RULES ADOPTED BY THE BOARD OF REGENTS OF THE U N IV E R S IT Y OF HAWAII MAY 2 1 1 9 4 8 WITH REGARD TO THE REPRODUCTION OF MASTERS THESES

,a) No person or corporation may publish or reproduce in any manner, without the consent of the Board of Regents, a thesis which has been submitted to the University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for an advanced degree, (b) No individual or corporation or other organization may publish quotations or excerpts from a graduate thesis without the consent of the author and of the University.

A STUDY OF TEACHER TRAINING IN AMERICAN SAMOA

A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE DIVISION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT

OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF EDUCATION

AUGUST 1941

Mark M. Sutherland

APPROVED BY

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGEI. INTRODUCTION ............................. 1

The problem and its Importance . -....... 1Definitions of terms used ................ 3Review of related studies ................. 3Other sources of data.................. 9Organization into chapters.............. 10

II. A BRIEF BACKGROUND OF SAMOAN EDUCATION . . . . 12Geo-political background ................ 12No teacher training problem in indigenousSamoa............................... 17

The missions needed trained teachers . . . . 18American educational philosophy in Samoa . . 24A government-school nucleus ............... 27A government school system . . . . . . . . . 29Shortage of trained native teachers ....... 31Samoa adopted an outdated course of study . . 32Controversy over results of education inSamoa............................... 35

Poorly trained teachers— a serious problem . 36Social status of Samoan teachers ......... 37

III. THE REORGANIZED SCHOOL SYSTEM............. 43The school system is reorganized......... 45

ill

The controlling philosophy of the newcurriculum.......................... 46

The course of study.................... 47Promotion.................... 49Medium of instruction .................. 50

Samoa-Hawaii cooperation ................ 52Department of education personnel ......... 54Women teachers........................ 57

Compulsory education .................... 58Types of schools in American Samoa today . . 60The special schools.................... 62The regular public schools ............. 65

The schools are decentralized............. 68

Native problems influence decentralization 72 Positive and negative values ofdecentralization........... 73

Decentralization aids attendance ....... 76District schools............ 77Accessibility of schools ................ 77Financial support ........................ 78Teachers1 salaries .................... 80Non-Samoan staff compensation ........... 83Finances influence teacher supply ....... 85Cost of living for teachers............. 87

CHAPTER PAGE

CHAPTER PAGESchool buildings ........................ 89Better building standards needed . . . . . 91

Books, supplies and equipment ............. 95

Best books are locally prepared . . . . . . 94IV. EDUCATIONAL NEEDS REVEALED THROUGH TESTS . . . 96

The teachers are tested.................. 97Subjective test . ......... 97

Objective test . .................... 99

The school children are tested ........... 103A testing technique .................... 104Securing children’s records is difficult . 105Wide range of ages per g r a d e ........... 107Samoan and mainland norms are different . . IllSamoans can make cultural adjustments . . . 114Teaching of English must improve ....... 116Graph exposes test e r r o r ............... 118Thinking vs. memorizing................ 120

Teachers and children compared ........... 121Quality of teaching improves slowly . . . . 121Teachers are less than four years ahead ofchildren............................ 122

Problems revealed by the test results . . . . 123V. TEACHER TRAINING .......................... 126

The teachers institute of 1932-1933 . . . . . 128The 1933 review institute............... 130

iv

The reorganized teacher training setup . . . 131The teachers Institutes .................. 133Grouping of enrollees .................. 134The faculties........................ 136Financial support . .................. 138The curricula.................. 139

Supervision in the schools............ 144The monthly teachers meetings ........... 150

Teacher training at Poyer ................ 151Selection for in-service training ....... 152The weak teacher problem............ 157In-service training curriculum ......... 159Selection for pre-service training . . . . 164Pre-service training curriculum ......... 169Probationary teaching .................. 177

Feleti School, a teacher training center? . . 178Educating for leadership, an experiment . . 179Teacher training possibilities ......... 186Vi/hat is Feleti» s future?............ 190

Placing the final responsibility ......... 192VI. EVALUATION OF THE TEACHER TRAINING PROGRAM . . 195

The original teacher training plan ....... 195Present evaluation .................... 196

Recognized practices of other teachertraining institutions . . . . . ......... 199

CHAPTER PAGE

Criteria for teacher training responsibility 200Criteria for general education ........... 202Criteria for professional education ....... 202Criteria for selection of candidates . . . . 204Teacher training responsibility in AmericanSamoa.................. 205

General education background for teachers inAmerican S a m o a .................. 210

Professional education for teachers inAmerican Samoa ........................ 213

Selection of teacher candidates in AmericanSamoa................................. 223

Collective recommendations of this study . . 226Responsibility .......................... 227Department of education organization andpolicy............................... 232

