Youth give teacher hope for the future

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As a Native educator, I am used to working on a day-to-day basis with our Native

youth. Every morning when I wake up, there outside my window lies the challenge of educating young minds. Not only is it the challenge of teaching these cherubs how to read, write and solve polynomial equations (of which I am sure there is no use), it is the challenge of helping our young ones develop skills that will help them to one day face the "real world".

This job of educating has plenty of ups and down. I see and feel them every day. Yet for the ups I experience, there are a hundred downs that seem sometimes to crush the balance Some days this is a hard reality to accept, especially when the "downs" are the high dropout rates, the high number of teen suicides, the sad face of a child when home problems tear at his insides, and the injured self-esteem with another failing grade. These negatives are almost inherent in such an occupation. "It comes with the territory," so I've been told.

You are probably thinking right now, "Then why doesn't this guy get out of it if it's that bad?" Well, sometimes as with any job, I find myself asking this question inside of my head. Then as I stand there contemplating a future as a clown in the circus, I remember the sisters.

The sisters are Michelle and Vanessa Bellegarde who happen to be two of my students who currently attend Bishop Carrol High in Calgary. Michelle is 19 years old and Vanessa is 16. Both are of Cree and Sioux descent and come from the Little Black Bear Reserve in Saskatchewan. Vanessa is a Grade 10 student and Michelle is upgrading after she received her diploma the previous year at Father Lacombe High School.

The impressive and pleasing characteristics that these two sisters share is the importance that education plays in their lives. They want to complete their high school education and take it beyond. At the same time, their pride in their heritage and culture

is as important to them, if not more so, than education. These two factors alone make

the "ups" of my job higher than any mountain I'll ever see.

When the issue of education came up in a recent discussions I had with them, they spoke openly, honestly and with a strong sense of conviction on the subject. Michelle feels that education "is very important...without an education you won't succeed. You need it for a career. More education means more opportunities...you can set goals and

do more things."

Vanessa, the younger sister, supported her sister's claim, adding that as her academic career progresses, she senses that "I accomplish something...it makes me feel good about myself". After all, they want to realize their potential and not stop short of their goals. As Michelle put it: "I don't want to be another statistic. I want to make a difference."

The driving force behind their determination is their pride in their heritage. For Michelle, it was important for her that "we know who we are and where we come from. It's important to know your culture. I want to learn it to get to know my heritage. Our culture is dying and I want to learn it so I can preserve it for my children. I don't want it to die." Vanessa too feels as strongly as her sister and it is good to see. The two siblings feel that all Native youth should get to know their culture and to take education seriously as they believe that the Native young people are the future. They do not know how true their words are.

I am pleased and feel grateful that I have been able to meet and work with two young people such as these. It makes the down-side of this job (indeed on life) seem not so monumental. In fact, it's our Native youth like this that give all of us cause to be proud that we are Indian. I know that I am. And for that I can thank those two. And so in the morning when I wake and I gaze out my window toward the mountains, I know deep down in my heart the sisters have conquered each and every one of those peaks and will live to conquer more.

Paul Kuster isan Itinerant Teacher with Native Education in the Calgary Catholic School System. He travels from school to school tutoring and counselling Native students from elementary grades to high school. He is of Cree descent, born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and then was adopted by a family in Regina, where he spent most of his life. He attended the University of Regina and obtained his Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science and his Bachelor of Education Degree in Secondary Social Studies. He writes that through the people he has met and worked with in his travels, he has grown in his love for his culture and its people.