language and science

[Mia - Main Red Pony]

Dear Carol:

I read your inspiration, or more accurately, skimmed, because I am already
late for the "before meeting shower". . . but I was so touched by the small
line: If you don't like it. . .

I don't know quite where to publish this, which I assume is what you mean.
Having just read it, my mind has not had time to percolate some of the
ideas. (My dad was Irish; my mom Eastern European, btw). However, if you
give me a little more time, and if you tell me whether you might be
interested in exploring some of the ideas further. For example, there are 2
interesting books: Mysteries of the Hopewell, and Native American Science,
both of which talk about the more abstract skills of the people who live
here before. The mathematics, the symmetry, of the Hopewell mounds, is
stunning, IMHO. The relation of mathematical abstraction to cultural needs
is also very interesting. People seem to forget that the Western
interpretation of mathematics and science is simply a set of languages that
represent abstractions that derive from the needs and curiosites (and power
struggles) of the Europeans. No more. No less.

So let me know what you think. Based on the responses I have gotten from
people, assembling a Major Concept of Native Science, and its Representation
in Language may be worthy of a grant submission to the NSF. Tell me what you
think.

Regards,
Mia

----- Original Message -----
From: "McMillan, Carol" <CMcMillan at WVC.EDU>
To: <ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>
Sent: Monday, March 15, 2004 4:22 PM
Subject: language and science


