Opportunities for Students are Important with Marc Bluestone

I think one of the offshoots of that of course you have to enter is 40% of all of our high school kids and they have all they have to have 22 credits to graduate choose to take our language and culture classes every year they choose to take classes it’s amazing to run the numbers and realize that 40% of all of our kids we have not any kids also that they could take both the language classes and the culture classes they’re enough they’re not forced to be in a class they choose to be in a class and what I find interesting is in a lot of ways as you teach culture and how to do things in the right way that emulates in other parts of the school now sometimes we have younger kids that need to be reminded of that kind of thing but know our language and culture teachers there they’re out in the hallways and when they say hey quit messing around kids quit messing around you know and we also see that a satisfaction survey that we gave out last year talked about how important it is why these classes are important and kids want to take these classes and so that’s why 40% of your population is willingly taking it plus all their other responsibilities so you need four years of English uni and we’ve actually expanded in this district also to teach Native American art on Native American crafts we teach Native American literature Native American fiction I actually facilitated about eight independent study classes as well so when kids need to craft for credit in something here they come they come to me and we make sure that they can take that home and their learning and it’s it’s a good bridge and I think the more they know they know about culture and respect traditional respect I think the better they behave and the better our the culture of our school is and I think with that as helped immensely because of the actions of our teachers constantly you know saying this is the right way to handle yourself this is you know we talked about different stories that I always read you know we reached and they the kids talk about the you know the different style and it’s different by what the coyote stories you know there’s also known as a spider he told me you know and abou Joe and all those stories that that show how not to act and then this is the way you act so we often hear people call each other coyotes around here you know well that’s that’s not a good way to act you know you need to act better than that and their stories that they talk about in these classes you know I’m through my independent study classes they will read those and react to those and have to say well what’s the better way what is the true meaning behind this story and they get it you know it’s how not tapped the proper way to act so long answer for a short question but it is still I think it all relates to the overall cultural part of it and relates that there are these kids are also earning credit for graduation imagine you know mrs.Fox is teaching a college class to our kids so history of three affiliated tribes they’re getting three college credits that the school district pays for and so on kids leave this they have the opportunity to earn credits as well and that’s a big thing too they have that and we get a lot of kids that take those classes and makes it I think I just think the whole and everything that we do is that is the right thing to do and we continue to lead to move forward and sharing that we can canoe and so when we offered the sonics language this year you know I know that was a critical person working in my office mrs.Lattice or Garret the you know she were actually pulling her from our business office and working halftime and so we laid that out so she would teach three periods a day well next year and I say this and they were in the most nicest way possible I don’t want her in my office next year I actually want her out there teaching elementary teaching middle school teach in high school because the more opportunities we can have to promote the Saanich language and culture the better it is for our whole environment here and so that’s it that’s what I always say it’s a good thing to have all those opportunities