carolinerussellfsm: Let’s take a short break...

carolinerussellfsm:

Let’s take a short break from talking about camp to discuss culture class!

A really cool part of the education system in Yap is the inclusion of a culture class in all public schools. The culture teachers are not people who studied education and attended college, but are older members of the community who are sharing their knowledge with the students. Culture teachers are required only to have high school diplomas but are usually required to be at least forty years old. Culture class has two components, one is the crafts and hands on activities and the other is information. The hands on activities conducted in culture class range from what we might think of as crafts like basket weaving and carving to making rope and rafts for fishing and cooking coconut oil. Throughout elementary school the students master a ton of different activities. This is only a partial list:
Boys - carving (stone money, outrigger models), bamboo raft building, rope making, rice holders, spears for fishing, stick balancing
Girls - taro baskets, food baskets, pouches from pandanus leaves for gabuy (leaf chewed with betel nut), sleeping mats, coconut oil, nunuw (similar to leis, but more of a crown) braiding, hats from coconut leaves
Both genders in lower grades - ball weaving from young coconut leaves, star decorations from young coconut leaves
I checked with some of the older students about whether they really felt comfortable doing these activities on their own, and they said they could definitely go out and complete any of these.
The information part of the culture class used to be primarily reinforcing Yapese language to make sure that English words for things like colors and numbers didn’t usurp the Yapese words, this is happening a lot. But now Vernacular Language Arts is responsible for language, so culture class is kind of like social studies for Yap. Students learn the names of the villages on the island and which municipality the village it belongs to along with its rank. Local stories are also popular, such as the creation of the island of Yap from the back of the turtle, or the story of the lizard of Alduug who tried to kidnap and eat two girls while in disguise. Another type of local story are the more historical ones like the arrival of the spaniards in Yap and how the Yapese thought they were spirits due to their appearance or the somewhat historical legend of the American captain O'Keefe who lived here and was eventually lost at sea.
I think culture class is a really awesome part of the curriculum in Yap, as well as a much needed change from the tests, quizzes, and assignment of the core subjects.

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