An Educator’s Response to the Secretary’s comments on #ManifestDestiny

posted on December 29, 2017 by Anpao Duta Flying Earth, Head of School, Native American Community Academy

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An Educator’s Response to the Secretary’s comments on Manifest Destiny: We must make education particularly (or specifically) relevant to students regarding their cultural historical needs. This will empower them to articulate and achieve their individual passions, thereby intellectually and socially fortifying their communities. A very good friend of mine once said, “what’s good for Maori is good for the world” meaning that supporting the self-determination of communities to actualize their own goals related to their cultural philosophy and epistemology is better than trying to force them to be something they are not. A Canadian relative reflects, “if a savior mentality to education in Indigenous communities was effective, then boarding schools would have been constructive and successful in tribal nation building. In fact, they caused drastic harm. We believe that moving forward for Indigenous communities requires unlocking local genius by centering education on culture and orienting learning and growth to fit this focus. We should not assume that what works in one community will work in the next – or that an outside perspective is more valid and that dropping in outside one-size-fits- all education models will benefit our communities.