Why not just say the little shits can't, or are unwilling, to read and be done with it.

All I hear and see in my line of work is the fight, the need, the aspiration of self-government.

Well, the only way that is going to happen is if the Children can read, so it's the tribal council, the members of the band, and the parents of the children who are responsible for getting off their ass' and making sure the kids learn how to read.

Literacy doesn't start in a school, it starts at home.

Perhaps if there were some First Nations authors creating literature which reflected Aboriginal society and stories better, the children would find it more interesting to learn how to read.

You'd think with $7.5 billion up for grabs, and a Heritage Ministry wallowing in dough every year, they'd have found a way to put Indian Verbal Histories into a fricken book.

Our tax dollars hard at work again.

many years ago, in a previous life, I was a teacher working for an Aboriginal School Board "up north"

End of the year comes around, I was told that my kids needed to graduate to be able to show progress in the stats. They weren't ready, hadn't made the required progress, didn't "make the grade". I was ordered to sign the paperwork.

I refused, the kids were transferred out of my class into another teacher's class, who signed the papers and lo & behold a dozen kids graduated.

"Literacy doesn't start in a school, it starts at home."

--True. It did for me. It's best to start it at home. Why not?

We've been down that road for years with Blacks. The same group mentality and response scripted from the left's playbook on victim politics.

It was Bush that pointed out publically with his No Child Left Behind policy the left's hypocrisy - their "soft bigotry of low expectations." His words.

Note the total lack of personal responsibility.

We keep throwing money down the education rat hole. It fills the teacher's union coffers that fund the Dems/Libs that foster the victims.

Sickening.

I'm in a position to know for a fact that the average child in a reserve run school is graduating well below the level of the average child graduating from a non-reserve school. The average child in a reserve school earning a B average would be getting a C average in a non-reserve school. Having said that, there has been steady improvement over the past 10 years in reserve schools because of dedicated indian teachers. The problem I see is with the number of fools out there still trying to hide the "facts" behind cultural lingo and politically correct language and self-serving programs. There are an increasing number of Indian teachers and administators whom I work with who are not afraid to call a spade a spade and who are working their asses off to fix the problems. There efforts are more often than not complicated by dumb-ass WHITE leftist wanna-be Indians in government, who are socialist multi-culti-huggi-lovi liberals. Honest, you can pick'em out a mile away, they even dress like hippis. I sit with them in meetings and it's all I can take to keep from shoving their psycho-babble down their throats. They're like ants crawling all over the reserves... and most of them are WHITE.

Sad. Very sad. Both the test outcomes and, more importantly, the attitude. Things are not going to change soon, if that is the thinking going on.

There much outstanding school-math achievement in China, India and Japan, for example. Math is not a white culture thing.

Fred--the same thing happened to my sister--but she wasn't working in a Native school, she was working in a school in SW Ontario. She lost her job because she wouldn't pass two kids who couldn't read at all.
CS--we all know that parents are incapable of teaching their children anything--that is why we needed the Liberal National Daycare system--NOT!
My kids went to a Community School that was 60% Native students. The majority of the Native kids were good students and very capable,no different than our kids. All of a sudden a school was opened on the Reserve and the kids were removed from our school.
I have to suspect that it is the schools that are at fault here not the students.
Years ago there was a test done on the education of the Innuit children--and they failed because they had no idea what a cow or a mail box was. The test was from our culture and therefore the Innuit children were assumed to be below our intelligence. I suggested that if we were given a test on throwing harpoons or paddling a kyak we would also fail. We need education in all cultures, but tests that are slanted to another culture will always show that those not of that culture are below normal.
Reading, writing and math are one thing--cultural teaching should be slanted toward those being taught. But we all benefit from learning each others culture.

"from now on, literacy and education will be defined as 'knowing your own culture'. That's it"

Somehow, I see Western culture as missing from this formula.

Wouldn't you agree?

Over in comments at the Shotgun, Rasky has finally been exposed: He is a racist, who would use test results to exploit Indians. His "simplistic diatribe...has much more to do with his personal feelings of hate than any actual knowledge."

Blame the kids, blame the parents, blame the lefty teachers, blame the teachers' unions.
Oh, that's it the Rights answer to all problems is to play a game called The Blame Game. What a wonderful solution to all that ails us. Just sneer, snort, and dismiss. Poof! Its gone. No guilt ah no responsibility cause see my hands are up in the air we didnt touch them. It wasnt us it was THEM. THEY continually screw everything up. What a wonderful Utopia we would have if everyone could fix things like we can. If only the world were entirely Right Wing.
Of course if Harper fails we know in advance it won't be his fault it will be the Left.

