Historical Collections of The Hawaiian Islands - Part 13 - The Ancients ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/hi/hifiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: by Darlen6 E. Kelley November 21, 2006 http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00026.html#0006374 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Historical Collections of Hawaii Keepers of the Culture Influence of Foreigners on Hawaii Part 13 -- A New Religion Missionaries and their Influence and education. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Part 13 - Missionary Educational Work Before the missionaries were well settled in their thatched houses, built for them by the king, in Honolulu they gathered some of the people into a school.. The same thing was done at Kailua and at Waimea. In these schools English was taught. It was obvious, however, that while it was desireable for the king and chiefs and their business agents to know English, teaching such a difficult language to the people as a whole would require an immense expediture of time and effort. If the Hawiians were to be made literate within a reasonable period it must be in their own language. If the work of the missionaries were to be effective, it must be carried on in the native tongue. [ the use of the young Hawaiian boys. However, one would believe that the ABCFM would have realized in advance that in order to carry out the work, more studies should have been conducted of the languages of the different countries they were to visit. ] Their first task was to learn the language and reduce it to written form. They soon discovered that the pronunciation of the language throughout the kingdom; for example, the native cloth was called kapa on Hawaii and tapa on Kauai, and by actual experiment it was found that the Hawaiian ear distinguished no difference between the sounds of the letters L, r, and d; these and other variations made the difinative adoption of an alphabet, a puzzling problem and not solved until the summer of 1826. ( almost 7 years after their arrival ) however, they had made enough progress in 1822 to begin printing. The Hawaiian alphabet used 12 letters. a, e, h, i, k, l, m, n, o, p, u, and w. Plus two diacritical marks. At times, one will see T in place of K; R in place of L; and B in place of P. Examples; kalo = taro and kapu = tabu. [ 5 vowels and 7 consonets ] To simplify pronunciation, sound consonants as in English and break up the words so that they are easy to say. [ like Waianapanapa sounds like Wai-a-napa-napa ] To pronounce vowels as follows; a - a as in above e - e as in bet i - i as in ee ( see ) o - o as in sole u - oo as in moon To pronounce consanants; p, k are pronounced about the same in English but with less aspiration. h, l, m. n are pronounced about the same as in English. w- after i and e, sounds like a v; after u and o, it sounds like w; after an a, it is either w or v; ' or 'okina is a glottal stop, simular to the sound between the oh's in oh-oh. +++++++++++++ It is not too easy. So a formula was devised. The formula is as follows; Replace B, F, P, with P Replace C, D, G, J, K, Q, S, T, X, Z with K. Replace H with H. Replace N. with N. Replace L, R, with L. Replace V, W, with W Replace Y with I ++++++++++++++ By the beginning of 1822 the missionaries made sufficent progress with the language to begin printing, and the first form was put to press on the seventh of January in the presence of a company of missionaries, chiefs, and foreign residents; one of the chiefs struck off the first impression. Before the end of the month a spelling and reading book, a sixteen page pamphlet, was printed in an edition of five hundred copies. During the next few years the output of the press consisted principally of pamphlets designed for use in the schools, primers and scripture tracts, a hymn book, and various books of the Bible as fast as the latter could be translated into Hawaiian. Some printing was done for the government, such as laws, proclamations, and port regulations, and a few small jobs for business and ship captains. The workmen, aside from the missionaries themselves, were Hawaiian youths and occasional foreigners, sailors with some knowledge of the printing art. The printing office served as a manual training school for a small number of natives, who developed commendible proficency. With the growth of the missionary establishment the printing department was expanded, and the product of the press became more varied and more pretentious, responding to the needs of the schools and the cultual progress of the whole community. Substancial books were printed both in Hawaiian and in English. The first quarterly reveiw published in the Pacific Ocean, was called the Hawaiian Spector ( 1838 -1839 ) was printed as job work at the mission press. In 1834 a second printing plant was set up at the high school at Lahainaluna and on February 14 the first Hawaiian newspaper, Ka Lama Hawaii, was issued from the press at that place. Later in the same year, another small paper, Ke Kuma Hawaii, was begun at Honolulu. The press at Lahainaluna was intended primarily to print textbooks needed in the high school. During all these years the missionaries were diligently at work on the traslation of the Bible. In 1832 the New Testament was completed; on March 25, 1839,the last portion of the Old Testament was pronounced done, and by May 10, 1839, the entire Bible had