Modern news is shocking, depressing, and enough to shake anyone’s faith in humanity. We must remember there is more good than bad in this world, one just has to know where to look.
For example, Hopitutuqaiki is a Hopi School, dedicated to the teaching of traditional Hopi values through traditional art forms. In the past, Hopi students learned about their own culture through the lens of outsiders.
This Hopi School plans to change education by not only becoming a charter school, but by encouraging and developing traditional arts for young people. The belief is that through these traditional art forms the children will reconnect to their language, their culture, the past and be better prepared for the future. Those wishing to make a difference can fund a one-day to two-week traditional arts course for a Hopi child. The cost of the courses ranges from $24.00 to $240. The hope is that these courses will expose the children to their native tongue, their traditional arts, and a way to be a fully functioning member of Hopi society. Traditional Hopi traditions and the art forms that come from these traditions are fading, but they need not; schools like Hopitutuqaiki afford an unavailable avenue to the Hopi people, helping to keep an ancient culture alive for future generations.
“Hopitutuqaiki was originally conceived as a year-around arts magnet school, using the strengths of students (arts) as the center of the curriculum. The school will use Hopi language, culture and values as the means of presenting a curriculum that satisfies Arizona state standards but is derived from a Hopi perspective and nurtures rather than oppresses Hopi students.”
*Photo Courtesy of hopischool.net
