Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 9, Number 6, 1 June 1992 — Educators favor language immersion [ARTICLE]

Educators favor language immersion

by Christina Zarobe Pointing out the educational and cultural benefits of extended voluntary Hawaiian language immersion through 12th grade, Hawaiian leaders and educators have eome out in favor of the program. "It is my belief that bilingualism has enhanced, not detracted from my education," says Office of Hawaiian Affairs Trustee the Rev. Moses K. Keale Sr. "I believe I was elected to Hawaiian leadership because of my ability to express myself in both ianguages and because I am able to live and practice my cultural idiosyncracies." Keale's comments were in response to a March 24 eolumn by A.A. Smyser, contributing editor at the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. The eolumn concerned the state Board of Education's decision in February to expand voluntary Hawaiian immersion education from kindergarten through 12th grade. (See box for details.) The program currently involves 360 students in kindergarten through fifth grade in five schools. In his eolumn. Smyser writes, "My instincts tell me K-12 immersion will do both students and the community a long-term disservice but my competence, such as it is, is as a citizen not as an educator. " Smyser then quotes Lawrence Fuchs, a professor of American Civilization and Politics at Brandeis University in Massachusetts. Fuchs is also the author of the 1961 book, "Hawai'i Pono," a study of ethnic politics in the Islands. "It is one thing for parents to want their kids to be raised in a nationalist spirit and to have that reinforced in school, but it is quite another t'or educators pledged to help these kids negotiate a high-tech information economy to provide all their instruction in a language that is spoken by a minuscule fraction of the world's population." Fuchs states.

Keale, however, disputes the elaim that the immersion program is about "Hawaiian nationalist spirit" or that it is about the fact that the

language is spoken by so few people. "These children will.be bilingual. They will be among the great proud minority of children who will be able to say they are literate in both of the official languages recognized by the state constitution," says the OHA trustee. Keith Kalani Akana, a Hawaiian language immersion educator at Waiau School, says he wonders whether Smyser's "misunderstanding is seeded in the misconception that these students do not know English. "These children are English-speaking and learning Hawaiian as their second language. They are not immigrants attempting to leam a new language and culture," says Akana. Smyser counters that the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act's English language requirement for naturalization and public employment incorporates the "premise of a eommon language." He also cited the intent of the Bilingual Education Act of 1968, whieh is aimed at students achieving English fiuency and not the opposite. Akana disagrees, stating that both pieces of legislation are directed at immigrants and, therefore, not applicable to Hawaiian youngsters.

Yet Akana says the immersion program is supported by federal law — the 1990 Native American Languages Act whieh promotes the survival of indigenous people's languages. Also, he notes, the United Nations' 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Articles 26 and 27, support the "rights of the native people to learn, sustain, perpetuate, and be educated in their native language." "I hope Smyser and Fuchs will study this form of education used by more Iiterate societies of the international community," says Akana. "Ironically, this 'minuscule fraction of the world's population' may be the very ones to launeh Hawai'i into the next century because of their ability to bridge many worlds." Regarding educational benefits, OHA's Keale says that by 1896 84 percent of the Hawaiians and part-Hawaiians over 10 years of age were literate in either English or Hawaiian. By 1930 the figure had increased to a high of 99 percent for part-Hawaiians. "Between 1930 and the present, Hawaiians have experienced changes in the political system, whieh has seen the Hawaiian language forcefully removed from the schools and exclusive English curriculum inserted," says Keale. "The results speak for themselves. The functional illiteracy rate for Hawaiians has dramatically increased. Some statistics even show that Hawaiians are experiencing over 35 percent illiteracy." Keale represents Kaua'i and Ni'ihau on the OHA board. Born and raised on Ni'ihau, Keale is 100 percent Hawaiian and co-founder of La Kukahekahe, a Hawaiian language day program at Kaua'i Community College. The trustee notes that Hawaiian is the "language of commerce" on Ni'ihau and that he learned English later in iife. "I personally find his point of view demeaning and insulting, smacking of the type of sleight-of-hand paternalism whieh has greatly contributed to the Hawaiian's plight of alienation in his own land," says Keale.