What teaching tought me about self-esteem

There was a time when I felt that Native students could gain increased academic success simply by learning about themselves and their cultural traditions. My feelings were that low self-esteem played a key part in low academic achievement in Indigenous students. Knowing about their cultural traditions and practices would increase student self-esteem. Therefore, I surmised that increased cultural exposure and indoctrination would invariably lead to increased academic outcomes for Indigenous students.

My opinion on this matter has changed dramatically.

While the value of cultural practices and their transmission is a value in and of itself, self-esteem cannot be ‘handed’ to a student. A student has to earn self-esteem. I have found in my personal experience teaching and leading that the verbal praise and ‘patting oneself on the back’ approach to self-esteem leads to crashes in moral when a challenged is faced unsuccessfully. Self-esteem must be earned through determination and hard work. It is an individual accomplishment that cannot be given out.

I learned this first hand in teaching outdoor education in northern Canada. I began my teachings in the past by exposing students to pipe ceremonies, sweat lodge ceremonies and sun dances. It wasn’t until they actually participated in the arduous aspect of ‘traditional life’ that the students were empowered with esteem that took them beyond their next challenge.

A group of 12 students that I took on an 18 kilometer snowshoe to a trap line in mid February opened my eyes. This motley group of PS3 players could be seen by many as out of shape and lethargic. Some of them did not believe that they could get even a third of the way to the cabins on the trap line … to be honest I had my doubts as well. Never the less we set out early in the morning and trudged on until nightfall. Every one of the group finished the trip - 18 kilometers both ways. I still hear those students express fond memories of their accomplishments.

I still view self-esteem as being critically important to learning, however my views on how best to facilitate that self-esteem growth has changed dramatically.

Obama Gives Non-Violence a Kick in the Ass

Clint Smith is the director of Thunder Ranch, a training facility in the United States catering to military, contractors, law enforcement and armed citizens that want to take their firearms training to a high level. Amateurs need not apply - this place is for serious shooters. Mr. Smith, like many hardened veterans (he served two tours in Vietnam with the US Marine Corps and is considered one of the masters of the shooting arts), has a lot of knowledge to pass on to his students and, best of all, plenty of good one liners. As in, he says, ... "There are some people that need to be shot."

The message president Barack Obama gave in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech in Oslo, Norway this week is a reflection of Clint Smith's thinking. There are people in this world that need to be dealt with violently. As the leader of the United States and the commander in chief of the US military, I am glad he relayed that message to the world.


In November of 1938 Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, otherwise known as 'Mahatma' Gandhi wrote a letter to Adolf Hitler and the Jews of Germany. Gandhi believed in 'Satyagraha', or non-violence, and urged the Jews of Germany to resist Nazi aggression through non-violent means and to stay in Germany. As you can guess his letters spurred a wave of worldwide criticism.

We all know the tragic history of the holocaust. It is one of humanity's lowest moments.

6 million Jewish people were killed in the holocaust. That is equivelant to today's entire populations of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, Northwest Territories, Yukon and Nunavut combined. Gone from the earth through the actions of a government.

As president Obama stated this week, there are times when war is thrust upon a nation, when violence will solve a problem. Violence solved Hitler - satyagraha did not. We can never forget this message. As scary as this may be to those of us living in Canada, safe from harms way and viewing the bad things happening in the world from the safety of our warm homes this cold winter, we can never forget that there are people in the world that would kill us if they were given the chance. They would kill us, our children and our neighbours.

Obama may have flowered up the language and stretched out the point, but in Oslo he was telling it like Clint Smith.



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Maybe the president has been taking courses from Mr. Smith. We'll have to wait and see if any of the following language finds its way into Obama's speeches. Purely for reference reasons I have added other Clint Smith jewels:

The handgun would not be my choice of weapon if I knew I was going to a fight I'd choose a rifle, a shotgun, an RPG or an atomic bomb instead.

Don't forget, incoming fire has the right of way.

Make your attacker advance through a wall of bullets. I may get killed with my own gun, but he's gonna have to beat me to death with it, cause it's going to be empty.

If you're not shootin', you should be loadin'. If you're not loadin, you should be movin', if you're not movin', someone's gonna cut your head off and put it on a stick.

When you reload in low light encounters, don't put your flashlight in your back pocket... If you light yourself up, you'll look like an angel or the tooth fairy...and you're gonna be one of 'em pretty soon.

