Neural Pathways
Sandra Dodd
I just found a recentish quote of something I wrote over 20 years ago:
"Learning isn't in fancy books or computer games, it all happens in the ideas children have, in the trivial facts they fit together to come up with their view of the world—past present and future. You don't need a lesson or a unit to show a child what's wonderful about woodgrain, ice crystals on the windshield, or birdsongs. Five seconds worth of pointing and saying "Look, these trees were not native to North America" might possibly lead to an hour long discussion, or a lifelong fascination. Bringing something interesting home, browsing in an antique shop, listening to new music on instruments you've never heard—all those build neural pathways and give you a chance to be together in a special place."
-Sandra Dodd
-=-[A]ll those build neural pathways.-=-
True!
And literary knowledge and pathways are useful, too. Knowing about Harry Potter, Romeo and Juliet, Lisa Simpson and her family/friends/neighbors.
Direct observation of skills and activities is good. A very famous Korean chef said he didn’t have a teacher, but started as a talented teen, who learned gradually, by watching better cooks and seeing what they were doing.
Lately I’m concened about neural pathways being dug deep with falsehoods. Another quote of me, from the last century:
"Just becuse there’s more than one truth doesn’t mean there’s no such thing as bullshit."
You might have seen a cleaner version of it in a book or somewhere, but that is the original.
I can defend unschooING (as I did it, wrote about it, shared about it, observed it in hundreds of happy, healthy families).
I cannot defend unschoolERS who use that term to excuse bad behavior, neglect, or active insertion of bad information.
It’s disturbing when someone combines unschooling with a different movement or belief, and then pressures others to agree, or to accept that they’re not really unschoolers.
PLEASE don’t involve yourselves with any of that.
Keep your own neural pathways open to evidence and newness. Diets come and go. Exercise programs, psychic wishing programs, reincarnation-related ideas about children choosing their own parents, kids coming from other planes (to very-special-parents only—all of those have come through unschooling discussions, and not become unschooling, and not destroyed the discussions.
I have something to share, to show, but will post it later today or tomorrow. It’s part of some slo-mo character assassination that’s been going on in secret and private groups for the past year and a half.
They might stop if I would roll over and say the emperor has beautiful clothes, and there are four lights, not five.
I doubt they would stop, even then, because drama and negativity can become an addiction. They don’t want peace.
My kids are grown. I’m helping because I still enjoy untangling and combing out ideas, and because some people still want me to. There is no one with the authority to tell me NOT to do that.
Sandra
"Learning isn't in fancy books or computer games, it all happens in the ideas children have, in the trivial facts they fit together to come up with their view of the world—past present and future. You don't need a lesson or a unit to show a child what's wonderful about woodgrain, ice crystals on the windshield, or birdsongs. Five seconds worth of pointing and saying "Look, these trees were not native to North America" might possibly lead to an hour long discussion, or a lifelong fascination. Bringing something interesting home, browsing in an antique shop, listening to new music on instruments you've never heard—all those build neural pathways and give you a chance to be together in a special place."
-Sandra Dodd
-=-[A]ll those build neural pathways.-=-
True!
And literary knowledge and pathways are useful, too. Knowing about Harry Potter, Romeo and Juliet, Lisa Simpson and her family/friends/neighbors.
Direct observation of skills and activities is good. A very famous Korean chef said he didn’t have a teacher, but started as a talented teen, who learned gradually, by watching better cooks and seeing what they were doing.
Lately I’m concened about neural pathways being dug deep with falsehoods. Another quote of me, from the last century:
"Just becuse there’s more than one truth doesn’t mean there’s no such thing as bullshit."
You might have seen a cleaner version of it in a book or somewhere, but that is the original.
I can defend unschooING (as I did it, wrote about it, shared about it, observed it in hundreds of happy, healthy families).
I cannot defend unschoolERS who use that term to excuse bad behavior, neglect, or active insertion of bad information.
It’s disturbing when someone combines unschooling with a different movement or belief, and then pressures others to agree, or to accept that they’re not really unschoolers.
PLEASE don’t involve yourselves with any of that.
Keep your own neural pathways open to evidence and newness. Diets come and go. Exercise programs, psychic wishing programs, reincarnation-related ideas about children choosing their own parents, kids coming from other planes (to very-special-parents only—all of those have come through unschooling discussions, and not become unschooling, and not destroyed the discussions.
I have something to share, to show, but will post it later today or tomorrow. It’s part of some slo-mo character assassination that’s been going on in secret and private groups for the past year and a half.
They might stop if I would roll over and say the emperor has beautiful clothes, and there are four lights, not five.
I doubt they would stop, even then, because drama and negativity can become an addiction. They don’t want peace.
My kids are grown. I’m helping because I still enjoy untangling and combing out ideas, and because some people still want me to. There is no one with the authority to tell me NOT to do that.
Sandra
Dena Morrison
Sandra,
I am so incredibly grateful and blessed that you HAVE NOT STOPPED talking, writing, sharing, discussing and HELPING!!!
I didn’t know what a wealth of knowledge and ideas and organic learning and peaceful parenting and experience I had found, at first, when I found y’all in Yahoo Groups.
I DID know that a lot of what was being shared & discussed felt RIGHT to me, and helped me to sort through a lot of my experiences I had growing up caring for seven younger siblings, and then my older children, who are now 29, 27 & 25.
The real beauty is I found you when my youngest was about 3.5. Enabling me to expand my horizons, and open my eyes to more peaceful, supportive nurturing. Your “Read a little, try a little, wait a while, watch” helped me grow patience. I have celebrated when what y’all said would come, has. Like watching him to learn to read, his very own way ♥️
My trust in our process has grown exponentially over these past eight years! Sometimes our sparkle is low, but we are close, honest and open. Our family has learned to trust, and when someone earnestly asked “how do you know he’s learning” I was able to confidently answer “talk to him”.
Thank you for your time, energy and an ongoing passion to share your light.
Blessings,
Dena
On Sun, Feb 10, 2019 at 2:58 PM Sandra Dodd Sandra@... [AlwaysLearning] <[email protected]> wrote:I just found a recentish quote of something I wrote over 20 years ago:
"Learning isn't in fancy books or computer games, it all happens in the ideas children have, in the trivial facts they fit together to come up with their view of the world—past present and future. You don't need a lesson or a unit to show a child what's wonderful about woodgrain, ice crystals on the windshield, or birdsongs. Five seconds worth of pointing and saying "Look, these trees were not native to North America" might possibly lead to an hour long discussion, or a lifelong fascination. Bringing something interesting home, browsing in an antique shop, listening to new music on instruments you've never heard—all those build neural pathways and give you a chance to be together in a special place."
-Sandra Dodd
-=-[A]ll those build neural pathways.-=-
True!
And literary knowledge and pathways are useful, too. Knowing about Harry Potter, Romeo and Juliet, Lisa Simpson and her family/friends/neighbors.
Direct observation of skills and activities is good. A very famous Korean chef said he didn’t have a teacher, but started as a talented teen, who learned gradually, by watching better cooks and seeing what they were doing.
