Volume 13 Number 2
May 1974

EDUCATIONAL problems facing Indian students nationwide would seem insurmountable except for community schools like the Menominee County Community School at Keshena, Wisconsin.

The Community School, as it is referred to by staff and community members, was founded in the summer of 1972 by a community education committee elected during an open community meeting. In the past, the Menominee County Education Committee had focused its efforts on creating a school district for the county, but after a countywide referendum in 1971 had shown that the voters wanted their own district, the Department of Public Instruction for the State of Wisconsin, in a feasibility K-12 Impact Study, determined that, because of integration, size, and cost factors, the county could not effectively operate a successful district. The final rationale used was that "the other half of the coin . . . is counted in the many Menominee County students who have successfully completed their school experiences at Shawano Community School District and have profited from the comprehensive curriculum there." This was in spite of the violent demonstrations that were almost tearing the present district apart, and a soaring dropout rate over 9% greater than in schools with enough Indian students to receive special Johnson-O'Malley funds.

At the time of the school's founding, the chances that it would survive were minimal, and there was almost no chance that it would help provide a pattern for revolutionizing Indian education. Too many free or alternative schools had started up only to die within the first year of operation in the past. But committee members petitioned Melvin Laird, then Secretary of Defense, for release from the Army of one of three certified Menominee teachers in the country (he was released a little more than a month after filing of the petition), and then opened the school with one teacher and several ACTION volunteers from the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay campus.

Seven students showed up for the first day of classes. From that modest beginning, however, the school mushroomed in importance. Only a month after its founding, it helped with the formation of the Coalition of Indian Controlled School Boards in Denver, Colorado, and set out to develop an educational philosophy tailored to Indian problems rather than to white conceptions of Indian problems.

The philosophy worked out can be stated in four maxims: 1) Schools should be controlled by the communities they serve; 2) Education is most effective if it uses cultural and regional differences to further its academic ends; 3) Education is most effective when it involves the community it is serving in the educational process; and 4) Schools in a community should be designed to help the community develop itself economically and culturally. In addition, they borrowed four educational principles from modern educational theorists: 1) Students learn at their own rate of progress; 2) Each student needs dignity before he can learn; 3) Students need to be exposed to a large variety of experiences and individuals to broaden their conceptions of the world; and 4) Each student has to understand the relation of his learning to his present life and/or future before he will make a serious attempt to become educated. The staff then designed a curriculum around the above principles that met needs of the students.

The results of the application of these philosophies and principles were impressive. After the first year of operation, Dr. Paul Fitzgerald could state in his comprehensive evaluation of the school that, "The students, teachers and community all have a favorable attitude toward the curriculum . . ." and "the students and teachers felt positive toward one another. The students, many for the first time, felt welcomed in a school." The school had minimal problems, but a revolution had been achieved. Indian students were no longer dropping out of school, but dropping in (more than 50 students were enrolled and voluntarily attending by the end of the 1972-1973 school year), and as the local parole director stated, "I don't know what caused it, but since the Community School started, the number of Indian kids ending up in jail has dropped dramatically from a year ago." In addition, high school students who were once reading on a third-grade level according to diagnostic tests used by the school are now reading on a fifth- or sixth-grade level, and thinking about careers they once knew nothing about.

The significance of the Menominee County Community School and a handful of others like it has not been lost on the Indian community. The Coalition of Indian Controlled School Boards which began with seven charter members now has 87 members and is growing on almost a daily basis. In addition, the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction has dropped opposition to a Menominee County School District, and has urged the education committee to make the county the location of the first fully Indian controlled public school district in the nation (see Note 1).

During its second year of operation the school is even more successful. Most of the internal problems faced during the first year have been solved, and the staff, dominated by Indian people, is working on some of the most innovative and exciting curricula and methods being used in the United States. It is beginning even to prepare educational materials that hopefully will aid other Indian schools in the nation to achieve its level of success.

The final word on the school's development, however, has to belong to Atlee Dodge, a Menominee leader and the school's present Director. In a recent discussion with the authors he said that "the most significant thing of all in connection with the Community School is that Indian people have seized the initiative and leadership position. If every school in America could achieve the local control and community participation that we have, there would be no educational problems in the United States. For the first time in recent history, Indians are holding the steering wheel instead of being taken for a ride."

1. The Windriver Schools in Wyoming had been placed under Indian control but then various law suits have prevented the district from becoming a reality to this time.