Shoot what's available, as long as it's available, until something else becomes available.If you carry a gun, people will call you paranoid. That's ridiculous. If I have a gun, what in the hell do I have to be paranoid about.

Don't shoot fast, shoot good.You can say 'stop' or 'alto' or use any other word you think will work but I've found that a large bore muzzle pointed at someone's head is pretty much the universal language.

You have the rest of your life to solve your problems. How long you live depends on how well you do it.

You cannot save the planet.. You may be able to save yourself and your family.

The only purpose of fighting is to Win!

There is no possible victory in defense.

The sword is more important than the shield, and skill is more important than either.

The final weapon is the brain. All else is supplemental.

Don't pick a fight with an old man. If he is too old to fight, He'll just kill you.

If you find yourself in a fair fight, your tactics suck.

I carry a gun cause a cop is too heavy.

When seconds count, the cops are just minutes away.

A reporter did a human-interest piece on the Texas Rangers. The reporter recognized the Colt Model 1911 the Ranger was carrying and asked him 'Why do you carry a 45?' The Ranger, Zeno Smith, responded, 'Because they don't make a 46.'

An armed man will kill an unarmed man with monotonous regularity.

The old sheriff was attending an awards dinner when a lady commented on his wearing his sidearm. 'Sheriff, I see you have your pistol. Are you expecting trouble?' 'No ma'am. If I were expecting trouble, I would have brought my rifle.'

Beware the man who only has one gun. He probably knows how to use it!

'The true Soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because He loves what is behind him.' -G. K. Chesterton

A people that values its privileges above its principles will soon lose both.

Can I offend you?

Can I offend you?

A while back my sister was invited to a sweat lodge ceremony. She arrived as usual with her own set of beliefs, strong moral conviction and the courage to speak out whenever she encounters anything she deems discriminatory or shaming in the least. As the sweat was being readied she got ready with the other women who were going in, putting on a baggy T-shirt and shorts - unlike the other women in attendance - who all wore long skirts or dresses.

One of the women told her that they had extra skirts for the women to wear and for her to put one on over her shorts. She politely said 'no thank you, I'm fine how I'm dressed'. The Elder leading the sweat wasn't there yet, so this woman took it upon herself to 'educate' my sister about what is appropriate and what is not appropriate wear in the sweat lodge for women.
According to her, women must wear a skirt to show respect to mother earth and their connection to the earth, it is also to cover themselves up from male eyes in this intimate ceremony.

Now my sister is no greenhorn when it comes to ceremonies and living a life of sacrifice for others. She has dedicated her life more than anyone I know to working towards the betterment of her community. And she is not afraid of conflict or shy to offend someone if they are wrong ... or if it means they can learn something .... and occasionally, she does it for fun. So a heated debate followed. Several of the women present were offended that she wanted to enter the sweat lodge in shorts.

Finally, when the Elder leading the sweat arrived he was asked to educate my sister about why she needs to wear a skirt in the sweat, his response was, 'If she wants to wear shorts in the sweat then let her, the Creator can surely tell a man from a woman."

All it took was her simple gesture to open a dialogue about gender roles. A dialogue that is closed to many. All it took was for her to question why.

How many of us have felt uncomfortable in a ceremony but said nothing? How many of us have listened to the words of an ‘elder’ and felt deeply offended, yet due to our respectfulness have remained quite.

I know I have.

I am guilty of listening to elders say things that are deeply offensive to me and saying nothing. I lack the courage of my sister. To me this is a weakness. A weakness not only in myself but in our communities and our culture.

Christianity, residential schools, oppression and addictions have all shaped our traditions and influenced what we consider traditional. As a group we must have the ability to question. To ask hard questions that may offend some, but that will build our faith and our practices.

If you tell me a woman must wear a skirt in a ceremony, even over pants, then I should ask, 'Why? This doesn't make sense.' If you tell me that a man must enter a building ahead of a woman, or that a woman must not step over a man, or that a woman on her time should be segregated from males, then I should again ask - why?

If the answer I get doesn't satisfy me then I should question more, or I should not follow the practice.

Numerous times I have had elders tell me, "Do not ask questions, I am telling you sacred teaching and you are questioning the grandfathers if you question me! The grandfathers told me this, so it is right" To me this is a sure sign of an abuse of power. Power given not by the Creator or 'grandfathers' but by us.

