Latu 1 Amanaki Latu Social Justice & Advocacy Ms. Shafer May 4, 2016 Tongan American Education Epidemic in the Oakland Unified School District The Tongan population in Oakland is far from successful in graduating from high school, even less are attending college. There are numerous reasons for this including a deep commitment to culture, faith, and the lack of knowledge of the education system and requirements in the United States. Many of the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) Tongan students are first or second generation immigrants with parents who have not experienced any formal education in the U.S. Although the strong cultural difference between Tonga and United States exist, there must be a way to create successful futures for Tongans Americans. This research project focuses on the educational challenges for Tongan Americans joining the American Society. Through interviews of current high school Tongan students, high school dropouts of Tongan descent, successful Tongan Americans, including those that were the first in their family to graduate high school and college, opportunities and possible solutions are examined and offered to assist Tongan American students to graduate high school in the OUSD system. Tongan Americans experience the strongest cultural disadvantage in the OUSD education system. Without support, their poor high school graduation statistics shall continue. Very few Americans, including educators, know who or what Tongans are. Tongans come from the Kingdom of Tonga in the South Pacific Ocean of Polynesia. The total land area is 290 square miles ruled by a constitutional monarchy that was first established in 1875. The
Latu 2 population on the islands is approximately 101,300 people of whom over 90% are of Polynesian descent. In 1980, there were approximately 6,200 Tongans who had immigrated to the United States. In 1990, the Tongan American population rose 184 percent bringing their total population to 17,600. The Mormon church provided visas for most of the immigrants. If so, it is believed that Mormon missionaries sent to the island of Tonga were responsible for this growth. Mormon missionaries have been most instrumental in encouraging Tongan immigration to America as Tongan immigrants to create a better life for themselves and their families. Tongans who do leave the islands risk the chance of losing their land that was entitled to every male by law. On the other hand, Tongans who live off of the islands in countries such as Australia, New Zealand, and the United States, often have a responsibility to assist family back home in Tonga because of the better life they are living in a more thriving country. This is part of the Tongan culture and core values, which are Love ( Ofa ), Respect ( Faka apa apa ), and Responsibility ( Fuakavenga ). The Tongan culture is rich in family values. In the United States, American parents are responsible for their children. They work to provide for their children, in which the children are only expected to attend school, complete their homework, participate in after school activities such as sports. Often times American children rarely spend time with their extended families, except for holidays or special events. This includes grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. American children are most often supported by parents who have graduated high school or have obtained a higher education and hold a career. It is much more likely that a grandparent provide care for children then vise versa. Most American children are given the opportunity to be children with very little responsibility, compared to Tongan American youth.
Latu 3 Where Tongan Americans differ is, more often than not, having no parent with a high school or higher education. The parents are unable to assist their children with homework, college applications, or financial aid documents. Tongan American parents are often overwhelmed if they attempt in this effort. Most Tongan Americans are caregivers or perform manual labor such as landscaping or construction work. They work well over 40 hours a week to support their children and often times the grandparents and other family members living in the same home. Tongan American homes tend to have three to four people or more per room, due to the lack of education to earn a decent living. The language barrier also impacts their ability to gain legitimate employment. Because the parents are working so often, Tongan American teenagers are held responsible to provide care for the younger siblings and the elders in the house. For many Tongan parents, it is believed that school work is to be performed in school, because there are responsibilities at the home. Tongan youth are expected to sacrifice after school sports and other activities to address these responsibilities. It is not uncommon for the youth to miss school to provide care during the day while the parents are at work. It is always Family first in the Tongan culture, by all means necessary. It is also common for the youth to miss days at school to prepare and attend week long funerals to pay their respect. They are either caregiving for their own family, the immediate family of the deceased, or working to assist the families for the festive funeral. This strong sense of culture and responsibility to the family outweighs the American culture containing the sense of importance of education to be successful in United States. Education is not valued in Tonga the way that it is in the United States. In Tonga, the people are mainly housewives, farmers, and fishermen. Careers in Tonga do not consist of the
Latu 4 need for formal or higher education. One can earn a living off of the land through trade of livestock, fish, vegetable and fruits from the land. This can be compared to the way of life when Christopher Columbus discovered North America in the late 1400 s. Life in Tonga does not require formal education in the way that a successful life in United States requires. The people of Tonga do not grow up with a strong sense of education being important and necessary to make a living. There is not the cultural stress of the demand to obtain and education and compete in order to be accepted to top colleges and universities for a successful future. Futures in Tonga can essentially be closely predicted from a young age, compared to Americans. That is likely the reason that Americans stereotype polynesians as lazy, laid back, and always on island time (being late). The cultures and upbringing in both nations is governed by the needs to live a comfortable life. Tongan Americans most often do not know what they