Lately I’m concened about neural pathways being dug deep with falsehoods. Another quote of me, from the last century:
"Just becuse there’s more than one truth doesn’t mean there’s no such thing as bullshit."
You might have seen a cleaner version of it in a book or somewhere, but that is the original.
I can defend unschooING (as I did it, wrote about it, shared about it, observed it in hundreds of happy, healthy families).
I cannot defend unschoolERS who use that term to excuse bad behavior, neglect, or active insertion of bad information.
It’s disturbing when someone combines unschooling with a different movement or belief, and then pressures others to agree, or to accept that they’re not really unschoolers.
PLEASE don’t involve yourselves with any of that.
Keep your own neural pathways open to evidence and newness. Diets come and go. Exercise programs, psychic wishing programs, reincarnation-related ideas about children choosing their own parents, kids coming from other planes (to very-special-parents only—all of those have come through unschooling discussions, and not become unschooling, and not destroyed the discussions.
I have something to share, to show, but will post it later today or tomorrow. It’s part of some slo-mo character assassination that’s been going on in secret and private groups for the past year and a half.
They might stop if I would roll over and say the emperor has beautiful clothes, and there are four lights, not five.
I doubt they would stop, even then, because drama and negativity can become an addiction. They don’t want peace.
My kids are grown. I’m helping because I still enjoy untangling and combing out ideas, and because some people still want me to. There is no one with the authority to tell me NOT to do that.
Sandra
Embracing His grace,
Dena
Deuteronomy 28:12
"The LORD will open for you His good storehouse, the heavens,
to give rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hand;
Sandra Dodd
There have been some crazy things said about me in the past year and a half, mostly in private groups or private/secret groups. Blustery, but not brave, to tell stories where I can’t refute them, and if others question them they get jumped, too. The worst charge I know of got deleted nearly immediately, which is good. I saw it, and responded (having been linked, and summoned), and then the brave and blustery initiator of the thread deleted MY comment, and then blocked me.
But this new one is particularly elaborate and false. It was written in November, but I only heard about it a few days ago. I know who wrote it, but as it was a closed group, I just want to address the claims.
__________________________________________
It has come to my attention that the history of Sandra Dodd (a heavy influencer) in the world of unschooling is not known to everyone as someone from New Mexico. Sandra is basically from the region I am from—the middle of all the reservations. You cannot live in any city, town or home in New Mexico and not be bombarded with the native life that has been pushed into this small area. So the fact that her life in the unschooling world has been so successful is not surprising to me AT ALL. Duh. THIS IS THE LIFE of all our ancestors in New Mexico. What does surprise me is that she never once attributs the ideas and concepts she has prospered from to the PEOPLE of the area she is from. So when I hear that people are having problems with her in terms of inclusion-uh yah. That is what her whole foundation is based on. The erasure of our people, their concepts and how we live is key to making it in the American Dream. Please stop supporting her and know that anything good she has to say needs to be credited back to the people she stole it from.
Here is some detail on how erasure works in New Mexico: My elementary school today is 99% native and 1% everything else. It is in the middle of Indian reservations. I still cannot tell you where those borders are or how they work exactly despite driving through them quite often. My schools name: Juan de Onate Elementary. Our mascot: The Conquistadors. In 4th grade we learned state history just like all the schools in California. What history is that? Missions. Spanish history. The history of who “found” this land and conquered it.
This situation with Sandra needs to be addressed. I am now learning that more natives with online presence are making their movement to the homeschooling world to find their way back to their roots. Please help us protect our friends from having to learn from their own beliefs from someone who has colonized and profited from them.
___________________________________________
27 people clicked “like” or “love.”
I think that author and most others in the group are in southern Caifornia, but I’m not sure.
Anyone who believed any of that is creating neural pathways that don’t lead to any truth. They’re not going to learn anything about unschooling from that At All. They will not be learning anything true about New Mexico, nor Oñate Elementary, either.
I’ll address details in another post, but PLEASE, anyone reading this—if you are in a secret group and people are just making shit up, don’t believe it.
Don’t believe ANYthing that sounds sketchy. Check other sources. Use your own reason and critical thinking, about EVERYthing you read.
And wonder, while you’re thinking, WHY the group is secret and private.
Some things can’t handle daylight.
This group was publlc, and SHOULD be public, but when yahoogroups had a revamp a few years ago, I went to the new admin area to look around and sort of backed into a lever, as it were, that could not be restored. It’s very sad, because my site has links, sometimes, to a discussion here, when there’s a quote on one of those very public pages on my VERY public site.
Sandra
But this new one is particularly elaborate and false. It was written in November, but I only heard about it a few days ago. I know who wrote it, but as it was a closed group, I just want to address the claims.
__________________________________________
It has come to my attention that the history of Sandra Dodd (a heavy influencer) in the world of unschooling is not known to everyone as someone from New Mexico. Sandra is basically from the region I am from—the middle of all the reservations. You cannot live in any city, town or home in New Mexico and not be bombarded with the native life that has been pushed into this small area. So the fact that her life in the unschooling world has been so successful is not surprising to me AT ALL. Duh. THIS IS THE LIFE of all our ancestors in New Mexico. What does surprise me is that she never once attributs the ideas and concepts she has prospered from to the PEOPLE of the area she is from. So when I hear that people are having problems with her in terms of inclusion-uh yah. That is what her whole foundation is based on. The erasure of our people, their concepts and how we live is key to making it in the American Dream. Please stop supporting her and know that anything good she has to say needs to be credited back to the people she stole it from.
Here is some detail on how erasure works in New Mexico: My elementary school today is 99% native and 1% everything else. It is in the middle of Indian reservations. I still cannot tell you where those borders are or how they work exactly despite driving through them quite often. My schools name: Juan de Onate Elementary. Our mascot: The Conquistadors. In 4th grade we learned state history just like all the schools in California. What history is that? Missions. Spanish history. The history of who “found” this land and conquered it.
This situation with Sandra needs to be addressed. I am now learning that more natives with online presence are making their movement to the homeschooling world to find their way back to their roots. Please help us protect our friends from having to learn from their own beliefs from someone who has colonized and profited from them.
___________________________________________
27 people clicked “like” or “love.”
I think that author and most others in the group are in southern Caifornia, but I’m not sure.
Anyone who believed any of that is creating neural pathways that don’t lead to any truth. They’re not going to learn anything about unschooling from that At All. They will not be learning anything true about New Mexico, nor Oñate Elementary, either.
I’ll address details in another post, but PLEASE, anyone reading this—if you are in a secret group and people are just making shit up, don’t believe it.
Don’t believe ANYthing that sounds sketchy. Check other sources. Use your own reason and critical thinking, about EVERYthing you read.
And wonder, while you’re thinking, WHY the group is secret and private.
Some things can’t handle daylight.
This group was publlc, and SHOULD be public, but when yahoogroups had a revamp a few years ago, I went to the new admin area to look around and sort of backed into a lever, as it were, that could not be restored. It’s very sad, because my site has links, sometimes, to a discussion here, when there’s a quote on one of those very public pages on my VERY public site.
Sandra
Sandra Dodd
This is Sandra, with #1 of 3 of responses. I’m breaking that post out.
