Comments

1. Georgette L wrote:

   Here’s a question:

   What do you think about kids making indian headdresses (paper headband, with paper feathers stapled to them) as school projects?

   My almost 3 year old came home with one the other day, and i had some concerns, but the teacher is apparently part native american and used the assignment as a celebration of her heritage and as counting practice with the feathers.

   Just wondering what people think about assignments like this. I wasn’t sure what to think, especially after seeing the earlier blog about someone’s child’s school assignment to color an indian. Is making a paper headdress really that different?

   Thoughts?

   Thanks
   Georgette

   Posted 08 May 2009 at 10:44 am ¶

2. S's mom wrote:

   Has anyone read The Stories Julian Tells by Ann Cameron? Is it good? What did you think of this book, or any other books she wrote.

   Thank you.

   Posted 08 May 2009 at 2:55 pm ¶

3. Beth wrote:

   I had a problem with this in my daughter’s kindergarten class, but it was in a historical context – so I let it pass as wearing feathers at the time for special occasions was traditional. Otherwise, I don’t condone the stereotypes of natives of any kind/culture. I especially have an issue with “coloring an indian”!!! We work hard in our house to view color as a difference, but not to use it as a general identifier.

   Posted 08 May 2009 at 9:29 pm ¶

4. Lyonside wrote:

   Personal opinion: it depends on what else the kids are learning about the headdress. Are they learning that they’re used by SOME tribes for special occasions? Or are they learning that every Native person used to/does dress like this?

   The problem is the age: preschool children are magical thinkers who haven’t yet learned to weed out fact from fiction and imagination. Even w/ the best of intentions, they may take this and run with it to negative directions, based on other information they receive (books, cartoons, movies, TV, etc.)

   The other problem is the ethnicity of the teacher: it would not be the first time someone does their own ethnicity a disservice.

   Posted 08 May 2009 at 10:17 pm ¶

5. deesha wrote:

   Happy Mama’s Day!
   http://bitchmagazine.org/post/mothers-day-by-the-book

   Posted 10 May 2009 at 11:52 am ¶

6. Georgette L wrote:

   Me again.

   Thanks everyone for your responses so far. I do appreciate it.

   Part of my concern was that my son also came home with bunny ears for Easter and a shamrock headband for St. Patrick’s day, and i’m wondering if he’s subtly being given the message that Indians are the same as the Easter bunny and Leprechauns. (Who knows what he’ll think?) The response i got from the school on that was that he’s too young to make any association and he probably just sees it all as fun stuff to wear on his head (which brings me back to, he’s going to think it’s all the same.)

   The other issue i had is that my son is Guatemalan born, and is i’d guess about half Maya Indian. So on some level i felt dressing up as a person of ____ ethnic group might be a bit offensive to someone who does have a strong tie to a native indian culture (His birthmother is Maya, and i do think that right there makes it inappropriate.) So … yeah. I don’t go dressing up as an African American, you know? And the response i got to this was that they focused on Indians in the US and didn’t get into Maya culture (but i feel there is a connection regardless).

   Regarding the content of the lesson, i had a lot of concerns, because i remember all the holes in the stories i was always told when I was making paper headdresses. The school told me (and this is verbatim) “They do introduce the concept that people lived, where we live now, before the British and other Europeans came to North America. They also discuss that people were not always able to get food from a grocery store. People long ago had to hunt for food and grow their own food. The idea of the lesson is to expose the children to different cultures.” I feel like they missed an important piece here: these people still exist!

   Re: the teacher being part native american: One thing i’ve noticed is that people can be “part of” ________ ethnic group but not strongly identify as part of that group, and those two groups of people can be quite different. I’m technically part Polish, but beyond eating a pierogie here and there and dancing a polka at a wedding now and then, that’s as far as it goes. My grandparents, who practically starved as children, and who had to drop out of school to work to feed their families, they could give you a very different view of what being Polish in America was like. Polish jokes: not funny to them!

   I asked one of my son’s friend’s parents, who is Indian (from India), what she thought about it, and she said she was happy they were at least teaching the kids the difference between Indians and Native Americans, because she got teased a lot growing up by people who didn’t know the difference. (Which is so sad, but that’s another post.)

   Thanks.

   Posted 10 May 2009 at 9:09 pm ¶

7. Georgette L wrote:

   p.s. Regarding the lesson, the school told me that the teacher “happens to be part Native American and uses the headdress as a positive why to introduce part of the Native American dress and use the feathers to reinforce counting.” So i don’t actually know if the kids were told that this is not casual every day wear. But as i mentioned, i didn’t get from the lesson content that they were told these people still exist, so… i don’t know.

   Posted 10 May 2009 at 9:17 pm ¶

8. Andrea wrote:

   Does this same school have the kids dress up as Pilgrims at Thanksgiving? Those are historical costumes as well. I had Pilgrim ancestors, I still exist and I don’t walk around today wearing a wide white collar or a white mob cap. Lots of Indian tribes still wear feathers and costumes at ceremonial rites and pow wows, so it’s more ceremonial clothing than historical for them. I don’t see this as a big problem though, granted, I grew up with plenty of Indian classmates and lived right next to an Indian reservation, so I was always well aware that most Indians look and act pretty much like the rest of us. Tell your kids’ teacher that she should tell the kids: “This is how this particular tribe used to dress, this is how they used to hunt and live. Today a lot of them live in such and such place and live in houses and apartments and go to schools just like you do.” Most tribes have their own Web sites and some even have some basic Q&A’s for elementary kids doing reports that are a good basic introduction to the tribe. But I wouldn’t get up in arms over a preschool arts and crafts project either.

   Posted 11 May 2009 at 1:43 pm ¶

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