Volume 7 Number 3
May 1968

by Mrs. Ruth Roessel, Assistant Director for Dormitory Services

It would be interesting to contrast the price the average American pays for education with the price paid by the average Navaho. So often one hears that the Indian gets everything free, which is so false. The cost the average American pays for public education consists basically of taxes amounting to perhaps several hundred dollars per year; in addition, he attends a few PTA meetings and perhaps visits the school once or twice a year. On the other hand, the average Navaho pays the price of sending his child to a distant boarding school and of seeing the education his child receives drive an even larger wedge between the child and the parent and family.

Who pays the greater price: the average American who over 12 years may pay several thousand dollars for education or the Navaho who pays the price of "losing" his child?

The dormitory staff at Rough Rock is responsible for the students at all times the children are not in class. They supervise the children's eating, sleeping, bathing, clothing and health needs. In the afternoon and evening and on weekends, they provide opportunities for recreation, study, clubs, and other activities the children want or need.

The school believes that the children belong to their parents, not to the school. It also believes in the importance of demonstrating to the students that the school considers the parents and their way of life worthy of attention and respect.

Unfortunately, due to the absence of all-weather roads, it is impossible to operate the Rough Rock School on a day basis. As a permanent road system is built on the Navaho Reservation, schools such as Rough Rock must be converted into day schools so that every young Navaho child will have the same opportunity of attending school during the day and living at home at night as do other American children.

Faced with the necessity of operating a boarding school, the basic problem was one of trying to make it as homelike as possible wherein a child was surrounded at all times by love rather than by a cold institution.

Boarding schools on this reservation have been in operation nearly 100 years and they have been directed by competent professionals. It remained for a group of seven uneducated Navaho leaders at Rough Rock to develop a program which should revolutionize BIA dormitory programs-until such time as they are permanently eliminated. The new program that should have major impact on boarding school education for Indian children is the dormitory parent program originated and developed by the school board at Rough Rock.

In keeping with the fundamental principle that the school belongs to the community and the children to the parents, the school and the dormitory always try to build bridges between the people and the school: The dormitory parent program was developed by the school board as the most effective means to reach these goals. In essence, this. program brings into both the boys' and girls' dorms the parents or grandparents of children enrolled in the Rough Rock Demonstration School. These parents live in the dormitories for eight-week periods and receive a small stipend. They act as surrogate parents providing love, guidance, discipline, and all of the unique qualities that parents contribute to their children in the home situation.

The dormitory parent program has resulted not only in such concrete accomplishment as elimination of run-away children which plague many other boarding schools on the Navaho Reservation, but also in assisting all adult community residents who serve as dormitory parents in gaining a first-hand information and understanding about education. Many Navaho parents in the past have not had the opportunity to participate in the education of their children. At best the school was the place which took your children and where you felt ill at ease. Education under these circumstances was something never understood and often feared.

In the Rough Rock Demonstration School dormitory parent program, there are nine dormitory parents serving at any one time so that, in the period of a school year, at least 45 adults from the community have had an opportunity to live in and be a part of the school.

The dorm parent program has caught the imagination of the community and there is a long waiting list of parents and grandparents wanting to participate in the program. It is one of the most effective means of familiarizing the community in a direct and meaningful manner with the school, its purposes and objectives. In addition, the dorm parents receive instruction in basic education. English is taught, home economics for the women, including sewing and cooking, and shop for men, including making tables, chairs and outhouses. Parents are truly partners in education at Rough Rock.

Another innovative project, developed by the community through the school board, was the dormitory laundry program. The Rough Rock Demonstration School receives approximately $5,000 annually from the BIA earmarked for institutional laundry services. Other schools on the Navaho reservation contract with commercial laundries located adjacent to the reservation. The school board decided at the beginning of the project that no such contract would be entered into; rather, they directed the school administration to use part of the funds to purchase commercial washers and dryers. Next they hired, again on an eight-week rotating basis, local residents to do the total school laundry, including ironing. The laundry program has resulted in better laundry service and has provided additional jobs for uneducated and unskilled community people at no extra cost.

A final dormitory-based project is the story-telling program. A child's parents and/or tribal elders come, or are brought to the school to tell stories to the boys and girls in the dormitories. This program provides a significant way for adult Navahos to participate in the school's activities and to be treated with respect and appreciation. Some of the stories told deal with local history, tribal leaders, tribal history, legends, and current problems. The children love these regularly scheduled story times and there is a long waiting list of community people wanting to tell stories in the dorms. At home the children would be hearing stories about the Navaho way from parents, grandparents, and relatives. So the story-telling program is consistent and in keeping with the traditional Navaho educational pattern.

Summarizing the dormitory services area, one can say that the major thrust is to build bridges between the home and the dormitory and to make the parents feel that the dormitory loves their children and does many of the kinds of things that the parents would do if the children were at home.