Indian Education

Ethnicity determines whether a person will be succesful or not. For example, a white society will receive the best education out there. The graduates of those schools will become doctors and lawyers without a problem. In contrast, a society that is predominantly African American or Latin will receive a mediocre education. Instead of becoming lawyers and doctors, many of those students will end up dropping out. Their futures don’t have much hope for succes. In “Indian Education” by Sherman Alexie, the stereotypes that people aquire relating to certain ethnic groups stifle their education and cause the Native American boys on the reservation to get left behind.

The education the Indians receive is second-rate. In the second grade one sees how the teachers treat the children. They are treated as if they are less, are punished for no good reasonand are set up to fail. For example, “Betty Towle…made me stay in for recess fourteen days straight .Tell me you’re sorry, she said. Sorry for what? I asked.Everything, she said and made me srand straight for fifteen minutes, eagle armed with books in each hand” (483) Betty punishes Junior because she feels like it. She doesn’t even give junor a legitimate reason for doing so. She has a prejudice against him and acts out by punishing him. She also wants him to fail. For example, she gives Junior a harder test so he will fail but when he passes the test she punishes him by making him eat the paper. Betty wants him to fail so badly that she looks for any small reason to make him flunk out of school. Instead of helping the Indian boys suceed, the teachers in this educational system set the children up to fail.

In the seventh grade one sees the transition from the Indian reservation to the white farm town. “…kissed the white girl, I felt the good-byes I was saying to my entire tribe.”(485).When he kisses the white he feels as if he is leaving his culture and his tribe. He metaphorically leaves it behind when this occurs.Soon after he leaves his tribe literally when he moves to a white farm town. Because he leaves the reservation to move to a white farm town this section serves as the turning point in his life. By leaving the reservation an opportunity for success presents itself. He will now be able to receive a better education because