This is only one of dozens of serious crisis' facing bands in every corner of this "great"country.
When do we finally face the reality that this system may never work....no matter how many billions we chuck at it.
What to do????

Er, Steve d, that whole "blame game" thing is the left's bread and butter.

Pointing out that something isn't working isn't "blaming" -- I think it's called "noticing".

Years ago there was a test done on the education of the Innuit children--and they failed because they had no idea what a cow or a mail box was...

Sorry, George, but most non-Innuit kids know what a harpoon and igloo are. That's no excuse. It's what books, maps, computers, movies and geography are all about.

Symbols and concepts in math are universal. I can't think of one cultural reason to fail math.

The cultural issue is a smokescreen. The real reasons for these results are poor-quality schools, low parental education, and poverty (all of which corelate to poor results in non-natives, as well).

If culture is the problem, then why do the children of immigrants (when they learn english) perform so well on these tests? Why do people born in China or India do well on these tests (on average) when people from the reserves (on average) don't?

The reasons are simple: expectations, quality of schools, and quality of home life.

Really, the best way to help native children may be to get them and their families off the reserves.

Of course, you'd never here a reserve leader suggest such a thing. It's easier to ask for more money.

steve d

How about inserting accountability instead of blame.

Let's try a world that suspends the Left Wing for a decade. Mothball them for ten years. They've owned the MSM, education and the culture for 40 years. Point out to me their qualitative accomplishments.

Please, please don't dare say civil rights. It was the Republicans against the Dixiecrat Dems that won that battle in Congress.

GM....bang on!!!!

Until there are changes in Indian and Northern Affairs nothing will change. The taxpayers give billions of dollars every year to adress these issues. Why, does it not change? There is no accountablity, period. With the unfeathered controls that the almighty cheif have over their people (financial and land) why would they want their people educated? Until reserves are desolved, the native people given their land title and treated as an equal to every other Canadian, nothing will change. Access for Sheila Fraser into this department would be wonderful.

There is an interesting commentary on this at The Fraser Institute... released 20.2.2006 to the National Post as "Hiding the Truth About Native Schooling"

It seems they are seeing the light in BC !

http://www.fraserinstitute.ca/shared/readmore1.asp?sNav=ed&id=399

Here's one thing I remember from my geography in middle school:

The Innuit (like many other tribes) called themsleves by the name "the people" all the others they refered to as "sub-human."

Looks like the lefties want to promote this as knowledge.

Marie of Rumania,are you telling us that Indian kids are at a disadvantage because they are Indian or because of their surroundings?If it is their surroundings are you telling us that residential schools were the best thing that Indian children ever attended to prepare them for their future and should be reopened?Or,are you saying that Indian kids are stupid.

Steve D. had this to say: "Blame the kids, blame the parents, blame the lefty teachers, blame the teachers' unions. Oh, that's it the Rights answer to all problems is to play a game called The Blame Game."

Steve, I have literally in my hand, a brochure from the University of British Columbia that was handed out at a 'Career Fair' exclusively devoted to aboriginal kids.

The brochure is titled "Native Indian Teacher Education Program" and lays out the minimum requirements to become a CERTIFIED teacher in the aboriginal community. Let me quote.

"Applicants may be admitted to NITEP by writing the GED (General Education Development) exam, which is referred to as the "grade 12 equivalency certificate."

"The GED tests writing skills, reading skills, science, mathematics and social studies. The MINIMUM SCORE IS 50 ON EACH SECTION" (capitalization mine)

I'm sure you're no admirer of G. Bush, but he absolutely nailed it with his analysis: "soft bigotry of low expectations."

How would you have performed if your teachers were barely literate themselves? We do our aboriginal brothers and sistes a grave disservice by creating differing standards based on history and ethnicity.

Spike: I was actually pointing out the leaden irony of someone accusing Raskolnikov, who is Indian, of being a racist, informed by hate, with "no actual knowledge".

Oh, life is a glorious cycle of song,
A medley of extemporanea;
And love is a thing that can never go wrong
And I am Marie of Romania.

-- Dorothy Parker

I for one, am tired of seeing the waste of talented youth happening on the reserves, heck even in Quebec, and Maritimes.

