I had no idea that it was the United Nations Year of Indigenous Languages. It is wonderful that Indigenous people are learning about their culture and language through quality early childhood education in Cape Cod.
I have supported St. Joseph's Indian School in South Dakota for many years and understand how poverty, violence, and crime in their communities have attributed to a lack of education for children of all ages. It upsets me greatly that our First Peoples have had to deal with such a plight for so long. They are just as deserving as any nationality or ethnic group to " feel like they belong and are important" in our melting pot of the US and Canada.
I recently heard that a tribe in Cats Lake, Canada was dealing with a severe outbreak of black mold in their homes. The Canadian government is now spending millions of dollars to remove the mold. It broke my heart to see the appalling conditions that Native Peoples of the US and Canada live in. Many have no running water or electricity in their homes and their diet consists mainly of highly processed foods given to them by the government. These once proud people have become dependent on their governments for support, health care, and basic needs.
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Jennifer United States
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Original Message:
Sent: 05-21-2019 09:07 AM
From: Craig Simpson
Subject: Home Language
I am so encouraged to read this month's Young Children highlighting Bilingual and multilingual classroom. I hope we have more of the same. One of the requirements (at least when I was a validator for the accreditation process) was home language and noticed many places I visited did token support to this criteria. I'm retied now but where I worked Spanish, Haitian Creyole, Cape Verdean, and other languages were spoken as the primary language at home. I was a little disappointed that Young Children did not highlight that this is the United Nations Year of Indigenous Languages. So many of our indigenous peoples in the US and Canada are struggling to maintain or reclaim their languages. In Cape Cod, Massachusetts the Wampanog tribe has set up a Montessori language preschool for Wopanaak Language which children learn their language and culture.
Wopanaak was lost for two generations but tribal members have been reclaiming it. We should all learn more as teachers home languages and give support to them. The articles in Young Children in May give us a start. Love to here of others ex
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Craig Simpson
Dorchester MA
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