This group used to show e-mails more clearly, but now it’s not until the bottom that I can see who wrote it, so I’m going to try to start identifying myself at the start. (Please do, too, if you remember.)
-=-It has come to my attention that the history of Sandra Dodd (a heavy influencer) in the world of unschooling is not known to everyone as someone from New Mexico. -=-
It seems to me that every bio of me says Albuquerque or New Mexico or both.
Here’s a challenge: Look for any bio of me online, or in a conference program, that doesn’t say where I’m from. :-)
-=-Sandra is basically from the region I am from—the middle of all the reservations.-=-
“All the reservations”?
I grew up between two Pueblos—much of the downtown area of my hometown was land that had been leased from Santa Clara Pueblo on a hundred year lease in the 1880s or so. :-) That was coming due! Just north of town was San Juan Pueblo (now known as Ohkay Owingeh). Those kids went to school with us. There was an elementary school at San Juan Pueblo, but it was regional (part of the public schools). I went there briefly in 2nd grade. My nieces and nephews went there before they decided to homeschool (and one went back, to play basketball, after a couple of years).
-=-You cannot live in any city, town or home in New Mexico and not be bombarded with the native life that has been pushed into this small area.-=-
You can live right next to a Pueblo or reservation and not be “bombarded” with anything.
“…he native life that has been pushed into this small area”?
It’s not a small area, and no one was pushed here. The pueblos are still right where they were. The Navajo were herders, taking sheep to different pastures different times of year, and getting to grandma’s house or some sturdy hogan before winter. They have reservation land that’s theirs now. I don’t know how the schools are administered. I never lived near there. :-)
Apaches are linguistically related to Navajos, but a long time ago. They were nomads and raiders, and there are two reservations—the Jicarilla (sounds like hick - ah - REE- ya because it was spelled in Spanish), in the NW corner of the state (Dulce is their town, and they have their own school district; Bob who was the best man at our wedding, has worked for them for decades). My sister lived in Chama, the next town over, for the bank for a while, and so she dealt with just about everyone in the tribe, she said, because there were monthly checks deposited in person (it’s probably different now), and everyone in the tribe got a check each month (from the profits from the casino). I’ve never lived near Apaches, though I’ve hung out with a few. Bob’s wife is half, but half is “whole” (legally).
Keith grew up near the Mescalero reservation, but I don’t know whether the kids went to the same schools there.
My kids, being in the city, and not being in school, didn’t hang out with any Native Americans (a terms used rarely here, and only to talk about the overall generality of all groups). Kirby had an art teacher who was Navajo when he was little (the two classes I talk about that he took when we saw that he wasn’t ready for kindergarten are that art class and a dance class). I’ve never said, until now, that one teacher was Navajo and one was Hispanic. It didn’t matter. It still doesn’t. Kirby also, and separately from that, was at a city festival, doing art with some other kids, and one was from one of the western Pueblos and her name was Kirby too! They were pretty happy about that, because neither of them had met another Kirby.
As they’ve gotten older, and out, and into jobs, they have worked with Indians, usually from Pueblos around Albuquerque. The place Kirby is working doing IT has a contract with one of the pueblos, and that might be their biggest client. I think that’s the first time he had been invited to a feast. (He hasn’t gone yet, but it’s nice that someone asked him.) I’ve been to feasts in both Santa Clara and (then) San Juan, when I was younger, and later for a wedding, and a funeral.
This is too much information, probably. Sorry.
I’m still in touch, on facebook, with the grown kids of one of my best high school friends, a singing partner of mine for a while. He no longer living, but his son and I exchange stuff quite a bit, and the daughter occasionally. I’m peeking in on Jon’s grandkids. Jon was half Navajo, half Pueblo, but as the pueblo had matrilineal clans, and his mom was Pueblo, he was IN. His kids, slightly less so socially/cermeonially, maybe (father native; mother anglo), but legally yes, for being half.
I didn’t learn that by staying in my house. It doesn’t come of osmosis. :-)
-=- So the fact that her life in the unschooling world has been so successful is not surprising to me AT ALL. Duh. THIS IS THE LIFE of all our ancestors in New Mexico.-=-
“My life in the unschooling world”?
I have balked at “unschooling world” for forever. I don’t like it at all.
http://sandradodd.com/unschoolworld
My unschooling life has been in and with my family. We’ve had visitors! We have visited others.
Was my life successful? Is my unschooling life successful? Yes, but because I figured out what might work and did it, and tweaked that, and improved gradually. I did it pretty much in public, too. :-)
People asked me to speak at first because they knew and trusted me. Then I was asked to speak because I was one of the few people who ever HAD spoken about unschooling. And because I was writing, in pubiic, where people could see it.
A tangent, about “unschooling world” up there: I’ve objected to the term “tribe,” too—many times—bcause I live where there ARE actual legal tribes (Pueblos don’t use the term, and Navajos use “the Navajo Nation” but Apache’s use “tribe.” And the term “tibal” is used sometimes, of government services or administrative buildings (like “municipal”—as an adjective). It’s a losing battle, but I have often said “tribe” was irritating, and also people should not try to unschool in groups, but do it individually, and have friendships that weren’t dependent on the families unschooling the same way.
-=-What does surprise me is that she never once attributes the ideas and concepts she has prospered from to the PEOPLE of the area she is from. -=-
School reform info when I was a student at the University of New Mexico was my first intro to The Open Classroom, which is what became unschooling. My own experiences as a teacher, trying those ideas out, in that same town, between those same Pueblos, with Pueblo kids in my classes.
John Holt is credited in the intro to this group. Unschooling was his term. “Radical unschooling” came from an insult directed at me which I caught and used. :-)
I have credited my sources and inspirations tons. Constantly. I was confused (still am) about whether it was Lori Odhner or Carol Rice who was speaking when the phrase “be his partner, not his adversary” came out, when they were running a La Leche League meeting together, and Kirby was four months old. I didn’t know them yet. It took me a while to tell them apart. I credit both of them, still, regularly. They can’t remember who said it, either. :-) I gleaned and adapted things from Adult Children of Alcoholics—ideas about not passing on hurts from the past, about healing ourselves by helping others. Being kind to our children in ways we KNOW children might appreciate, if our own childhoods had harsh parts.
I didn’t get any of my unschooling ideas from “the PEOPLE of the area I’m from.” If I were to credit it anywhere but where it came from, I would be dishonest.
-=-So when I hear that people are having problems with her in terms of inclusion-uh yah. That is what her whole foundation is based on. The erasure of our people, their concepts and how we live is key to making it in the American Dream. Please stop supporting her and know that anything good she has to say needs to be credited back to the people she stole it from.-=-
Anything good I have to say is only useful if people take that idea and use it. I’ve never asked people to do or believe anything because of me being me.
This is a lot of work, refuting those charges. There are two more paragraphs. Sorry if it’s boring.
Sandra
This group used to show e-mails more clearly, but now it’s not until the bottom that I can see who wrote it, so I’m going to try to start identifying myself at the start. (Please do, too, if you remember.)
-=-It has come to my attention that the history of Sandra Dodd (a heavy influencer) in the world of unschooling is not known to everyone as someone from New Mexico. -=-
It seems to me that every bio of me says Albuquerque or New Mexico or both.
