Children worked alongside adults, learning life skills through pay and imitation. In addition, grandparents played a pivotal role in educating children. Grandmothers taught their granddaughters the tribal traditions and how to engage in the subtleties of daily life. Grandparents were frequently responsible for teaching children about a tribe's traditions, the tribe's place in the world, and the child's place in the tribe.

Finally, in Native American cultures, children were generally treated with respect and dignity. They were allowed to ask questions of most adults, and welcomed to work alongside adults. Furthermore, physical discipline was rare and not severe.

Given that cultural differences may contribute to the poor quality of education on many Native American reservations, it comes as no surprise that tribes that have taken control of the educational system on their reservations have better educational success. When tribes take control of their education system, drop-out rates decrease and graduation rates increase. Furthermore, when tribes take control of their education system, truancy rates decrease. While a decline in truancy rates does not necessarily indicate success in an educational system, students do have to be present in school in order to receive any sort of education.

One issue that is particularly relevant to the quality of education is whether or not there is a language barrier between the teachers and the students. Even on reservations, teachers have predominantly been non-Native Americans....

Furthermore, many schools on reservations have failed to incorporate Native American languages into their curriculum. This failure reflects cultural insensitivity, at the least. A more nefarious explanation is that the failure of the government to use Native American languages in the curriculum on reservations has been aimed at oppressing Native Americans.
Although some people may maintain that Native Americans have benefited due to the free educations offered by the U.S. Government on reservations, the evidence simply does not support that assertion. Graduation rates on reservations are the lowest in the nation. Furthermore, even those Native Americans that complete their educations on reservations are not educated in a manner that respects their customs and traditions, or even that uses their own language.

References

Espinosa, J. Native American Battering. Retrieved Mar. 14, 2005, from the University of Illinois at Chicago Web Site: http://www.uic.edu/classes/socw/socw517/nativeamericanbattering.htm

Indian Treaties: Their Ongoing Importance to Michigan Residents. (1999). Retrieved Mar. 14, 2005 from the Clarke Historical Library

Web Site: http://clarke.cmich.edu/indian/treatyeducation.htm

Lin, R. (1985). The Promise and Problems of the Native American Student: A Comparative

Study of High School Students on the Reservation and Surrounding Areas. Retrieved Mar. 14, 2005 from the Journal of American Indian Education Web Site: http://jaie.asu.edu/v25/V25S1pro.html