Teaching

This paper presents the results of the evaluation of the KinderApache Song and Dance Project (KASDP) that was piloted in a kindergarten class at John E Kennedy Day School 'in Cedar Creek on the White Mountain Apache Reservation. The report illustrates the issues involved both in the implementation and the assessment of the project. The following outcomes were observed: the-children gained knowledge of and pride in their culture, the children began to sing the songs they had learned spontaneously, at least one child began to use the Apache language outside the classroom, and the image of the school as a focal point of the community was reinforced. In the Winter 1995 special issue of the Bilingual Research Journal devoted to language maintenance among various American Indian groups, the former president of the Navajo Nation Peterson Zah is quoted as saying: It is a priority of the Navajo Nation President and a dream of the Navajo Division of Diné (Navajo) Education to some day take control of their own education. It is the mission of the Division of Education to assure that all Navajo people have the opportunity to be educated, and to be able t