do not know about the American culture and the demands of requirements to be successful in the United States. They may not fully understand it for generations, due to their upbringing and strong cultural values. These strong cultural values and lack of understanding of the education system in the U.S., are the concrete barriers of supporting their children s education in the OUSD. In Oakland, Polynesians have a lower graduation rate than all other groups (except Latinos). A cohort report in the OUSD for the class of 2014 published by the California Department of Education shows that Polynesians graduation rate was 56.5 percent, while 54.4 percent of Latinos in that class graduated. Many people would stereotype African Americans as a group of people that drop out or do not graduate. However, African Americans have a higher graduation rate than both Pacific Islanders and Latinos. Both African Americans and Latinos have extra support with programs such as Latino Men and Boys, and African American Male Achievement, it can also be argued
Latu 5 that they have more support from teachers of the same race. There are no known full time educational staff in the OUSD who are Polynesian. At Fremont high school, a school in the OUSD and other schools in the district Polynesian students rarely receive extra help from teachers at school and/or any help from home. However, there are Tongan American students who do get good grades on their own but there is no recognition given to them such as the recognition that is given to African Americans and Latinos. From an email from the Fremont high school s community manager she lists out that there is an African American and Latino Honor roll and she say s I believe there is no Asian/Pacific Islander Task Force anymore. If there is a support group for those groups of people why can t Tongans get the same support too? This is where there is inequity and nothing has still happened even though previous seniors has written about this similar topic. Therefore, A strong commitment to culture, the lack of an educated parents, and the lack of understanding of what is necessary to be successful in the United States, through education seems to be main issue in the way of Tongan academic success in the OUSD. In an article called How Pacific Islander Students are Slipping Through the Cracks, Teli Hafoka explains the pressure that Pacific Islander males feel growing up saying, "Culturally, their families are tight, and there's often pressure to stay at home to support the family rather than go off to college." This is another example of how education lacks value in the Tongan culture. Parents do not know how important it is for their children to be successful in school in order to be more successful in life. After all, most Tongans immigrated here for their children to have a better life.
Latu 6 The strongest way to overcome this challenge is to educate the Tongan community. If first generation Tongan Americans were to fully understand the demands of society in the United States, to earn and live the American dream, it would likely shock and overwhelm them. It could be compared to taking an eighth grader, walking them to the enrollment office and a university and walking away, for them to figure it out on their own. Tongan Americans clearly need support with education and understanding of the education system (throughout higher education), the American societal demands, and the required education to be successful in the United States. Forms of support should include educating Tongan parents factors and importance of an education. Leaders of the high school Polynesian clubs, OUSD leaders, church leaders, Polynesians that have overcome cultural challenges to graduate high school, and community leaders can step up to facilitate smarter and stronger Polynesian student support. High school Polynesian Clubs need to focus on this epidemic. Per a discussion with Fremont High School sophomore Jonathan Latu, The Poly Club only teaches dances and songs. We also use the club to socialize, but we are not learning anything more to be successful here (in the US). They need to bring in guest speakers with similar upbringings, who overcame the cultural challenges to inform high school students of how they became successful. The clubs should also plan field trips to local community colleges and universities to plant the seed of the goal to obtain a college education. They need to take it upon themselves to make a difference for their community. This is a simple way to improve the graduation rate. They should also reach out to their community to find volunteers to assist in educating the parents of the educational requirements to succeed as a Tongan American. This effort should begin with a meeting with OUSD leaders to work together to address this challenge. A good start could be for the Poly
Latu 7 Clubs, OUSD, and the Community Health for Asian Americans (CHAA) to discuss the number of Polynesian support groups in Oakland and/or Alameda County to reach out to and invite as guest speakers and assistance in this effort. The Poly Clubs should gather all Polynesian students in for a meeting hand out this thesis paper, to share the Tongan American education epidemic with all of the students and to find student leaders to take on making a proactive difference to educate students and their families. Without leaders to proactively keep this mission moving forward, the same results are destined to continue. Along with Poly Club efforts, it be helpful for the OUSD to bring back successful Tongan graduates to inform the students of what they did to succeed. OUSD should teach methods of organization, being that there is not a whole lot to organize in Tonga. Tongans will admit that they lack organizational skills. In the film, Pacific Warriors, a Tongan National Rugby player and captain noted that because their rugby committee lacks organization, they too lack funding and the knowledge to be as successful as many other rugby countries in the world, hence the reason the more organized rugby countries find the most success in the Rugby World Cups. Church leaders should take it upon themselves to further educate the followers, not just spiritually, but to be successful members of society. They should find the most successful in their community to educate the parents and families of OUSD students. Since the Tongan culture is so strong, and much of their beliefs and way of life revolves around religious faith, the churches need to use this forum to change the Tongan view of education in the US. Discussing the