>
> The discussions of science and language inspired a four-in-the-morning
"ah-ha" experience for me.  I'm sending a copy of the draft of its result.
As a non-Indian who works with the Colville Tribes' language program and who
also teaches science, I have written this with other science teachers in
mind as its audience.  If you can take the time to read it (four pages,) I
would greatly appreciate any and all feedback. If you like it, what do you
think I should do with it?  (If you don't like it, please don't answer the
last question...)   :-)
> Thanks,
> Carol McMillan
>
>
>
> DRAFT
>
> Besides Linearity: Lessons from Native American Languages for
> Rethinking Our Science Education Paradigm
>
> Carol McMillan, Ph.D.
> March 9, 2004
>
> Wenatchee Valley College at Omak lies unobtrusively in the Okanogan Valley
of Washington State. Nestled between two ranges of mountains, the Okanogan
River marks a geologic boundary between colliding continental plates; a
place of great drama if viewed on a grand time scale.  From the perspective
of us ephemeral humans who live here, the more visible collision is not
geologic, but one of cultures.  Rare in our U.S. history, some of the local
Native American tribes remain at home, living where their ancestors have
fished, hunted, dug roots, and picked huckleberries for many thousands of
years.  The culture is ancient, sophisticated, and rich in whatâ~@~Ys often
referred to as â~@~\deep knowledge,â~@~] those things that can only be learned
through countless generations of observation.
> I am one of the suyapis, those flighty, invasive newcomers whose
ancestors, when driven from their native lands of Scotland and Ireland by
the invading British, came to America and became the invaders of this land.
As with most cultures, ours tends to be arrogant and ethnocentric, believing
that we hold the truths with which we may enlighten others.
> Before our arrival, education flowed from the elders, both human and
non-human.  Correct behaviors were modeled rather than preached, silent
observation of natural phenomenon led to deep understandings of the workings
of nature, and psychological principles were taught through stories told in
the darkness of winter.  These were long-evolved paradigms for education;
demonstrably successful over thousands of years.
> As a faculty member of the local community college, I am a purveyor of the
new system.  Merely a few hundred years old at best, this system has been
demonstrably awesome in the manipulation of molecules, forcing them into
intriguing categories and shapes. Like a bunch of aging children, we seem
unable to resist the temptation to simply try something out and see what
happens.  We seem less concerned about ultimate results than we are
infatuated by immediate novelties.  While quite impressive materially, the
driving force behind this culture does not seem to bode well for
sustainability.  Never-the-less, our forefathers (and, yes, also our
foremothers) set about eliminating the existent educational systems of this
continent, replacing them as completely as possible with one in which
captive children are removed from their homes for between six and
twenty-four hours each day, imprisoned in a square-cornered building filled
with well-meaning adults who require them to think and behave in terms of
linear, hierarchical subdivisions. While almost every parent complains about
the local schools, we tend to believe whole-heartedly in their basic
premises.
> Okanogan County can only be reached from outside by traveling over a
hundred miles on two-lane roads.  There was little violent combat between
males when the white people arrived; most of the violence was carried out
silently by the accompanying viruses, or was visited upon the heads of the
children in the mission schools.  This last was literal, not merely
figurative.  In the 1980â~@~Ys, at our collegeâ~@~Ys first Pow-wow, a woman in her
sixties spoke of attending the local boarding school.  If she spoke her own
language, the woman reported, the nunâ~@~Ys would strike a match and extinguish
it on her tongue.
> Hearing these stories causes us suyapis to flinch in White guilt; weâ~@~Yd
rather they were laid to rest.  But if we move past the discomfort and past
a bit of our innate ethnocentric worldviews, there awaits an awesome world
of wisdom.  Many Native Americans are understandably reluctant to share much
of this wisdom, both because they were shamed for it and because of the
painfully literal truth of the saying, â~@~\Once burned, twice shy.â~@~]  But for
Indian children to succeed in the imposed school system without being
totally subsumed into the white worldview, the cultural paradigms must be
incorporated into our understanding of how learning takes place.  Such a
shift benefits not only Indian children, but would expand the worldviews of
all learners passing through our institutions of education.
> Since all people learn in multiple ways, sincere teachers worldwide have
been rediscovering methods that teach holistically.  A generation ago, when
linearity reined king, we were asked to outline all papers before beginning
to write.  An outline consisted of a linear, hierarchical ordering of our
thoughts, deemed necessary before intelligible writing could begin.
Although reared and nurtured in a highly logical, â~@~\scientificâ~@~] family, I
have never mastered that art.  My outlines were generated ex post facto,
created after the papers were completed.  More recently educators invented
â~@~\clustering,â~@~] balloons of linked concepts placed in no particular order.
Neither lineal nor hierarchical, clustering allows an author to view all
thoughts on a subject holistically before organizing them.  Clustering shows
an example of the possibilities awaiting us through non-linear thinking.
>
> A basic precept of anthropology teaches that cultures that build circular
structures tend to view time as a spiral, to problem solve by council, and
to think holistically.  Cultures that build in squares and pyramids, on the
other hand, tend to have hierarchies with coercive powers, to view time as
linear, and to think sequentially: a goes to b, b goes to c.  We also read
