Greetings from New Mexico!

 

I’ve only been here about two days, but it’s amazing what I’ve learned and seen so far. 

 

My first impression of the “Land of Enchantment” was from the air, when I pressed my nose to the window of the descending plane, and saw vast stretches of brown, sparsely populated land, and the airport at the foot of a group of mountains.  (I’ve since learned the name of the range, only to forget it again – San Diez?)  It’s a different sort of beauty than what I’m used to at home; everything is carved on a much bigger, wider, taller, browner scale.  It’s all very majestic and breathtaking and rugged.  I was picked up at the airport by two Teach for America corps hosts, and met two other MIT students who are here for IAP.  On drive home, I saw heaps of stone and dirt that looked like a giant had shoved it aside into a pile, or attempted to start making a sand and dirt castle, but then stopped for some reason (I can’t describe it any other way!)  We got caught in a snowstorm on the two-hour drive home, which turned into a four-hour drive, as roads got icy and traffic literally came to a standstill while we snacked on Oreos and juice in the car.  Where I’m living right now is in the mountains, some 7000 feet high in elevation — so it also got progressively colder and snowier.  The police can apparently shut down the main highway if the road conditions get abysmal (what the…?)  We passed by some towns (”towns?”) on the way home, which were a little more than a few buildings and restaurants grouped together on the side of the road – but it made for a very interesting change of scenery.

 

A random fact: most places have fence in laws – in other words, fence in your animals or you’ll get in trouble.  Here, there are fence out laws – if you want the animals to stay off your property, you have to erect the fence to keep them out.  Funny, no?  So horses and other animals apparently come right up to my host’s porch to graze.  We actually got stopped by a herd of horses in the road – during the snowstorm – on the drive home.  The land I’m living on right now is “checkerboard” (not entirely sure if that’s the correct term), meaning that one square mile of reservation land (Navajo Nation) alternates with one square mile of US federal government-owned land.  I’m in a (very) small town, with a group of houses, some churches, a post office, a convenience store, a laundromat, two restaurants, and of course, the schools (elementary, middle, high and a private school.)

 

I don’t mean to start off with the grim and the unhappy, but maybe it’s best to get the background information out of the way.  Poverty – in some cases extreme – is the cause of most of the problems on the reservation.  It influences everything, including the school system and the educational opportunities (or lack thereof.)  My host teacher tells me that a lot of kids and their families don’t seem to have qualms about missing school, because they’re needed to stay home to take care of younger brothers and sisters, etc.  I saw signs in the school for a program to encourage kids to come to school by offering a field trip if attendance stayed high.  Also, because this area is so rural (I think it’s the most rural area I’ve ever lived in) and we just had a snowstorm, the roads are quite terrible and lots of the kids walk to school or to their bus stop – making it even harder to get to school.

 

I’ve been having many discussions with the staff here about what it takes to equalize the educational gap, and from my personal observations, I also see issues in motivating kids, or making them care about their education.  This last epiphany was slightly mind-blowing, I guess because I’ve grown up surrounded by highly motivated, highly achieving people – I never realized that that may not be the norm.  One cause of the negative motivation seems to stem from the problems of integrating or reconciling two different ways of life – the traditional values of the Navajo people (of course they should want to preserve their culture that they’ve lived with and had instilled in them for hundreds of years!), with the “success” and “happiness” that would come from getting an education to survive and live in today’s world.  Big clash.  To be honest, though, I wonder how the Navajos define success and happiness?  Apparently, there’s a disconnect between the life most of them want to lead – not in poverty – and their beliefs that state they should live within the four sacred mountains of this region.  Also, there’s the very real possibility that leaving the rez for college brings about changes in the individual, and it’ll be hard to come back here.  Ambitious students are also often ostracized or discouraged for their “wish to become like the white people.”  There’s an array of problems that plague the Navajos – of course, poverty, and to add to the list, a lack of resources (like teachers,) casinos, alcohol, drugs, vandalism, unemployment…the list goes on.  A note on the casinos – I wondered, weren’t they designed to bring in tourists and other outsiders to spend their money so the Navajos could profit?  But it seems this isn’t always the case.  Many residents think that gambling is a way to earn quick cash, and so will go to the casinos themselves to try their hand.  Wow.  Some places on the Nation even lack electricity or running water – because they’re routed by the federal government to places like Arizona – and these are basic needs that so many of us take for granted.  It almost feels as if I’m living in another country, but we’re still in the US! 

