Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 8, Number 5, 1 May 1991 — 'May Experience' speakers inspire Wai ʻanae ʻopio [ARTICLE]

'May Experience' speakers inspire Wai ʻanae ʻopio

by Deborah L. Ward Editor, Ka Wai Ola O OHA Now in its eighth year, the annual May Experience brings again this month to Wai'anae coast schools a dynamic "lei" of po'e Hawai'i speakers (of Hawaiian ancestry) to share their knowledge and experiences of Hawaiian culture. Since 1984 the May Experience has continued to realize the dream of Wai'anae parents for a more inspiring education for their children. On the Wai'anae coast more than half of all haumana (students) are po'e Hawai'i. This year the popular program is bringing over 65 Hawaiian speakers to make presentations to students at Wai'anae Intermediate School, Wai'anae High School and Nanakuli High and Intermediate School. One goal is to raise the selfesteem of students with Hawaiian role models and culturally relevant lessons. Another goal is to provide teachers with Hawaiian teaching strategies workshops right in their own classrooms. Topics are extremely varied and range from hands-on demonstrations of hula, crafts or games, to talk-story discussions of Hawaiian history, language, farming and fishing practices then and now, cultural traditions and values, loeal area history, family relations, and Hawaiian social and political issues today. The genesis of the May Experience was born out of parents' feelings of rage and frustration that their children were being misunderstood and mishandled by a school system that was ill-prepared to meet their social and cultural needs. In 1983, test scores showed 50 percent of the 10th graders at Nanakuli High and Intermediate School were reading below average. The parents believed their children's poor test scores did not reflect their intelligence, but rather revealed their alienation

from a system whieh did not recognize their cultural learning styles. A coalition of parents asked the Department of Education to bring in more Hawaiian teachersand role models. This led to a meeting between the Women's Support Group of the Wai'anae Coast with Hawaii State Teachers Association (HSTA) education planner Shirley Elento and OHA kupuna Betty Jenkins. The two women listened to the parents as they raged and wept, and out of the pain, creativity was born. With the assistance of the HSTA, and early seed money from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, the May Experience was planned and carried out by volunteers of the Waianae Women's Support Group as a guest speakers' bureau and timed to coincide with the May Day celebrations in the schools. Today, volunteers eonhnue to make the expanded May Experience a successful experience for Wai'anae coast children. Since the May Experience began, Kahanu says there has been improvement in test scores, although students are still falling below average scores in the state. At Wai'anae High School reading scores have improved 10 percent, from 49 percent reading below average in 1983 to 39 percent in 1991. At Nanakuli High and Intermediate the 10th grade reading scores improved by 7 percent and the 8th grade scores improved by 6 percent. She looks at the May Experience as being of real benefit at the high school level to raise students' self-image and raise teachers' expectation of what their students ean achieve. Kahanu believes hiring more Hawaiian teachers in the Wai'anae district will have a powerful longlasting impact on student self-esteem and motivation in school and careers. And to this end she asks May Experience speakers to encourage

students to become teachers and to return home to teach in the district. Other positive signs, according to Kahanu, show the recognition the May Experience is gaining: Mokihana Kayatani, resource teacher head of the Leeward district Hawaiian Studies program, is holding Hawaiian teaching strategies workshops for Wai'anae High's new teachers and has also put all of her Hawaiian resource teachers into the May Experience. Schools in Waimanalo and on Maui have asked advice on how to start similar programs in their areas.