Expecting the Unexpected: Canadian Inuit Training for an Experimental Lifestyle

Data collected via participant observation in two Canadian Inuit camps on field trips over five years are used to analyze how the Inuit develop problem-solving abilities that enable them to deal rationally, autonomously, & quickly with dangerous situations, both physical & social. Inuit education is a process in which children actively experience & independently try to solve the problems that constitute the substance of Inuit life. Through various forms of play, including, most importantly, playful dramas in which children are the protagonists, adults put children through the motions of the dangerous plots of everyday life & let them figure out how to deal with the dangers. Children learn to find & analyze the complex & often hidden messages contained in these dramas, in order to keep themselves safe. Exploring & being explored teaches children to see the world as fundamentally problematic, ie, to see multiple variables in environmental situations & multiple levels of meaning in human interaction. It also allows them to practice the attitudes & skills required for experimental living. The relative safety of play allows both children & adults to acquaint themselves with the limits of the safe & with the potentialities of the unsafe, & the unknown, & to experiment with alternative responses. 23 References. AA