Here’s a challenge: Look for any bio of me online, or in a conference program, that doesn’t say where I’m from. :-)
-=-Sandra is basically from the region I am from—the middle of all the reservations.-=-
“All the reservations”?
I grew up between two Pueblos—much of the downtown area of my hometown was land that had been leased from Santa Clara Pueblo on a hundred year lease in the 1880s or so. :-) That was coming due! Just north of town was San Juan Pueblo (now known as Ohkay Owingeh). Those kids went to school with us. There was an elementary school at San Juan Pueblo, but it was regional (part of the public schools). I went there briefly in 2nd grade. My nieces and nephews went there before they decided to homeschool (and one went back, to play basketball, after a couple of years).
-=-You cannot live in any city, town or home in New Mexico and not be bombarded with the native life that has been pushed into this small area.-=-
You can live right next to a Pueblo or reservation and not be “bombarded” with anything.
“…he native life that has been pushed into this small area”?
It’s not a small area, and no one was pushed here. The pueblos are still right where they were. The Navajo were herders, taking sheep to different pastures different times of year, and getting to grandma’s house or some sturdy hogan before winter. They have reservation land that’s theirs now. I don’t know how the schools are administered. I never lived near there. :-)
Apaches are linguistically related to Navajos, but a long time ago. They were nomads and raiders, and there are two reservations—the Jicarilla (sounds like hick - ah - REE- ya because it was spelled in Spanish), in the NW corner of the state (Dulce is their town, and they have their own school district; Bob who was the best man at our wedding, has worked for them for decades). My sister lived in Chama, the next town over, for the bank for a while, and so she dealt with just about everyone in the tribe, she said, because there were monthly checks deposited in person (it’s probably different now), and everyone in the tribe got a check each month (from the profits from the casino). I’ve never lived near Apaches, though I’ve hung out with a few. Bob’s wife is half, but half is “whole” (legally).
Keith grew up near the Mescalero reservation, but I don’t know whether the kids went to the same schools there.
My kids, being in the city, and not being in school, didn’t hang out with any Native Americans (a terms used rarely here, and only to talk about the overall generality of all groups). Kirby had an art teacher who was Navajo when he was little (the two classes I talk about that he took when we saw that he wasn’t ready for kindergarten are that art class and a dance class). I’ve never said, until now, that one teacher was Navajo and one was Hispanic. It didn’t matter. It still doesn’t. Kirby also, and separately from that, was at a city festival, doing art with some other kids, and one was from one of the western Pueblos and her name was Kirby too! They were pretty happy about that, because neither of them had met another Kirby.
As they’ve gotten older, and out, and into jobs, they have worked with Indians, usually from Pueblos around Albuquerque. The place Kirby is working doing IT has a contract with one of the pueblos, and that might be their biggest client. I think that’s the first time he had been invited to a feast. (He hasn’t gone yet, but it’s nice that someone asked him.) I’ve been to feasts in both Santa Clara and (then) San Juan, when I was younger, and later for a wedding, and a funeral.
This is too much information, probably. Sorry.
I’m still in touch, on facebook, with the grown kids of one of my best high school friends, a singing partner of mine for a while. He no longer living, but his son and I exchange stuff quite a bit, and the daughter occasionally. I’m peeking in on Jon’s grandkids. Jon was half Navajo, half Pueblo, but as the pueblo had matrilineal clans, and his mom was Pueblo, he was IN. His kids, slightly less so socially/cermeonially, maybe (father native; mother anglo), but legally yes, for being half.
I didn’t learn that by staying in my house. It doesn’t come of osmosis. :-)
-=- So the fact that her life in the unschooling world has been so successful is not surprising to me AT ALL. Duh. THIS IS THE LIFE of all our ancestors in New Mexico.-=-
“My life in the unschooling world”?
I have balked at “unschooling world” for forever. I don’t like it at all.
http://sandradodd.com/unschoolworld
My unschooling life has been in and with my family. We’ve had visitors! We have visited others.
Was my life successful? Is my unschooling life successful? Yes, but because I figured out what might work and did it, and tweaked that, and improved gradually. I did it pretty much in public, too. :-)
People asked me to speak at first because they knew and trusted me. Then I was asked to speak because I was one of the few people who ever HAD spoken about unschooling. And because I was writing, in pubiic, where people could see it.
A tangent, about “unschooling world” up there: I’ve objected to the term “tribe,” too—many times—bcause I live where there ARE actual legal tribes (Pueblos don’t use the term, and Navajos use “the Navajo Nation” but Apache’s use “tribe.” And the term “tibal” is used sometimes, of government services or administrative buildings (like “municipal”—as an adjective). It’s a losing battle, but I have often said “tribe” was irritating, and also people should not try to unschool in groups, but do it individually, and have friendships that weren’t dependent on the families unschooling the same way.
-=-What does surprise me is that she never once attributes the ideas and concepts she has prospered from to the PEOPLE of the area she is from. -=-
School reform info when I was a student at the University of New Mexico was my first intro to The Open Classroom, which is what became unschooling. My own experiences as a teacher, trying those ideas out, in that same town, between those same Pueblos, with Pueblo kids in my classes.
John Holt is credited in the intro to this group. Unschooling was his term. “Radical unschooling” came from an insult directed at me which I caught and used. :-)
I have credited my sources and inspirations tons. Constantly. I was confused (still am) about whether it was Lori Odhner or Carol Rice who was speaking when the phrase “be his partner, not his adversary” came out, when they were running a La Leche League meeting together, and Kirby was four months old. I didn’t know them yet. It took me a while to tell them apart. I credit both of them, still, regularly. They can’t remember who said it, either. :-) I gleaned and adapted things from Adult Children of Alcoholics—ideas about not passing on hurts from the past, about healing ourselves by helping others. Being kind to our children in ways we KNOW children might appreciate, if our own childhoods had harsh parts.
I didn’t get any of my unschooling ideas from “the PEOPLE of the area I’m from.” If I were to credit it anywhere but where it came from, I would be dishonest.
-=-So when I hear that people are having problems with her in terms of inclusion-uh yah. That is what her whole foundation is based on. The erasure of our people, their concepts and how we live is key to making it in the American Dream. Please stop supporting her and know that anything good she has to say needs to be credited back to the people she stole it from.-=-
Anything good I have to say is only useful if people take that idea and use it. I’ve never asked people to do or believe anything because of me being me.
This is a lot of work, refuting those charges. There are two more paragraphs. Sorry if it’s boring.
Sandra
Sandra Dodd
Sandra, 3 of 3 about having stolen everything I know from the Native Americans who are evenly scattered around New Mexico, broadcasting their thoughts.
First, they don’t. Pueblos, especially, have secrets and they want to have secrets. There are things it’s just not polite to even ask. Don’t ask.
Pueblo kids are not forthcoming if other Pueblo kids are present. One kid, alone, will talk and laugh and be fine (unless it’s an introverted kid, I mean), but if there are two who don’t know each other well, or if there are three or more—and if you’re the teacher, or dealing with them somehow—don’t ask one to “perform” or even to answer a question, because it’s not nice for one to embarrass another.
