[Oe List ...] [Dialogue] Native American Education

[J&OSlotta]

Hello, Lucille-

I, too, am enjoying the reminiscing that Karen's email and your 
response has triggered--the times of Rendez-vous Québec: Les Îles de la 
Madeleine (!!!); circuits in the Gaspé; weekends in Montréal.

I've visited the IAL website that you have referred us to, and 
encourage others to do so as well. I read about their 2005 Conference 
and about IAL in general; but I stopped short of signing up for 
membership the first time through. It sounds very authentic.

Over the years, Oliveann also has aligned herself with educational 
organizations that she felt might make a difference in educational 
reform. Groups like AERA, and NCTM, and most recently an 'International 
Conference on Children's Rights and Education for the 21st Century', 
where she presented this past June at the Texas A & M campus in Corpus 
Christi, Texas.

While I'm on Texas, and not yet cured of reminiscing, I must share a 
story from two nights ago. We were in our living room, and the college 
football national championship game was on. During a commercial break, 
an information piece was aired about one of the competing schools--the 
University of Texas at Austin. Oliveann, who was knitting, suddenly 
yelled, "Yes!" The commentator had just stated something like "...the 
University of Texas at Austin, where ideas come from that change the 
world." Of course, she had immediately imaged that the commentator was 
no doubt referring to the Christian Faith and Life Community. Then, she 
said that, given it was the eve of her birthday, she deserved to hear 
the message again. Not more than five minutes later it was done. To cap 
it off, she called son Jon and asked him if he knew why she reacted 
that way to the infomercial, and he made her day by saying something 
like, "Isn't that where the ICA started?" Close enough, Jon-boy!

But I digress. We're talking here about global educational reform, and 
specifically how that might occur for Native American tribes. And about 
the possible role of the ICA in both the general and specific cases.

You go, girls! And that includes (Sister) Elizabeth Houde, who is 
determined to hammer out a partnership between the ICA-USA and the 
Congress of Energy Resource Tribes (CERT).

(Sister) Lucille, after working with you, I declare that there is 
nobody that could doubt your ability to win your cause. I wish you 
well. Let's all keep ourselves in these loops of possibility. We hope 
your IAL Conference Call on Literacy Acceleration went well, and that 
your workshop at the IAL's 2006 Conference will be one of the 
highlights of the week!

All the best,

Jim Slotta in Denver


On Wednesday, January 4, 2006, at 01:16  PM, Chagnon at comcast.net wrote:

> Karen,
>    I am sending this to the two listserves to add to what is, I 
> presume, a tentative list of interested colleagues.  I can't begin to 
> tell you how hopeful the possibilities that you have raised seem to > 
> be.
>    Count me in to your Native American Project.  I believe I bring two 
> particular strengths to what you describe as both a variation on 
> the Town Meeting project and an educational venture with incredible 
> potential.
>    First, the educational component.  For years, I have been a member 
> of the US version of Georgi Lazanov's suggestopedia or accelerated 
> learning organization, the International Alliance for Learning 
> (formerly SALT, the Society for A. L. and Teaching).  I have presented 
> workshops on my Literacy Acceleration vision at IAL's January 
> conference for the past several years and will be doing so again in 
> Alexandria, VA next week.  I am also leading a one-hour IAL Conference 
> Call on Literacy Acceleration tomorrow evening, Thursday, Jan 5th.  I 
> will leave website information on both for interested colleagues at 
> the end of this e-mail since it is not too late to register.  
> Interestingly enough, one of the most active IAL members is Chuck 
> Bubar, an early member of the Christian Faith and Life Community in 
> Austin who remembers Joe Mathews well.
>    Carl Stock and I took the Town Meeting multi-week set-up model and 
> reduced it to one week in Canada when, with other wonderful 
> colleagues, we spent the first quarter of 1978 setting up Rendez-vous 
> Quebec in pairs. 
>    When I.got to Europe in April 1978, we were sometimes able to 
> reduce the set-up time there to one or two days, especially in farming 
> communities, and still get a very good-sized representation of local 
> people around the table.  After Belgium, France, and Luxembourg (just 
> one meeting there--that Paul Schrijnen led in German) we took it to 
> England.  Roger Bannister was at one of the Community Meetings, and he 
> invited me and Chris Boivin, who was still in High School at the time, 
> to his home after. 
>    I'm enjoying the reminiscing, but the point is this:  You have been 
> wise to seek out the grassroots leadership first.  The strategy that 
> works with the Native American population is a different one 
> altogether when you talk with the local people themselves.  With those 
> visionaries and go-getters in tow, you can get to those who hold the 
> purse strings and do an end-run around the need for formalities that 
> can delay everything by months.  Another plus is our colleagues who 
> have lived and worked in HDPs or other native communities around the 
> globe.
>    As I re-read this, I realize that I am preaching to the 
> converted. Keep us in the loop, Karen. 
> Lucille Chagnon, Wilmington, DE
> IAL website:  ialearn.org   for information on the Alexandria 
> Conference and/or the current Conference Calls.