School Board Meeting and Dogsledding

In the afternoon, I got to attend a Barrow school board meeting with Mr. Wells (HMS assistant principal), Mr. Kalvig, and some 7th grade students. Mr. Wells was to give an update on HMS and the students and activities that take place here. The students were here to show off their 6-foot scale model of an umiaq (traditional seal-skin whale hunting boat) that they made in Inupiaq class. Mr. Kalvig didn’t know it but Mr. Wells had tricked him into coming because he was getting an award for being an outstanding teacher. They begin each meeting with words of wisdom from an elder of the community. Unfortunately, the trip that was scheduled to last an hour ended up taking about 4. ! The Barrow meetings are broadcast on the local radio station, so a big effort was spent trying to coordinate that with people calling in by phone and commenting over the Internet. They also tried to make better phone connections with schools across the North Slope—as far away as Point Hope! It makes sense that communication is an issue, as this is the largest school district in the Nation…covering a land area bigger than Minnesota!

Later in the evening, the girls got their turn at going dogsledding with Geoff Carroll. Molly took the first shift, and then we met to trade off so that Alyssa and I could get a turn. Geoff went to the North Pole with Ann Bancroft and has always been fascinated with the arctic—ever since he was a little boy growing up in the Northwest. He has 4 kids: 2 older girls and 2 boys—the youngest boy is a sophomore in high school. Right now, Geoff is in charge of studying the land animals in Barrow like the caribou and fox and is the local biologist here. His favorite part of Barrow is being out on the sea ice.

He let us try out mushing, and we learned the commands of Whoah, Gee, and Haw. For a portion of our trip, Geoff even hooked the sled to a harness he wore and skied behind the sled while we controlled the sled! You could feel how well the wooden sled, lashed together with sinew, was able to flex over the mounds of sea ice or snow. For padding, there were two Therm-a-rests covered by caribou skins, and some intertubes as a backrest. He also had his gun lashed into the sled so that we would be prepared, should we meet a polar bear. I tried to imagine what it would have been like for the grandparents, or apas and akas, of my students to live here a few decades ago…to use sled dogs as your transportation, to know the ice, to hunt for your food, and to get to see this beautiful, bright, barren sight everyday.

When we got back to Geoff’s house, we were greeted by five or so neighborhood kids playing basketball on Geoff’s porch. They sounded like they play here often and get to dogsled with Geoff quite a bit. The most important part of the trip is that when you’re done, you have to pet each dog and say thank-you. We also got to help bring them back to their kennels, take their harnesses off, and feed the dogs their own fish. What an exciting experience, just before we go back to Minnesota!

"What does it mean to be well-educated?"

Quite obviously, the answer has to depend on who is asking the question. The teachers here in Barrow are in process of revising the curriculum. In doing so, they are interviewing elders in the community to ask what characteristics a 19 year-old Inupiaq student should have. They respond with answers like: a good hunter, good at knowing and dancing the traditional dances, able to prepare the traditional foods, know about the sea ice. If you were to ask a high school in Minnesota, your responses would be different: able to balance a checkbook, able to drive in the snow, able to buy food at the store, know how to read and write, be able to pass tests in order to go to college. The standards change based on where you live and how to survive in your climate. They also depend on your culture and what kinds of qualities are valued and what kinds of jobs are available.

In any location or culture, there are some universal beliefs that go along with being wise and therefore being well-educated. A well-educated person understands that human life is to be valued, and that people must be taken care of and respected. A well-educated person understands that the Earth we live in is to be valued, that we should use the Earth, take care of it, protect it. A well-educated person also must understand that there is so much more beyond what they know, that there are alternatives, that there are other perspectives and whole worlds of thinking beyond their own. In understanding this, they must also see that they can learn from others and continually search to know more and experience more. A well-educated person learns from their mistakes. A person can have all the experiences in the world, but if they never reflect on it and grow from it, the experience didn’t help advance their understanding at all, which doesn’t contribute to the “well” part of the “educated.”

As a person who is learning and stretching myself, I understand that there is so much more to learn. I know I will never reach it, by definition, but I know I am farther down the road to being well-educated here and now than I was when we flew out of Minnesota.

--Rachel