LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Pleasant memories with the Navajo people My wife and I recently retired from position as professor of economics and statistics, and my wife as professor of biology. We have been teaching in the same college for about 10 years (at the) Navajo Technical College in Crownpoint, N.M. The time spent in Crownpoint and Tsaile, and the pleasant memories of these places we would always cherish. Both of us always felt we owed a lot to the Navajo community. It was the Navajos who treated us as if we were one of them. We want to express our sincere gratitude to the Navajo community as a whole and to the Navajo Technical College community in particular for all their goodness showered upon us. We wish we stayed in Crownpoint a few more years, but the call of our family duties was very strong that forced us to leave our NTC Crownpoint family. During our stay, there were certain issues I used to think about and which most of the time kept revolving in my mind and had economic implications, but was not sure about, who I should discuss this with, as those issues were beyond the jurisdiction of NTC administration. First, my observation is that students have to spend a lot on gas when they drive their trucks long distances to reach NTU or NCC to attend a class. Moreover, they drive on unpaved rough and muddy roads that damage their vehicles during snow and rain and they have to spend a lot of time and money on repairs. This all is very painful and unfair burden on those already economically struggling families. Most of the dropouts happen due to this problem. This is a very serious issue and the government should urgently pay attention to this. In this connection I have a suggestion to offer. The Navajo Nation government should take up this issue with the state or federal authorities and put pressure for providing grants to provide for small buses on reservation roads as much as possible. These buses should pick-up not only the students but also the general public from different locations on the reservation, and charge a nominal fare to cover a part of the transport expenses. This will save the students from a big drain on their resources. Moreover, students have to be educated about disadvantages of early age marriage. They should be provided awareness to have more progressive outlooks and not to rush into marriages. The marriages put a stop on their further professional advancement. They should aspire for higher achievements. They have to be made aware of the avenues that are open to them for financial aid to go for more sophisticated courses and become professionals like doctors and engineers, rather than doing only lower level courses. They need a lot of career guidance. There is no dearth of brain and intelligence. There are very creative students. May God bless the Navajo Reservation and its noble people. Dr. Rajinder S. Bhinder Professor Surinder K. Bhinder Chadds Ford, Pa.
Posted on: Thu, 01 May 2014 17:51:27 +0000
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