Indian Boyhood Essay

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Indian Boyhood: Lakota Society and Education * In Lakota society, there were many traditions and unique methods of education. Instructional methods for education included visual aids, auditory aids, memory aids, and others. Children learned through both primary and extended family members, animals, nature, one another, and themselves. Adults were not only the teachers but also the taught and children were not only the learners but also the teachers. Lakota education was seemingly unconventional but affective and Lakota society, full of sacred traditions and morally conscientious values. * An assumption often made about the children of aboriginal people is that they had no systemic, formal education. As Charles Eastman reaffirms numerously throughout “Indian Boyhood”, this could not be further from the truth (Eastman 1902: 49.) Eastman does a particular good job of refuting the assumption by describing how pregnant women in Lakota society begin seeking education for their children while still in the womb. The mothers-to-be would designate a brave or impressive relative to be a sort of role model for the child. Before her child was yet born, the mother would spend a significant amount of time rehearsing particular noble deeds or courageous exploits performed by the chosen relative. She would later go on to tell the child these stories, giving he or she a relative to look up to. A pregnant woman would also refrain from eating the meat of certain animals for it was believed to have influenced a child’s physical characteristics (Eastman 1902: 49.) Even before birth, a child’s well-being and education was greatly valued among in Lakota society. * * * Some of the most apparent and efficient instructional methods of education in Lakota society came in the form of auditory aids. In “Indian Boyhood” the narrator often speaks of a certain family

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