[MD] Honoring the Word

[X Acto]

"Honoring the Word: Classroom instructors find that students respond best to oral tradition"
By Michael Thompson
Thirty years ago this fall, I arrived at Haskell Indian Junior College, now Haskell Indian Nations University (HINU, Lawrence, KS), as a young humanities instructor fresh out of grad school, mistakenly optimistic that the way 
I had been taught to teach composition and literature would resonate with my Native students.
Specifically, my indoctrination in the Western literary canon at the state college I attended had emphasized that 
the highest form of artistic, literary expression was one of individual imagination – Shakespeare, Hawthorne, 
Joyce, and the like. I am sure I carried that perspective into the classroom with me and that it shaped my first 
clumsy attempts to teach writing and literature to Native students.
A lot has changed in 30 years. I now believe that there is a uniquely Indigenous world view that frequently 
frames learning. Consequently, my teaching has certainly changed.
It took me years to understand that the oral tradition could be fundamentally superior to written literature or that 
texts that privilege the Indigenous voice might speak more powerfully to Native students than literary masterpieces.
But in numerous ways it has become evident to me that Native communities generally value “the word” itself 
above the art of writing and that there are, in fact, powerful and compelling reasons why this is so. In recent 
interviews for this article, I have found this opinion to be widely shared among tribal educators.
 
http://www.tribalcollegejournal.org/thompson_honoring.htm