ASSET is a plus for tribes

John Maestas, who headed Indian Education at Brigham Young University for many years, once pointed out that getting Native Americans into a classroom isn't difficult. But once you have them there, you need to give them a good reason to learn what you're teaching.

"Our kids are much better at problem solving," he said. "They do better if they can see a practical application to their learning."

If true, then ASSET — a Utah program designed to teach Utah's tribes business savvy — plays right into their hands. And Utah's Native Americans are making it fly.

Headed by Ivan Wongan of the Northwestern Shoshone Tribal Council and founder of NWB Technologies, the ASSET program recently won an $81,706 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The money will help 30 individuals to "problem solve" the creation of new businesses in Utah.

Forrest Cuch, who directs the Utah Division of Indian Affairs, sees seven new businesses — including two in information technology — sprouting from the seed money over the next few years. Success is a confidence builder — no matter the culture. And ASSET also comes with a component to enhance self-confidence and teach coping skills.

Our hat goes off to Wongan, Cuch and others who are showing the insight and vision to adjust education to suit not only the needs but the personalities of Utah's tribes.

Indeed, there is a lesson here for all Utahns to consider: The one-size-fits-all approach doesn't always work. People who tend to be right-brain dominant see little point in memorizing and regurgitating facts and figures. They don't simply want to be told "there's a light at the end of the tunnel"; they want to see the pathway. They need to be taught in a different way.

It was educator Paul Goodman who said that many things we think are etched in stone in education were simply practical conventions from bygone eras. The notion of using bells and recitation and dividing students into rows with the instructor speaking at the front was really a "church model," a convention established by Catholic monks, Goodman said, to bring a little learning to the Irish shepherds.

Unlike the church, however, nothing in education is sacrosanct.

And ASSET shows that, sometimes, there's a way to build a better mouse trap.

We hope other programs will take note and find creative ways to teach Utah's students — whether they be white, red, black, brown or blue.