Schools superintendent Scott Ballard said he hopes the subsistence calendar will help communities feel more connected to their schools, 'instead of seeing the school as this alien institution that occupies their village, that promotes Western values.”
For years, students in the Yupiit School District in Southwest Alaska were following an unofficial subsistence calendar. This meant that they just wouldn’t show up to classes during bird hunting season in the spring and moose hunting season in the fall.
“It’ll be a slam dunk. We’ll petition the commissioner of education, he’ll give us the waiver, and we’ll be done with it,” Ballard said. “It was not simple at all,” Moses Peter, a Yupiit School District board member, said the change is part of a decades-long board initiative to center Yup’ik culture in the district’s educational goals and curriculum.
Woody Woodgate, the federal programs director for the Yupiit School District, said that the district tries to match traditional cultural activities with state educational standards. The summer school this year was a fish camp organized by the district. Woodgate said that the kids loved it. Peter believes that this is the best way for kids to learn. It’s how he learned. When he was growing up, his parents would pull him out of the Bureau of Indian Affairs school he attended so he could go to spring camp.
South Africa Latest News, South Africa Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Denver school board approves charter school centering Black students that was initially rejectedAfter the state ordered Denver Public Schools to reconsider a charter school centering Black students and culture, the school board Thursday approved the school to open next fall.
Read more »
PEN America report shows Florida has 2nd highest number of school-related book bansOver the past year or so, books were banned at least 2,500 times by more than 130 school districts across 30-plus states, according to the analysis.
Read more »
New Boston schools superintendent officially starts her new roleAll eyes will be on how the Boston native and veteran school administrator will address longstanding challenges in Massachusetts' largest school district -- and whether she will have staying power.
Read more »
School districts call on Newsom for sex offender school safety plan -SAN DIEGO (KUSI) – Monday, Sept. 26 Andrew Hayes and several other school board members from across San Diego County mailed a letter to Gavin Newsom’s desk requesting an expansion of Jessica’s Law, among other policy changes that would help better inform schools and communities about the placements of serious sexual offenders. Parent leaders, administrative leaders, and the concerned residents...
Read more »