  At this writing (1951) there are approximately 26,000 children of school age on the Navajo reservation. About 40 percent of these are between the ages of 12 and 18. The great majority have never been inside a school, and do not speak English. Recently the government has provided space for more than 4,000 of these non-English-speaking adolescents in ten of its off-reservation boarding schools. A five-year intensive educational program is provided designed to teach these children to speak, read, write, and think in English; to do simple arithmetic, to know the facts of American history, world geography, civics and health; and to provide the basic skills which will enable them to obtain and hold a permanent job away from the reservation. The reservation resources will support only about half the present population. We have learned how to teach these non-English-speaking Navajos to speak and read English very rapidly. However, there isn’t much material for them to read. They are maturing adolescents with adolescent interests. Primers and first readers prepared for use by six-year-old public school children don’t have much interest for them. Because most non-Indians learn to read when they are young, very few books are published in which the ideas are mature, but the vocabularies simple enough for beginning readers. The Indian Service, therefore, has undertaken the preparation and printing of a series of readers, written by the leaders who are working directly with these children. Because the children are entering a new culture, and their success will depend upon the degree to which they make the basic ideas of this culture their own, these new books will rely on the material of this new culture for their content. They are therefore being grouped under the general title “Navajo New World Readers,” for they will present to these young people a new and different world from that through which they have grown during their early years on the reservation. Willard W. Beatty I am a Navajo boy. This is my home. I go to school. I go to my school on a bus. I go to my school in the fall. My school is far from my home. I live at my school. I open my window when I sleep. This is my room. I clean my room. This is my locker. I put my clean clothes in my locker. This is the shower. I take a bath in the shower. I am clean. I wash my hair. My hair is clean. I comb my hair. I wash my clothes. My clothes are clean. I can iron. I iron my clean clothes. These are my shoes. I clean my shoes. I go to the dining room. I eat breakfast. I eat dinner. I eat supper. I eat bread and butter. I eat cereal. I like cereal. I eat eggs. I eat meat. I like eggs and meat. Apples are good. I like apples. This is fruit. I like fruit. These are carrots. I eat carrots. These are vegetables. I like vegetables. I drink orange juice. Orange juice is good. I drink milk every day. I like milk. I brush my teeth every day. My teeth are clean. I play outdoors. I am happy. This is the nurse. The nurse is my friend. She helps me keep well. I weigh one hundred pounds. I grow. I study my lessons. I learn many things. I will go home in the spring. I will tell my people about my school. |
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