When students worry about getting enough to eat and staying warm through the cold winter nights, academics become a secondary concern.
"My students have daily concerns that overshadow homework," says Patrick Macy, principal of Monument Valley High School. "Computers and graduation are low priorities for students concerned about just having enough firewood to get through another cold night."The school is plagued by a high dropout rate. Some students see English as a foreign language. Low test scores are common, as is a feeling among students that education is not necessary for a life tending sheep or making Navajo crafts, Macy said.
But he and a team of 21 teachers hope to revolutionize the way their students look at education and make it more relevant to their daily lives.
Monument Valley plans to open a string of non-profit businesses to teach students and at the same time create jobs in this area of 50 percent unemployment rates, Macy said.
Steeped in Navajo culture, the community will put on dances and display native culture to tourists. The school also will open a tourist agency equipped with student guides fluent in Navajo and English and well versed in the history and culture of the area.
School officials say most of their 325 students live in homes along the Utah-Arizona border that are without running water or electricity.
One is student body president Brian Jake. When he lived with his elderly grandmother last year, Brian worked hard after school to feed the sheep, cut firewood and replenish the family water barrels with fresh drinking water from the community watering hole.
"After dark, I had to use a kerosene lamp to do homework," Brian said.
"We want to open the school up to the community," explained Conrad Aitken, history and Navajo language teacher.
A school general store housed in a hogan - the traditional dwelling of Navajos made from soil and wood - will be built by students and parents. The store will sell furniture built at the school's wood shop and trailers for water barrels that are built in machine shop.
Native handicrafts and food, educational videos about the culture and region and tickets for cultural events will also be sold at the store.
"We want to show students that their education can be useful," said Macy. "Too often we as educators tell students to sit and listen. Let's get them involved and show them how education can be put to use."
All aspects of the curriculum will be integrated. Accounting and math students will keep the books. English will become important to the students as they are forced to communicate with tourists. Navajo culture is preserved, becoming the focal point of the enterprises.
The school will begin implementing the program in January when 30 students are chosen to pilot a few of the enterprise projects.
The Monument Valley project is one of many new programs that will begin in the San Juan School District during the next few years. The district has received a $3.6 million federal grant to completely re-evaluate its operations.
San Juan District and one in South Carolina are the only districts nationwide to receive the federal restructuring grant.