Clay Walker

Oct 23rd/2015
Q.) How has your participation in this workshop challenged and expanded your philosophy
of teaching and learning?
A.) This FNMI workshop has created in my sense of longing to help solve some of the problems
that affect First Nations and Canadians as a whole. As a history major and someone who has
taken FNMI courses in University I know a little bit about some of the issues surrounding our
current handling of First Nations issues. However, in high school I knew very little about such
things, and I know that most of my classmates didnt know anything about it either. Things such
as residential schools were referenced, but always in the past tense, as things that no longer have
a major impact on todays society. Discussions about government interactions with the First
Nations people rarely, if ever happened, and instead of exploring how we as a society could
improve our relations, we focused on the past. While I do value history and believe it is
important for understanding the present and future, if we do not use that information to create a
better future than it is utterly useless. To that extent as a teacher I would like to explore with my
students the implications of our past actions against the First Nations peoples and how we can
help our two societies to become more interconnected and strengthened by each others unique
identities and cultures. We as teachers need to expand upon this idea and promote understanding.
I think it would be valuable to spend a few lessons exploring the future of these relations and
how we could help solve the issues, rather than just throwing money at the problem like we have
in the past. By understanding and explaining the history I hope to guide my students towards
coming up with unique solutions instead of resorting to the old methods. I would also like to
explore Native American culture in my classroom so that students can develop and appreciation
of why it is so important to preserve First Nations culture. In this way we attempt to show why
we need to care about this issue and instil a desire to solve the problem in our students. We need
to create, early on, the desire to solve such issues. While many would agree that the newer
generations are more open to discussion and compromise on such topics than previous
generations, we must continue to promote this understanding if we are to ever solve the problems
that many First Nations individuals unfairly face. The reason is that these problems cannot be
solved in a matter of years; we need to put programs and institutions in place so that in the next
few decades the inequality, racism, and ignorance that led to these issues will no longer be
factors. The workshop reminded me of a very simple truth, we cannot change the past. Instead
we need to learn from the past to create a future because the past, while still remembered, must
never again be repeated.