If we want our traditions to remain, to adapt to the modern age of universal human rights and democracy, then we had better be willing to challenge ourselves once in a while. Otherwise our rhetoric will mimic that of the extreme fundamentalists in other communities that
encourage murder against those that speak out against their religion and their beliefs. We should start now.

"Kukwaychikaymowin" - This is Ininew (Cree) and means asking for clarification or inquiring.

Dumbledore's sage advice to Native educators

For those of us tasked with responding to the needs of disadvantaged Aboriginal students we can easily fall into the trap of looking for easy solutions to complex problems. This is why there is something dangerously compelling about Winnipeg’s proposal to have a ‘Native only’ school board developed as a means to fight growing crime rates in the city.

I was in a bit of an intellectual conundrum hearing of this proposal. I am against this initiative, but I passionately support native focused charter schools.

What is the difference?

Charter schools are publicly funded schools that have loosened regulatory oversight in exchange for clearly defined achievement and accountability outcomes attached to their mandate or “Charter”. Their effectiveness drives their existence.

Winnipeggers should note the success of charter schools in the United States, in addressing the needs of disadvantaged students. The Wall Street Journal recently noted that researchers are finding education outcomes from US charter schools are not only outpacing public schools, but that nearby public school results are being positively influenced. The option of having publicly funded charter schools open to all parents is influencing public schools to be more effective.

The Journal’s commentary piece No Child Left Behind: New evidence that charter schools help even kids in other schools (Nov. 4) quotes Stanford economist Caroline Hoxby who found that, “poor urban children who attend a charter school from kindergarten through 8th grade can close the learning gap with affluent suburban kids by 86% in reading and 66% in math.” They further cite Marcus Winters, who has found that when a public school loses a child to a charter school, the reading ability of those left behind increases by 0.02 standard deviations, which he called a small but significant number, given that the widespread worry was charter schools would hurt the overall academic performance scores of those left to the public schools. “Imagine that. Competition works,” the newspaper concluded in its commentary.

This has everything to do with the ‘Native only’ school issue in Winnipeg, as the current system is falling behind in meeting the educational needs of our disadvantaged students. On-reserve, funding rates that are 20 - 30 % below their provincial counterparts result in overcrowding and huge teacher : student ratios - Canada's First Nation's schools are falling further and further behind. Off-reserve, provincial public systems are also fairing poorly when it comes to meeting the needs of Aboriginal students.

Americans have met the challenge of closing the learning gap by increasing the standard and stimulating the evolutionary process in delivery through the charter school system. This is entirely opposite to the approach surmised by city hall in Winnipeg, which as the Free Press article states, will lower the standard with a pre-determined solution. If the only goal is to decrease drop-out rates, with no set academic outcomes, then of course the easiest way to meet the goal is to lower the standard so no one can fail or drop-out. This is institutional racism.

In the US, parents can choose to send their child to a charter school at no cost to themselves. Many charter schools focus on ‘themes’ or specialize in their programming. There are fine arts; science; theatre and culture based schools. The culture based charter schools, including the Cesar Chavez Public Charter School (Latino), the Hmong College Prep Academy, Kua O Ka La Public Charter School (Native Hawaiian) and numerous Native American equivalents, are demonstrating significant improvements in closing the gap between disadvantaged and mainstream students.

These culture based charter schools include cultural learning outcomes in their school improvement plans. Parents of a wide variety of ethnicities, are choosing to send their children there. Beyond the stand alone importance of continuing cultural retention and transmission, the increased exposure to and inclusion of culture in the schools is increasing core academic outcomes. Research conducted at the Kamehameha Schools in Hawaii shows statistically significant increases for Hawaiian cultural charter school students in math and reading; school climate; parent involvement; teacher/parent expectations; responsibility; sense of community; and decreases in absenteeism.
So the difference between the ‘Native only’ system and the charter system is based on standards

Public systems need to open themselves to competition and the increased cultural and academic results that this encourages. Charter schools need to be encouraged in Canada. Further, Aboriginal parents, educators and students need to support the idea of locally driven collaborative schools, with accountability measures attached, in environments that stimulate experimentation and growth in learning outcomes. Schools need to demonstrate their effectiveness at achieving both academic and cultural outcomes and parents need to be given the choice to send their kids where they will succeed. In the words of the famous educator Albus Dumbledore "It is not our abilities that define us; it is our choices.” Lowering the standard, which is what the Native only system in Winnipeg, appears to be choosing, will do nothing but harm our students.