American Indian/Alaska Native Education:

An Overview Jon Reyhner, Northern Arizona University

The history of education in American is a depressing and heart wrenching truth.   Even though American is a democratic nation, and the constitution speaks of freedom and justice, it still appears to be a prejudice nation when it comes to education.  Most immigrant groups were and still are treated with disdain; however, for the American Indians who are not immigrants but are the rightful owners of America, it is heart wrenching to see that they too have succumbed to the same or even worst situations that immigrants faced.  American Indians have lost their languages and cultures, partly as a result of federal and state education policies.  They have seen the decline in federal funding, which mean that they are cannot have the proper facilities and schools to teach their children thus, giving them a better education. 

The American Indians are in a debauched situation since one-third of Native students never finish high school. In the article the author listed a number of reasons why the native drop out of school which are; Large schools that present students with an impersonal education, The perception that teachers do not care about Native students, inappropriate curriculum designed for mainstream America, the use of culturally-biased tests and the flunking of Native students, Tracking Native students into low achieving classes and groups and Lack of Native parent involvement.  When I look at the reasons why Natives are dropping out of school I realize that the American School system still have a lot of work to do  in improving the quality of education offered to their own people.  I further realize that if America as a nation cannot take care of their own people in terms of educating them, then they will always have issues within the education system.