been printed in the Hawaiian language. [ twenty years after their arrival ] In sustaining the press the missionary board was aided by contributions from the American Bible and Tract Societies, and some parts of the Hawaiian Bible were first printed in the United States. In reveiwing the first two decades of the mission press, they were impressed by the results achieved with very meagre resources. A substancial beginning had been made in the creation of a printed Hawaiian literature. The two printing offices had turned out in the neighborhood of a hundred million pages in the Hawaiian language. Until 1836 no other press was established in the islands. The work of education got under way somewhat slowly for reasons heretofore suggested. As stated bfore, the classes first formed, in 1820 and 1821, were taught the English language, the textbooks being the Wester's spelling book, Watt's catechism, and the English Bible. Up to the end of 1821 the total of Hawaiians who had received instruction in the schools probably did not exceed two hundred ( this is a approximate guess ) But conditions changed greatly after printing was begun in the Hawaiian language and people were able to see their own words in print. Learning to read was then comparatively easy and the chiefs began to to take a more lively interest in the manner for themselves and to show a more liberal attitude toward popular education. But it was not until 1824 ( 5 years after arrival ) that they manifested a general and effective interest in the establishment and maintenance of schools for the common people. In April, 1824, a meeting was held in Honolulu, at which many of the high chiefs, including the queen regent and the prime minister, " declared their determination to adhere to the instructions of the missionaries, to attend to learning, observe the Sabbath, worship God, and obey the law, and have all their people instructed." Simular reports came from all parts of the kingdom, and after this time the ruling chiefs, with only minor and temporary exceptions, gave hearty support to the cause of education. The result was a rapid increase in the number both the schools and of pupils. By the end of 1824 the number of pupils had risen to more than 2000. Four years later it was placed at 37, 000; while in fall of 1831 the number of common schools throughout the kingdom was about 1100, and the number of pupils about 52,000, approximately two fifths of the entire population. It is clear that the handful of missionaries could not, in addition to other duties, personally instruct this multitude of pupils or even give adequate supervision to so many schools. It was necessary to utilize the services of native teachers, and this was possible only because the curriculum was a very meagre one and because,for a native Hawaiian, learning to read his own language was a very simple matter. As soon as a bright pupil had acquired a little facility in reading, he was sent out on his own initiative, to teach a school of his own. One of the missionaries relates how, on September 22, 1824, in a public meeting at Lahaina, Kaahumanu; " Called forward three young men belonging to her private school, imformed us she had appointed them teachers for her people on the windward side of Maui, and desired that they be supplied with books sufficient for large schools. She then addressed herself to the headmen of that district who were present, commanding then to have good schoolhouses erected immediately, and o order all the people in her name to attend to the palapala, and the pule." Rev. William Richards, writing in 1828 about the head teachers in the several districts of Maui, stated that most of them were, with his approbaion, " sent by the chiefs to several districts, where they first established small schools, and after some of their pupils had advanced a little, they enlarged their schools, dividing them into classes, and giving each class a new teacher of teir own number. These classes at length grew into schools ........ The schools have increased in number as fast as the teachers could possibly be supplied." These early schools were necessarily very elementry in every respect. the course of study consisted primarily of learning the alphabet, spelling, and simple reading. Writing was taught only to a very limited extent, because of the lack of writing materials, and arithametic hardly at all until 1827 and then very little. The basic textbook was the Pi-a-pa. This important work was a small pamphlet of eight pages, containing the alphabet, Arabic and Roman numerals, punctuation marks, lists of words, verses of scripture and other reading matter, including a short poem giving the throughts of Kings Iolani ( Kamehamea II ) and Kaumualii in reference to Christianity. Before the end of 1831 the Pi-a-pa was issued in no less than nine editions making a total of 190,000 copies. In order to supply additional materials for school use, they published several other small pamplets. One of them was an arithmetic ( 8 pages) published at the beginning of 1828 ( 9 years after their arrival ), which was the only textbook in that subject until 1832 when a translation of Fowle's child's arithmetic was published. ( 12 years after arrival,) Lorin Andrews wrote in 1832 that probably one half of all the schools on the islands had at the time nothing to read but the Pi-a-pa. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Continued in part 14.