that language and culture interweave, inextricably tied together, both
reflecting and shaping a worldview.
> Since 1999 the Language Preservation Program of the Confederated Tribes of
the Colville Reservation and Wenatchee Valley College have been working
together to offer a course of study in which students can incorporate the
learning of their native languages into a college degree program.  Through
extensive contact with elders, I have begun to glimpse the magnitude of a
parallel universe in which I was not raised.  Most of the languages taught
in our schools are Indo-European, sharing an ancestry and structural
similarly.  We have textbooks and dictionaries with lists of words to
memorize and incorporate into increasingly complex dialogs.  Most of what
challenges the reciprocal learners of these languages is the conjugation of
verbs.  For these we must learn to recognize various affixes, small units of
meaning attached to the root words, indicating person and tense.  Trying to
consciously dissect a verb when hearing a language spoken leads to ones
comprehension falling behind the words; the learner becomes lost.  Only when
these verbal affixes become â~@~\second natureâ~@~] to us can we begin to understand
and to speak, automatically recognizing the meanings of the conjugations
without trying to translate.
> Now try to imagine a language made up primarily of affixes.  With fewer
separate words standing on their own, the majority of meaning in a given
sentence lies in a string of what linguists refer to as â~@~\bound morphemes,â~@~]
small units of meaning that cannot stand alone.  Using English, one can say,
â~@~\Suddenly he decided to walk along the river, quickly moving upstream.â~@~] In
the native languages of the Pacific Northwest, however, one encounters a
single word constructed from multiple affixes:  â~@~\Person not oneself or the
person being spoken to â~@~S alone â~@~S going â~@~S in an upstream directionâ~@~S along a
small river - deciding suddenly to do this â~@~S moving quickly â~@~S in the past.â~@~]
> Haruo Aokiâ~@~Ys monumental dictionary of nimiputimptki, the Nez Perce
language, is organized by word stems or roots.1  These can act either as
nouns or verbs, depending on the affixes. To look up a Nez Perce word, one
must be able to recognize which section holds the primary unit of meaning, a
feat involving considerable knowledge of the language.  The word
"hiwacaptka?ykima" translates as â~@~\He ran back and forth with his, through
the length of the longhouse.â~@~]2  One can find it listed under the stem
â~@~\capati,â~@~] meaning â~@~\to lie or move lengthwise,â~@~] with the subheading â~@~\we,â~@~]
meaning â~@~\to run.â~@~]  Also under capati one finds the command â~@~\?inahicilcaptx,â~@~]
meaning â~@~\Climb on a branch with it.â~@~]  The reader must recognize â~@~\captâ~@~] as
the root section in each.
>   One can see that our brains must approach the Nez Perce language
differently than Indo-European languages.  In English we can say, â~@~\They
collectively took down each one of the items he was carrying for him.â~@~]  But
in nimiputimtki the same meaning is conveyed with
> â~@~\pewi?nekehneysene.â~@~]  The latter cannot be deciphered in the linear manner
one would use on the first.  Listening to an Indo-European language one
tracks the words sequentially, unconsciously knowing when to expect each
part of speech.  Oneâ~@~Ys brain can follow the flow of words, ticking off
subjects, verbs, and modifying phrases as they are spoken.  But, even
unconsciously, a listener cannot use the same heuristic to decipher the
second sentence.  The brain must wait for all the affixes to present
themselves, and then organize them into a meaningful whole.  Martina
Whelshula, a tribal educator who is seeking to become fluent in her heritage
language, verbalized this shift beautifully.  Her face lit with joy as she
exclaimed, â~@~\My language paints a picture in my head; I just watch it!â~@~]3
>
> How the brain is utilized may differ somewhat depending on the language
one speaks. The implications of this difference for science education may be
quite large. Through language itself, Indo-European speakers practice
sequential thought, while speakers of Native Languages process language more
holistically.  Logical, sequential brain functions may be consciously
controlled; one can use â~@~\critical thinkingâ~@~] inductively to reach
conclusions.  Holistic thinking, on the other  hand, seems to be based on
less conscious processes.  One feeds the brain information and waits for the
â~@~\ah-haâ~@~] to be supplied to oneâ~@~Ys conscious awareness, one must wait for the
picture to be painted.
>   Neuroscientists continue to make great strides in understanding learning
and memory.  Although the pre-frontal cortex appears to be the site of
conscious, analytical thought, it is not the primary recipient of incoming
sensory data.  The thalamus and amygdala, tied more to our emotive
processes, have first decision-making rights as to how data will be
processed.  Depending on our previous experience with a situation, these
unconscious areas of our brains can choose to send impulses to our conscious
minds for processing, can cause us to flee or avoid a situation, or can even
shut down all neural channels to our frontal cortex, causing our minds to
literally â~@~\go blank.â~@~]4  Even if our frontal cortex receives the sensory
data, it must rely on the unconscious processes of the hippocampus to
retrieve bits of relevant stored memory from various sections of the brain
and, after processing, to return the data for storage. By far the greatest
amount of brain function in learning and memory are unconscious processes.
> Despite this fact, our educational systems continue to deify conscious,
logical processes as the only valid method of learning.  Controlled,
sequential thought fits well with the linear paradigm of Anglo-American
culture.  Holistic thought, on the other hand, requires a great deal more
trust and the release of conscious control.  The unconscious mind must be
trusted to be the bastion of learning and memory that it actually is.  In
the Anglo paradigm we tend to identify our â~@~\selvesâ~@~] with areas of controlled
