I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
New Mexico’s Public Education Department announced today that the state will become the first in the nation to adopt a Navajo language textbook on Tuesday at the Instructional Materials Bureau Advisory Council meeting in Santa Fe.
A press release from the education department says:
The textbook is Dine Bizaad Binahoo’aah (Rediscovering the Navajo Language), written by Dr. Evangeline Parsons Yazzie (Navajo), Professor of Navajo at Northern Arizona University, and Dr. Margaret Speas, Professor of Linguistics at University of Massachusetts.
The textbook will be used in ten school districts that provide Navajo language instruction and by Bureau of Indian Education schools. In 2006-07 seven Native American languages were taught in New Mexico public schools throughout the state. Navajo language classes served the highest number of Native language learners totaling 5,024 students in 2006-07.
The textbook will enhance Navajo language instruction and also support the 2007 Amended Indian Education Act which calls for ensuring culturally relevant instructional materials. The Navajo language is known as one of the world’s most difficult languages to learn.
Tuesday’s meeting will happen in Mabry Hall at 9:30 a.m. in the Jerry Apodaca Building, 300 Don Gaspar, Santa Fe.