These are our future leaders. What are we teaching them? Separation.

Indian Affairs and Bilingualism will go down as the biggest waste of talent, lives, and money in modern history.

My suggestion is abolish reserves. Period. Abolish the distinction between Metis and First Nations types. Abolish the Department of Indian Affairs.

Yes have an ombudsman or some office with power to facilitate the change over to Western society, but not a nurse maid.

Another poster had a point about not just shoving them into mainstream society like the freed slaves in the US, but gradually.

Bring them into society on par with the national average. They can go up or down from there.

Treat reserves as little towns, complete with its own name, voted mayor, council and so on.

This is 2006, time to join the rest of North America.

If I may propose a policy solution:

1) Give all permanent residents of reserves title to their homes in fee simple.

2)require the band to buy up houses on reserve at fair market value if the owner opts to sell to the band.

3) allow th bands to collect property taxes on the remaining homes from the owners.

4) require this money to be spent on improving on-reserve schools (which will be thereafter held to provincial standards)and infrastructure.

The results: 1) better on-reserve schools with fewer children in them.

2) It is likely that a mass exodus from the reserves would also occur when natives are able to sell their homes. Natives would likely move to towns and cities in large numbers, where they would have access to better schools, more activities for their children, and better utilities (i.e. clean drinking water).

This may be drastic, but I believe it would work.

Readin' Ritin' and Revisionism. ;-)

Technical correctness is secondary to agenda correctness....imbue them with the political culture of victimhood and entitlement and send them forth to expand the nanny state.

GM: You are so on, you need to stop building cars.

WLMCR: Nah!!!, carry on you called it right ;-)

If a parent is motivated, then her or his child will learn to read well. We had our daughter reading at grade seven reading level before she went into grade one. We simply did not trust the school system. The problem is not that the school curriculum fails to limit itself to their culture, their culture is the problem--otherwise the parental attitude would be different. Just look how hard Chinese immigrants work toward their children's eduction, for example. Sure the government could do a lot better, but you can only lead a horse to water. It seems the Aboriginal ciommunity does not want their children to become educated, in order to preserve their culture.

Yes, it's a blame game, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Most natives I know have little interest in maintaining a traditional way of life, rather they are like most of "us" & like to gather up the same things as the rest of us. To do so they are likely to require marketable skills resulting from a sound education. The people who are failing native youth are those who claim they should be held to different educational standards than the rest of society.

Bush is right about soft racism.

Murray: I'll correct you on one thing only; there are more Whites out there, with jobs to protect, that are pushing the Indian separatist victimhood crap than Indians. They are Liberal Hippie types in Government who are leeches, and who make their living off of Indian Affairs. They are like jackals, and there a thousands of them and they have great influence. I deal with these scum all the time. I come across genuine "no nonsense" native educators often, but the touchie-feelie 1960's leftovers that have created the mentality and dependency are still a force to be dealt with.

The continued dumbing down of these kids is good business for lots of aboriginals, Indian Affairs staff & all those experts who keep churning out those aboriginal studies. As long as these kids continue to be educated while living on a reserves those employed in the aboriginal industry can be assured of a long & prosperous career.

Add some lawyers to your list "Debris", there's a few of them getting quite wealthy off the current system.

Indian & Northern Affairs does need a transformation, a friend's father (better man than most, my he rest in peace)was a former Chief on his reserve & had quite a battle with the department in getting a forensic audit done. I believe he prevailed in the end, he was most certainly a tenacious individual.

As far as reserves go, he & his wife chose to move their family off reserve because he they didn't want them to grow up in the reserve environment, I suppose he must have been a racist though. No doubt there are some that would be quick to brand him an "Apple".

EDB
Okay we'll call it The Notice Game.

William Macdonell "noticed" that parents have to get off their asses.

penny "noticed" that its the group mentality and response scripted from the left's playbook. AND
the soft bigotry of low expectations. AND
the total lack of responsibility. AND
throwing money down the education rat hole which ends up in teachers' union coffers.

Debris Trail "noticed" its the dumb-ass WHITE leftist wannabe Indians in government. You know, those multi-culti-huggi-lovi liberals.

Doug "noticed" that Western culture exists but is missing in education.

Hey, The Notice Game is as much fun as The Blame Game! You play it the same way sneer, snort and dismiss. Same results, Poof! It's gone! This game can be played with all problems. The reason its so easy is that the Right always comes out smelling like a rose cause all problems are caused by the Left! Genius!

