Recently in the State of Missouri a law was passed requiring all prospective
teachers (usually undergraduate teacher education majors) to pass an examina-
tion entitled the C-BASE (College-Base); it is similar to the ACT but with
some additional sub-tests/sections/areas.
Students taking the test/examination are required to provide demographic data
such as name, sex, address, age, and so forth. In one item, students are
asked to list their ORIGIN -- one of the options is NATIVE AMERICAN. You
would not believe. . . .
Students, throughout Missouri, taking the initial examination, for validation
purposes, listed themselves as NATIVE AMERICANS -- so overwhelmingly, that
the item was of no value when categorizing the respondents. The students
assumed that if they were born in the United States, that they were NATIVE
AMERICANS.
I laughed when I first heard the news but then I saddened and was chagrined
that the students did not know what the term NATIVE AMERICAN meant. Now, I
wonder if we use ABORIGINAL if only certain persons from Australia will
identify themselves.
Does any of this make sense or at least indicate a problem.
Please just read this and do not respond to me -- I do not have time to
answer and shall not -- the message is merely observational and information-
al.
Jim
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