TE 250: Reading Response

The article "An Indian Father's Plea" by Robert Lake (Medicine Grizzlybear) is about this man's desparate want and need to have his indian child fit in at school and yet still accept the culture he came from. He writes a letter to his son, Wind-Wolf's teacher explaining how the students have been negative to his son and how he wants Wind Wolf to be able to appreciate his culture instead of being embarrased by it. The father also wants to know why the teacher insists that his child is a slow learner at school.

It is incredibly sad to see that children at the age of six are already influenced by their parents to judge other people. Robert explains that when Wind-Wolf wanted to go play at his friend's house before dinner one day, the parent of the other child did not want their child playing with Wind-Wolf because he was not white. Wind-Wolf also had a hard time continuing to accept his identity because the children in his class laughed at his name and because his hair was long. In his culture it is considered masculine to have long hair and in the new culture at his school it is not. He came home and told his father and mother that he wanted to cut his hair regardless of the fact that it is apart of their culture.

Wind-Wolf has a hard time picking different concepts at school such as the language being spoke by his teacher and students and counting correctly. Robert tells the teacher how his son learned to count. He would listen to his aunts and grandmothers count as they sorted different materials for their native baskets. Wind-Wolf was also taught that there are thirteen full moons in a year and Robert wants the teacher to understand why Wind-Wolf may count the number of months wrong.

Based on what I have read in this article, it seems that teachers need to be more open about the diversity in their classes. They need to help their students understand that just because a student is different looking does not mean there is anything wrong with them and they need to be accepting of everyone. The teacher will hopefully see how much this parent wants his child to fit in at school yet still accept and love his original culture because of the effort he is making for his son with this letter.