Last Year, members of the Ute Indian Reservation opened the Southern Ute Indian Academy in Southwestern Colorado – the first and only tribally-run school in the United States.

     Fed up with the mediocre performance and cultural genocide of the government-run school system, they decided to bail out and set up their own school. A private institution run by Indians for Indians.

     Students are being taught in an old refurbished boarding school with the teaching methods being those pioneered by Maria Montessori. Parents and elders of the tribe, some of whom have no teaching license, staff it.

     As in the Montessori method, great attention is devoted to the individual and his unique requirements. There are, of course, a variety of educational philosophies that put much effort into developing the individual – but the public schools use none of these. This fact was not lost on Southern Utes and was a major factor that led them to opening the Academy.

     The fact that many of the teachers lacked official accreditation was at first cause for some concern – but when parents saw students learning to read in a matter of weeks – instead of the months or years (or never – Ed.) of the government-run schools – their fears were allayed.

     Nor are the teachers unionized – or are they burdened with bureaucratic regulations about what should be taught and when.

     Ryan McMaken of Denver, Colorado and editor of the "Western Mercury" remarked recently: "It is remarkable that the Southern Utes would be the only tribe to make a tribally run school a priority.

     "Indian children generally do poorly in public schools, and in spite of all the lip service to multiculturalism, Indian culture is generally neglected. Several decades ago, Indian culture was actively opposed in the public schools, but in recent years, the cultural destruction that Indian youths have been experiencing has been due to ignorance of Indian culture on the part of the educators and adherence to school policies of multiculturalism which are a schemes of anti-culturalism which seek to destroy all distinctions among students.

     "In the end, the public schools leave the parent helpless while demanding more money, and forcing the student to conform to a culture that he or she may not be a part of. The case of the Southern Utes is just one vivid illustration of how the public schools are failing our children both educationally and culturally. While the students at the Ute Academy pursue different interests, are multilingual, and can all read, the students in the nearby public school are all subjected to the same command and control style of teaching and are lucky to ever read at anything above a third-grade level."

Source: www.LewRockwell.com
Private Schooling on the Reservation
by Ryan McMaken.