COMMENTARY
Hawaiian-immersion education resounding success
By William H. Wilson
"He aupuni palapala ko'u." "Mine is a nation based in literacy," proudly proclaimed Kamehameha III, founder of the Hawai'i public-school system, a system that then produced one of the very highest levels of literacy in the world.
Advertiser library photo • July 1999
And just as French public schools use French, Hawai'i's public schools used Hawaiian.
Schools that educate students using the Hawaiian language have not only met with success in standardized testing but have also produced successful students who have attended prestigious colleges and universities including Stanford and Oxford.
This period of nationwide literacy was followed by a long period during which the Hawaiian language was banned by law in the school system. As a result, by 1983, only 43 children younger than 18 could speak Hawaiian fluently. The Hawaiian language was nearly extinct.
Interestingly, during that same period, Hawai'i's literacy levels plummeted.
Kupuna (elders) and university Hawaiian-language instructors refused to allow our native language to die, and so in 1983, the 'Aha Punana Leo was formed to re-establish the Hawaiian language as a medium of education. As anyone can imagine, this was no easy task to accomplish after nearly a century of Hawaiian not being spoken by school-age children. Just the re-creation of learning materials in Hawaiian was, and continues to be, a monumental task for educators.
Today, nearly 2,000 children have been educated in Hawaiian. Beginning with the Punana Leo preschools, students move into Hawaiian-language immersion kindergarten and through grade 12 studying their academic subjects through Hawaiian. And students can continue on to earn a bachelor of arts as well as master of arts degree through Hawaiian at the state's Hawaiian Language College.
The college offers the only master of arts degree in the United States in any indigenous language.
Today, some of the top graduates of the Hilo High School district emanate from Nawahiokalani'opu'u, a public Hawaiian-immersion K-12 academy in Kea'au whose students are assigned by the state Department of Education to be a part of Hilo High School.
What are the results? In 2003, although they constituted less than 2 percent of the 2003 Hilo High senior class, Hawaiian-immersion seniors made up 16 percent of its prestigious magna cum laude graduates. Moreover, the Hilo High valedictorian, Holo Ho'opai, is a Hawaiian-immersion graduate who is now attending Stanford University. But he is not the first.
Former Maui immersion student Le'ahi Hall is in her third year at Stanford and is a member of the university's nationally ranked women's volleyball team.
More than 80 percent of Hawaiian-immersion graduates are now college students in Hawai'i and on the Mainland. Additionally, a former Hawaiian-immersion student, 'Oiwi Parker Jones is now in a master's program at Oxford University.
Not surprisingly, when the Punana Leo preschools began, there were widespread predictions that these children would be unable to speak, read or write in English, especially if they spoke Hawaiian at home. Such predictions have proven false. For example, an Office of Hawaiian Affairs-sponsored intermediate school essay contest was won by Pua Kanahele, a Ni'ihau-born student in Hawaiian immersion, who wrote her essay in English.
And at Pua Kanahele's immersion school, all high-school students also study French.
There is further testament to the high academic achievement of Hawaiian-immersion students. Many have taken the examinations and been accepted to prestigious private schools. For example, in the past year, three graduates from the Hawaiian-immersion preschool Punana Leo O Kawaiaha'o were accepted into Punahou School. On Moloka'i, Hawaiian-immersion students have consistently comprised nearly 40 percent of all students accepted into the Kamehameha Schools. Even larger numbers of Hawaiian-immersion students have been accepted into Kamehameha on Maui.
Despite the mandates imposed by the No Child Left Behind law and the loss of top students to private schools, we are making progress toward meeting and exceeding government standards. When federal provisions for Native American languages are properly followed, testing in the early grades is solely through Hawaiian, with testing through English coming in the later grades. The results of such procedures are clear.
For example, two Hawaiian-immersion elementary schools in East Hawai'i met No Child Left Behind requirements in good standing. By comparison, only one of the seven English-medium elementary schools also feeding into Hilo High met the same standard.
Hawai'i is the U.S. leader in indigenous-language-immersion education, but the journey is far from over. In New Zealand, more than 30,000 students are being educated through the indigenous Maori language. In Europe, students are educated through their native languages and also learn several more.
Rainbow Wahine volleyball star Maja Gustin of Slovenia speaks German, English and Serbo-Croatian in addition to Slovene.
The 'Aha Punana Leo's dream is rebuilding a system producing similar multilingual results from a Hawaiian base.
Despite the difficulties, the results are clear: Public school Hawaiian-immersion education is a resounding success. Its successes include excellence in standardized testing, in acceptance rates in colleges and universities — including Stanford and Oxford — and in meeting the academic entrance requirements of pre-eminent private schools in Hawai'i.
On a broader community level, Hawaiian-immersion education is essential to the revitalization of the Hawaiian language, culture and the values that make Hawai'i unique — the very things that drive Hawai'i's economic engine.
But this is no time for anyone to rest on these laurels. In fact, now is the time for educators at the private schools such as Kamehameha, Punahou and 'Iolani to join the 'Aha Punana Leo and the state in further developing the choice for this form of education to all of Hawai'i's children.
The ali'i of old Hawai'i, so closely tied to the top private schools and other important institutions today — Queen Lili'uokalani, Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop, Prince Jonah Kuhio, Queen Emma Kaleleonalani — were fluent and literate in both Hawaiian and English, as well as being great contributors to Hawai'i. Many of our other ancestors of many races also spoke Hawaiian, which facilitated their absorption of uniquely Hawaiian characteristics that we cherish as a community legacy.
E Ola Ka 'olelo Hawai'i! Let us give life to the Hawaiian language which has given so much to us today!
William H. Wilson is on the faculty of Ka Haka 'Ula O Ke'elikolani Hawaiian Language College at the University of Hawai'i-Hilo and a founding member of 'Aha Punana Leo Inc. Both of his children were educated entirely in Hawaiian and are now in college in Hawai'i and on the Mainland.
