The History of Native American Education

Native American education began with the funding of missionary schools by the federal government in 1776. The federal government took over the direct provision of education during the 1850s in order to impose greater control over the process of educating the Native Americans. During the early period, the objective of Native American education was to

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ion of the Indian cultures. In this environment, John Collier, the Executive Secretary for the American Indian Defense Association, initiated a reform effort that set the foundation for the abandonment of the policy of assimilation (Reyhner, 1992). The growing disillusionment with the effects of schools resulted in the new trend of enrolling Indian children in day schools, which became the preferred alternative during the 1920s and the 1930s. The changes in the perceptions of policymakers led to the publication of the Meriam Report in 1928 that effectively challenged the original policy of assimilation. The report expressed its extreme disapproval of the conditions of boarding schools and recommended that elementary age children should attend day schools. Moreover, it asserted the need for the curriculum to incorporate local Indian life that offered a relevant learning experience for Indian students (Szasz, 1999). The report indicated that policymakers had realized that their vision of compelling Indians to embrace white culture had not only failed to transpire, but had also led to the creation of a population of Americans Indians who had lost their ability to survive in either society. Evidently, the advocates of the as
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Approximate Word count = 2439
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page)

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