A Kwakiutl Village and School

This book is a reprint of a now-classic text dealing with Harry F. Wolcott's dissertation topic on the study of a Kwakiutl Indian village and the one-room school where he taught on Village Island in the Alert Bay region of British Columbia. Wolcott's interest in anthropology and training as an educator blend together to present a unique look at the educational training of Indian children. Village life and the social environment from which young Indian children learn cultural conventions are skillfully contrasted with the formal, structured educational system within the village, which Wolcott is part of as a teacher. In showing these two opposing educational systems, the author is able to highlight problems that arise and the issues that come from an ethnographer being involved in a situation and not just observing it.