School kupuna hoping to retain role

By Vicki Viotti
Advertiser Staff Writer

The children of Kane'ohe's Mokapu Elementary School, most of them military dependents, watched and imitated Joyce Pu'u, who stood at the front of the classroom teaching a hula.

Kupuna Joyce Pu'u and several of her colleagues said they would prefer to share intellectual aspects of the culture not covered by the regular school curriculum. Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser

What the children do not see is that changing social needs have set the entire program, not just their dancing kupuna, in motion. And what they do not hear is that the voices being raised about it are not exactly singing a happy song.

The Kupuna Program, in which seniors have brought Hawaiiana to kindergarten through sixth-grade classrooms for more than 20 years, is approaching a crossroads at which educators will have to rethink the way the indigenous culture is worked into the learning process here.

The problem looms on two major fronts. Changing regulations are pressing the kupuna to get the same educational credentials as any other part-time teacher, requirements that many kupuna find impractical to fulfill.

And schools, under pressure to meet federal standards for basic education, are finding it tough to fit regular lessons on Hawaiiana into the school day.

"We may be coming to the realization that for that kind of intergenerational cultural exchange, maybe the public school is not the place for it," said Puanani Wilhelm, administrator for the Department of Education Hawaiian Studies and Language Section.

It's a tough admission for Wilhelm to make, but she hasn't thrown in the towel yet. Wilhelm is seeking ways to make the training requirements more reachable for seniors, and to weave Hawaiian studies into the reading, writing and arithmetic that have become the renewed focus of elementary schooling.

In January 2002, President Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act that, among other changes, standardized pay and credentialing standards for paraprofessionals giving instruction supported by federal Title I money. They must earn at least an associate degree or the equivalent. The state is seeking a waiver for the Kupuna Program, but officials aren't hopeful that exceptions can be made in such a broad, national program.

If the waiver isn't granted, the kupuna must have certification by January 2006 or at least show significant progress by then, Wilhelm said.

Even before this latest crisis, participation by seniors such as the 67-year-old Pu'u has waned; about two-thirds are in the 30-60 age range, Wilhelm said. Requiring them to attend classes that are expensive — and, especially for the Neighbor Islands, remote — will drive even more away.

Kupuna Joyce Pu'u teaches hula to second-graders at Mokapu Elementary. She is disenchanted with the direction of the Kupuna Program. Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser

"We want the children to learn more about the culture," she said. "The schools seem to look upon us as help toward teaching music and crafts."

June Pires, 56, teaches at Blanche Pope and Maunawili schools. While she loves working with the children, she said some kupuna would rather have Hawaiian Studies, rather than principals, control the money for program expenses.

Although in some ways the conditions have improved — since last year, kupuna have received the standardized part-time teacher rate of $19.97 an hour — the program long ago lost other elements of support.

Among these, said state Board of Education member Shannon Ajifu, were the educational specialists that once trained the elders in lesson planning and other classroom skills.

"They lost a very important resource: someone who could pull them together," said Ajifu, who was a school principal during the early days of the program. "The kupuna themselves, bless their souls, they had come together on their own to train one another, but after a while that kind of wears out, too."

Of course, the program hasn't lost its backers. At Mokapu, it provides a glimpse into the host culture that the school's transient military student population really wants, said principal Larry Biggs.

"The kids find it interesting," he said. "They're inquisitive and like to learn, and the kupuna are good and make it interesting."

Myron Brumaghim, principal at Nanaikapono Elementary in Nanakuli, said classroom teachers get time for various duties when the kupuna is teaching. While the primary benefit is learning the host culture, he said, this assist is a bonus.

But at many schools, the slots in which a Hawaiian lesson might fit are closing down. Wilhelm cited a shortage of kupuna time at Leeward schools that have devoted much of their morning schedules to reading instruction.

In the next several months, Wilhelm is convening with those who have developed community-college credentialing programs for classroom educational assistants, hoping to use that as a model for similar kupuna training. Working out ways to convert teaching experience to credits may make it easier for kupuna to meet federal standards.

And she's considering ways that Hawaiian studies can become entwined with basic education.

"The whole idea of the importance of learning about this place is becoming secondary to teaching kids to read," she said. "I understand the importance of that: Our kids have got to read.

"But how do we meld into that a teaching of the importance of this place? I think the program needs to move to the place where it's the basis of integration."

This would provide value to all children, she said, but especially for those born to these traditions, many of whom are struggling to find meaning in the classroom.

"For Hawaiian kids, it gives them that bit of relevance that might make them pay attention," she said.

Brumaghim has issued Hawaiiana trivia quizzes to his adult acquaintances, many of them born and raised here, and has been stunned by what they didn't know. Who was the first governor? What plantation was where the Blaisdell Center stands now?

"My point is: We need to know about our heritage," he said.

"It's through our heritage that we see the future."

Reach Vicki Viotti at vviotti@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8053.