 

The Navajo Nation is a sovereign nation, meaning it has its own government and officials and laws – the residents are not subject to state or maybe even federal laws – but perhaps that’s not always a good thing?  I asked my host if the Navajo officials were merely figureheads, and it sounds like they’re not – but one has to think, couldn’t they do more?  Many officials are apparently corrupt.  Lots of money from the casinos doesn’t go towards improvements to the nation.  But I understand how hard it would be to govern a people who have really just lost everything.  To put it bluntly, the US government screwed the Native Americans over.  They were herded onto land that doesn’t grow anything and is in the middle of nowhere, given basically nothing, and their meager resources are being handed over to federal land.  The Native Americans were cruelly taken advantage of – and this is after the fact that most of them were killed or murdered by the masses, a long time ago.

 

We need to revamp the system, starting with changes to the cultural attitude towards education, and not just here.  This is a serious problem that exists throughout the nation, and abroad.  Though people have always blown a lot of hot air around about the issue, I think finally, in recent years, some tangible things seem to be getting done.  And honestly, it’s difficult to make progress – how do you solve these problems?  There are lots of gray areas, and lots of different ideas – also, programs need to be tailored to specific regions and abilities and wishes in order to be maximally effective.  The apathy and lack of motivation and willpower – the dumbing down of America – has become a part of the culture.  Side note: compared to the Korean educational system, which is not the best juxtaposition, but the only one I know enough about to comment at all, the American school system is so different.  There are definite pros and cons to each model, but teachers are much more respected in Korea, while teachers here are extremely overworked and underpaid – it’s a thankless task, as students usually don’t recognize the amount of work that goes into teaching, and society doesn’t realize that whomever you entrust our children to for months and years at a time will significantly shape them as a person.  Don’t all kids deserve to be exposed to the most positive and most educational environment possible?  To make real changes happen, people need to make sacrifices – it’s a given.  But from within one school to within the national system, are there enough people who are willing to take on these responsibilities and these tasks that will probably take years, do not have proven indicators or measurements of progress, and will most likely make the leader very unpopular?  Should experimental schools and policies to test out different theories and effectiveness measures be put in place?  And always, the question of what indicates real progress – how do you measure progress?  Look at standardized test scores, according to NCLB…but what do they really tell you about what life skills students have learned?

 

And finally, does the “problem” need to be fixed?  What do the people want?  But a question often brought up in my policy class, do the people know what is “good” for them?

 

(As suggested by a friend on the phone last night, it’d be really interesting to have a forum for discussing education and policy at MIT…)

But, but, but – you can’t dwell on the bad things.  I’m sure – I know – that there’s plenty of good here.  It’s been, a bit surprisingly, a very humbling experience so far in my interactions with the people.  We’re on “Navajo time,” meaning that the pace of life is slow — much slower than what I’m used to on the East coast.  I find it calming and refreshing.  I have always been greeted with smiles and kindness, even though I was clearly an outsider and the only Asian girl (discounting the other MIT student) in the Walmart where we went grocery shopping the other day.  (That Walmart was ginormous, by the way.  Apparently it’s the highest-grossing one in the nation??)  And I have to believe and trust that organizations like TfA are helping to turn the tide of educational inequality, which is a bigger problem than I realized, and exists almost everywhere.

Now that I look back on this entry, I realize how long it was – I just have been seeing and learning so much and I want to share with you all!  For next time – my interactions with real kids!  Congratulations and thanks if you got this far – hope you all are well and I will keep updating as soon as I can.  Be safe!

sk