Student Exchange

There was an island wide high school student exchange today amongst the public schools and it was a great experience for many of the host students as well as the visiting ones. Many of the visiting students were brought into my class by some of my former students who wanted to show them how Chamoru classes are conducted at Southern High as opposed to their respective schools. I was surprised to hear them say things like, "Oh, we don't really do that much Chamoru speaking.", and, "We usually just sing or cook Chamoru food."

Needless to say, I was shocked. At the beginning of the year, the content standards for Chamoru classes were revised and issued to all of us. This shows me that many teachers are not following the standards and these kids fro other schools are being robbed of their cultural education. I felt horrible about the situation, so I decided to include them my lesson and have them participate with my class in the chanting activity. I gave them a short history lesson on the importance of oral traditions (which was a good review for my students who had heard the lesson prior) in the Micronesian islands and how it can be seen and used in these modern times. The visiting students said that they usually just learn the song and sing it, but there really isn't any explanation or lesson to help support it.

I was glad to hear the visiting students say how much they enjoyed themselves and how Southern High really isn't as "scary" and "ghetto" as they had heard it was. I felt that they were welcomed with open arms by the Southern High community and made new lifelong friends here. I just now hope that they take their positive experiences back with them to their schools and share about the hospitality they received and the fun they had at our school. Here's to hoping!