Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 9, Number 11, 1 November 1992 — OHA Trustee's Views [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

OHA Trustee's Views

Ka mana 'o o na Kahu Waiwai pakahi

(This eolumn is open to all OHA trustees to express their individual views and does not necessarily represent the official position of the OHA board of trustees.)

Human Resources: Denied and overlooked

by Moanikeala Akaka Trustee, Hawai'i

Recently another disheartening report on the results of Hawai'i's public schools showed our youngsters performing below last year and . sinking in national ranking. You ean be sure that our Hawaiian youngsters are part of that general decline. This most recent decline comes amirl mueh nnhlie

eoneem and calls for nothing less than a eoneeplual revolution in how we administer school facilities and how we present leaming materials to our students. The problem is, too frequently, we get farther and farther away from the student who is the object of our eoneem. So, let us look at eommon characteristics among students performing below their potential - poor self-image and "boredom." A poor self-image is frequently associated with unrealistic expectations on one extreme and a zero expectation (no home eoneem) on the other. Poverty and abuse at home often, but not always, are part of this equation. Boredom is often faced by bright students with dull teachers. Too, the onslaught of honnonal changes may not allow for full aeailemie concentration.

OHA recently funded an innovative program that has been having some noticeable positive effects on teen-age Hawaiians. The Kamanawa School of Hilo is attempting to build self-image and personal self-esteem through an enrichment program emphasizing drawing, painting, printmaking, dance, singing, ho'oponopono, body mechanics, circus arts, general health, diet and the social graces. Kaniu Kinimaka-Stocksdale, director of the program, has had some impressive successes with marginalized youth over the past five years with the DOE. Kaniu is an advocate of tough love - eoneem that is eonditioned on self-respect and respect for others. This essential fundamental is too often missing, and youngsters are unable to develop intellectual potential despite the wealth of facilities a school may have to offer. Learning for Hawaiians is easy and fun if students are psychically prepared. (We look forward to their stimulating program in the schools of East Hawaii this year.) We tend to increase pressure on troubled students when we should be pinpointing the obstmction to their capacity to retain information imparted. This is a delicate operation, but we seem 10 be making some progress by discovering and building on individual strengths, skills and gifts. Leaming is, after all, a most treasured blessing that enriches the individual and society as a whole. Potential is a dreadful resource to deny. Few of us would disagree that if we need something and it is available in our own back yard, we would be less than wise to seek the same resource from afar. We are and have

been trying to address this very problem in the area of foodstuffs and imported energy, but we may be overlooking some of our most valuable potential treasures in the human resources that are neglected or squeezed because of competition for positions in public or private service. When the human resource is a Hawaiian seeking to retum to his native land, this situation becomes more aggravating. Exactly this comes to mind as I think of Stafford Clarry, who has just returned from 15 months in Iraq with the United Nations. I'm sure Clarry will write of the many interesting and important observations of his work with refugees, but I want to mention a few important points I gained from our recent conversation. This Hawaiian is a Harvard graduate who, after service in the Peaee Corps, remained in India and Pakistan as an employee of the United Nations, often responsible for budgets and operations that powered administrations affecting tens of millions of square miles and lives. Certainly this man is no newcomer to problem solving in conditions many times more primitive and complicated than those that beset us here in Hawai'i. I must wonder aloud for a moment if Stafford Clarry's credentials did not frighten some of the powers that be when he was interviewed for employment over a year ago. Among the several subjects we discussed recently was sovereignty for native peoples and the often ehaolie eomplications that accompany the flaming of nationalistic tendencies. Eaeh situation is unique and complex, some more so than others, depending on the quality of liberty of the govemments administering over the would-be sovereign peoples. The situations in Iraq and Yugoslavia, for example, are continued page 34

Trustee Akaka from page 33 extremely complicated by political, linguistic and elhnie tensions with little tradition of tolerance and freedom of expression. Natural borders and resources within them are complicated by the histories of tribalism and rising expectations among all segments. Add religious zeal to this and you have a recipe for tragedy. One is almost bound to say leave things alone, don't stir it. But this cannot be, for history is a moving force, and change will eome. The question is, ean a people be so pmdent as to maneuver a move toward sovereignty within a stmcture that allows for freedom, and a process that tbeoretically ean incorporate a solution to the rising tide of nationalism among the peoples of Polynesia and Hawai'i in particular? Few of us have solutions to these serious problems, yet we are being called upon to make decisions that are going to challenge eaeh and every citizen of Hawai'i and have a monumental effect upon the future of the social and political stmctures of Hawai'i. One thing among many I leamed from Stafford Clarry is that we here have perhaps the best of all possible opportunities to meet these challenges peacefully and pragmatically. We are going to need our best brains to get through the rising tide of the immediate future. It is for this reason that I hate to think that Stafford Clarry will onee again be leaving Hawai'i for a dangerous distant land, to perform a mueh needed service to be sure; but I know there is a position where the wealth of education, experience and charisma of this Hawaiian ean be utilized right here, in the Hawai'i of his birth that he loves so well. Vote, and vote with wisdom. Aloha 'Aina. Malama pono. Ua mau ke ea o ka 'aina i ka pono.