From Schoolgirl to Mother: The Effects of Education on

Navajo children are usually removed from their homes at age six or seven to be educated in federally operated boarding schools. This study found that the educational experiences encountered in middle childhood have detrimentally affected the adult self-esteem and maternal attitudes of Navajo women. The women were living in an urban area at the time of the study and are raising the first genera-tion of city-born Navajo children. It was found that the mother's background also affected the child's adjustment. Nearly every Navajo child born on the reservation after 1940 has spent some time in federal boarding school. During any given year, approximately 50 percent of all Navajo children are living in dormitories. The Bureau of Indian affairs (BIA) estimates that 83 percent of the elementary pupils in federally operated board-ing schools are Navajo. In one of his frequent attacks on reservation boarding schools, Bergman re-ported from his clinical experience that: Among the young adults, who are the first generation of Navajos most of whom went to school, there are many serious problems... I have encountered many mothers who take the attitude that they should not be burdened with their children and that the hospital or some other institution should care for them. It seems a reasonable hypothesis that having been placed by their parents in an impersonal institution contributes to such attitudes, and it is noticeable that the boarding schools provide children and adolescents with little or no opportunity to take care of other children or even of themselves. (1967:14). The research reported here is an analysis of data collected from a sample of 23 Navajo women educated in reservation schools and living with their families in an urban area at the time of the study (1970-1972)1. They had begun their lives as children in traditional Navajo society; they became pupils in federal schools; and they are now mothers in a modern urban environment, raising the first gen-eration of city-born Navajo children. The effect of their schooling on their per-sonal adjustment and their roles as mothers was the focus of the study