Steve B: I spend a lot of my time on reserves making a difference... what do you do?

This guy has such a high opinion of himself.

That's so funny!

GM

Your idea is so smart, it was thought up already... by Robert Nault.

http://www.turtleisland.org/news/taxation.htm

and is the principle by which Jim Prentice intends to guide himself. Jean Chretien thought it was a good idea too. So did just about every PM in the last 50 years.

The single big flaw is that none of the reserves have yet to produce a viable taxation method which would allow for self-government. The hold up being people who make their livings by asking for more money from Ottawa... and if you think thats mostly the Indians doing that you'd be fooling yourself.

It's the almighty whitey that's getting the lions share of the 7.5 billion annually.

There is a vested interest, both by select native and non-native groups to keep the reserve system in place because they make their livings off it being there, waiting for Government grants.

Imagine just a couple of years ago the Feds under Martin were being courted for another 1.5 billion a year to set up a duplicate EI program just for natives. Can you imagine the slush barrel that would have turned into.

I'm glad Prentice is reviewing the deal made last December, the premiers and first nations chiefs were way to happy for it to be a good deal for the Tax payers.

Anyway, the sooner the First Nations learns how to deal with society on their terms, the better we all will be... and the reserve system is the big hurdle. Unfortunately, it isn't going to go away in my lifetime.

"Race" or "ancestry" are completely irrelevant. All peoples have the same abilities and potentials regardless of race, sex, ancestry, national origin, etc. But leftists don't want to accept this fact. It's in the interests of greedy, selfish leftist bastards to keep whole groups under their boot, creating artificial "victims", effectively perpetuating a sort of bizarre politically-correct form of apartheid. It's astonishing how leftists are able to get away with being so bloody racist! Yes; the left is racist. Time to get used to this reality. Time to expose the left's racism. If we let the left continue to impose its racist dogmas upon society, then this is a very dangerous thing.

After all, the left supports communism, Baathism, Hamas (which actually has its roots in Nazi dogma; I've exposed that on my site), Islamofascism, etc, etc... so how can they deny their apparent bigotry? Oh, of course; they're in denial, a psychological disorder, I believe. The left must be forced to acknowledge their bigotry and extremism and proceed to heal and repent and make amends for the grave error of their ways.

And they must stop pointing their fingers at others and screaming their fool heads off in an increasingly futile attempt to divert attention away from their own racist leanings.

Hell, an leftist American Democrat has recently exposed his ultra-extreme views wrt an identifiable group, calling for their extermination:

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=49135

What's it going to take for the world to awaken to the reality of the left today? The left is becoming the Nazi Party. It's becoming the Fascists. The Stalinists. The Baathists. Terrorists.

Sounds crazy, doesn't it? But just watch and listen to the left. See the patterns to their behaviors and words. You'll realize it's not crazy at all then.

So it's possible to see that some Aboriginal children are behind the "norm" in academic performance because the left has condemned them to "special" status, denying them their right to equality under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

All of this just HAD to be said.

And Steve D., while we are playing the sneer and blame game... you should of course be aware that it's bootlicking lefties like you, who refuse to address the issues of the First Nations, that will be costing the rest of us a fuck load of dough down the road.

We could have sorted this shit out 30 years ago, but no, all you liberal pussies were busy cheering the creation of the Charter... the one brillant move on the part of Liberals everywhere that essentially entrenched criminal behavior on Reserves forever.

So when your childrens wallets are empty, and your wondering why? Just remember asswipe, it's because of people just like yourself.

All talk, no action.

Not only wasting our tax dollars, but even more importantly the futures of many natives.

Hey, I've got an idea let's not rightly criticize the Left for their screw-ups! After all their intentions were good, it's not their fault they doubted their critics.

Steve d:

Finally you are starting to get it....

You see it realy is the left's fault, they have had control of Canada for about 35 years now, seeing as how this country is the most perpect land on earth, my question is....

How do you like socialism so far..?

Hi William,

I knew that Chretien had written a white paper on the subject, though as I understand it, he proposed elimanating the reserves altogether, as opposed to merely helping the natives get off of them.

But your point that the idea is not new is very true. It comes up, in some form, every few years but nothing has ever been done. Pity no one has yet had the nerve to implement it!

If Prentice intends to try something like it, then that's great news for Canada.

thanks for the info.

