The Education Division of the Bureau of Indian Affairs will hold a series of four special conferences this summer to orient field personnel to recent developments in teaching American Indian children in BIA schools, Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, announced today.
"The Bureau is striving to keep its education personnel updated on the latest information available on teaching and working with Indian children," Bennett said. "Through these conferences, teachers, administrators, even dormitory representatives will be exposed to the newest education principles and current philosophies and practices in the teaching of the Indian student."
Conference sites include Jamestown College, Jamestown, N.D., July 8-10; University of Oklahoma, Norman, Okla., July 24-26; University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, N.M., August 5-7, and Arizona State University, Tempe, Ariz., August 21-23.
The BIA educators will be assigned in groups of 35 to the conference schools.
The program will include reports and studies of the Bureau's new kindergarten program; ways in which to strengthen the current Head Start program, and explanation of the functions of the Pupil Personnel Services of the Bureau, a program which includes providing more teachers with specialized training for Indian schools.
Bureau education directors in various areas plan to invite representatives from the Division of Indian Health, Tribal Council members, Head Start and Community Action Program workers and other community resources specialists, in addition to regular Bureau education personnel.
