiring to hear of her activities in the schools, and the joy and relief that young children are speaking the Tlingit language. As a future English teacher, I hope to keep reminding students that English is only 500 odd years old compared to the 10,000 years of Tlingit. At the very least, the names of the people and places should be studied in Tlingit and used in the classroom.

Linda Belarde also gave a nice quick Tlingit lesson of how to properly pronounce “Tlingit”and “Gunalchéesh”. It is a goal of mine to eventually have an Elder compliment my pronunciation and not wince of the butchering of their language. The more of the Tlingit language and stories that I can bring to an English classroom that connects a student to an intimate understanding of language the better. Gunalchéesh ho ho!