Book Notes

George’s kids go somewhere

By: Joan Ruddiman
   When the manager of a bookstore calls in sick in order to finish a book, take note of the title!
   My good friend and former teaching partner Marilyn had just returned from a trip to Alaska with this book in hand. It was a gift from her niece who found it so riveting she spent one of her few allotted days off to see how the story ends.
   "The Kids from Nowhere: The Story Behind the Artic Educational Miracle" (Alaska Northwest Books, 2006) is George Guthridge’s memoir of the several years he spent teaching at the edge of the world.
   The "Nowhere" of the title is little Saint Lawrence Island that lies in the Bering Sea, closer to Siberia than to Nome, Alaska. The flight to Anchorage, given weather conditions, can take a couple of days.
   The "kids" are Eskimos (their term) who George (how he is addressed) is hired to teach, though no one — from the administrators to the kids themselves — believe that they will ever succeed in school.
   The setting is bleak with economic realities as harsh as the climate. The school in Gambell is known as a dumping ground for new, naive teachers as well as those who are not effective. George is told that this is "how the district administration gets rid of teachers they don’t want … They offer them a contract for the island, knowing they’ll resign."
   George, as naive as most and more desperate for a secure position, persuades his wife and two school-age daughters that this Alaska adventure will be fun, educational and most of all, lucrative. He is quite candid that he is there for the high teacher salary that is much higher than any offered in their home state of Washington.
   It’s too late when they discover they are contracted to teach "in the toughest school in Alaska — the pariah of Alaska education." Breaking their contract would mean the loss of their teacher certification. To their credit, the family quite literally toughs it out — from primitive plumbing and extreme cold to bullies that terrorize the white family they resent.
   Twenty years ago, the people on St. Lawrence were caught in the transition from their ancient lifestyle as whale and bear hunters to trades and craftsmen with ski mobiles and ATVs — "We are the three-wheeling capital of the world!"
   A native curriculum of whale hunting, bead working, etc. established by well meaning but quite distant non-native state officials did nothing to prepare the Yupik Eskimos for the demands of a modern world that had already come to little Gambell thanks to a state government flush with oil money.
   George was sold by a recruiter he meets in the "lower forty" on the idea that he and his wife, also a teacher, could be the catalyst for a positive change. But the sullen teens in George’s history classes weren’t buying into the grand plans envisioned by officials who had no understanding or appreciation of the realities of their island life. And, they certainly were not receptive to this foolish white man.
   George is surprised at this rocky start. However, he quickly identifies some very bright kids who indicate a desire to learn and others, who just have completely tuned out. Recognizing the wealth of untapped potential in his students and with the support of the principal, George revamps the curriculum to involve his students in active questioning and critical thinking. But the textbooks and limited reading materials only take them so far.
   Then at a teacher conference in Nome, George hears about a state academic contest, which he thinks will appeal to his students. The premise of the competition is real life problem solving, something these kids did every day of their lives.
   In a delightful irony, Marilyn and I discover that George gets his kids involved in the Future Problem Solving program — something Marilyn started in our middle school twenty years ago and what I have been facilitating with my students for the past decade. We even remembered the topics/challenges related in the book from our early days with FPS.
   George recognizes that his students are too grounded in practical realities to "do school" with information gathering that leads to pencil and paper assessments. Future Problem Solving asks kids to apply knowledge gathered from research and experience to solving real world issues. The twist is that the problems and hence the solutions lie in the future — about thirty years or more into the future. Therefore, "future problem solvers" can be highly creative with solving the challenge.
   E. Paul Torrance, a professor at the University of Georgia, began the Future Problem Solving program which is now in its fourth decade and spread throughout the world as an international competition to develop critical thinking skills. Professor Torrance, who is a world-renowned expert in education for the gifted, was dismayed that his students could ace tests, but had no idea how to apply knowledge to real world situations.
   He envisioned a "game" that students organized by age could play in teams of four to six. As George relates:
   "Combining research, creative thinking, essay writing, and verbal skills in a timed event, Future Problem Solving has been called THE most difficult academic competition for young people."
   George and his students twenty years ago competed as our students do today — two practice problems solved in the fall and scored by evaluators at the state level lead to the Qualifying Problem (QP) solved in February. The top scoring teams with the QP are invited to compete at the State Bowl. Only two teams from states in each division (junior, middle, and senior) earn a place at the international competition.
   The first year, George and his kids worked on the topics established by the national office: UFOs, lasers, undersea cities and banking. He realized that what the FPS program considered "kids’ interests" were far removed from anything in Gambell’s world. For example, they used barter more than cash so they knew nothing of bank systems.
   However, armed with a FPS coach’s manual, packets of prepared research and a grim determination that "this WILL work," George returned to school to sell his kids on the program.
   Some kids took the bait, including two of the acknowledged leaders of the school.
   They were off and running.
   It is a hard book to put down. Mr. Guthridge’s, twenty years after the fact, is honest about his own failings and generous in his acknowledgement of how others heroically, and in the case of his long-suffering wife and daughters, stoically helped the Gambell FPS teams achieve success.
   How much success, you will have to read for yourself. "The Kids from Nowhere" indeed go somewhere — then and now.
   The decades have not dimmed the magic that these teachers, parents and kids experienced in one of the most isolated places on earth.
   
Next week, Book Notes will review a book discovered at the FPS International Competition in June. "Stoodie" by Taffeta Chime is a product of an FPS Scenario. More to come …




   

Joan Ruddiman, Ed.D., is a teacher and friend of the Allentown Public Library.