Profile of Mrs. Stevens

From Elias & Annie

The moment Mrs. Stevens started teaching our whole youth group how to do “head, shoulders, knees, and toes” in Navajo, I was both baffled by her immediate confidence in us and wowed by her obvious pride in her culture and love of teaching. I think all of the still-adapting youth and adults from First Parish felt her energy and wondered: What would it be like to be present in her class? Annie and I would later find ourselves to be the fortunate souls to be aides in her class. Before we left that Tuesday morning – a day without teaching because the school had closed due to a burst pipe – Mrs. Stevens emphasized her idea of our purpose, our usefulness as agents of community service and cultural exchange. She told us that we needed to “be ambassadors.” This was a title I knowingly attempted to carry and a role I tried to fulfill throughout the week.

Mrs. Stevens is quite a character. To be completely honest, Elias and I were pretty skeptical of her on our first day. As soon as we showed up, she left us in a computer lab to help the kids make family trees in the Navajo language while she finished entering grades that were due at 12:00 pm that day. She seemed flustered and a bit disorganized, but she always had a huge smile on her face and never let us forget, even for a moment, how much it meant to her that we had come.

She hardly ever managed to pronounce my name right – or Annie’s preferred pronunciation for that matter— on her first try, but I think it lightened the mood between us all the more. Her second and third efforts (usually successful) were only symbolic of how intent she was on getting to know me a little bit as she showed off her two tall, white teacher’s aides to the class. At first that’s all we were: another pair of white volunteers who stay around the perimeter of the classroom, nameless to most of the Navajo eighth graders. That was until she called on us to present ourselves to one of her morning classes; the routine quickly proved itself an important lecture for her and certainly for us.

On the second and third day Mrs. Stevens asked Elias and I to spend time at the beginning of each of her seven classes to introduce ourselves in the Navajo way, stating our full names, our parents names, where they come from, what we do for fun, and what our goals are for the future. She then asked us to open up to a question and answer session with the kids so that we could help the kids understand what life is like outside of the reservation. We found this to be an extremely enjoyable experience and had great time telling the kids about Boston and the subways and buildings and all the restaurants. One of the funnest things to try to explain was bubble tea.

As for the eighth graders of the numerous classes, the responses to our presentations were extremely varied. For some of the students, many with stoic faces, our blabbering about a seemingly foreign culture was either to abstract to imagine or merely entertainment that didn’t particularly trigger an expressed emotional reaction. [this was also one of the difficulties of teaching older kids; only few students let us break the surface of their background, their home/Reservation experience] On the other hand, we had one two particular classes – one the infamously rowdy 7th Hour class – that absolutely loved that we were sharing ideas from the real world, referencing ubiquitous American cultural icons like fast food restaurants as well as rock and hip-hop music. Annie, Lizzy (a featured guest), and I spent the whole 45 minute period painting a picture of almost every aspect of our life. Mrs. Stevens had even requested that I introduce myself in English, German, and Spanish, after discovered By the end they had both run out of questions – except for “what is your love life like?”; a question we abstained from answering – and we had run out of material to explain.

One of the most rewarding things for me was answering the question "what did you notice as the biggest difference when you got to Tuba City?" To answer this question Elias and I went into elaborate descriptions of the awe that we felt when being able to turn around in all directions and not see one building on the horizon. We thought it was the most amazingly beautiful thing in the world and the kids just laughed because that is all they have ever known. We then told them about how excited we were about the nights sky and how in Boston we can only see a handful of stars at most. Elias then pointed out that we even have this place called a planetarium, where people actually pay to sit in seats and look up at a fake sky because ours is so pathetic. The kids found that hilarious. As we spoke about our first impressions of Tuba City, Mrs. Stevens just smiled from ear to ear with almost a look of amazement in her eyes as she said to her students, "See what you take for granted guys!"

She certainly did her best to integrate us into her class lesson, after our first presentation proved a hit – even if it was she was most clearly fascinated by the cultural and societal comparisons we made. She cherished the three days spent Annie and I spent in her classroom, and on Friday presented us each with a beautiful necklace with a turquoise stone – a completely unexpected gift. [Annie has a buffalo stone and I have a fish stone] To be embraced with such compassion and gratitude while at the school was truly humbling. One of the strongest take-away’s I have is Mrs. Stevens’ approach to motivating and inspiring her students. From what I saw and heard, she pressed the students to understand the full weight of the background and history of Native American peoples, often describing how “we were oppressed and forced to move…the Navajo Code-Talkers redeemed our sense of pride.” Coming from a bi-cultural family and heritage myself, I was able to connect to her important lessons about the preservation of Navajo culture in the new generation.

Mrs. Stevens seems to hold within her the true spirit of Tuba City Boarding School. She teaches the Navajo culture class which includes learning the Navajo language, learning Navajo history, and encouraging the students to explore and celebrate their heritage. She herself had attended the boarding school years ago and she has committed her life to helping keep Navajo culture alive through educating the younger generations.