Teaching children
to stand tallPride and discipline infuse teens
enrolled in New Zealand's
'Tu Tangata' program
Sixth article of eight A New Zealand math teacher said the time he spends disciplining his 13- and 14-year olds is down from 35 percent to 5 percent. An English teacher said his time on discipline is down from 20 percent to one.
The local police say they see less of these adolescents from Parkway College, a high school, than they used to.
Has something changed? Yes, indeed. There is a new program for community involvement called Tu Tangata, meaning Stand Tall.
Parkway College teaches 458 students in what we in the U.S. would call grades eight through 12. It is located in the pleasant, single-home, lower-to-middle-income community of Wainuiomata, about nine miles south of Wellington, the capital of New Zealand.
Seventeen percent of its students are Maori (New Zealand Polynesians) and 11 percent are Pacific Islanders. Throughout New Zealand both groups have poorer educational records than European students.
But at Parkway the absenteeism rate for the eighth- and ninth-graders has dropped from over 30 percent to less than 6 in the past two years.
The symbol of New Zealand's
Two audit reports -- one for the Ministry of Education, one for the Regional Health Center -- agree that Parkway seems to be on to something positive. Results were called "more far-reaching than expected." Six area schools have begun implementing similar programs. Fourteen others are considering it.
Tu Tangata (Stand Tall)
community-involvement
program depicts a student
being guided by the sure hand
of a community elder.Nine of the sparkplugs behind the Parkway experiment will be in Hawaii April 14-22 under the auspices of the Queen's Health Systems to make presentations to Leeward and Windward Oahu health and school officials. The health aspect is that it seems to be a way to combat alcohol and drug usage among adolescents by improving their self image. They "stand tall."
Tu Tangata is pretty much the brainchild of Kara Puketapu, who calls himself a Maori interventionist rather than an activist. From 1977 to 1983 he served as New Zealand's first Maori secretary for Maori affairs. He previously had been with the State Services Commission, involved in improving government management. In 1983 he formed his own private enterprise, Maori International, focused on helping Maoris establish themselves in business. One group his firm assisted now owns 34 percent of the national Quality Inn hotel chain. Others are in fishing businesses.
He is bi-lingual in English and Maori, served two years with the New Zealand diplomatic corps in London and did a year of field work with Pueblo Indians in New Mexico as a Harkness Fellow of the Commonwealth Fund, New York. At a younger age he was a top rugby player.
Along with other Maori leaders Puketapu came to believe youth education is crucial to improving the lot of Maoris in New Zealand. They further came to believe there is too much segmentation among the places where young people learn -- home, school, their marae or tribal community center, church and sports clubs.
Tu Tangata was pioneered at Parkway in 1995 to focus on Maori students. At the school center, a big assembly room,its Maori community counselors worked with Maori students, including primarily those who for disciplinary reasons had been asked to leave their classrooms. The program has been re-cast to work with all students in the seventh and eighth grades by having a Tu Tangata representative in each classroom at all times.
These are 15 adults from the community who agree to help at low wages as part of keeping the budget tight. They do the same lessons as the students, get to know them and sit with those who may need help with a problem in one course or another. They don't have to meet any educational qualifications. They are not responsible to the teachers but seem to have developed good relations with them. They can be transferred where they don't by Tu Tangata Enterprises, which employs them.
Last month I sat in on a morning break where teachers and Tu Tangata community representatives gathered for coffee, tea and snacks. I sensed what is confirmed in the audit reports: that their relations are good in part because the results are so rewarding -- better-motivated students, more time to teach.
All this is under the guidance of a highly motivated school principal, Rosalie Goldsworthy, who will be in the delegation to Hawaii, and her staff. They were eager to explain to this visitor what they are trying to do. Teachers interviewed for the evaluation reports said the program has a settling effect on their adolescent students, makes the school a warm place, and has brought the students to more maturity and greater achievement.
Onereport also contained some fascinating student quotes about the To Tangata education support officers called ESOs: "It's when a lady comes into the class and helps you with things."
"ESOs are on your back to do things and behave."
"If you are lonely you can speak to someone at Tu Tangata."
"The center is open all the time."
"The center is a place where you can hang out and play computer games or have coffee and noodles."
"ESOs fill in a worksheet about your work output and attitude which is weighed against a scale."
These worksheets are a crucial element. Conduct and work output charts for each student are entered into a computer where they can be accessed by teachers, the student or the student's parents but no one else. They focus on English, science and math courses. A time management column may contain comments like "causing disruptions" ..."easily distracted" ... "needs to keep on task." Work output assessments don't overlap the grades the teacher will give.
One auditor noted that Tu Tangata frequently allows problems to be talked out in a group instead of in isolation. It also brings more parent involvement and helps establish high expectations for students -- the Stand Tall concept. Tu Tangata ESOs frequently meet parents even away from schools -- in shopping malls, for instance -- and chat about their children.
As I watched, heard and read about Tu Tangata one thing bothered me. Years ago the Kamehameha Schools in Hawaii pioneered the Kamehameha Early Education Program (KEEP) which focused with similar intensity on kindergarten and lower grade students. It boosted test scores remarkably but after students left the program and went into the higher grades they fell back.
The trustees of the Kamehameha Schools/Bishop Estate discontinued the program because of its high expense and disappointing long term results. There is at least talk that an adaptation of it might succeed if carried into higher grades. Tying community, family and school more closely together was not one of the elements of KEEP.
Parkway conforms with national education goals and the national curriculum framework. It is funded under the national system of per capita grants per student administered by local school boards except for national teacher salary setting.
The $192,000 annual cost of Tu Tangata at Parkway is funded from a multiplicity of government and community purchasers and donors interested in improving student outcomes. One of these is a $45,000 drug and alcohol grant even though these are mentioned only in health classes. The audit noted a need for better coordination among government contributors.
Puketapu contends long-term savings in truancy officers, imprisonment costs and crime reduction will more than justify Tu Tangata expenditures.
In Hawaii, the Queen Emma Foundation, created by a 19th century queen, operates Queen's Health Systems which in turn oversees Queen's Medical Center. Its present board chair, Kenneth Brown, an architect who is Hawaiian, is broadening its health mission for Hawaiians by considering health and personal well-being as interactive. Brown and Puketapu served together here on the East-West Center's Board of Governors. Puketapu is still a governor.
Years ago Brown arranged visitations between Maoris and Hawaiians to promote cultural revival. Queen's is ready to fund a Hawaii pilot of a Stand Tall program like Tu Tangata.
Another Queen's initiative is to promote a Polynesian Union. Two hundred Maori and Hawaiian leaders met in Honolulu in February to hold discussions and hear from experts in matters of their concern. They will repeat in New Zealand next February.Brown says the Union plans to invite other Polynesian areas to join.
Tu Tangata Way
What: Presentation on Tu Tangata Way, by Kara Puketapu, managing director of Maori International and the Tu Tangata Team from New Zealand
TUESDAY: The Parliament New Zealand Series Archive
