Trendy Experimentation or Cultural Enrichment?

Abstract

An evaluation of the principles and aims of bi-lingual education, with special reference to Yuendumu School, Northern Territory.

Having sat himself down excitedly, Johnny, a little European pre-schooler, waits expectantly yet somewhat apprehensively for his teacher to appear. It is the first day of school, and Johnny has not met his teacher yet, but he knows she is a Warlpiri.

Here she comes –

“Ngurrju mayinkili jalanguju! Wardinyi jarri kamanyarra. Ngajurna Nangala, ngaka marda kapurna nyarra yirdiji miliapinyi nyurrurlaju. Ngaka marda kapunkulu pinarri jarrimi nyampuku walyaku kijankulurla palkajarrija.

Kala kanpa marda kanyirni wita turaki manyu karrinjaku, kala kapunpa yijardu pinarrijarri nyampurlaju warrki yijardu.

Thus little Johnny is confronted and bombarded with an unknown, incomprehensible language which only receives a vestige of meaning through the teacher’s reassuring gestures and prompting voice inflections.

How is it that Johnny finds himself in this position? Some years ago, when the view was still widely accepted that Johnny, being English (European), belonged to a race of such low intelligence that he was impossible to educate, he would not have been here at all.