tribal education

SF State student Gianna Sacco remembers her fifth grade classroom well. The kids were lined up in desks like rows of corn, the teacher's wide desk towered before them like a throne and a big clock on the wall ticked away the long minutes until freedom.

Today when Sacco walks into the fifth grade class she assists twice a week at Dr. Charles Drew Elementary School in San Francisco's Bayview District, she has to scan the room for a moment in order to find the teacher.

Gone is the throne that once ruled the busy bees. Gone are the rows that descended from the agricultural age. Instead, Sacco finds the students in Room 104 grouped in "tribes," living under rules they created themselves. And their teacher, Ms. Janice Jones -- she sits in the back of the room.

Most tribes have two boys and two girls, and the students sit in a square facing each other. The seven tribes in the class make up a "community." Sacco said the projects students do, whether a puzzle, math lesson or peer editing, are done within the tribe.

"They have to work together to solve problems" she said. "The kids have to think about what they are doing more, and give each other respect. An atmosphere of trust is created."

"Tribes: A new way of learning together," by Geanne Gibbs, is the book Drew Elementary currently uses as a basis for its curriculum.

Tribes are described by Gibbs as a way for students to share personal concerns while respecting and supporting each other. In tribes, students learn how to plan and cooperate in order to solve problems, she writes.

For example, a tribe given 30 shapes will have to use all of them to make four squares in 30 minutes. However, the children can't talk or use gestures so they communicate with eye contact or by pushing pieces forward they think will fit.

"Everyone has to believe he or she can help," Sacco said. "No one can be pushed aside. The puzzle can't be solved without cooperation."

Ten-year-old Aida Alston, while observing her group during the square exercise, said tribe members hogged pieces and talked at first, but finally followed the rules and solved the puzzle.

She wishes more of her friends were in her group, but said tribes are better than working alone.

"I do want to sit with different people. You have to have people you want to work with," she said. "But you actually have more fun, because you have more people you can talk to, and you're not sitting in solitary in one seat."

Sacco, 26, has been working at Drew since September. She got the job through the Community Involvement Center at SF State. A liberal studies major, she plans to pursue her teaching credential after she graduates in May.

She said Drew is more casual than the Diamond Heights elementary school where she was a teaching assistant last year -- much less the Bernal Heights school she attended 15 years ago, while growing up in San Francisco.

Teachers, students and the principal are on a first-name basis at Drew. Students in all grades make up the rules for their community in the form of "tribal agreements," and class discussions are held in a "community circle," she said.

On one occasion, the tribes acted up when a substitute teacher was with them, Sacco recalls. When Jones got back, she called the tribes into a community circle and asked what should be done about their behavior. Sacco said the tribes admitted to being unruly and punished themselves by skipping recess.

"Janice didn't yell or isolate them." Sacco said. "She just asked them 'Should I punish you?'"

Normally when a group of people has to solve a problem a leader emerges. Within tribes, a leader can be chosen but, Sacco said, she and Jones monitor to make sure no one student dominates or does all the work for the tribe.

Principal Dee Dee Desmond said the school has been using the tribe method in kindergarten through second grades for about eight years. Three years ago tribes were expanded throughout the school. She said the program helps students build their skills in identifying conflicts and solving them.

"We all get mad, but how we deal with it is an important thing to learn," she said.

Having gone to Drew since kindergarten, 10-year-old Charles Flewellen is used to learning in tribes. He's the youngest kid around his neighborhood, and he said he learned in class to walk away when people pick a fight with him.

"I learned to go about my business," he said.

Besides learning how to outsmart bullies, Flewellen said he also learned to treat his family and friends with more respect. He attributes this to the listening and communication exercises he does in his tribe.

"One time, two weeks ago, our tribe was confused about how we were going to present our Native American study," he said. "Everyone had different ideas, so we went around in a circle and listened to people's ideas. Then we voted on whose idea we should go with."

In comparing both schools she's worked at, Sacco said some traditional teaching methods, combined with disciplinary disruptions, can put students at a disadvantage. She said students at Drew are learning things she learned just two semesters ago at SF State.

"They pre-write, draft, rewrite, peer edit and finally publish their papers using a Macintosh. When I was in fifth grade I don't even remember writing a paper -- they've already written three," she said.

As graduation approaches, Sacco has become more dedicated to ending the suffering, intimidation and competition she felt going through grade school. In a few years, her 2-year-old daughter will walk into her first classroom. Sacco hopes on that day her daughter will meet her first tribe.

"I don't want her to have to take remedial classes when she gets to college like I did," she said. "I can't imagine teaching the traditional way any more. Tribes are another way, and I want to use them because they're better."

[ Golden Gater Online December 5, 1995 ]

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