That’s something I figured out, mostly, but when teachers would come from out of state, I would warn them.
Also, once I was at a clinic, and as the Pueblo mom ahead of me was leaving with her coral-bracelet-wearing baby, the nurse practitioner spoke up cheerily, “She’s just Perfect!” And the mom stiffened a bit as she was walking by, and kept walking. It was my turn, and I went in and said “Don’t say a baby is perfect, especially if it’s wearing a coral bracelet or necklace. That’s there to prevent the evil eye.” Then I said I was next and introduced myself. :-)
Maybe that belief is fading. It’s among older Hispanic families, too. It’s a local thing, not a native thing, I think, maybe. It’s not a thing to ask about. :-)
But instead of saying “Perfect!” (if you end up in such a place and situation), make an exception. Looks good! We need to watch that rash, or I hope the cough goes away, or something.
I learned that from watching, overhearing, caring about local “cures” and concerns, in passing, and by being interested in folklore and cross-overs in situations like that.
Something that is NOT a local, traditional thing here is unschooling. Not even nearly.
Navajos are really nice to their kids in public. It might be they’re nice at home, too. I don’t know. I haven’t had a need to know, and they might rightly figure it’s none of my business. :-)
-=-This situation with Sandra needs to be addressed. I am now learning that more natives with online presence are making their movement to the homeschooling world to find their way back to their roots. Please help us protect our friends from having to learn from their own beliefs from someone who has colonized and profited from them.-=-
What the HELL!?
If they are “making their movement to the homeschooling world to find their way back to thir roots,” they’re lost.
They need this person to “protect them” from learning something I didn’t gt from them?
And this “profited” and “prospered”? Is this person imagnining and claiming that I’m making a living from this? The few times I’ve been paid to speak, that’s gone toward meals, gifts for kids who didn’t get to go, and as years passed and my kids were teens and grown, I spent money on travel. When I’ve crossed any ocean, it has been my own money (family money, my husband’s money). I’ve never in one year made enough to pay for a round trip flight out of the country except maybe the year The Big Book of Unschooling was new. Even then, though, there were expenses to balance that little whoosh of money out.
I do appreciate the help, and sometimes I’ve been paid to speak, but usually it has been speaking in exchange for transportation, a place to stay, and some touristing. Sometimes the place was a hotel, and more often someone’s house. Sometimes there wasn’t time for touristing.
Profit wasn’t my plan or goal. Breaking even is nice.
“Prospered”?
From work I did, from synthesizing what I knew from having wanted to be a teacher since first grade, and watching what helped, what didn’t, what was fun, what was not fun; from studying psychology and education; from reading lots about language, learning, thought; from teaching, and learning from that; from Adult Children of Alcoholics, and La Leche League, and Growing Without Schooling Magazine, from knowing two unschooling families before I even considered homeschooling at all, and two HOMEschooling families (with homework, and punishments)—taking all that and sharing the good parts, and figuring out how to turn the bad parts and the dangerous things into principles, y’know what I got?
More work. Spinning straw into gold, kind of, but then they bring more straw. (Only my dad didn’t lie about my abilities and Rumplestiltskin didn’t come to take my baby away, so the analogy is really bad. :-)
I didn’t mind that work. I don’t mind it now.
I have met people who are still my friends. I have saved some beautiful writings, and photos, and art, and put it where others can see it. People who start reading now will read things by moms who haven’t been around for years, now, but who wrote some clear and inspiring things when they were here.
I’ve had some beautiful notes from people who said “You don’t know me, but…” or “I’ve never posted before, but…” and they tell me their lives are sweeter and more peaceful. There were two today (plus the one in public :-) ).
Thank you, everyone who has helped make the discussions more interesting and richer by telling your own success stories, and sharing your own best ideas, and what didn’t work so well.
Thank you, those who read quietly and try to guess what your favorite writers will say. :-) It’s okay for this to be that way for people, too! :-)
People who criticize me in the way the person did, about New Mexico, about where my ideas came from, and what I failed to acknowledge, and all—they are pretending to know more about me than they do, and in the example in this post and the two before, TOTALLY bluffing and bullshitting about what IS and WAS.
Don’t live there. Don’t let them be “your tribe.”
Live with your own family and your other relatives and friends. Do what works well, if it works and your kids are happy and are learning. Doesn’t matter what anyone’s ancestors did, or what they would like to imagine their ancestors did. Live now, today, as well as you can. Don’t feel guilty if you’re not the preferred color of the season. Don’t let people tell you what you have to do. Bullies abound these days.
Also, it’s okay not to defend me. If they’re that mean to me, they might be awful to you. Let it slide. I’m okay.
Best wishes, and I hope this is the worst that happens to me this month. :-)
Sandra
First, they don’t. Pueblos, especially, have secrets and they want to have secrets. There are things it’s just not polite to even ask. Don’t ask.
Pueblo kids are not forthcoming if other Pueblo kids are present. One kid, alone, will talk and laugh and be fine (unless it’s an introverted kid, I mean), but if there are two who don’t know each other well, or if there are three or more—and if you’re the teacher, or dealing with them somehow—don’t ask one to “perform” or even to answer a question, because it’s not nice for one to embarrass another.
That’s something I figured out, mostly, but when teachers would come from out of state, I would warn them.
Also, once I was at a clinic, and as the Pueblo mom ahead of me was leaving with her coral-bracelet-wearing baby, the nurse practitioner spoke up cheerily, “She’s just Perfect!” And the mom stiffened a bit as she was walking by, and kept walking. It was my turn, and I went in and said “Don’t say a baby is perfect, especially if it’s wearing a coral bracelet or necklace. That’s there to prevent the evil eye.” Then I said I was next and introduced myself. :-)
Maybe that belief is fading. It’s among older Hispanic families, too. It’s a local thing, not a native thing, I think, maybe. It’s not a thing to ask about. :-)
But instead of saying “Perfect!” (if you end up in such a place and situation), make an exception. Looks good! We need to watch that rash, or I hope the cough goes away, or something.
I learned that from watching, overhearing, caring about local “cures” and concerns, in passing, and by being interested in folklore and cross-overs in situations like that.
Something that is NOT a local, traditional thing here is unschooling. Not even nearly.
Navajos are really nice to their kids in public. It might be they’re nice at home, too. I don’t know. I haven’t had a need to know, and they might rightly figure it’s none of my business. :-)
-=-This situation with Sandra needs to be addressed. I am now learning that more natives with online presence are making their movement to the homeschooling world to find their way back to their roots. Please help us protect our friends from having to learn from their own beliefs from someone who has colonized and profited from them.-=-
What the HELL!?
If they are “making their movement to the homeschooling world to find their way back to thir roots,” they’re lost.
They need this person to “protect them” from learning something I didn’t gt from them?
And this “profited” and “prospered”? Is this person imagnining and claiming that I’m making a living from this? The few times I’ve been paid to speak, that’s gone toward meals, gifts for kids who didn’t get to go, and as years passed and my kids were teens and grown, I spent money on travel. When I’ve crossed any ocean, it has been my own money (family money, my husband’s money). I’ve never in one year made enough to pay for a round trip flight out of the country except maybe the year The Big Book of Unschooling was new. Even then, though, there were expenses to balance that little whoosh of money out.
