Student slideshow for Mr. Stennett's Human Development class, Spring 2015

1. Little Tree: Resilience and
Independence
By: Gary E. Miller Jr.

2. The Education of Little Tree (1976)
by: Forrest Carter

3. Meet the Author
• Many suggest that Asa
Earl Carter is the true
author of the book
• Also author of The
Rebel Outlaw: Josey
Wales which became a
Clint Eastwood movie
• Speech writer for
George C. Wallace
• May have been a
former Ku Klux Klan
member

4. Life in the
Mountains
• Father passes away
• Mother passes one year
after the father
• Taken in by Cherokee
grandparents at 5 years old
• Lives in the mountains of
Tennessee during the
Depression Era
• Little Tree is encouraged to
make his own decisions
about how to live his new
life with his grandparents

5. Erik Eriksons’s Theory
of Psychological
Development
• Stage 3: Initiative versus Guilt
• 3-5 year old range
• Self concept and self-esteem
begin to develop
• Children develop
interpersonal skills through
lively play and interaction
with others
• Ability for planning, make
believe and games is
developed
• Children begin to take
initiative which should be
guided appropriately by
parents
• Too much guilt may hamper
the child’s development of
interpersonal skills

6. Cherokee
Mentoring
• The Way means taking
only what one needs from
nature
• Cherokee mentoring of
young males involves
guidance and counsel
while allowing a safe level
of decision making
autonomy
• This is consistent with
Authoritative Parenting

7. Cherokee View on Nature
and Animals
• Strong but diverse oral traditions on history and nature
• Animals, plants and even geological formations are seen as
sentient players in the cycles of nature
• Humans are superior to other animals and to plants but still find
themselves within the cycles of nature
• Humans have a responsibility to take only what they need from
nature

8. Learning the
Trade
• Granpa shows Little
Tree his whiskey
still
• Little Tree takes
pride in his new
trade
• Little Tree barely
escapes the law
• Little Tree is praised
for being better than
Granpa himself

9. Erik Eriksons’s Theory
of Psychological
Development
• Stage 4: Industry versus
Inferiority
• 5-12 year old range
• Children begin reading,
writing and arithmetic
• Peer groups become more
important source of self-
esteem
• Child seeks approval by
achieving competencies
valued by society
• If initiative is not encouraged
then the child may develop a
sense of inferiority

10. Learning to be
Weary
• First encounter with an ‘appeal
to character’ when Little Tree
naively trusts a Christian man
during a trade
• Loses his money and the calf
he purchases dies on the trail
home
• Little Tree decides not to trade
with Christians anymore
• Granma corrects Little Tree to
be more careful about what
strangers say to compel one to
make a purchase

11. Trust and Strange
Animals
• Children are more susceptible
to the character of the
authority figure involved in
novel situations
• When encountering a novel
animal younger children will
approach the animal based on
their trust in the authority
figure accompanying them
• Older children rely more on
pertinent information
regarding the threating or
non-threatening traits of the
animal

12. Academics
• Granma sends Granpa and Little Tree to the library
frequently
• Granma assigned new words from the dictionary every week
• Read classical literature to Little Tree and Granpa
• Mr. Wine helped with “figuring” mathematics

13. The Orphanage
• Grandparents deemed
unfit to raise Little Tree
• Discrimination for being
Native American and a
bastard
• Children in orphanages
experience high levels of
hopelessness
• Little Tree is beaten by
the minister until blood
runs into his shoes

14. Resiliency
• The mental, physical, emotional
and behavioral ability to face and
cope with adversity, adapt to
change, recover, learn and grow
from setbacks (US Army)
• Granpa said “no matter what
happens, if you can stay on your
feet you’ll probably be OK.”
• Little Tree remained standing
through the lashing by the
minister
• A study in Israel demonstrated
that after implementation of
resiliency training children were
able to cope better with PTSD
effects from rocket attacks

15. The Dog Star and
Symbols
• Granma and Granpa tell Little Tree to look
at the Dog Star whenever he wants to be
with them.
• Learning to attach symbols to conceptual
meaning has shown to improve spiritual
intelligence and imagination in children.
• The Dog Star provided a symbol for Little
Tree’s intimate contact with his loved
ones.
• Little Tree’s Grandparents pass
away shortly after they are
reunited.
• The Dog Star provides Little
Tree with a symbol of eternal
contact with his family.

16. Conclusion
• Loss of both parents and
grandparents sets Little Tree up
for adult depression
• The abuse he experiences could
lead to life long anxiety
• Little Tree’s education in
independence, self-reliance and
resiliency provided emotional
and psychological protection
• There is sufficient evidence to
suggest that Little Tree will
move into adulthood with less
bias and a calm demeanor in the
face of adversity

17. References
Aftandilian, D. (2011). Toward a Native American Theology of Animals: Creek and Cherokee Perspectives.
Crosscurrents, 61(2), 191-207. DOI: 10.1111/j.1939-3881.2011.00175.x
Baum, N. L., Cardozo, B. L., Pat-Horenczyk, R., Ziv, Y., Blanton, C., Reza, A., …Brom, D., (2013). Training
Teachers to Build Resilience in Children in the Aftermath of a War: A Clustered Randomized Trial. Child Youth
Care Forum, 42, 339-350. DOI: 10.1007/s10566-013-9202-5
Berk, L. E. (2014). Exploring Lifespan Development (3rd ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.
Bingler, R. S., Wright, Y. F., (2014). Reading, Writing, Arithmetic, and Racism? Risks and Benefits to Teaching
Children About Intergroup Biases. Child Development Perspectives, 8(1), 18-23. DOI: 10.1111/cdep.12057

18. References (cont’d)
Boseovski, J. J., Thurman, S. L. (2014). Evaluating and Approaching a Strange Animal: Children’s Trust in Informant
Testimony. Child Development, 85(2), 824-834. DOI: 10.1111/cdev.12156
Carter, F. (2008). The Education of Little Tree. Albuquerque, New Mexico: University of New Mexico Press.
Coffino, B. (2009). The Role of Childhood Parent Figure Loss in the Etiology of Adult
Depression: Findings from a Prospective Longitudinal Study. Attachment and Human Development, 11(5),
445-470. DOI: 10.1080/14616730903135993
Costello, K., Hodson, G. (2014). Explaining Dehumanization Among Children: The Interspecies Model of Prejudice.
British Journal of Social Psychology, 53(1), 175-197. DOI: 10.1111/bjso.12016

19. References (cont’d)
Dunifon, R. (2013). The Influence of Grandparents on the Lives of Children and Adolescents. Child
Development Perspectives, 7(1), 55–60. DOI: 10.1111/cdep.12016
Flander, B. G., Mateskovic, D., Tuscic, S. J. (2013). The Consequences Of Child Abuse. Pediatrics Today, 9(1),
24-35. DOI: 10.5457/p2005-114.58
Lowe, J. (2005). Being Influenced: A Cherokee Way of Mentoring. Journal of Cultural Diversity, 12(2), 37-49.
Moriarty, M. W. (2009). Evaluating Children’s Use of Symbol in Some Recent Research. International Journal
of Children’s Spirituality, 14(1), 47-61. DOI: 10.1080/13644360802658750