Chris Soto, the senior adviser to U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, visited the University of Hawaii at Hilo on Wednesday to discuss the importance of the Hawaiian language.
Soto is visiting communities to discuss pathways from early elementary school to higher education in a post COVID-19 world, as well as take note of any innovations that can be shared with education partners who might still be struggling through the pandemic.
Officials from Hawaiian language schools on the Big Island got together to talk about Hawaiian language programming and its importance in educating future teachers and keeping the language alive.
“(The University of Hawaii at Hilo) is supposed to reflect the needs of our community,” said Namaka Rawlins, senior director of No ka ‘Aha Punana Leo Preschools. “We need people to be highly fluent in Hawaiian to be able to teach our kids in Hawaiian all day.”
Hawaiian language education begins as early as preschool for some children. There are several schools on the Big Island that teach students Hawaiian and enables them to use their native language at home.
“The success really comes from the college being responsive to the needs of the community,” Rawlins said. “We have families that want to bring the language back into the home and have a pathway in our two official languages. So we can have a choice.”
By focusing on teaching the Hawaiian language early in education, students will be able to use it throughout their lives and advocate for the language in their community.
“The idea of E Ola Ka ‘Olelo Hawaii is that the language will live. It is the defining core of our culture,” said Kauanoe Kamana, president of the board of ’Aha Punana Leo. “There is an intergenerational driving force to learning Hawaiian that will go beyond our own personal lifetime.”