I do appreciate the help, and sometimes I’ve been paid to speak, but usually it has been speaking in exchange for transportation, a place to stay, and some touristing. Sometimes the place was a hotel, and more often someone’s house. Sometimes there wasn’t time for touristing.
Profit wasn’t my plan or goal. Breaking even is nice.
“Prospered”?
From work I did, from synthesizing what I knew from having wanted to be a teacher since first grade, and watching what helped, what didn’t, what was fun, what was not fun; from studying psychology and education; from reading lots about language, learning, thought; from teaching, and learning from that; from Adult Children of Alcoholics, and La Leche League, and Growing Without Schooling Magazine, from knowing two unschooling families before I even considered homeschooling at all, and two HOMEschooling families (with homework, and punishments)—taking all that and sharing the good parts, and figuring out how to turn the bad parts and the dangerous things into principles, y’know what I got?
More work. Spinning straw into gold, kind of, but then they bring more straw. (Only my dad didn’t lie about my abilities and Rumplestiltskin didn’t come to take my baby away, so the analogy is really bad. :-)
I didn’t mind that work. I don’t mind it now.
I have met people who are still my friends. I have saved some beautiful writings, and photos, and art, and put it where others can see it. People who start reading now will read things by moms who haven’t been around for years, now, but who wrote some clear and inspiring things when they were here.
I’ve had some beautiful notes from people who said “You don’t know me, but…” or “I’ve never posted before, but…” and they tell me their lives are sweeter and more peaceful. There were two today (plus the one in public :-) ).
Thank you, everyone who has helped make the discussions more interesting and richer by telling your own success stories, and sharing your own best ideas, and what didn’t work so well.
Thank you, those who read quietly and try to guess what your favorite writers will say. :-) It’s okay for this to be that way for people, too! :-)
People who criticize me in the way the person did, about New Mexico, about where my ideas came from, and what I failed to acknowledge, and all—they are pretending to know more about me than they do, and in the example in this post and the two before, TOTALLY bluffing and bullshitting about what IS and WAS.
Don’t live there. Don’t let them be “your tribe.”
Live with your own family and your other relatives and friends. Do what works well, if it works and your kids are happy and are learning. Doesn’t matter what anyone’s ancestors did, or what they would like to imagine their ancestors did. Live now, today, as well as you can. Don’t feel guilty if you’re not the preferred color of the season. Don’t let people tell you what you have to do. Bullies abound these days.
Also, it’s okay not to defend me. If they’re that mean to me, they might be awful to you. Let it slide. I’m okay.
Best wishes, and I hope this is the worst that happens to me this month. :-)
Sandra
Sandra Dodd
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/83/Pueblo01.png
That’s to go with " Sandra is basically from the region I am from—the middle of all the reservations. You cannot live in any city, town or home in New Mexico and not be bombarded with the native life that has been pushed into this small area”
You can google up each group.
It shows Utes, but I think their administration is in Utah and maybe Colorado.
https://www.nationsonline.org/maps/USA/New_Mexico_map.jpg
Gallup is on the left/West edge, on I-40 (old U.S. 66)
Española is north of Santa Fe, on the Rio Grande. Santa Fe is not on the river.
Sandra
That’s to go with " Sandra is basically from the region I am from—the middle of all the reservations. You cannot live in any city, town or home in New Mexico and not be bombarded with the native life that has been pushed into this small area”
You can google up each group.
It shows Utes, but I think their administration is in Utah and maybe Colorado.
https://www.nationsonline.org/maps/USA/New_Mexico_map.jpg
Gallup is on the left/West edge, on I-40 (old U.S. 66)
Española is north of Santa Fe, on the Rio Grande. Santa Fe is not on the river.
Sandra
Sandra Dodd
This is beautiful, Dena! Thank you for what you wrote.
-=-My trust in our process has grown exponentially over these past eight years! Sometimes our sparkle is low, but we are close, honest and open. Our family has learned to trust, and when someone earnestly asked “how do you know he’s learning” I was able to confidently answer “talk to him”.-=-
Quiet, homey days are important too. Sometimes the new and flashy stuff, and sometimes the familiar, quiet stuff. :-)
Sandra
-=-My trust in our process has grown exponentially over these past eight years! Sometimes our sparkle is low, but we are close, honest and open. Our family has learned to trust, and when someone earnestly asked “how do you know he’s learning” I was able to confidently answer “talk to him”.-=-
Quiet, homey days are important too. Sometimes the new and flashy stuff, and sometimes the familiar, quiet stuff. :-)
Sandra
Sandra Dodd
OOOPS! #2 was under open windows….. Sorry they’re out of order now.
_______________________
Sandra #2 of 3, deposition.
Oh. I didn’t swear an oath, but I’m a habitual truth-teller.
STILL! Don’t believe anything just because I said it. I’ve claimed Lori said something, and another time said Carol did.
Be careful about what ANYONE claims, says, writes.
Below will be some of what I wrote when I first saw the claim that I stole unschooling from the Indians. In New Mexico, the term “Indian” is used, lots, by Indians, and others. People from out of the state, out of the country, have said I was wrong, and I shouldn’t use that term, but I’m not wrong (you can check :-), but I’m pretty confident about what I know.
People from other states with reconstructed Indian tribes who are living a political life instead of an actual on-the-ground, in-a-house life are defensive in ways people who are in the town their greaty-great grandparents lived in are not.
Now the quotes from my first response:
__________________
It seems that it’s someone not brave enough to use her name in public who wants lots of attention. One of the quickest ways for someone to get attention is to pick on a known name—to set herself up in opposition, as an equal-but-better adversary to a known person.
[to an offer to take a response from me to the group]
... as it’s a secret group, they would only throw you out (and then dance around my explanation feeling important).
I talk about being from New Mexico all the time. :-) I’ve used my real name since AOL let people choose their own e-mail names. (Before that, I was on Prodigy, and they randomly assigned number/letter/symbol combos to everyone, in those old days. :-)). I’ve been using my real name for a very long time and never—when an article was published, when I spoke at a conference—NOT said I was from New Mexico. It’s always in there. :-)
So the dramatic pretense that somehow I was hiding that is silly.
____________________________end of quotes_________________
I have never NOT said I was from New Mexico. Sorry I separated that with a long phrase up above. :-)
SECOND PARAGRAPH:
-=-Here is some detail on how erasure works in New Mexico: My elementary school today is 99% native and 1% everything else.-=-
My antennae went up.
Oher than the Santa Fe Indian School (which is NOT an elementary), I didn’t think there was one.
“Her” elementary school? Today? So I thought maybe it’s someone with kids in school in New Mexico, or someone teaching in New Mexico.
I thought this author might be the same person as an anonymous blog author but seems not. According to facebook, she lives in southern California. Facebook could be wrong. But “her elementary?”
Google found it. An elementary in Gallup.
