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The value of indigenous teachers
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Posted on May 26 1999
Since it started in 1988, the Teacher’s Academy program of the Public School System comes in full circle this year, according to its coordinator Joan Kani.
For the first time after years of holding recognition banquets in honor of its graduates at Marianas High School, three alumni came to speak.
Yolanda dela Cruz, Eric Evangelista and Arturo Borja, now teachers of PSS, stressed the importance of having indigenous instructors in the classrooms.
As a first grade teacher in Tanapag school, de la Cruz talked about her encounter with one of her students who still could not get the lesson after discussing it for the third time.
The student then asked her to speak in Chamorro and promptly she was well understood.
“I saw my value,” she said, and encouraged the graduates to promote the local language and to return back after college.
According to Kani, the three alumni took the first commitment to complete a B.A. degree in teaching using the four year term.
Both Evangelista and Borja, who graduated from MHS in 1993, brought the courage to study abroad. They earned their degree from the Western Oregon University.
“They are the back bone of the program. They had to find out everything like what classes to take, find their counselor,” she said.
Kani said when the program started in 1988 and until 1992, it only produced four graduates, while 10 are still in school.
After both gentlemen showed the way for the next batches, the number of success stories increased.
Seven graduates are returning this year to join PSS, she said.
Meanwhile the group who will go to college this year has tapped another school, the Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, Arizona. A couple of students came to know about their future university through the internet.
“It took somebody to be the leader and fight the unknown,” Kani said.