8 billion dollars a year.
Taken from all and given to one small race .
Increasing every year,layering more racist levels of regulation , governance, administration bureaucracy and never-ending extra special rights on what ? ...10 percent of our population?

I guess that can safely account for at least 12% + of Canadians who voted liberal in the last election.

and, if we can not measure success, how do we improve it?

would it be ok to have Doctors that have attained the grade of 50% in surgery? hmmm, it seems the accountants working the dept of indian affairs will accept "close enough" as being good enough.

if their are 2 standards of performance, I can understand why some people would say, "good enough for me"....

Sorry GM, not being sarcastic, just thought you'd like the link.

I think, like a poster put it well, the real story behind this is the "whities" doing job protection.

I know of one, two, native friends of mine who live off the reserve and are better off for it. One still gets harrassed when goes back to visit mom on the reserve as selling his native heritage to white man's ways.

So yeah, forget about fixing the 'Native issue" till we fix the Liberal white issue.

cheers
tom

just shows welfare is as destructive on Aboriginal communities as an all the others it has been inflicted on.

Saps the spirit, destroys the soul, creates victims from otherwise normal, healthy, productive citizens.

Socialism . . gotta love it.

I'd be glad to help "real" Natives. There's no such thing anymore. The North American Aboriginal is pretty well gone. They've been inbred with the white folks. Having said that, maybe we should do away with the reserves and integrate all the natives into the general Canadian population.

How is it that all these folks live on reserves, get truckloads of money thrown at their problems and they can't even organize clean drinking water? How come? Don't they know the sewer outfall goes BELOW the fresh water intake?

The Indian Affairs system in Canada is a perfect model of Communist Russia, with local Collectives (reserves), party officials (Indian Affairs), and departments (tribal councils), governing a hapless population (indians) either struggling to get by, or leeching off of the system, or rising to the top to become party functionaries, or those actually trying to make a positive difference (dissidence). We all know how well that worked.

One little, two little, three little nigdians...

H/T Mother's Goosed by the Political Correctness Mob. Pity, eh wot? Fascist idiots! +

Why black sheep are barred and Humpty can't be cracked
The Times UK ^ | 3/7/06 | Alexandra Blair

Posted on 03/07/2006 1:50:58 PM PST by mathprof

TRADITIONAL nursery rhymes are being rewritten at nursery schools to avoid causing offence to children.

Instead of singing “Baa baa, black sheep” as generations of children have learnt to do, toddlers in Oxfordshire are being taught to sing “Baa baa, rainbow sheep”.

The move, which critics will seize on as an example of political correctness, was made after the nurseries decided to re-evaluate their approach to equal opportunities.

Stuart Chamberlain, manager of the Family Centre in Abingdon and the Sure Start centre in Sutton Courtenay, Oxfordshire, told the local Courier Journal newspaper: “We have taken the equal opportunities approach to everything we do.

“This is fairly standard across nurseries. We are following stringent equal opportunities rules. No one should feel pointed out because of their race, gender or anything else.”

In keeping with the new approach, teachers at the nurseries have reportedly also changed the ending of Humpty Dumpty so as not to upset the children and dropped the seven dwarfs from the title of Snow White. +
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1591880/posts

Hey William,

No offense taken; I just didn't want people to think I was plagarizing!

thanks for the link.

Well there has to be a balance, some were racist.

Remember "enie, meanie, minie, moe, catch a ... by the toe"

Imagine saying "this little piggy went to the mosque, and this little piggy flew a plane, this little piggy blew himself up...

Err, never mind.

Mike, you'd be wrong on the integration thing... the Native American is distinct, and has a distinctly different way of life. The Metis are of mixed heritage, but otherwise, most of em' breed true... so to speak.

The problem is that all us "white" folks see that the reserve system is a failure, but all us other "white" folks, have set up a series of barricades which basically prevent us from dismantling the system. We are in the end completely helpless against a system that actively encourages segregation and second class citizenship. It's "made in Canada" apartheid, and we can't tear it down, because we've told ourselves it's a right, Indians right.

A right to poverty, poor health, poor education, and no land.

Only the Indians can change it, and they have to have a reason. One which goes beyond keeping a people together, and instead deals with the issue of prosperity (or lack of) and competitiveness.

I've met many First Nations members that chafe against the system, but because of it, are helpless to get away. They can maintain their cultural distinctiveness, they don't need a reserve to do that, but they've been sold the concept that they do, but the people the reserve benefits the most.

