Historical Collections of The Hawaiian Islands -  Part 14 - The Ancients

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Historical Collections of Hawaii
Keepers of the Culture
Influence of Foreigners on Hawaii
Part 14 - A new Religion
Missionaries and their
Influence and schools.

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Part 14--

Schools --

The school buildings were simply grass houses, and whether they were
better or worse than the ordinary run depended mainly upon the head man
of the district. The equipment of the buildings could not, at best, be
very elaborate. In many cases it would consist of nothing beyond a few
mats for the floor. As late as 1828 it was reported that in the best
native schoolhouses there were neiher seats or tables. Schoolhouses at
the mission stations or directly under the eye of the chief were better
furnished.  One case is reported ( in 1832 ) in which adobes covered
with mats were used for seats, and in one schoolhouse on Kauai, surf
boards were used in the manufacture of seats and writing tables.

One feature of these early schols was the predominance of adult pupils.
There were at all times a few children, but the majority of the pupils
were grown men and women. The fact is accounted for on two principal
grounds; first, the more pressing claims of adults who had to be
instructed immediately or not at all and who crowded forward demanding
attention; and second, the wild and uncontrolable character of the
youthful generation, due to the lack of parental discipline. The
missionaries knew that the hope of the nation lay in its children, and
after the heaviest pressure of adult education was over, more and more
attention was given to teaching children.
Beginning about 1829, a particular effort was made to gather the childen
into schools. As an inducement to them to attend, a little book was
printed especially for them, containing the alphabet, lists of words,
and a variety of interesting reading matter with appropriate
illustrations. This primer was popular and ran through several editions.

With the increase in the number of schools and their extension into all
parts of the kingdom, the problem of supervision and inspection became a
serious one. The continual oversight of the schools took a heavy toll of
the missionary's time. In some districts the better qualified native
teachers were gradually entrusted with authority somewhat like that of a
supervisor, subject to the control of the missionary. For the periodical
inspection of schools two methods were used. One was by means of
quarterly examinations, for which purpose all or as many as possible
pupils of a whole district would be collected at one place and assembled
in classes before the examiners. These examinations, by a sort of
contagion, stimulated the peole's interest and made them more eager in
their pursuit of the new learning. After an examination at Honolulu
extending over three days and attended by 3600 pupils, Levi Chamberlain
wrote in his journal, July 21, 1826: " Our house has been thronged with
natives applying for books and slates. Our yard has sometimes presented
the appearance of a market stocked with goats, pigs, poultry, melons and
bananas brought to be exchanged for the means of instruction." In the
lives of the people the quarterly examination ( hoike ) came to be a
gala occasion. One of the missionaries,
Rev. Rueben Tinker, remarked that " it answers for them in place of New
England commencements and cattle shows and election." and he gave a
description of an examination at Honolulu in 1831:

" The shell horn blowing early for examination of the schools, in the
meeting house. About 2,000 scholars present, some wrapped in large
quanity of native cloth, with wreaths of evergreen about their heads and
hanging toward their feet --- others dressed in calico and silk with
large necklaces of braided hair and wreaths of red and yellow and green
feathers very beautiful and expensive.

It was a pleasant occasion, in which they seemed interested and happy
........ The King and chiefs were present, and examined among the rest.
They read in various books, and 450 in 4 rows wrote the same sentence at
the same time on slates. They performed with some ceremony. In this
exercise, one of the teachers cried out with as much importance as an
orderly serjeant .... and immediately the whole company began to sit
straight. At the next order, they stood on their feet. At the next they
"handled " slates or " presented " ---i.e. they hld them resting on the
left arm as a musician would place his fiddle. At the next order, they
brought their pencils to bear upon the broadsides of their slates ready
for action. Mr. Bingham then put into the crier's ear the sentence to be
written, which he proclaimed with all his might and a movement of the
450 pencils commenced
which from their creaking was like the music of machinery lacking oil.
Their sentences were then examined and found generally correct ......
Eight of the Islanders delivered orations which they had written and
committed to memory. Gov. Adams [ Kuakini ] was among the speakers. "

Unhappily, the governor, like many other schoolboy, forgot his piece and
was much embarrassed thereby.

The other method of inspection was by means of tours through a district
or about an island by one or more of the missionaries or by native
teachers appointed for that purpose. On such tours, which might extend
over two weeks, the missionary would ordinarily be accompanied by one or
more chiefs or teachers and by several common natives to carrt the
baggage. The company traveled on foot, making the circuit of the island
near the seacoast where the villages were located.

