Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 17, Number 7, 1 July 2000 — A new standard in Hawaiian education [ARTICLE]

A new standard in Hawaiian education

Manu Aluli Meyer Editor's note: This is the second halfofa two-part article by Manu Aluli Meyer, a professor at the Universtiy ofHawai'i at Hilo. Below, Dr. Meyer continues her enumeration of 10 steps whieh she described as stones on the path toward a liberating, culturally sustaining and challenging edcuation for and with Hawaiians. #7: Question your role in education. Whether you work at a bank, post office or nowhere, question what you are doing to help education improve. Chances are, nothing. Many of us believe, with mueh relief, that state appointed personnel are adequate to teach our children, and that we are not really needed. Nothing could be further from the truth. Schools need us desperately — to tutor, to enliven, to support, to collaborate, to strengthen, to enjoy. #8: Wonder about the role of aloha in your children's education. Have you ever asked yourself why we, as Native Hawaiians, are special? How did hundreds of

generations of living in the Pacific shape us to see humor in unique ways and humility as our highest goal? Aloha is the life force found in our na'au, the plaee where intelligence thrives. "Head thinking" then becomes one facet among many. Is your child a money maker and/or will he want to nourish you when you are old and bleary eyed? #9: Expect more rigor. I always marvel at our fear of cultural knowledge as somehow less than a good SAT score. We have no real understanding of the depth of our collective excellence because we are educated to be separated even though we know that intelligence that endures is a collective process and a life-sustaining one. And if we ean do well in such indicators as the SAT, should it be at the cost of ourselves? No. Hawaiian education evolves through the passion of language immersion, bounces off the wall of middle-class exclusive politics and lands somewhere between chaos and ideal, wao akua and wao kanaka. Hawaiian education struggles to take hold of the very idea of rigor to change it back into something life affirming. #10. Understand the idea of epistemology. Iknow,

it's a funny word and some of you have heard me talk about it, but begin to see its inīluenee on our lives. It means "philosophy of knowledge." It gets us thinking and talking about what intelligence means, and what is worth knowing, or as David Sing would say: "What you want your grandchildren to know." As cultural people, whether you think you are or not, we have distinct ideas on the matter. We value heart, and heart for Hawaiians is found, metaphorically, in our na'au. It is also the site for intelligence. We knew thoughts eame from our head but if it was to turn into wisdom, it went via our na'au. This is hardly news and hardly out-dated. Now, do we respect this enough to change pedagogy (teaching styles?) Are we brave enough to do new and old things to bring out what is best about our people? Can we step away from the predictability of a system that sees us as forever "deficient" or ean we chart a new course? It is an exciting and lucid time. We must all prepare for the ho'oulu that is coming, we must see ourselves as part of a larger network that moves to a more ancient, timeless and joyful vision. It's no longer a "makou" philosophy that sustains us. It's all about experiencing every word, thought and act as relationship building, and it will not be easy. Or as my pilialoha, Luana Busby-Neff, would say, who, by the way, was the very first to birth this phrase into the universe: "It's a KĀKOU thing!" Dr. Meyer is a professor in the education department at the University of Hawai'i at Hilo. Manu is a 1998 graduate of Harvard University with a doctorate in education. Her dissertation was " Native Hawaiian epistmology: Contemporary narratives." Meyer is assisting community-based initiatives to redesign schools in order to address the needs of smdents. ■

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