While several of the collection’s stories explore Victor’s teenage years, this is the first that delves into his experiences attending high school off the reservation.
Victor’s most meaningful lessons are rarely drawn from book learning, and instead come from life experience. The story interprets the meaning of education broadly. Because of this, the story is fast-paced and its plot is distilled to contain only the most potent moments from Victor’s youth, which together comprise his "education". Rather than attempting a smooth narrative flow, the story is presented as a list of formative events. This story chronicles Victor’s youth by depicting one episode from each year he is in school. AnalysisĪlexie once again uses an episodic storytelling structure in “Indian Education”. He graduates as the valedictorian of the farm town high school, and watches as his classmates from the reservation high school descend into alcoholism one by one. Although he is uncomfortable with the fact that the school basketball team is called the Indians, Victor remains on the team. At a school dance, Victor has a diabetic seizure and because he is Spokane, his teachers make the racist assumption that he has been drinking.
The Spokane students who stayed on the reservation ostracize him when he kisses a white girl, and he experiences a moment of culture shock when he realizes many of the white girls in the farm town have bulimia. Victor attends junior high and high school in the farm town nearby. However, he also befriends Randy, a new boy at school. The following year, life takes a darker turn as Victor’s cousin begins sniffing rubber cement. Schluter encourages him to become a doctor. He suffers under cruel teachers for the next two years, but in fourth grade, a teacher named Mr. Although he is bullied in first grade, Victor manages to gain respect when he beats up one of his tormentors, Frenchy SiJohn. “Indian Education” follows Victor from first grade through high school.
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