Even more important than the inspection of schools was the training of
teachers, for on them depended the success of the whole system. So from
an eary date we find the missionaries conducting classes and schools for
teachers.  The plan followed at most of the mission stations was to
bring the teachers together from all parts of the district for a period
of several weeks or months to receive from the missionaries special
instructions designed to make them more effective teachers. In some
districts the schools had to be closed while the teachers were reciving
this special training; but in other districts there were two sets of
teachers and the schools could be kept in operation continuously.

Such was the system of education created by the missionaries duing their
first decade in Hawaii, certainly not an ideal system nor the one they
would have devised if they had had a free hand and adequate resources,
but one that grew out of the circumstances of the time and place. desite
its limitations it produced results of great and lasting importance. The
bulk of the adult population, certainly more than half, were taught to
read, many of them learned to write, and a few acquired the rudiments of
arithmetic. By 1831 or 1832, however, the system had reached its climax.
the common schools of the period had the accomplished about all they
were capable of, te noveltry had worn off, and the people lost interest
in them. Exciting circumstances, such as the death of the powerful queen
regent, Kaahumanu, the disorders attending the assumption of authority
by Kamehameha III, industrial and agricultural developments, and the
foreign relations of the country, distracted the attention of the
people.

In the field of eductaion, therefore, the decade of the 1830's presented
a picture very different from that of the 1820's. It opened with the
collapse of the old system; throughout the decade the common schools
away from the immediate vicinity of the mission stations maintained a
rather sporadic existence; at times and in certain places they were
fairly flourishing, elsewhere at at other times they were barely alive
or entirely dead. The missionaries gave to them such attention as they
could, but their major effect was centered upon the development of a
better educational system on a more rational basis. For this purpose
they sought to gather the children of the nation into schools, to
provide a sufficient number of well trained teachers, to supply suitable
textbooks and reading matter, and to bring about the erection of
substantial and permanent schoolhouses

Steps already taken to interest the children in schools were followed up
as energetically as possible. In some parts of the kingdom they produced
greater results than in others. Governor Hoapili of Maui in 1835 issued
an edict requiring all the children above four years of age on that
island to attend school. Such a regulation could not be rigidly enforced
but it gave official support to the movement. At the mission stations
schools especially for children were carried on with more or less
regularity. It is impossible to measure statistically the precise effect
of these efforts, but the imperfect and incomplete figures available in
the mission reports point to the conclusion that by the ed of the decade
a majority of the pupils were children and that number of children in
the schools may have been as high as 12,000 to 15,000.

The preparation of textbooks and other printed matter for use in the
schools was a part of the regular work of the missionaries. The little
pamphlets first published were gradually replaced by fuller and more
varied texts. The enrichment of the curriculum could proceed no faster
than books were available. In some instances American school books were
considered suitable for pupils in island schools were translated and
printed, such works as Fowle and Colburn on arithmetic and algebra, and
Woodbridge on geography. In some subjects new texts were prepared. The
instructors in the high school at Lahainaluna gave much attention to
this business. Until after 1840 the Bible was the prncipal reading book
in the schools.

The building of permanent schoolhouses was a troublesome problem. The
flimsy houses of thatch soon fell into decay and if not replaced the
schools were abandoned. The subject was discussed in the general meeting
of the mission in 1833 and authority given to build a convenient
schoolhouse at each station and to expend up to $20 for window glass,
nails, etc., for each house. In 1834 the king and chiefs agreed to
furnish sites for permanent school buildings at various missions, and
the mission resolved "as a general thing to build, during the present
year, at each station one commodious school house at least, and to
furnish it with convenient seats and writing benches, availing ourselves
of all the assistance in erecting them which can be obtained from chiefs
and from the people, and drawing when necessary upon the depository to
an amount not exceeding one hundrd dollars to each school house."

These resolutions were not at once fully carried out, but they mark the
beginnng of a definate movement which was followed up. In 1836 the
amount allotted to each building was inceased to $200. The American
Board approved the plan and gave it financial support until after the
panic of 1837 in the United States, when funds were sharply curtailed.
As a consequence of this attention to building, the end of the decade
found the nation provided with a number of permanent schoolhouses, not
all confined to the immediate vicinity of the mission stations.
The materials commonly used for the walls of the building were coral and
lava stone and adob bricks. The latter when well made and properly laid
up, proved quite durable. Cool in summer and warm in winter when needed.

