Navajo times., 1961-05-10
Mrs. Annie d. Wauneka
Chairman Navajo Tribal
Health Committee

who ride off from home to school
in buses each year. These children
depart in thousands from the Navajo
Country for destinations ranging
all the way from Or egonto ONa-
homa. They are scattered in insti-
tutions of earning in places far
distant from their mother and
fathers, relatives and friends. They
leave the life of their home COM
munities they know so we'll, to go
into strange and unfamiliar sur
rOundings, to meet strange people
who have many ways to which they
are unaccustomed. This is partial
ly the current pattern of Indian edu-
cation.
The Navajo people do not wish
to send their hildr 6 n far away
from home. The policy of the Nav
ajo Tribe is to seek the means of
education for their childr en- as
close to home as possible. The
Congress Of the United States has
not seen fit to make school seats
available to all of the youngsters
within their local communities.
Though diSSati sfied, the Navajo
people make the best of the situa-
ton and send their children off to
non-reServation boarding schools,
reservation boarding schools, and
peripheral dormitories, inc r d er
that these children may have the
benefits of education. All this re-
quires a tremendous adjustment.
All this is a jolt, a shock, especially
to the younger children.
Every child needs certain things
if he is to grow up healthy and hap
py and become good citizen.
Briefly, these needs are proper
food, clothing, protection from
danger, and adequate medicalcare.
E Not only must child have these
four prime essentials but together
with tn EN- he requires attention,
love, sympathy and understanding.
Above all, children need to feel that
they are wanted and trusted.
In large groups, the training and
discipline are apt to be impersonal.
This is especially SO in boa ding
schools where minimum of staff
is available and the maximum of
childrenmust be eaccommodatedThe
child is literally ripped out of his
environment and set into an arti-
fiCial situation where the family
life he has always known no longer
exists. How can child learn about
family life and its responsibilities
when he is not experiencing Pin
stead he is experiencing something
vastly different from what he has
known in another environment. At
nome it is not necessary for him to
be careful in crossing the street,
perhaps there are no streets. AT
home he does not eat his meals with
500 other children. He eats with his
mother, father, his brothers and
sisters. In his new environment, he
experiences thousand new Situa-
tions, new ways of doing things, diff
ferent housing. Many little children
have never used a flush toilet Or
drawn water from a tap or an
swered their names at roll call.
Small children especially need
to be loved and protected because
it is in the early years that one de-
velops habits and attitudes which
carry over in the later life. | can
only say that impersonal treatment
of the child in a boarding school
situation may affect future atti-
tudes and the child's ability to ad-
just as expected.
Undoubtedly it is an emotional
shock when a child leaves his home
and ali that is familiar to hims and
it is extremely hard when he goes
into completely different life and