Radical pedagogy

[Rudy Troike]

The most radical pedagogy is still arranging for children to live with
grandparents, or spend part of each day with them, so that the circle of
language will not be broken. Huge sums of money and enormous amounts of
effort have been expended trying to set up teaching programs and create
teaching materials, most of which have disappeared into the sand. As
someone said when schools were set up to teach Yiddish in New York City,
where the language is rapidly disappearing, "You know a language is in
trouble when they start creating schools to teach it." The last speaker
of Tonkawa told me that the only reason he knew the language (even if
imperfectly was that because of the divorce of his parents, he had been
sent to live with his grandparents for several years, and his grandmother
insisted in talking to him in Tonkawa, telling him that he would be the
last speaker of the language -- a prediction that came true.

I'm delighted to hear all of the initiatives for supporting the maintenance
of Cherokee. It is not too many years ago that the then chief of the tribe
gave a speech announcing that the tribe had received a grant for bilingual
education, and added that he hoped that this would at last get rid or
the language, which he considered the major obstacle to student's school
achievment.

      Rudy Troike