consciousness.  I would argue that Native Americans tend to have a broader
definition of â~@~\self,â~@~] encompassing more of the unconscious connections.
>
> This paper itself is based on a four-in-the-morning â~@~\ah-haâ~@~] experience.
Each winter for the past twenty years I have taught a course called â~@~\Life
Continuityâ~@~] at Wenatchee Valley College.  During those years I have refined
and fine-tuned the class until I will admit to being quite pleased with my
method of instruction; years after being in the class, students often
contact me to say how it has stayed with them.  These are the outcomes an
instructor strives for.  Yet this year, as I taught it again, my conscious
mind registered a pattern that Iâ~@~Yd been unconsciously observing throughout
the history of the course.
> For the first half of the quarter I teach the processes of genetics.  My
goal is to have students become â~@~\fluentâ~@~] in the language of genes: what
genes actually are, how they are created, how they work in the body, and how
they are passed on.  The second half of the quarter covers population
genetics and evolution.  Once students truly understand genes, we look at
what happens to them in ecosystems, how the genes of various organisms
affect each other.  The two halves of the course are taught and assessed
quite differently.  I teach the genetic processes in a neat, organized,
linear fashion: e.g., in â~@~\transcriptionâ~@~] there first comes a recognition of
the allele on the DNA, then the chromosome â~@~\puffs,â~@~] then RNA polymerase
begins putting in matching nucleotides along the DNA bases . . . etcetera,
etcetera, and so forth.  Linear, sequential me and most of my linear,
sequential-thinking students love it.  I make it funny and fairly hands-on.
But fairly quickly most of the Native American students in the class tend to
begin losing the sparkle in their eyes.  I must leap in with extra
encouragement, convincing people they can understand it, re-explaining in my
linear, sequential fashion.  And somehow we muddle through to reach the
second half of the quarter.  Once we begin discussing ecosystems, how
populations holistically interact, the Native students tend to blossom.
Students who tended previously to be silent in class offer examples of
complex adaptations and interactions.
> My morning â~@~\ah-haâ~@~] that inspired this writing stemmed from a student who
came to my office to do her â~@~\check-offâ~@~] for one of the genetic processes,
her third attempt at explaining it to receive the requisite points for her
grade.  As she started drawing out the â~@~\steps,â~@~] I attempted to intervene
where I perceived she was leaving something out.  To my way of thinking she
was about to â~@~\miss a step.â~@~]  She pushed out her arm toward me, gesturing
away my attempt to interrupt, saying, â~@~\Just wait till Iâ~@~Yve got it all.â~@~]  She
then proceeded, in a non-linear fashion, to cover the paper with the
appropriate drawings.  Sitting back, obviously satisfied, when they were all
drawn, she said, â~@~\Now,â~@~] and proceeded to explain the process perfectly,
pointing to each element and identifying its role, and thus receiving her
points.  She was using clustering, as opposed to outlining, to organize the
material.  The immediate response for both of us was relief and happiness.
She tearfully hugged me and said, â~@~\Now I can do the others.â~@~]
> My understanding of her process arrived at four the next morning, waking
me up both literally and figuratively.  While in my mind mRNA transcription
and all the other processes I teach must go from a to b to c to d, in
actuality they are circular and simultaneous in the body.  Everything truly
is happening at once.  My dentist has a paper that he authored mounted on
the wall of his office; it argues that time is merely a mental construct we
use in order to explain motion.5  Time is not perceived as linear in all
cultures.  Sequencing is not the innate reality of all things.  Linearity is
a cultural concept. Ah-ha.   I have taught these ideas for years in
anthropology classes, but on that day I â~@~\got it.â~@~]
> I approached my native students the next day, seeking their thoughts about
my insight.  The response was immediate and almost palpable, as if each
person exhaled a breath sheâ~@~Yd been holding for the entire quarter.  Yes, the
second half of the class is much easier.  Yes, explain the processes of the
first half in a more circular fashion; try to let all the elements be
viewed.
>
> This way of thinking and teaching will take some adjustment.  Linearity is
useful as a mode of thinking and understanding; but it is not the only
method, and possibly not even the most effective.  It is an aspect of the
culture into which I was born, and a fits glove-like with the language I
speak.  To serve all students we must venture into ways of thinking,
knowing, and teaching that require conscious reliance on less conscious
brain functions, quite a stretch for those of us who gain most comfort from
a feeling of control.  Although science purports to recognize the necessity
of both inductive and deductive reasoning, and although many great
scientists report that important ideas seem to arrive unbidden in their
minds, our scientific educational systems mostly remain locked in linear
methodologies.  In an increasingly multicultural world where more
recognition is being given to the power of diverse ways of gaining and
processing information, perhaps it is time to venture out of the comfort
zones.  Many of us succeeded in the educational system because it was
designed by and for our languages and our ways of thinking.  By seeking and
experimenting with holistic paradigms, inestimable benefit will be derived
from the inclusion of diverse minds in the educational pool.
>
> 1Aoki, Haruo, Nez Perce Dictionary, 1994.  University of California Press.
Berkeley.
> 2 ibid. p. 7.
> 3Whelshula, Martina, personal communication.
> 4Passer, Michael W. and R.E. Smith, 2004.  Psychology: the Science of Mind
and Behavior, 2nd                 ed.  McGraw Hill, New York. p. 89.
> 5Loudon, Merle, unpublished document.
>