The Wav I See It;
by Dr. Dean Chavers, Native American Scholarship Fund
What's Wrong With Our Counselors
Icl Copyright, 2001 '
Since I am in the middle of processing scholarship applications for the
2001-2002 school year. there is something negative, heavy, and disturbing on !
my mind. It is the worthlessness of our school counselors.
One of the students I processed the other day had a grade point average 1
of 3.9, and had excellent scores on the ACT She finished high school this year
at a good (not excellent) high school on a -eservation. She wants to be a
medical doctor. Hut she had applied to onl> two other scholarships besides I
ours (Catching the Dream).
A student of that caliber, with her goals, should have been shown how to
find 25 or more scholarships. She should have walked out of high school with '
S20.000 per year or more in scholarship funds That she did not is a black mark
on her counselor. I
Another student told me the other dav that she went all the way through 1
high school and never talked to a counseior. I hear this frequently. This kind '
of comment makes me ask: What do counselor do all day that they have no time
to talk to a student?
I know counselors don't stay long in Indian schools. If we visit Boomsquat 1
High School on the Wannabe Reservation this year, and set up a good program 1
to help their students get into the top colleges and win scholarships, the
program will be gone the next year. Wh>?
Because the counselor we worked with this year w ill not be there next year.
One student told us in his application that his high school had six math J
teachers in his four years there. (His small high school has only one math
teacher.) Counselors turn over almost as rapidly, if not more rapidly.
Counselor, slay still long enough for us to find you.
One of my favorite Indian high schools, one that I worked w ith for seven
straight years, still has no scholarship directories. I went there last Fall to
recruit students for our scholarships.
Imagine my surprise when 1 went to the library to check on the scholarship
directories- after telling the seniors that they need to identify and apply for
ALL the scholarships they could find. Especially since I have been trying to
get the librarian there, one of my good friends, to buy a set of scholarship
directories for over a dozen years.
When I asked her why she hadn't done so, she never gave me an answer.
One of the reasons is that none of the four counselors (this is a large high
school) has asked her tcvbuy them.
Without scholarship directories being available in the library , students in
that high school have to drive 180 miles one way to use the directories in the
nearest college library. They should not have to do that. Most students will not
or can not go to these lengths to find scholarship.
In all the years (over 15) that 1 have been dealing with this school, I know
of only one student who has driven the 180 miles. I had to practically beg her
to do it, as well as threaten her, and pay her mileage. She finally did, and
has been working as an RN for the past nine years.
We need to remove this barrier, folks, and "the leaders in the movement to
get scholarship directories in all our Indian high school libraries should come
from the counselors. You parents are not off the hook, however. You can and
should check to see if your high school has these directories, and if they do not,
put a request in writing for the librarian to buy them.
There is so much free scholarship money our there- over S8 billion a yearthat
1 hate to see Indian students getting almost none of it. Let's get our kids
ready for college, people. There is no other alternative.
Seventy percent (70%) of the U.S. is now going to college. But we are only
sending 17% of Indian students on to college. The gap is huge. I blame
counselors for most of the gap. Parents and principals come in for the rest of
the blame.
Not helping students with college applications and scholarship applications
is not the main sin of counselors, however. There are two sins that are
much more serious.
The first sin is telling Indian students not to attend college. 1 hate it every
time a student or parent tell me about a counselor telling a student that. That
is bad and wrong advice.
Counselors give it for a variety of reasons. They think Indian students are
too dumb to make it in college. (In fact, Indian students are the smartest
students in the world). They think Indian students will not work hard enough
to succeed in college. (In fact Indian students will work like dogs if they are
motivated to help their people.)
The second sin is acting in a racist and discriminatory manner to Indian
students. In a mixed school environment, counselors, teachers, and principals
too often favor the blond blue eyed Anglo studentfed have a constant frown
on their face when they see an Indian student.
Counselors. you need to stop that racist behas tor. I'm telling sou right noss.
his is America We all want to be part of the American dream But sshen you
reat us with ssays that are condescending, racist, discriminatory, nasty, and
sateful, you are denying us the American dream
Parents, sou need to intervene The next counselor that does something like
his to your child, get in her face and confront the problem.. You hase a right
ind an obligation to demand that your child gets an excellent education
Another sin that counselors do is putting Indian students into bonehead
. lasses. One of the applications I am processing noss is for a student who lived
in a large city for several years. Then she and her family mosed back to their
esersation during her first year of high school.
She svas promptly placed into bonehead classes. Instead of being placed in
Algebra, she was placed in typing. Instead of being placed in science, she ssas
placed into migrant classes as well. and they svould not let her have any
textbooks. She dropped out before her ninth grade was over. And all this
pappened just a few short years ago. so don't go telling me this is a thing of
the past. This young woman is only 22 years old.
The real sin is that she had to finish her high school through a GIT)
program a couple of years later The counselor who did her horrible placement
directly caused her to drop out. Luckily for her. she is now atop student about
to finish college with honors.
Counselors need to stop acting rudely to Indian students. Another student
wrote in his essay that he hated to go to school, where the principal and the
counselors svould" be looking at the Indian students with their arms crossed and
a scowl on their faces.
Mr. Principal and Miss Counselor, if you are outright racists, get out of
Indian Country and don't come back until you have become civilized. You will
be civilized when you treat all students the same w ithout racial animosity and
discrimination. You will be civilized when you recognize the genius of the
Native intellect.
You will be civilized when you recognize the value of Native culture,
tradition, language, and religions. You will be civilized when you insist that
all Native students have the right to be taught in their Native language.
Most of all. counselors, help Indian students get ready for college. I did a
survey last year of all 740 Indian high schools in the U.S. and foundihat only
17% of Indian students are going to college. That is the same percentage Dr.
Alexander Astin found 20 years ago. We have not gotten any better at sending
Indian students to college in 20 years!
But the U.S. has gone from 40% to 70% in the same time period. In ten
years 80% of U.S. high school students will be going to college after
graduation. Are you counselors going to doom Indian students to poverty and
perdition forever by your racist and negligent inactions?
Let's get with the programs, folks. Our Indian students deserve something
more than being thrown on the garbage heap of life by your incompetent svay s.
.- "A '
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