Hawaiian language never illegal or banned in schools
Hawaiian language never illegal or banned in schools
A PBS “Insights” show said the Hawaiian language was “forbidden in schools.” The Hawaiian grievance industry often repeats that falsehood, seeking sympathy and reparations. It stirs racial hostility toward “haoles.”
The Hawaiian language nearly died because native leaders and parents saw English was the path to success. UH professors John Reinecke and Albert Schutz proved that, in 1892, before the monarchy was overthrown, English was already the language in 95 percent of public schools, which nearly all native kids attended.
Japanese and Chinese languages predominated in private plantation schools. To give future generations of all ethnicities one language they all could speak, an 1896 law said English must be used in every child’s main school, but other languages were OK in after-school or weekend academies. the Japanese created hundreds of such academies, but Hawaiians chose not to.
Wealthy, powerful Princess Pauahi founded Kamehameha Schools between 1883 and 1887, freely choosing the English language and subjects. Hawaiian-language newspapers published continuously with diminishing readership until 1948.
Let’s stop twisting history as a weapon of race-hatred.
Kenneth R. Conklin, Ph.D., Kane‘ohe