The most difficult problem of all was the obtaining enough competant
teachers. As far back as 1825 the missionaries had taken steps to
establish teacher training classes at the various stations, but the plan
of station schools was not fully carried out until 1830. There were
never enough missionaries to make the plan uniformally effective.
Station schools were intended not only to train teachers but to serve as
model schools, and much attention was givn to children. In some places
there were two station schools, one for teachers and one for children.
The arrival of the large enforcement of 1837, including nine men and two
women designated as teachers, made it possible
to expand and strengthen the system of station schools. For a supply of
competent native teachers for the common schools, however, the main
reliance came to be upon the high school at Lahainaluna.

The high school was founded in 1831. the three-fold design of school was
to train young men in order that they might become assistnt teachers of
religion to their own people, to disseminate sound knowledge, and " to
qualify native school teachers for their respective duties; to teach
them, theorectically and practically, the best methods of communicating
instruction to others." In early history is full of interesting and
curious details. the first pupils were married men and they erected the
buildings under the none too skillful direction of rev. Lorrin Andrews,
principal and sole instructor. At the beginning the institution was
looked upon
rather in the light of a experiment, but in 1834 it was decided to
enlarge the school and put it on a permanent footing. Two additional
instructors were appointed; a large main building was begun; and a
printing department was added. In 1836 the schol changed from high
school to 
" Mission Seminary." The American Board granted a substancial sum to aid
the institution, making possible the completion of a large central
building. By 1838 the adult pupils had all left the school, most of them
becoming teachers. A survey of graduates, made in 1842, revealed that
out of 158 then living, 105 were usefully employed as teachers and 35 as
officers of the government, among them were some who rendered
conspicious service to the nation.

The question of pay of teachers was a difficult one. the teachers first
appointed received some compensation from the chief or head man of the
district; this might take the form of exception from the ordinary labor
ad taxes demanded of the common people or it maight be a grant of land.
Teachers sometimes received little remuneration from pupils or parents.
But all of this was irregular and fluctuating and nearly always
inadequate. Graduates of the high school or young men caefully trained
in station schools could not be expected to employ their time and
talents in school teaching without some more regular and adequate
compensation. One aspect of the subject is touched upon in a letter
written by Dr. G.P. Judd in October, 1835:

" The miserable policy of the chiefs is to monopolize all the talent and
influence of the nation for the purpose of maintaining their own power
....... Almost all the teachers of worth, on whom the labors of the
missionaries at this station [ Honolulu]
have been expended for years, are kept by Kinau constantly about her
person."

The missionaries, therefore, as early as 1833, adopted the practice of
employing a few of the better teachers and paying them for their
services. The wages were very small, intended only to supplement what
was received from other sources. In the school year 1836/37 the amount
expended in this way was $590. The American Board supported the mission
in this matter until after the panic of 1837. The long depression which
followed that catastrophe in the United States, by cutting down the
income of the missionary board, brought into sharp relief the necessity
of a more liberal and regular local support, especially for the common
schools. The mssionaries appealed to the king and chiefs to assume this
obligation; and at length, in 1840, a law was enacted providing for a
national school system of common schools to be supported by the
government.

In addition to the high school at Lahainaluna, several other schools of
higher grade were brought into existance during this decade. In 1836,
following the recommendation of the American Board, the mission voted a
resolution calling for the establishment of a boarding school for native
children on each of the larger islands. Four schools schools were
established. The boarding school for Boys at Hilo, begun in 1836 by Rev.
David B. Lyman; a central female boarding seminary, at Wailuku, Maui, in
1837; a girls' school at Hilo in 1838; and a school intended to be
self-supporting at Waialua, Oahu, in 1839. The general idea was that the
schools for boys would be preparatory to the seminary at Lahainaluna,
and those for girls would train up a class of females suitable for wives
of teachers and other educated and pious young men of the nation. In all
of them, the pupils were instructed not only in literary studies but
also in practical subjects and domestic arts, theough the schools were
not manual training schools in a full sense; at the boys' school much
attention was given
to agriculture. The missionaries set up a school for their own children
who by 1840 had become so numerous and such an age as to require some
special provision for their education. Also in 1839, a school was opened
in Honolulu for the education
of the children of the higher chiefs and Mr. and Mrs. Amos Starr Cooke
was in charge and was appointed at the request of the chiefs. the school
was later called the 
" Royal School." The Oahu Charity School, which was housed in a little
coral blocked structure with a bell tower, was an English language
school, intended primarily for the education of the children of foreign
residents who had Hawaiian wives, the school supported by the non
missionary foreigners, with its teacher who was a missionary, Andrew
Johnstone, whose connection with the mission was soon severed. This
school was opened in Janurary, 1833.

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Continued in part 15.