Stats are here:
https://www.niche.com/k12/juan-de-onate-elementary-school-gallup-nm/students/
Here’s another one with pie charts.
https://www.publicschoolreview.com/juan-de-onate-elementary-school-profile
Is she counting Hispanic as native, in “99% native”? If so, no problem that it’s named for the irritating Don Juan de Oñate. He’s native. But if he’s NOT native, the school is 67%.
More on that below.
-=- It is in the middle of Indian reservations. I still cannot tell you where those borders are or how they work exactly despite driving through them quite often.-=-
My thought on reading that is that maps are easily, freely available. :-)
There are a few towns that are between reservations, and lots that are on reservations, and that didn’t narrow it down, so I googled from this:
-=-My schools name: Juan de Onate Elementary. Our mascot: The Conquistadors.-=-
But it looks like maybe the school has closed, and there’s a church meeting in the building now.
Here’s the only confirmation I find of the team’s name: https://www.prepsportswear.com/school/us/New-Mexico/Gallup/Juan-De-Onate-Elementary-School-Conquistadores/productlist?schoolid=90001&category=684
-=- In 4th grade we learned state history just like all the schools in California. What history is that? Missions. Spanish history. The history of who “found” this land and conquered it.-=-
WRONG!
New Mexico state history is taught in 7th grade. NOT 4th.
I happen to have a collection of New Mexico History textbooks. i have two from the 1940’s, one from the 60’s and one from the 1970’s. I didn’t keep my collection up. :-)
They all start with oldest known settlements, archeology, maps of where the Pueblos were. And the older ones have large sections on plants, animals, crops. Later they had atomic research, national laboratories, private engineering research.
Someone who went to an elementary in Gallup for a while wouldn’t know. I suppose she left before fourth grade, and made the assumption that California’s curriculum extended to New Mexico. I don’t know if California history is a 4th grade subject, but in New Mexico, 7th.
Back up to Santa Fe Indian School…
I’ve never known anyone who went there, but their team played our school sometimes. Basketball. It’s a boarding school.
http://www.sfis.k12.nm.us/admissions_faq
I went and looked and found another newer charter school within Albuquerque Public Schools.
http://www.aps.edu/schools/schools/native-american-community-academy
Those might be schools with 99% Indian enrollment, but if they take kids who are 1/4, it’s pure for funding, but no genetic 99%.
One more section to go.
___________________
(already delivered; sorry I mixed them up)
Sandra
_______________________
Sandra #2 of 3, deposition.
Oh. I didn’t swear an oath, but I’m a habitual truth-teller.
STILL! Don’t believe anything just because I said it. I’ve claimed Lori said something, and another time said Carol did.
Be careful about what ANYONE claims, says, writes.
Below will be some of what I wrote when I first saw the claim that I stole unschooling from the Indians. In New Mexico, the term “Indian” is used, lots, by Indians, and others. People from out of the state, out of the country, have said I was wrong, and I shouldn’t use that term, but I’m not wrong (you can check :-), but I’m pretty confident about what I know.
People from other states with reconstructed Indian tribes who are living a political life instead of an actual on-the-ground, in-a-house life are defensive in ways people who are in the town their greaty-great grandparents lived in are not.
Now the quotes from my first response:
__________________
It seems that it’s someone not brave enough to use her name in public who wants lots of attention. One of the quickest ways for someone to get attention is to pick on a known name—to set herself up in opposition, as an equal-but-better adversary to a known person.
[to an offer to take a response from me to the group]
... as it’s a secret group, they would only throw you out (and then dance around my explanation feeling important).
I talk about being from New Mexico all the time. :-) I’ve used my real name since AOL let people choose their own e-mail names. (Before that, I was on Prodigy, and they randomly assigned number/letter/symbol combos to everyone, in those old days. :-)). I’ve been using my real name for a very long time and never—when an article was published, when I spoke at a conference—NOT said I was from New Mexico. It’s always in there. :-)
So the dramatic pretense that somehow I was hiding that is silly.
____________________________end of quotes_________________
I have never NOT said I was from New Mexico. Sorry I separated that with a long phrase up above. :-)
SECOND PARAGRAPH:
-=-Here is some detail on how erasure works in New Mexico: My elementary school today is 99% native and 1% everything else.-=-
My antennae went up.
Oher than the Santa Fe Indian School (which is NOT an elementary), I didn’t think there was one.
“Her” elementary school? Today? So I thought maybe it’s someone with kids in school in New Mexico, or someone teaching in New Mexico.
I thought this author might be the same person as an anonymous blog author but seems not. According to facebook, she lives in southern California. Facebook could be wrong. But “her elementary?”
Google found it. An elementary in Gallup.
Stats are here:
https://www.niche.com/k12/juan-de-onate-elementary-school-gallup-nm/students/
Here’s another one with pie charts.
https://www.publicschoolreview.com/juan-de-onate-elementary-school-profile
Is she counting Hispanic as native, in “99% native”? If so, no problem that it’s named for the irritating Don Juan de Oñate. He’s native. But if he’s NOT native, the school is 67%.
More on that below.
-=- It is in the middle of Indian reservations. I still cannot tell you where those borders are or how they work exactly despite driving through them quite often.-=-
My thought on reading that is that maps are easily, freely available. :-)
There are a few towns that are between reservations, and lots that are on reservations, and that didn’t narrow it down, so I googled from this:
-=-My schools name: Juan de Onate Elementary. Our mascot: The Conquistadors.-=-
But it looks like maybe the school has closed, and there’s a church meeting in the building now.
Here’s the only confirmation I find of the team’s name: https://www.prepsportswear.com/school/us/New-Mexico/Gallup/Juan-De-Onate-Elementary-School-Conquistadores/productlist?schoolid=90001&category=684
-=- In 4th grade we learned state history just like all the schools in California. What history is that? Missions. Spanish history. The history of who “found” this land and conquered it.-=-
WRONG!
New Mexico state history is taught in 7th grade. NOT 4th.
I happen to have a collection of New Mexico History textbooks. i have two from the 1940’s, one from the 60’s and one from the 1970’s. I didn’t keep my collection up. :-)
They all start with oldest known settlements, archeology, maps of where the Pueblos were. And the older ones have large sections on plants, animals, crops. Later they had atomic research, national laboratories, private engineering research.
Someone who went to an elementary in Gallup for a while wouldn’t know. I suppose she left before fourth grade, and made the assumption that California’s curriculum extended to New Mexico. I don’t know if California history is a 4th grade subject, but in New Mexico, 7th.
Back up to Santa Fe Indian School…
I’ve never known anyone who went there, but their team played our school sometimes. Basketball. It’s a boarding school.
http://www.sfis.k12.nm.us/admissions_faq
I went and looked and found another newer charter school within Albuquerque Public Schools.
http://www.aps.edu/schools/schools/native-american-community-academy
Those might be schools with 99% Indian enrollment, but if they take kids who are 1/4, it’s pure for funding, but no genetic 99%.
One more section to go.
___________________
(already delivered; sorry I mixed them up)
Sandra
Sandra Dodd
Sandra, again, about how stats are made in public schools in New Mexico.
My detractor had written: "Here is some detail on how erasure works in New Mexico: My elementary school today is 99% native and 1% everything else.”