Organization for teacher training andimprovement......... 239

The public school curriculum ............. 242The teacher training curricula ........... 244

BIBLIOGRAPHY................................... 247APPENDIX A. Partial List of Public School Personnel

of American Samoa, 1900-1932 ....... 256APPENDIX B. Non-Samoan Educators and Administrators,

Reorganized Department of Education,

viCHAPTER PAGE

CHAPTER PAGEGovernment of American Samoa . . . . 264

APPENDIX C. Teachers Institute Instructors, andCourses, Lectures, etc., Department ofEducation, American Samoa ......... 268

APPENDIX D. Native Teacher Training and TeacherPlacement in the Department ofEducation of American Samoa ....... 282

APPENDIX E. Approximate Budget Allotments for 1934,1939 and 1940, Department of Educationof American S a m o a .............. . 296

APPENDIX F. Number of Public School Paid Personneland Public Schools— 1933-1941,American Samoa .................... 297

APPENDIX G. Glossary of Native Terms ............. 300

vii

LIST OF TABLES

I. Teacher Load by Number of Year Groups in thePublic Schools of American Samoa: September1935 to June 1935 66

II, Teacher Load by Number of Children in thePublic Schools of American Samoa: September1933 to June 1935 67

III. Carrigan Score Card for Rating Teaching and the Teacher: Native American Samoan PublicSchool Teachers, 1935, as Rated by Earl L, McTaggart, Superintendent of Education forAmerican Samoa ........................ 98

IV, New Stanford Achievement Test, Advanced: 126Tests, Teachers and Candidates for the Public Schools, Department of Education,American Samoa, December 1931 and December1932 ................................... 100

V. Age and Year Group of 600 Children, PublicSchools of American Samoa, February-May 1935 108

VI, Age and Year Group of 1655 Children, PublicSchools of American Samoa, July 13, 1939 , , 110

VII. New Stanford Achievement Test, Primary, Given to 600 Children in the Public Schools of American Samoa, February-May 1935 112-13

TABLE PAGE

VIII. Native Teacher Training and Teacher Placement in the Department of Education of AmericanS a m o a ................................... 282

IX. Approximate Budget Allotments for 1934, 1939 and 1940, Department of Education ofAmerican Samoa............................ 296

X. Number of Public School Paid Personnel andPublic Schools— 1933-1941, American Samoa . 297

ixTABLE PAGE

LIST OF FIGURES

FIGURE PAGE1. The Main Islands of American Samoa Showing

Districts, Schools, Roads and Trails ........ 13-142. Educational Quotient by Age: 600 Children, Public

Schools of American Samoa, February-May 1935 . 1153. English and Arithmetic Test Averages: 600

Children, Public Schools of American Samoa, February-May 1935 .......................... 117

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

The development of the public education system inAmerican Samoa is progressing along lines which aim atenabling the native population to meet successfully theunavoidable forces of the expanding western civilizationand, at the same time, preserve the usable good in theirown civilization. One of the key units in this developingsystem is the program for the training of native Samoans tobe teachers in the American Samoan public schools. Thefirst phase of this program began in 1921, when plans wereput into operation for the in-service training of native

«public school teachers. The second and present phase began in 1933 after the entire public school system had been reorganized. In this phase attention is being given to the pre-service, as well as the in-service training of teachers.

THE PROBLEM AND ITS IMPORTANCE

It is the purpose of this thesis to review the history and background of this teacher training movement, and to evaluate it in terms of its first several years of operation.

The public school system began operation in 1921

with a staff of teachers whose members had had little or no professional training for the work of teaching. Teacher education during the first-phase period was virtually non-existent. In recent years government officials, with the help of certain outside agencies, have instituted teacher training in American Samoa. Two years of service in the system as principal of the school in which teacher training is being developed gave the writer an opportunity to share in this work.-*- The Samoan teachers have made some professional growth as a result of this teacher training program, although the degree of this growth, up to date, is still considerably below the desired proficiency necessary effectively to carry on their work in the schools.

This study of the American Samoan teacher training system is, in reality, a "stocktaking" of progress made since 1921. Moreover, it should serve, not only as a record of what has been done, but as a suggestive guide for future progressive steps to the end that native Samoan teachers for the American Samoan public schools may be more and more adequately trained for their work.

1 0 M Fa^tonu, (Pago Pago: official news organ ofthe Govt, of Am. Samoa;, July-Aug.-Sept. 1935.

G. Gordon Brown, The Native Teacher in Samoa, (mimeographed, 1936), p. 2.

2

DEFINITIONS OF TERMS USED3

Throughout this study the terms pre-service, in-service, and Barstow Foundation are used repeatedly. It is therefore pertinent to define these.

Pre-service training. The pre-service training of teachers is interpreted in this thesis as being the professional preparation of individuals for service as teachers before they are given positions with monetary remuneration.

