Indian Community School Trip Broadens Perspectives

Approximately 30 University School of Milwaukee seniors enrolled in English 4: Environmental Literature spent an afternoon learning more about the history of Indian Community School located in Franklin, Wisconsin. The Indian Community School cultivates an enduring cultural identity and critical thinking by weaving indigenous teachings with a distinguished learning environment for students in grades K4 through 8th grade. In particular, USM students studied how the school incorporates Traditional Ecological Knowledge in its architecture and grounds. 

Jason Dropik, principal of Indian Community School, spoke to the students about how the school’s architecture and design seamlessly incorporate natural materials and the outdoors. For example, curved walls provide a sense flow from one portion to another (much like a river); white pine from the Menominee Nation (whose wood is also used for the floor in Fiserv Forum), along with locally-sourced stone and copper, are featured in hallways and rooms; and a plethora of windows bring the outdoors inside. In addition, circles used throughout the school are intended to remind everyone in the building that they are all connected and can be leaders at any time.  

Students learned about how being outdoors is an imperative part of the school’s K-8 curriculum, with each grade level having a specific outdoor responsibility. The tour also included a unique experience in which students stood in the middle of the "Drum Room" so they could hear how their voice is amplified without any use of microphones.

English 4: Environmental Literature is a new course at USM, co-taught by Marja Konkol, Upper School science teacher and Drew Mullen, Upper School English teacher, and it explores our relationship to the environments surrounding use. Using Robin Wall Kimmerer's book “Braiding Sweetgrass,” articles by Aldo Leopold and others, and various poems and TED Talks, the class has been exploring how Scientific Ecological Knowledge (SEK) and Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) informs and potentially alters that relationship. “Our trip to ICS helped us see how a school with a TEK vision might differ from a school like USM, which has more of a SEK vision in its architecture and grounds,” said Mullen.

Not only does this visit broaden students’ perspectives of what a school and pedagogy can look like, it deepens their appreciation for members of American Indian tribes or those who are of American Indian descent, and the many tribal Nations who live in our state. November is Native American History Month, one of several heritage and history months recognized annually at USM.