I’m not sure how that is erasure. I had said “more on that below” and didn’t finish, though.
In contact, the “detail on how erasure works” was:
_____quote_____
Here is some detail on how erasure works in New Mexico: My elementary school today is 99% native and 1% everything else. It is in the middle of Indian reservations. I still cannot tell you where those borders are or how they work exactly despite driving through them quite often. My schools name: Juan de Onate Elementary. Our mascot: The Conquistadors. In 4th grade we learned state history just like all the schools in California. What history is that? Missions. Spanish history. The history of who “found” this land and conquered it.
____end quote_____
New Mexico has state history in 7th grade, and it NOT “missions. Spanish history.” There is some, but not most.
That school wasn’t 99% native, unless she was including Hispanic.
But to the counting, I know about that because of having taught. I don’t know verthing, but I know a lot.
When I was a kid, my dad worked on Indian land (land leased from Pojoaque Pueblo). That made me more valuable to the school district, somehow. Kids who had a parent working for Los Alamost National Laboratories “counted” too. It must have been some extra federal funding, in the 1950s and 60’s.
When I was teaching, in he 1970s, that wasn’t one of the questions. Each year, though, teachers gathered stats on kids. I had a class of 9th graders one year that was particularly mixed, and so in a joking way, we added it up as halves. If three kids were half anglo (a term that will eventually fade away, but was still in full use then), we called that 1.5 anglo kids. Some were half Indian, half Hispanic. Several were half Hispanic and half anglo, so we added it up, made whole numbers again, and there were a couple of .5s.
The report was carried to the office, and I was not surprised that an assistant principal brought it right back saying, “You can’t do it this way.”
I knew that, but we had had fun, and a point was being made.
Because of various cash streams I didn’t ask about and still don’t care about, there is money that schools can get. Federal funding. Hispanic enrollment (used to be called “Spanish surname,” when I was little, but even then that wasn’t catching enough kids, and intermarriage blossomed from he 1970’s on).
So here’s how kisd in public schools are counted.
Half Indian=Indian.
One quarter Indian=Indian.
Half Hispanic=Hispanic (if the other half isn’t Indian; see above)
Any of those halves that were anglo? That’s some erasure.
A school can have kids with VERY non-local names, parents who are clearly not at all Hispanic or Indian, but their kids are (statistically, financially).
So even the stats from the now-defunct Juan de Oñate Elementary could easily incorporate lots of kids who are half or quarter Indian, and half Hispanic, with lots of halves of Anglo kids Not-Appearing-in-these-Stats.
My sister has three kids (grown) named Trujillo.
The oldest has a partner named Gonzales. (Lesbian couple, no kids)
One married another Trujillo (no relation) and they have one child. He’s 1/4 Anglo, but no one will ever care, ever again. It’s obscure trivia now. :-)
My anglo cousin has five separately-and-otherwise unrelated Trujillo children, four of whom reproduced. Mostly Trujillos, but no non-Hispanic surnames. Their anglo ancestry is erased. And it shouldn’t be a big deal, one way or the other, except for the money schools can get and the diversity points they can get.
When I was in school and when I taught, both, the stats in our district were about 70% Hispanic, 15% Indian, 15% Anglo (which usd to include the occasional Black family). Anglo was used like the Amish use “the English.” It’s about people whose grandparents spoke English, and not Spanish or Tewa.
I love New Mexico. There are oddities, and it’s nice to be back stage in so many way. I’ve been here nearly sixty years. I don’t like people misrepresenting New Mexico.
I’m not wild about people misrepresenting me, either. :-)
Sandra
My detractor had written: "Here is some detail on how erasure works in New Mexico: My elementary school today is 99% native and 1% everything else.”
I’m not sure how that is erasure. I had said “more on that below” and didn’t finish, though.
In contact, the “detail on how erasure works” was:
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Here is some detail on how erasure works in New Mexico: My elementary school today is 99% native and 1% everything else. It is in the middle of Indian reservations. I still cannot tell you where those borders are or how they work exactly despite driving through them quite often. My schools name: Juan de Onate Elementary. Our mascot: The Conquistadors. In 4th grade we learned state history just like all the schools in California. What history is that? Missions. Spanish history. The history of who “found” this land and conquered it.
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New Mexico has state history in 7th grade, and it NOT “missions. Spanish history.” There is some, but not most.
That school wasn’t 99% native, unless she was including Hispanic.
But to the counting, I know about that because of having taught. I don’t know verthing, but I know a lot.
When I was a kid, my dad worked on Indian land (land leased from Pojoaque Pueblo). That made me more valuable to the school district, somehow. Kids who had a parent working for Los Alamost National Laboratories “counted” too. It must have been some extra federal funding, in the 1950s and 60’s.
When I was teaching, in he 1970s, that wasn’t one of the questions. Each year, though, teachers gathered stats on kids. I had a class of 9th graders one year that was particularly mixed, and so in a joking way, we added it up as halves. If three kids were half anglo (a term that will eventually fade away, but was still in full use then), we called that 1.5 anglo kids. Some were half Indian, half Hispanic. Several were half Hispanic and half anglo, so we added it up, made whole numbers again, and there were a couple of .5s.
The report was carried to the office, and I was not surprised that an assistant principal brought it right back saying, “You can’t do it this way.”
I knew that, but we had had fun, and a point was being made.
Because of various cash streams I didn’t ask about and still don’t care about, there is money that schools can get. Federal funding. Hispanic enrollment (used to be called “Spanish surname,” when I was little, but even then that wasn’t catching enough kids, and intermarriage blossomed from he 1970’s on).
So here’s how kisd in public schools are counted.
Half Indian=Indian.
One quarter Indian=Indian.
Half Hispanic=Hispanic (if the other half isn’t Indian; see above)
Any of those halves that were anglo? That’s some erasure.
A school can have kids with VERY non-local names, parents who are clearly not at all Hispanic or Indian, but their kids are (statistically, financially).
So even the stats from the now-defunct Juan de Oñate Elementary could easily incorporate lots of kids who are half or quarter Indian, and half Hispanic, with lots of halves of Anglo kids Not-Appearing-in-these-Stats.
My sister has three kids (grown) named Trujillo.
The oldest has a partner named Gonzales. (Lesbian couple, no kids)
One married another Trujillo (no relation) and they have one child. He’s 1/4 Anglo, but no one will ever care, ever again. It’s obscure trivia now. :-)
My anglo cousin has five separately-and-otherwise unrelated Trujillo children, four of whom reproduced. Mostly Trujillos, but no non-Hispanic surnames. Their anglo ancestry is erased. And it shouldn’t be a big deal, one way or the other, except for the money schools can get and the diversity points they can get.
When I was in school and when I taught, both, the stats in our district were about 70% Hispanic, 15% Indian, 15% Anglo (which usd to include the occasional Black family). Anglo was used like the Amish use “the English.” It’s about people whose grandparents spoke English, and not Spanish or Tewa.
I love New Mexico. There are oddities, and it’s nice to be back stage in so many way. I’ve been here nearly sixty years. I don’t like people misrepresenting New Mexico.
I’m not wild about people misrepresenting me, either. :-)
Sandra