In-service training. The in-service training of teachers is interpreted as being the professional improvement of teachers during their period of employment so that they may render better teaching service.

Barstow Foundation. The Frederic Duclos Barstow Foundation for American Samoans is referred to as the Barstow Foundation.

REVIEW OF RELATED STUDIES

Because of the comparatively brief period of time that teacher training in American Samoa has been recognized as a problem, and because of the isolation and small size of the islands comparatively little has been done in the way of professional and scientific study of the problems involved in the training of native teachers for American Samoa. Two studies have been made that deal

directly with this problem:The first was a 393-page report by Dean Benj. 0.

Wist of Teachers College, University of Hawaii, who wasalso chairman of the visiting staff to the 1932-1933 Samoanteachers institute. This was made early in 1933 to theBarstow Foundation, the sponsor of the trip of the visitingstaff. It covered the conduct of the institute and theperformance of other duties assigned to the committee.Dean Wist, in his report, critically analyzed the wholeAmerican Samoan educational situation and upon the requestof the Governor of American Samoa offered recommendationsto the island government for a complete reorganization ofthe public education system. His recommendations madeprovision for a teacher training school for native

2American Samoan teachers.The second study which deals directly with teacher

training in American Samoa is a mimeographed five-page paper on the Samoan teacher by Dr. G. Gordon Brown. This paper was read to the membership of a seminar-conference held in Honolulu in 1936 on the problems of education in countries bordered by Pacific Ocean waters. It discusses the problems of teacher training in American Samoa and

Benj. 0. Wist, Report of the Visiting Staff to The Samoan Teachers Institute. 1932-1953. (bound ms. in the possession of the Barstow Foundation Library, Bishop Museum Building, Honolulu, T.H.), 393 pp.

4

describes the work of the Barstow Foundation in aiding its 3development.

A study which deals with Samoan teacher training in less detail, but makes some comparisons with the problem in other Pacific countries, is Education in Pacific Countries. This is a report by Dr. Felix M. Keesing on the 1936 seminar-conference mentioned above. This seminar- conference was sponsored jointly in Honolulu by the University of Hawaii and Yale University. Dr. Keesing’s report deals with all of the phases of education discussed at the conference including the training of teachers. In the chapter on "The Teacher and His Methods" the question of teacher training in the various territories was discussed, but references to the teacher training program in American Samoa were few. Numerous papers on education in its various phases were presented at the conference, one of which was Dr. Brown’s on the Samoan teacher. A comparative study of teacher training in these specific countries, based on these papers and on a questionnaire answered by the members of the conference, was presented by the author of this thesis to the co-directors, Dr. Felix M. Keesing of the University of Hawaii and Dr. Charles T. Loram of Yale University.^

2 Brown, op. cit.. 5 pp.4 Felix M. Keesing, Education in Pacific Countries.

(Shanghai: Kelly and Walsh, Ltd., 1937), pp. 180-93.

5

In 1939 a study of Public Education in theTerritories and Outlying Possessions was published by Dr.Lloyd E. Blauch, principal educational specialist forPresident Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Advisory Committee onEducation, with the aid of Mr. Charles F. Reid, instructorin education in the College of the City of New York. Thisstudy contains statistical information on American Samoanpublic education up to the summer of 1938 and makesrecommendations for improving the public school system.This study definitely refers to teacher training as a majoreducational problem in American Samoa but treats it ratherbriefly. The part of the study that deals with educationin American Samoa was made mainly from official andunofficial reports and articles on Samoa obtained bothdirectly from the navy department in Washington, D.C. andfrom other sources. The manuscript of the section on Samoawas reviewed by several members of the navy department whohad had service in Samoa, including one governor who had

5been there on duty within the past six or seven years.Since the founding of the Barstow Foundation in 1932

outside attention has more definitely been focused upon the educational situation in American Samoa. Professional

5 Lloyd E. Blauch, assisted by Charles F. Reid, Public Education in the Territories and Outlying Possessions. (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Govt. Prtg. Ofc.,1939), 243 pp.

6

educators have visited the islands in various capacities, and the following general works on American Samoan education, in addition to those mentioned above, have been produced.

Mr. Frank E. Midkiff, at the time President of the Kamehameha Schools of Honolulu and a trustee of the Barstow Foundation, prepared two reports on the schools of American Samoa in 1932. He was also co-author of a third the same year. These reports contained both criticisms and recommendations. In an article in the January 1933 Mid- Pacific Magazine. Mr. Midkiff explained the purposes of the Barstow Foundation and the progress it had made to that date in its planning and work for the American Samoans.

7The article is basically educational.As a member of the research staff of the Institute

of Pacific Relations, Dr. Felix M. Keesing prepared a8history of Modern Samoa which was published in 1934. This

7

® Frank E. Midkiff, "Basic Paper on Schools, Etc.," and "School Survey and Plan of Education," Report of the First Committee of the Barstow Foundation to American Samoa .~~1952. (Honolulu: compiled from Barstow Foundationrecords; privately mimeographed and bound, 1932).

