Native American Schooling Essay - 1019 Words

Native Schooling For many years Native American people have been discriminated against in the United States as well as in the Public School system. Beginning with the common-school movement of the 1830s and 1840s, which attempted to stop the flow toward a more diverse society, the school systems have continued to be geared exclusively toward WASPS (White Anglo-Saxon Protestants). Native Americans have been forced to abandon their culture and conform to our â€Å"American† ways (Rothenberg, 1998, pp. 258-259.) nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Thomas L. McKenney focused on deculturalizing the children through public schooling (Spring, 1997, p. 16). McKenney served as superintendent of Indian trade for fourteen years. After that office was†¦show more content†¦nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Another form of cultural transformation was teaching English to the Native Americans. As Moravian educator John Gambold stated in Spring’s text, â€Å"It is indispensably necessary for their preservation that they should learn our Language and adopt our Laws and Holy Religion.† Actually Sequoyah’s development of the written Cherokee language was invented for the purpose of preservation of the Cherokee culture. Reverend Gambold suggested that Sequoyah’s language was a waste of his time and should simply be forgotten. Sequoyah’s alphabet was a great success, in fact, soon after a newspaper was developed using the new language. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;In 1858, Commissioner of Indian affairs, Charles E. Mix, in his annual report, stated that manual labor schools were to be established for the Native American children. This was to help prepare them for agriculture. The schools also taught basic skills in reading, writing, and arithmetic. In order to maintain harmony between the whites and the Indians Commissioner Mix â€Å"recommended that a military force should remain in the vicinity of the reservations to add in controlling the Indians (Spring, 1997, p.28).† The second idea for schooling Native American children was to send them away toShow MoreRelated Education Essay examples739 Words   |  3 PagesEducation nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;In many different ways, American cultural life during the Jeffersonian Era began to appear as a reflection of the Republican vision of the future. The Republicans had observed many modernizing trends, some of them favorable and others detrimental to their view of an ideal society. American religion began to adjust to the spread of Enlightenment philosophies. However, one of the most notable alterations was the new emphasis placed upon education. 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