Comanche Academy Graduation Showcases Comanche Language
Comanche Academy Charter School held its kindergarten graduation on Wednesday, May 21, at Dorothy Lorentino Education Center in Lawton, Oklahoma.
Students wanted their graduation to be in Comanche, so they performed several hymns and songs and announced their names in Comanche before receiving their diplomas.
Kindergarten teacher Linette Amparan said it’s important to celebrate the students for their hard work.
“Most importantly, this year, because of the incorporation of the language that was just throughout the whole program, it was student-led,” she said. “This group of students has been the best group of students that I've had in 20 years, should I say, all around. I attribute that to the community, I attribute that to their families, the ancestors, our spirituality and the connections that everyone has made in the Academy.”
Amparan said language plays a huge role at the school.
“It surprised me when I addressed this to the kids of how they wanted their kindergarten graduation to go,” she said. “They said they wanted to sing hymns, they wanted to speak the Comanche language that they've learned, and I let them roll with it. I said, ‘Give me a list of things that you want to do in Comanche.’ And the list was long, and I couldn't believe that they had soaked up so much in the last year that they were that confident to get up there and do it, and that it was a lot of material that was presented today, and they did it…they weren't hinged at all.”
Amparan said she introduced a new curriculum, and the students took flight.
“Out of the 20 students, 18 were reading,” she said. “They've scored extremely high on their testing, and I think that's what surprised me the most academically for the state standards, but also learning the Comanche language…they put me on the floor when they started presenting all the things that they knew in Comanche. And you'll notice that in the display that each child has in the gym, they have things in English, but they also have things that they've written out in Comanche. It's beautiful.”
Amparan said watching the students grow throughout the year and showcase themselves this year was priceless.
“They got up there. One little girl, she came off the stage. She said, ‘Miss Linette, I self-regulated and I didn't let my feelings overpower me, and I touched her peehi and I said ‘Wow, that right there is the epitome of what the Academy is about.’ This is what we're doing, not only the academic side, but the social and emotional side, so when they blossom, it is so much more than what you see.”
Foundation Member Cornel Pewewardy said the school reclaims Native American education and teaches students about their origins.
“The students will know our true history,” he said. “They will know that there was a struggle, and they would know where they came from, whether it is here in the state of Oklahoma, whether it is the relatives that are to Shoshone and all the bands that comprise the Comanche Nation, they will know who they are, their bands and their families. And so as you begin to think about that, that's a construction of our history, so we're resurrecting our history using the school system to do it.”
Pewewardy enjoyed being at the kindergarten graduation.
The students played in a bounce house and ate pizza after their ceremony.
Amparan also wanted to invite the community to see “Comanche Academy: A Healing Journey” at the deadCenter Film Festival in Oklahoma City.
