school truancy law - a punishment for missing school to attend cultural activities?

[Richard Zane Smith]

Kweh friends,
please see these disturbing articles in the Alaska Dispatch,
Could Indigenous parents of "truant" children who perhaps attend cultural
events be jailed or fined?
We have this problem here ,to a lesser degree, where students can take off
school for Thanksgiving Day
but cannot take off school to attend Our Green Corn ceremonies, ancient
cultural events that pre-date Columbus.
(another disturbing thing is to read the comments posted from obviously
non-natives on the site)

*
http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/uqa-upta-naala-niuruksraurusi-when-we-talk-you-listen?page=0,0
*

*an excerpt :*

*The Alaska Dispatch article, “**Parents charged with crimes after kids
repeatedly miss
school*<http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/parents-charged-crimes-after-kids-repeatedly-miss-school>
*,” from Aug. 30, 2011, describes the issue of student truancy in schools in
some Western Alaska Native communities and the possible legal ramifications
for parents, but it does not address the more important question of whether
the current schools have a legitimate place in Alaska Native communities,
let alone an unquestionable moral authority that parents should bow to.
Instead, the article privileges the socially, culturally, and politically
biased views of the state, and misses an important opportunity to
interrogate the historical and contemporary nature of American schooling for
Alaska Native peoples, and the colonial perspectives and attitudes that have
contributed to its evolution to the present day.*

*By failing to raise the question of “what is or should be the purpose of
schooling for Alaska Native peoples?” talk of truancy in the article takes
place within a historical and political vacuum, and we as readers are
expected to take for granted that schools have and continue to play a
benevolent role in Alaska Native communities. Parents should support schools
and ensure that our children attend simply because we are told to. We are
expected to unquestioningly support teachers and what is taught even though
we are almost never asked what we think should be taught and how. This is
problematic because as Alaska Native peoples, we have arguably lost more
than we have gained from American education, despite the good (though often
misguided) intentions of many teachers, administrators, and school board
members...... *
Timothy Aqukkasuk Argetsinger | Sep 06, 2011



thanks Jelyn for sending this to my attention!

Richard Zane Smith
Wyandotte Oklahoma
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