At Governor Lujan Grisham’s Town Hall this week on education, voices were raised about the on-going deficiencies in state policies that keep New Mexico students at the bottom of the nation—but the real problem seems to be the NM solution of “just throwing more money at the problem”—which isn’t going to solve the real problem.

The real problem lies with American standards of education—and raising salaries or hiring more out-of-state teachers isn’t going to help the situation—because New Mexico has some of the most unique and valuable cultures in America.

And this cultural knowledge can’t be measured—or preserved--through standardized assessments. The unique history—and ways of knowing—that are preserved and taught through New Mexico cultural languages are the kind of knowledge that’s essential to the present and future of the earth. The study of “Biomimicry,” which seeks to develop technologies based on relating to nature instead of extracting natural resources for manufacturing, is the kind of cultural wisdom imbedded in indigenous languages.

It’s time that New Mexico’s Public Education Department (NMPED) realize that cultural diversity is an analog to biodiversity. If you lose species, you might be able to clone them in the future, but when you lose the cultural wisdom that evolved over centuries of living in harmony with those species, you can’t “rediscover” it again. It’s called, “living sustainably,” and it can’t be measured through piecemeal, standardized assessments because it’s based on alternative ways of knowing.

These “ways of knowing,” as Dr. Gregory Cajete explains, are “Eco-indigenous” and “systemic.” They’re not mechanical, and can’t be broken into pieces, without destroying the entire system of knowledge. They’re holistic and need to be taught from a systems perspective in a traditional cultural context.

New Mexico is unique in its cultural preservation of this knowledge—more unique than any other state in America. Yet, what is NMPED promoting now? The latest agenda is a new spin on the standardized assessments of PARCC testing—and oddly enough, coming from the Republican Party.

The newly named, “Aurora Institute,” (formerly “INACOL”), which is funded by the Bush Foundation, Barr Foundation, and the Carnegie Corporation of New York, among others, is pushing a “Competency-based” paradigm in New Mexico. And this isn’t going to solve any of the deficiencies identified in the Yazzie/Martinez case.

Why? Because cultural awareness isn’t about “cultural competency” or “culturally-responsive” paradigms. These are the perspectives of a “divide and conquer” mentality. To be blunt: they promote authoritarian, colonial perspectives that teach White students how to: “throw the dog a bone,” and “hold onto the leash tightly.” And this paradigm is the basis of racism.

True, “student-centered” education is cultural—and not “personalized,” competency-based rigid state standards. It’s based on the “critical pedagogy” of Paulo Freire, who taught field-workers in Brazil to read in 45 days, whose writings were so valuable they were smuggled among student protesters against Apartheid in South Africa—even though it was an automatic jail sentence to be found with copies of his works.

This is critical and cultural literacy at its best, a process of knowing that promotes critical thinking and cultural awareness for everyone. NMPED recently received $40 million to promote literacy in New Mexico school districts—and gave applicants less than 45 days to submit applications for the funds—due December 20, 2019, today.

These are 5-year grants and “cultural literacy” is nowhere to be found in them. Yet, ironically according to Forbes, the best training for international business is “cultural awareness,” and every student who wants to become a global citizen needs it.

Schoolwide Enrichment, in a framework of “Cultural Enrichment,” could be the catapult that launches New Mexico’s new educational platform—from the bottom to the top—because no state is as culturally rich as New Mexico.

Expanding gifted education, with alternative assessments like CogAT—could raise New Mexico’s student achievement levels by at least 30 percent according to Dr. Renzulli—the founder of Schoolwide Enrichment--and Renzulli has offered to help New Mexico establish the model.

Promoting Cultural Enrichment is not only a solution to the Yazzie/Martinez case, but it’s the best way to promote the cultural knowledge that New Mexico has—and the entire world needs—the knowledge of sustainable systems and cultural awareness that promotes a greener economy and better future tomorrow.

Dr. Eiline Kingsley is a cultural historian, presenting a paper on “Cultural Enrichment” at the International Education Conference for Western New Mexico University in Hawaii, January 2020.