Whenever an elder comes to school, classroom teachers are responsible to report the length of time to the tribal organization, which then compensates the Elders for their time. This alleviates any transportation problem the elder might encounter. We try to remember to videotape and tape-record the elder's presentations. Students respect the Elders when they come to school to give a lecture or to teach. It is encouraging to see students sitting quietly for a half-hour.
Elders have a wealth of information that needs to be passed along to the next generation.
The thematic units bring out a lot of our Yup'ik culture to our students. The students are learning about the history of our people also. We ask the Elders to talk about their early reflections of what they did when they were young. I feel if we don't invite the Elders to our school, many of the students won't learn about their history. Sometimes the ESL teacher taught using the same themes, but using western cultural examples.