Education is the only way out for them, and when we as a country except this Federally imposed standard of mediocrity from the Children on reserves, we are screwing them, and ourselves.

We are still fucking them around, only now we do it with money and propaganda, instead of moonshine. At least when they were all pissed up, they didn't have to notice their circumstance so much.

Now that they are drying out, what have we left them with... a piece of land that is communal, and cheque when their 18... big deal. I'm sure most would rather have an education, leading to a job, leading to a home of their own and security for their families.

Nope, we'll just shovel more money into stupid programs that benefit 1 in a 100.

Don't want dem Redskins to gettin edjucated, or dem ta git none of themthere high phalooten ideas of equality and opportunity.

Tomax is prescient: Evil Live:

But... not to worry: the page is egalitarian: Balance is achieved. Death for all. 72 Virgins every day for the boys; 72 lousy camels to curry/comb/feed every day in eternity for the girlies. +

Hamas Launches Web Site Encouraging Kids to Become 'Martyrs'
Arutz Sheva - IsraelNationalNews ^ | 3/7/6 | Ezra HaLevi

Posted on 03/07/2006 1:11:59 PM PST by SmithL

The Palestinian Authority's ruling Hamas terror group has launched a web site for children, preaching the moral desirability of being a suicide terrorist through cartoons and children's stories.

The Hamas-run Al-Fateh.net glorifies shahada, martyrdom, and presents the deaths of terrorists attacking Israelis as a time of celebration, according to a report by Palestinian Media Watch.

One of the stories on the site quotes a mother saying that when she heard her son had become a shahid, a martyr, she bought dates, candies and coffee to give out. An entire section of the site is called "Stories of the Shahids" and the most recently posted story honors Hamas terrorist Naseem Ja'abari, who murdered 16 people when he blew himself up on a bus in Be'er Sheva on August 31, 2004.

The page is egalitarian in its encouragement of martyrdom, with a prominently featured drawing of a religiously garbed girl participating in violent attacks (pictured above) on both the homepage and on a second page with a poem glorifying Jihad, Islamic conquest, and Shahada. +
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1591849/posts

There is no question that the native people of this country have a distinct culture. There is also no question that they have been horribly mistreated historically.

But culture is an individual right, like free expression. It is NOT a "group right" or a license for the band leaders and the government to imprison reserve-dwelling natives in a paternalistic system that denies them rights given to other Canadians, such as the right to own and mortgage their homes.

The current native system is rightly compared to communism; it treats natives like incompetant children. No wonder the expectations for them are so low!

Give the natives control of their property on an individual level, and then let them decide if they want to stay on the reserves in the name of "culture", or whether they want to sell what their piece of the reserve and move somewhere with better prospects.

My guess is that most of them will integrate within a generation or two.

why thank you maz2, had to look up the word: prescient.

Thought it was some kinda aftershave thingy...

Private Hebrew schools across Alberta won't release their provincial Grade 3 and Grade 6 achievement test results for 2005, citing "cultural insensitivity."

..Murray Berkovich, head of the Hebrew School Association of Alberta and a spokesman for the Temple Shalom Synagog, said the test results were markedly different from provincial averages. Releasing them would reinforce stereotypes about Jews without providing context.

"It doesn't take a dermatologist to figure out what the result is going to be. Everyone already knows the problems we sometimes face in gentile society, so why make it look even worse?" said Berkovich.

Some Jewish students do quite poorly, but have their aggregate test scores pulled up by peers facing massive parental expectations.

Cal...

...and your point is?

Satire, a literary work in which human vice or folly is attacked through irony, derision, or wit.

It is more easily recognized than defined but it doesn't work with everybody.

Oooohh...satire...

And here I thought it was plagiarism but with the substitution of one race for another.

Just curious as to the Jewish slant.

Now that Harper is our Federal leader he will show us how to govern. He will fix all this Lefty mess. Just like Bush did in the USA. HAHA
This should be very interesting. My guess is the rich get richer and the poor get poorer(that means Natives). But that is okay because we know that the only ones worth supporting are those that get off their asses and become rich. The rest can eat cake until they too decide they want to become something more than couch potatoes. See, its all really so simple. Don't ya love Conservatism.

Okay Steve d,

If you don't like what has been suggested here, what, exactly is your plan for the issue?

Please enlighten us.

