A school built on Navajo values

A piece of string takes on the likeness of a Navajo rug pattern with just a few swift twists of the fingers. In a corner of the K-2 classroom, giggling children show off their skill at "spider games." They get to practice only in winter - the season of the Navajo story about Spider Woman giving the gift of weaving.

The students' artful webs are a good metaphor for their education here at the STAR School, a K-8 charter halfway between Flagstaff, Ariz., and the Navajo reservation town of Leupp. The name stands for Service to All Relations - and the mission is to weave the Navajo system of K'e, meaning kinship and relatedness, into the everyday life of the school.

For STAR's founder and director Mark Sorenson, that means incorporating Navajo values into decisions on everything from the school's disciplinary policy to its reliance on solar energy for power.

The 60-plus students are 85 percent native American (mostly Navajos from the reservation), with the rest a mix of white, black, and Hispanic. Giving them a solid grounding in reading, math, science, and other academic subjects is key, Mr. Sorenson says.

But as someone who has taught in Indian communities for decades, he's convinced that inculcating respect, responsibility, and service to the community is the best way to achieve that. These concepts resonate for everyone, he says, although he draws on their centrality in traditional Navajo culture. (Sorenson's background is Scandinavian-American, but he says his heart is with the Navajo people.)

"It's important to us that the kids learn how to get along in the world.... They have to feel good about who they are.... And we want the kids to develop friendships across racial lines," Sorenson says, surrounded in his small office by books, Indian art, and school awards. Test scores are one measure of success, he says, "but the really essential thing is to get kids to be excited about learning."

The idea of interconnection is most visible in the school's discipline policy. A disruptive student typically gets pulled aside for a few hours of character-building lessons with a staff member. There are also opportunities to draw on Navajo peacemaking methods by talking out solutions with peers and staff. One boy who's been here two years after repeated suspensions in other schools is now doing his homework and managing his behavior much better, "but it's been a struggle," Sorenson says.

The four-year-old school is still striving to meet Arizona's measure of "adequate yearly progress" because its attendance rate was just shy of the required 94 percent. But on Arizona's Measure of Academic Progress for 2003-04, 71 percent of students made the expected gains in reading, matching the state average. In math, 88 percent did, beating the state average of 71 percent.

"They are encouraged to make their own observations, as opposed to all learning the same way," says Jacobo Carranza, a recent college graduate and teacher in training. He points to Brandon, in the classroom for third- and fourth-graders, who loves to sketch, and excels at hands-on learning. Brandon also took a leadership role in the school's garden, so the teachers try to link that back to reading and writing, areas where he lags.

"Sometimes we go outside and look at the temperature and how much rain there is, and we write it in our learning logs," Brandon says quietly. "When it was snowing, we put some hay on there so it could keep growing."

"There's a Western tradition of science, and then there's native traditions for observing and interacting with the world," Mr. Carranza says. "STAR is trying to teach these kids, 'Your ancestors are scientists as well, and so are you.' " It's the kind of affirmation Carranza wishes he'd had as a Mexican Indian attending schools in Los Angeles.

The campus created beauty where there once was a junkyard. It has a view of the San Francisco Mountains, a range that is sacred to many Navajos and Hopis. And its solar-powered buildings signal that traditional respect for the environment can go hand in hand with modernity.

Students are encouraged to link their learning to the community. They're currently writing a play about a missionary who averted a war here 100 years ago by communicating between white cowboys and Navajo hunters.

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