Latu 8 requirements of education in the US, as early as they can, may determine the success of future OUSD Tongan students. Tongan community leaders need to take it upon themselves to reach out to the OUSD, Poly Clubs, and churches to proactively support the effort of educating the Tongan people in order to minimize how often their cultural values, lack of understanding, and other reasons keeping the parents from proactively supporting their OUSD students. Without educating the parents and decision makers in the Tongan community, this epidemic shall continue indefinitely. Tongan American parents and family members must be made aware of the importance of education and supporting their children to succeed. Without this, the cycle of poverty will continue. Their children will be required to perform jobs that do not require formal education. Their children will have the same lifestyle of working endless hours to pay bills, miss out on their children s upbringing, and lack the ability to be successful part of their children leading the better life that they traveled from Tonga for. Interviewing Fremont High School junior, William Tongauiha, he stated that his mom is a hard worker with some high school education (she never graduated high school), and his father is a hard worker with no high school education. His parents are unable to use their experience to assist his brothers and his educational efforts in Oakland. Without his football and rugby coaches stressing the importance of academic success, he has no support. Mauni Pahulu, a high school graduate of OUSD, explained in an interview his own family struggles associated with a lack of education. Last year, his family was evicted from their Oakland home. Mauni had a hard decision to make. Stay in high school and graduate, or dropout and work. Through mentorship of a teacher and his high school rugby coaches, he
Latu 9 decided to graduate high school. He felt the decision was solely up to him. Instead of serving his Mormon Mission, he decided to travel to Australia in an effort to play rugby professionally. After 5 weeks there, he earned his way to the top team in the rugby club. He is paid to play rugby and works a part time job to raise money to help out his family in the US. Mauni said, "It's hard man, seeing my mom and pops only a couple times a week because they have to work and still coming up short in rent and bills. But, through the help of my rugby coaches support and a great teacher who put a lot of time into me, I graduated on time being the first in my family." An interview with Samson Hingano, an Oakland Warthog Rugby Alumnus and Berkeley High School student, Samson noted that he was a student in Oakland through middle school and transferred to Berkeley High for high school. His parents were first generation immigrants from Tonga in the late 1980 s. His parents divorced when he was 10 years old. With his mom working to pay bills, he began hanging out with the wrong crowd and education was not important to him. During this time, it came to him that his parents had immigrated to the US for him and his siblings to live a better life. He was letting that slip out of his hands, so he decided to work harder in school. He had not thought of attending college until he played rugby for the Oakland Warthogs. He wanted to defy stereotypes made about him and his people. He was not the first to graduate high school in his family, but he is the first to attend college and will graduate from CSU, East Bay with a degree in Criminal Justice. Proving people wrong and changing the likely outcome if he did not attend college, drove him to succeed. He has returned to the Oakland Warthogs to tell his story, his challenges, and how he overcame them. He is an inspiration for the young Tongan community. They need to hear stories such as Samson s and he can help the community through sharing his knowledge of how to succeed. He is the first in
Latu 10 his family to graduate college. Explaining how to work through the challenges, his community faces, educates the Tongan Americans of knowledge they otherwise may never have. One could argue that the Tongan community needs to be self sufficient, just like all other communities that immigrated to the US. That would be a strong argument, but the Tongan community needs help through education. Current Tongan OUSD students need to take it upon themselves to create the future we want for our people. We can work with the Poly Club to create a list of OUSD Tongan American high school graduates to come back as guest speakers. We must find those with leadership strengths or choose to become leaders ourselves. It will take this epidemic being important enough to us to change. If we sit and wait for someone else to take this on, we are destined to fail. The Tongan culture is strong amongst the Tongan Americans. We must educate them with the intent to further support Tongan American students in the OUSD. Without educated parents, the cycle of poverty due to lack of education, will continue. Without a combined effort of Tongan American community leaders, the parents and families will continue to be deterrents to their own children s academic success. This is not their intention, but they are unclear of what they simply do not understand about the necessity of education to be successful as a Tongan American. The Tongan community will need to be the catapult of this effort as it seems that there is no interest from groups outside of Tongans. This belief is further supported in the online article, Schools Data Reveals Alarming Disparities in Achievement Among Asian American and Pacific Islander Students in California Schools in which they note the lack of understanding of the needs of Asian and Pacific Islander American students. Understanding that they can keep
Latu 11 their cultural values while sharing their priorities with education, will make the difference here. There is a way to support their children s academic success while holding true to their culture. Works Cited Aronowitz, Nona Willis. "How Pacific Islander Students Are Slipping Through the Cracks NBC News." NBC News. 10 July 2014. Web. 12 Apr. 2016. Baez, Nidya. E mail. 2 May 2016. Cooper, Amy. "Tongan Americans." Tongan Americans. Web. 20 Apr. 2016. "Cohort Outcome Data for the Class of Education." Cohort Data Outcomes. Web. 12 Mar. 2016. Hingano, Samson. Personal Interview. April 2016. Latu, Jonathan. Personal Interview. April 2016. Pacific Warriors. Dir. James Marquand. 2015. Pahulu, Mauni. Personal Interview. 18 Apr. 2016. "Press Release." The Education Trust West. Web. Apr. 2016. Tokolahi, Fatai. Personal Interview. 20 Apr. 2016. Tongauiha, William. Questionnaire. March 2016.