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UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Tuesday, February 20, 1968
Cherokee Indians get poor schooling, say professors
A husband-and-wife team of KU professors have extended their interest in education to include the American Indian.
Murray Wax, professor of sociology, and Rosalie, associate professor of anthropology, have spent the past two and one-half years studying the public schools of the Cherokee tribe in northeast Oklahoma.
The Wax research team spent six months in Oklahoma in 1956 on leave from teaching duties. They visited the Cherokee mothers in their homes to talk about the education of their children and observed classroom situations.
The small rural schools they studied are attended by the children of about 10,000 tribal Cherokee in northeast Oklahoma.
"The Cherokee are potentially an intellectual nation," Mrs. Wax observed.
She said she had noticed the Cherokee children work harder and longer on their school problems than many other children in their peer groups.
The education they receive in the public schools has handicapped them instead of developing their potential, she added.
The poor schooling the Cherokee children receive is the result of a mistaken belief held by education officials that Cherokee people should lose their identity in the "melting pot" of American society, they found.
American Indians are the only natives of America, and are not generally willing to relinquish their identity as nations.
They speak Cherokee as their main domestic and ceremonial language. They stay on their land and maintain old customs.
As a result, children entering school at four or five years of age don't know much English. They can't understand books written in English which assume an affluent middle-class background.
English should be taught as a foreign language in these schools and school books should be based
on experiences with which the Cherokee children are familiar, the Waxes have concluded. Teachers should also receive special training in Cherokee language and culture.
Because they see no sense in continuing an education which teaches them little, many Cherokee students drop out when they
finish the eighth grade. They also know that the job market is small and wages are low even for those with an education because of discrimination and the impoverished area in which they live.
The Waxes are preparing a report on their study with suggestions for improving the education
of the Cherokees. This report will be submitted to the U.S. Office of Education which has funded their research,
Earlier studies they have done include research among the Ogilala Sioux of the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota and the problems of their children in federal schools.
A LIGHT WILL BURN LATE ONE NIGHT FOR YOU, AT
Art treasures displayed; prices high, sales slow
"Oh, Bornard is really great.
Four hundred works of art assembled and presented by London Grafica Arts Inc, were on display Monday in the Kansas Union Lounge. Students, employees, faculty members and culture seekers came en masse to lay hands on the treasures.
Not many local culture seekers could afford the $1,650 price tags, even for a print by Chagall.
Evidently, the fun was in just browsing through the Rembrandt's, Picasso's, and Renoir's with their high-class values.
By late afternoon only 12 prints had been sold; $110 was the highest price paid.
Original graphics by the famous and the not-so-famous were available for $10 or more, mostly more.
His style reminds me of Picasso.
Don't you think so?," one coed asked her friend.
"I just don't know—they all look alike to me," she answered.
With a fairly complete cross-section of society present, some rather strange techniques of art appreciation were practiced.
One man held a mounted print out as far as he could, looked at it from all possible angles—even upside down—turned it over and studied the biography of the artist, held it up to the light and put it down. He then went on to the next one and did the same thing.
Another art fan, a coed, had developed an interesting system. She held the print close to her face and sniffed it, then she shook **44** Was she checking for fakes?
It was hard to say. But at those prices, she was taking no chances.
The "Good Times" Recipe at Shakey's
1 part hot tangy pizza
1 part cool refreshing beer (old world black or golden domestic)
1 part fun and high jinx
stir robustly, adding the pluncky
PAUL GRAY Gaslite Gang
8-11 p.m.
let it move and swing three hours and Wednesday night becomes a delight you don't want to miss.
SO DON'T!
SHAKEY'S PIZZA PARLOR &
ye public house
544 W. 23rd
The Belted Sling from
VANELI
A smart, young fashion from our bright young California designer. Black, green navy calf, yellow, orange, green patent. Sizes to 11 from Eighteen Dollars.
Bunny Black's Royal College Shop