Description
Making A Whole Person: Traditional Inuit Education, is written by Monica Ittusardjuat, Inuit educator and linguist and illustrated by Yong Ling Kang. In Making A Whole Person, Monica Ittusardjuat says: "Before schools were introduced to the Inuit, we were taught by our relatives.” In this picture book, she shares how she learned knowledge and skills in a time before being taken to residential school. She describes how children learned through playing games, imitating grown-ups, and observing adults around them. Monica Ittusardjuat is a residential school survivor who grew up in a time when Inuit lived a subsistence way of life, moving camps and following animals where they were plentiful. Monica has thirty years of experience in education and language studies. She has taught in elementary and high schools, as well as in the Teacher Education Program at Nunavut Arctic College. She also worked at the National Inuit Organization for the unification of the Inuktut writing system. After trying to retire, Monica started a new career as a Senior Inuktitut Editor, which she says is her “dream job”.