Overseas sojourns inspire isle teachers

China soon will join South Africa as an outreach destination

Teachers from Hawaii are sharing teaching strategies with undertrained teachers in South Africa.

In five years, 28 Hawaii teachers have bettered the lives of thousands of students benefiting from the teaching methods, says Punahou teacher Yunus Peer, who co-founded Teachers Without Borders South Africa. "They (the South African teachers) really believe they're building a nation. That's behind their dedication," said Yukio Hamada, a Punahou math teacher who last went in 2004.

The apartheid system was abolished 10 years ago, and Peer is working to help give black children the ticket out of the cycle of ignorance and despair that still imprisons their lives. Peer was able to get a quality education outside South Africa.

Under apartheid, the government believed that blacks needed only the most rudimentary education.

"We have to undo the damage of generations -- damage wrought by the denial of basic opportunities to education ... Black children are only now realizing that their skin color has little to do with what their lives could be," said Peer, who teaches social studies.

This year, Peer is taking six teachers with him for the South African trip, Tuesday through July 14, and for the first time, will be taking an eight-member team to China July 31 through Aug. 11. Agilent Technologies is sponsoring the China leg with a different handful of teachers, who will hold science and English workshops.

The South African government has targeted math and science as the subjects needing the most attention to help high school students pass their matriculation exams to enter college.

The classrooms are in buildings with mud floors and no electricity.

Hamada, now a chaplain at Punahou, said he will never forget seeing "rows and rows of students walking on the highway in 30-degree weather" during their winter break to attend a workshop. They were greeted with "applause and cheering like we were rock stars."

"It was unreal that they (students) even showed up on their winter break," and without pay, said Melissa Mano, math department head at Kalaheo High School who went to South Africa last year for the first time.

The South African teachers have to "make do" with so little, and never give up in finding a way to do their jobs, she said.

Mano said that she went to South Africa disillusioned with teaching after five years, but seeing "how dedicated they are, it made me realize how important teaching is." And it made her want to give as much as she could, but in the end "we got the feeling that they gave us more," she said.

Hamada said, "The teachers would become so excited over what they learned, they would often say, "I can hardly wait to get back to school to use these (techniques)."

About half the teachers who have participated in the TWB are from Punahou, and receive financial help through its teachers development program and fundraising. Teachers from other schools around the state are sponsored by a variety of organizations, including the Sunset and Metropolitan Rotary Clubs.

TWB Seattle and the Cassim Peer Education Trust, which continues the legacy of Peers' father to educate black people, contribute most of the funding, Peer said.

It costs about $5,000 to finance one teacher, and with airfare eating up most of the sum, teachers end up doling out about $1,000 for miscellaneous expenses.

There is "no shortage of teachers who want to go. People come back saying it changed their lives," Peer said.

"The key to our success is never telling people (the host teachers) what to do. It's all teachers working together -- we're colleagues, not experts ... What emerges is everybody learns something from both countries," Peer said.

HOW THEY SPEND THEIR SUMMER VACATION Hawaii teachers are going through the TWB-South Africa and TWB-China programs to share strategies with other teachers TWB-SOUTH AFRICA 2006 » Math teachers: Jim Metz, Kapiolani Community College; Heather Taylor, Punahou; Carl Wheeler, (retired) Mid-Pacific Institute; » Science teachers: Barbara Mayer (retired), Kamehameha Schools; Paul Heimerdinger, Iolani; » George Scott: chaplain, Punahou TWB-CHINA 2006 » Science teachers: Harold Lee (retired), Gail Peiterson, Catherine Vaughan, Punahou; Chenyan Song, University of Hawaii; » English teachers: Erin Wilson, Kamehameha Schools; Diane Anderson, Punahou; Andy Corcoran, head of Chinese American International School - San Francisco; » Intern: Fred Reppun, of Honolulu, Harvard University student.