I posted this on the other blog that Kate linked to, thought I may as well paste it here to because I don't think enough of the comments speak for me. Here it is:

I lived in Prince Albert, SK. for a year. During that time I worked at Ranch Ehrlo which is a youth group home. Maybe some of you have heard of it. All native residents there. Not by design, just that they’re the ones that end up there. Almost all white staff (me among them) there too. Not by design, just that next to no natives will work there and the one’s that do are too unreliable to keep on staff. The hand book indoctrinated me about the ideals of therapeutic this and that. Working there, I realized that all the staff who have been there long enough to know up from down are too cynical to be a therapeutic presence, and the kids are all too hopeless (read: without-hope) to ever become anything other than products of the system. One of the house moms summed it up best: “Things never get better for these kids, but at least while they’re here we can keep them from getting worse for a while.” My idealism died with that breath because I knew she was right. My heart still brakes though because most of those kids were only 1 decent-ass parent away from being really, truely, great kids. I really believe that. And it’s not money they need. They’ve already got too much. What they need is for somebody to give a damn.

God help us all.

Okay, GM

First note that it is very complex.
There is no solution short term.
Natives live in grinding poverty. They are isolated. They have been paid subsistence amounts of government money to remain a non-issue. This is done with all low wage,welfare people. It works because these people have low self worth. Nothing in their experience or history with the white man gives them reason to hope.
So now in our zeal to give everyone a chance we present them with what the white man(particularly the middle class) has found to be the great ticket up the ladder of success.
The problem is there is a whole subset of values and psychology that must be in place for this education to "take".
Children, whether we know it at the time or not, are supremely affected by their parents. When they are deciding what to be, or not to be, their parents education and careers are critical to the childs decision making.
Unfortunately, the parents can't display any of the middle class white norms that are assumed when one enters the educational bureaucracy.
Education is set up and designed to move children along who have the prerequiste mindsets.

As I said, it is very complex.
Solution?
Pay qualified teachers double wages on five year contracts, to go where these people live.
Pay the parents above poverty wages to learn sellable skills. Even if they don't start working regularly within a year or two it doesn't matter because their life conditions will be much improved as will their feelings about themselves, and they will have hope.

In short, they need to be socialized into what for them will be a new world. It will take time and money but in the end will be cheap.

okay Steve,
you've made some interesting points....

"In short, they need to be socialized into what for them will be a new world."

Agreed.

But wouldn't the best way to do that be help them get off the reserves?

"Pay qualified teachers double wages on five year contracts, to go where these people live."

Similarly, couldn't this be done the other way around? By providing natives with the means (by recognizing their property rights) and incentives to leave the reserves and move their kids into the regular school system? (a flawed system, to be sure, but better than what they've been given on-reserve)

"This is done with all low wage,welfare people. It works because these people have low self worth."

Very true.
But will it really improve their self-worth to pay them not to work while training them for skills that are useless on-reserve because there are no jobs (or economic base to support jobs)in those places?

"Natives live in grinding poverty. They are isolated. They have been paid subsistence amounts of government money to remain a non-issue."

Exactly!
The band leaders are paid off by the government and given unaccountable control of these isolated communities in return for making sure no one complains too much.

The Reserves are basically Gulags. Anything we do to put power in the hands of individual natives, as opposed to band leaders, will be progress.

What we are seeing now is the natural result of stranding people in the middle of nowhere with no opportunities and zero control of their lives.

I will agree this is a complex problem, and getting people out of the "Gulags" won't be easy or simple. But I believe the best hope is to help naitves integrate.

Funny, used to be a lot more natives in the construction end of the oil industry, some of the most highly skilled in their fields, holding some of the highest positions. That was when government was not so generous with those people who chose not to work. Now with the industry faced with a serious shortage of labor, positions where training is available, remain unfilled.

Sorry Steve d., your intentions might be noble, but your premises unsound. You haven't related any personal experience with the community, perhaps you have some. It seems though that those others on this thread who do have such experiences, offer considerably different opinions than yours.

Steve D, I have to ask, do you have any experience on a reserve? Do you have any idea of how the mindset works on the typical reserve? Don't misunderstand me, I'm glad to see you postulating something as opposed to deriding everything.

What you say is true, the context you take it in though is the same error we are already making. Teachers on reserves are already as well paid as off-reserve, parents are subsidized heavily to try and do other things employment wise.

