<p>Communicating Across Cultures Jane Smithers was a teacher. Her first job took her to a Navajo reservation school in New Mexico. Jane was excited about the job. Being white and also from a northern city, she knew little of Indian ways. But she was eager to learn and to help improve education in the Navajo schools. But from the very first day, things went wrong. The children never did well in tests. They were eager to learn and they did their work. But when test time came, she was always disappointed. Ms. Smithers tried everything she could think of. She talked to her best students and urged them to do better. She offered prizes to the person with the highest score. Still when the next test came, the same thing happened. It was as though no one wanted to do well. She began to think the Navajo were lazy or didn't care. She had heard that kind of thing a lot. "Indians are lazy," people said. "They don't want to work." What was wrong? Was her judgment right? One day she talked to one of the parents. She told the man her problem. She said, "Your son could be a good student. But he doesn't try. Would you talk to him and see what the trouble is?" The father shook his head and smiled. "I don't need to talk to him," he said. "I know what is the trouble." And then he explained: "Among the Navajo it is wrong to try to push ahead of others. Only a showoff would do that. We believe it is more important to help each other. So, if some are not getting good tests, others will not try to beat them in the scores. That would be showing them up." Questions 1. How does this story fit in with residential schools in Canada? (2) Does this still happen today perhaps with aboriginal children in Canada? (3) What kind of judgment was Ms. Smithers making about the Navajo? (4)Give your comment on this story, what does this example tell us all? http://www.globaled.org/myself/missingthepoint.html</p>