Sacrifice, "success," and values

Another post that I started at the beginning of our first year of preschool, but never posted...

I've also been thinking about the values embedded in choosing language immersion--perhaps not all language immersion, but in some cases at least. For most of us, when we think about our child's education, it's all about our child and her development. When we say we want the best education for our child, we usually mean an education that will enable her to be a "successful" adult--to have the tools to be a leading (or at least functioning) member of society. We want her to have accomplishments she can be proud of, to earn respect through a degree, helping people, supporting the community, creating beautiful art, or whatever it is. Perhaps we want her to find her true self and the true path that will make her happy as an adult.

We often think of education as preparation for a job or career, perhaps not at the preschool level, but increasingly as students progress to the next grade level, from elementary to high school to college. I have always imagined that Chinese language immersion and other types of language immersion are viewed with an eventual career in mind too--not always, but sometimes. Chinese language immersion exists, in part, because people feel that Chinese is now a valuable language as China gains money and power. I imagine that other language immersion is also pursued for similar reasons--a businessman who is bilingual has more earning potential.

With Hawaiian and other endangered (or formerly endangered) languages, however, I think the purpose is different. It occurred to me at one point that, in some sense, by enrolling our child in Hawaiian language immersion, we are putting the language and the community above our child. As someone who received a western education, both at school and at home, I was very uncomfortable with this. I assured myself that she would still "succeed." The school addresses these concerns. At orientation, they talk about how the method they use enables students to learn to read at age 4 rather than at age 5 or 6, as in English school. They invite to speak the immersion graduate who earned her Ph.D. These all speak to parental concerns about our children's "success."

Of course, like with other language immersion programs in which children are often learning about languages that their ancestors spoke, we might believe that this connection to their culture will help them be "successful."

By enrolling our child in Hawaiian immersion, though, we are also committing her and, to a lesser degree our family, to helping in the project of keeping Hawaiian alive and advancing it. At first, this struck me as a sacrifice, but recently I've started thinking about it differently. It's not a sacrifice; it simply reflects different values. By enrolling our child in Hawaiian immersion, we are communicating to our child that the most important thing is not for her as an individual to "succeed" (however we define that). The most important thing is the (Hawaiian? Hawaiian-speaking?) community and for her to be a part of it.

When I think about my own education and growth from childhood and, more importantly, through adolescence and then as an adult trying to find my way in life, I wonder how it would have affected me if I had been the recipient of that message. Maybe it would have helped me find direction.

Week 2 Thoughts

Posting this now since I apparently never quite finished it...

• I'm getting used to being in situations where people are talking and I have no idea what's going on. I was at convocation for work earlier this week and it felt weird to understand what people were saying.
• I've been in a conversation once so far where I understood a little of what the kumu was saying, but then it got me in trouble cuz she started going off and I got lost again.

thoughts at the end of the first year

Well, of course I dropped the ball on this blog during the busy-ness of the school year, but now that it's summer and we've finished our first year, I have a lot of thoughts about the whole experience.

1. It's funny how you can be proud of your kid for saying something you don't understand. 
2. The kid's use of Hawaiian is amazing. She, of course, understands everything that is said at school. She uses her 'olelo a lot at home too. 
3. She and Daddy can have entire conversations in 'olelo Hawai'i. She plays in 'olelo Hawai'i a lot (e.g. You be the mommy, I'll be the big sister. You should...). 
4. I can have some conversations in 'olelo Hawai'i with her. I try to practice, for example, translating English books. Kea and I will sometimes be slow in our communications with her, as we try to say something in Hawaiian, and then give up and just say it in English.
5. At one point (toward the end of the school year), she started telling us, "Mai namu haole! (Don't speak English.)" I'm pretty sure this is something she hears at school since one of their school rules is to speak Hawaiian. We were surprised and impressed (that this was coming from a kid who used to say "Don't say 'a'ole!'") and a little bit scared (because our Hawaiian is limited). It's also become kind of a fun game, though, like we will tease her back and tell her "Mai namu haole."
6. She also likes to play school, where she practices language like asking to enter, asking to leave, show and tell.
7. Kea was impressed when she had her first tantrum in Hawaiian. This happened toward the end of the first half of the year. She was screaming, "Makemake e paio! (I want to swing!)" Somehow that moment seemed full of promise.
8. I'm pretty impressed with my own learning too. I can follow most conversations involving kids (e.g. What's in the box? Why? Where is she going?) Conversations between adults, especially adults who are highly proficient in 'olelo Hawai'i are still way beyond my understanding for the most part. 
9. I learned a lot from our language classes, but also just from the kid. I've learned vocab from her (e.g. bee, spider, swing, green beans, hamburger, sandwich, don't touch, kick, move), but also sentence patterns (e.g. want to..., you should...)
10. Also, having started the year with a lot of anxiety--about language as well as things like protocol and belonging--I can say that I feel a lot better about these things now. I used to be hesitant to speak at all--because we are encouraged to speak Hawaiian when at the school, but I have seen from others that it is okay to use English. I have felt very accepted at the school--by parents and teachers alike. I still am not sure about certain protocol, and I'm also just an anxious person by nature, so that's not going away 100%.
11. I think one reason the school is so good is due to the commitment the teachers have. It seems like for all of them, it's not just a job. They really love their work and are committed to the language.

Anyway, next year we'll be starting our second year of preschool at a different campus because we are moving. I'm excited that we have the opportunity to experience two different campuses, and I hope the new school is as great as this one has been.