The primary issue is how funds are distributed, who distributes the funds, and who hold the distributers of funds accountable. The holes in the system on reserve are primarily designed so that a few can benefit over the many. Take a look at your average reserve off the Federal site at http://www.aboriginalcanada.gc.ca/acp/site.nsf/en/ab80001.html

You can drill down to the list of band council and chiefs. When you do you'll notice that probably 90% of the reserves in this country are controlled by a single family on each reserve. You don't have the right connection, your getting nowhere on a reserve.

Piss the Chief off and your life becomes shit. Piss his wife off and you might as well move off the reserve.

All the funding, all the resources that a single native would require to get ahead in any fashion, stem from the signature of either the Chief, or Band and Council...

Indians in this country have taken the oligarchical model to a whole new level.

I just finished refusing to put a cardlock in for a particular band in Alberta, because the main point behind it was to enable the band chief to hand out giftcards for band members prior to an upcoming election. Completely oblivious to the fact that it would constitute bribing for votes... on federal land.

I can't tell you how many times I've met someone on reserve who just wants to better themselves, but at some point they, or another family member, has gone against the council on an issue, and their lives are effectively shut-off from that point.

The children don't need a mindset change, they need a mindset period. There isn't one, unless your part of the in group on reserve.

We keep assuming that Indians are just like us at the end of the day, and it's simply not true. They have very distinctive concepts of family (stronger than the average Canadians I might add), they have a different view on almost all of what we would consider cultural norms.

Most importantly though, they are still getting treated like shit by the mainstream society, and the way we give them money allows them to treat each other like shit as well. One native friend of mine once told me that the only way I could understand how the First Nations feel is if I was a black man living in the deep south in the 40's. He said then, and only then, could I begin to understand an Indians position in Canada.

I told him he was full of shit... now I'm not so sure.

Ah... no use talking about this, no one off reserve gives a shit anyway, and by the time people do begin to take notice, the criminal element on reserve and their lawyers will have the Supreme Court handing away our homes to the First Nations Council.

Maybe when the final bill comes in people will have realized what our lethergy has cost us.

I was speaking of the way long term to improve test scores.
If THEY want the white man's lifestyle then they will have to be acculturated into white mans' ways first.
If they do not want white man's ways then there is no point testing them against white man's measurements.
Natives have been stuck between wanting some of white man's ways while wanting to preserve their culture. It takes at least two generations to acculturate an immigrant family in the big city where there are few supports for his old culture. To have native communities, isolated and virtually self sufficient in most important ways makes this process painfully slow.
Until these test scores become as big in native minds as they are in middle class Canada there won't be any change worth measuring.

Hi Steve,

I guess I was thinking in more general terms...

But Let me put it this way:

1) either natives want to live on-reserve or they don't. This is an individual/family choice and the natives should be as free as possible to make it.

2)If they want to stay on the reserves, then the tests don't matter.

Why? Because living in isolation with no working economy condemns them to permanent poverty and dependance.

reserves are NOT virtually self-sufficent. Most of them have an insufficent economic base. They require massive government funding, and even then can't provide basic services at a non-third-world level.

3) Natives deserve better, and will choose a better option if it is offered them.

Our cities integrate immigrants in large numbers, with (mostly) reasonable success every year. Once in the cities, it would be easier (though still a challenge) for natives to integrate, but it could happen.

Therefore,

4) We should help and encourage any natives that want to leave the reserves to do so.

If they stay on the reserves, they accept dependance, and education won't matter. For those natives, the money is better spent on infrastructure and housing.

For those that want something else, we should make things easier.

While the test marks are a disturbing indicator of reserve conditions, improving the test scores won't solve much.

Your thoughts?

Don't know why you folks fret so much over this Indian thing. Just pay your taxes,shut up and pray the Cree don't realize the Alberta oil sands are actually theirs.

macdonald....Hang on a minute,I'll give them a quick call just to make sure they know it's theirs.

GM
Change is never easy. Their conditions are third world but it is home.
What you are asking the natives to do is to give up on their heritage, their community and leave their comfort zone(such as it is) and move from isolated community to big city. Good luck.

Perhaps if the carrot were big enough you might get some to bite. If they are successful it could conceivably cause a migration of serious proportions.
If you could lure a few families with proper support, financial and social. It might work. However, what would others think? We have a lot of street people in Toronto. Also there are immigrants and migrants who might take umberage at Natives getting all this support. Politically it is risky. We really have a whole subculture of desperate people both on and off the reserves so it is not going to happen who are we kidding. I say stop testing them until we are ready to get serious about the problem.