Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 5, Number 3, 1 March 1988 — Despite $1 Million in Scholarships by Hawaiian Civic Clubs [ARTICLE]

Despite $1 Million in Scholarships by Hawaiian Civic Clubs

Attitudes at Schools, Home Loom as Obstacles to Hawaiians' Under Achievement in Education

By Linda Kawai'ono Delaney Land Officer Editor's Note: More than 120 members of the Prince Kuhio Hawaiian Civic Club recently attended the organization's 23rd annual installation banquet at the Princess Ka'iulani Hotel. Installed for 1988 were Kina'u Boyd Kamali'i, president; Jimmy Cockett, first uiee president; Josh Akana, second uiee president; Lydia Lake, recording secretary; Janice Akana, corresponding secretary; and Ray Jellings, treasurer. A highlight of the euening was the keynote address of Gladys 'Ainoa Brandt, chairperson of the Uniuersity of Hawaii Board of Regents and a former president of the Prince Kuhio HCC. With her permission, the text of her speech is being printed in this issue. From the beginning, the focus of our Prince Kuhio family has been to provide scholarships and to promote educational achievement among students of Hawaiian ancestry. Over the years we have helped more than 500 youngsters and given nearly $200,000 in financial aid. That's impressive. If you consider and eomhine the 20-year total of scholarships awarded by all of the clubs in the Association, along with those administered by the Kamehameha Schools through the Na Ho'okama and Na Poki'i programs — I would guess that the Hawaiian community has provided more than a million dollars to a generation of students. But what are the actual gains in educational accomplishment by Hawaiians in this same period. In 1969, only two percent of the graduating seniors at the Manoa campus of the University of Hawai'i were Hawaiian. This year, only four percent of those receiving degrees were Hawaiians. The starkness of this two percent gain is even more depressing when we realize that during this same time the number of school-age Hawaiians rose from 10 to 30 percent of the total State population. What gain we made as a percentage of the grau^ation classes, then, actually represents a significant decline in real numbers of students eligible for graduation. Judging potential against actual achievement, the Hawaiian laek of academic achievement has only deepened, not improved aīter 20 years and $1 million in scholarships. What's wrong? Do we need more scholarships? Do we need to raise our financial commitment to $2 million, or $4 million, or more? Not a bad idea. But is a laek of money the heart

of the obstacle preventing Hawaiians from taking advantage of higher education, and all that it represents in both individual and Hawaiian eommunity life? I don't think so. As explored in a series of landmark studies, many of the difficulties encountered by our Hawaiian students are institutional — rooted in educational attitudes towards Hawaiians whieh build in failure. For too many teachers, just seeing a Hawaiian face means a behavior problem or a slow learner. Unless conscious attention and actions are taken to confront and to change such educational attitudes, I am fully convinced that Hawaiian aeademic success is impossible. That's why efforts like the federal "Native Hawaiian Education Bill" deserves our full support. That's why initiatives like the "Ka'u Report" for the University of Hawaii system must be implemented. But scholarships, new national laws, and even changed attitudes in our schools are not enough, . in my opinion, to reverse failure and assure the success of Hawaiian students. If we are not to lose another generation of scholars, then we must also look closely at ourselves. In the same way that teachers and schools simply became blind to their prejudices and could not recognize the part they played — I believe that we, too, have formed habits whieh unknowingly create obstacles to success. Like the schools, how insensitive have we been in perpetuating now-destructive fragments of our culture rather than affirming the strength of our potential wholeness? I don't have statistics or charts or graphs to buttress my answer to that question. But, listen to what I'm about to say, and reflect on whether your experiences and impressions are as strong as mine. For example, we use the Hawaiian language only to scold our children, never to inspire or to praise them. NI'ELE, MAHOE, HO'OKANO, PA'AKIKI. For the qualities we don't approve of — being nosy, rude, stuck up, or hard head — we know the Hawaiian from our own childhood and use it with our children. But how often have you encouraged a child by using the words, LOKAHI, HO'IKE, HA'AHEO, OR ONIPA'A — urging cooperation, learning, just pride, or persistence — the affirming side of the same traits? When we use Hawaiian only to describe what behaviors we disapprove of — without also using the language for what we admire— -then, unintentionally, we have re-enforced in the minds of our children the idea that Hawaiian is linked with shame. Worse, we only stress the negative in our lives — feeling free to criticize, but not to congratulate. How often do we hear or see Hawaiian parents too quick with their hands or telling their children, "You're stupid. You're ugly." If a teacher or a principal were to do or say those things — I would hope that we'd lodge formal eomplaints and demand that the individual be fired. Can we expect less of ourselves? Confidence and self-esteem are critical elements of academic success. If those who love you most tell you you're stupid all the time, what reservoir of determination ean you draw on to prove a teacher wrong and master geometry, or approach physics, or write a poem? These attitudes — like those in the schools — ean be changed if we, as individuals, as families, as Hawaiians recognize them for what they are — obstacles to success, a significant part of the problem. And that we — through individual ehoiee and concerted action as a club — help challenge and change those attitudes. It is fundamental to what I am saying, that you explicitly acknowledge that what I am urging is not that we be less Hawaiian, but that we become

more Hawaiian. A striving for excellence, an appreciation of beauty, a nurturing of children through affection are profoundly Hawaiian. How ean this hoped for change be immediately implemented? What is already in plaee that we ean use as a demonstration of deeper, more Hawaiian ways of encouraging education? Our scholarships. First, our commitment should be to consider the applieahon of every student — regardless of age or eeonomie circumstance. The "need" we are trying to fulfill is our own. A need to count and to count on an educated group whose ties and career identification will be shaped with a sense of "giving back" to our community. Second, our commitment should not be contingent. For as long as they are in school and pursuing a certificate, diploma, or degree, they should have our support. And they should know, from their first semester, that they ean count on us for the full four or more years as long as they maintain "good standing" in school. Third, we must create and truly be able to fulfill an expectation that we are either willing ourselves or ean find other sources to meet non-financial drains. If they're having trouble with a required course, to pay for a tutor. If they need a summer job, to have a list of possible Hawaiian employers. Fourth, we must seek out and devise the means for supporting older students who want to initiate or complete educations whieh were deferred for marriage or families. That means affordable childcare or, better, some informal arrangement whereby we give our time to babysit, and awarding grants by calculating the cost of not just books but of family obligations as a part of the "real tuition" needed. I'm certain that you ean think of any number of other approaches we might consider. The point is, we must begin rethinking our attitudes and our actions. As a Peaee Corps poster onee put it, "If you're not part of the solution, then you're part of the problem." For more than 20 years, the Prince Kuhio Hawaiian Civic Club has been in the forefront of being part of the solution. I believe that we — and the other civic clubs — will eonhnue to be. Because we practice lokahi, encourage ho'ike, are ha'aheo, and understand onipa'a. Because we are Hawaiian.