John W. Moore and Frank E. Midkiff, "Plan for Experimental Senior Schools," Report of the First Committee of the Barstow Foundation to American Samoa. 1932. loc. cit.

7 Frank E. Midkiff, "A Charitable Trust Makes Plans To Serve a Primitive People," Mid-Pacific Magazine, Jan. 1933, pp. 17-29.

8 Felix M. Keesing, Modern Samoa, (London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd., 1934), 506 pp.

book contains, among other things, an historical andethnological examination of education in American Samoa.While Modern Samoa was in the process of preparation, Dr.Keesing published an article in the October 1938 issue ofthe Mid-Pacific Magazine on the relation of language change

9to native education in Samoa.Dean Benj. 0. Wist reviewed and explained his work

of reorganizing the American Samoan public school system from the point of view of ethnology in an article in Social Science. October 1935.10

In 1936 two theses on American Samoan education were presented to the University of Hawraii. The first, by Mr. Donald Dean Mitchell of the Kamehameha Schools, dealt with general education, with special reference to health problems. 1 1 The second, by Mr. Earl L. McTaggart, who had just finished a two-year period of service in American Samoa as Superintendent of Education, was a specialized

Q® Felix M, Keesing, "Language Change in Relation to Native Education in Samoa," Mid-Pacific Magazine. Oct. 1932, pp. 303—13.

10 Benj. 0. Wist, "Ethnology as the Basis for Education," Social Science. Oct. 1935, pp. 336-47.

1 1 Donald Dean Mitchell, Education in American Samoa With Special Reference to Health Problems, (unpublished Master's thesis, University of Hawaii, June 1936), 204 pp.

8

treatise on agricultural education in American Samoa.These and other more general works on Samoa are

necessary to the student of American Samoan teacher training as a means hy which an adequate background of information may be secured.

OTHER SOURCES OF DATA

Due to the small amount of literature available in the study of teacher training in American Samoa, the main body of this thesis must necessarily be drawn more directly from the original sources of information in order to insure accuracy. Among the sources used, in addition to those mentioned above and the personal experience of the writer of this thesis, are:

1. Letters from professional educators at work in American Samoa or recently there.

2. Conferences with these workers.3. Official records and reports of the Government

of American Samoa.4. Official records and reports of the United

States Government relating to American Samoa.5. The official news organ of the Government of

American Samoa, 0 Le Fa’atonu._ \

^ Earl L. McTaggart, Agricultural Education in American Samoa. (unpublished Master’s thesis, University of Hawaii, August, 1936), 202- pp.

912

6. Official records and reports of the Barstow Foundation.

7. Questionnaires.

ORGANIZATION INTO CHAPTERS

This thesis has been organized so as to lead from the history and problems of Samoan education, which reveal the need for a teacher training program, through a discussion of the program adopted, its place in the school system, and the progress it has made to the point where the teacher training setup can be evaluated. Following this introduction, the study is organized in five chapters as follows: chapter II, a brief background of Samoaneducation; chapter III, a description of the reorganized school system which began operations in 1933 and some of the problems which it faced aside from teacher training, as such; chapter IV, an analysis and comparison of the educational needs of the American Samoan public school children and their teachers through tests, and the consequent problems faced by the staff engaged in reorganizing the public school system into which the teacher training program was integrated; chapter V, a study of the American Samoan teacher training setup, including the plans for it and the progress made during its first several years of operation; and chapter VI, an evaluation of this teacher training program and an estimate

10

of its future possibilities in the light of the original plan, practices of other teacher training institutions, and changing conditions in American Samoa.

CHAPTER II

A BRIEF BACKGROUND OF SAMOAN EDUCATION

The effectiveness of any teacher training plan is measurable only in terms of the school system to which it furnishes teachers. Both its present standard of efficiency and its future needs and possibilities are determined with this in mind. In this study of the training of teachers in American Samoa, an understanding of the American Samoan school system, including the geography and history of the Islands as they affect that system, is considered essential.

GEO-POLITICAL BACKGROUND

The islands of the Samoan archipelago lying east of meridian 171 degrees west of Greenwich came into the possession of the United States of America in 1900.1 These islands are shown in Figure 1. At that time a central governmental framework, manned and controlled by officers of the United States Navy and appointed by the President of the United States, was superimposed upon the then existing

plocal native governments. The evolution of this total

H.F. Bryan, American Samoa, a General Report by the Governor. 19S6. (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Govt. Prtg.Ofc., 1927), pp. 43, 45-50.

pFelix M. Keesing, Modern Samoa. (London: George

Allen and Unwin Ltd., 1934), pp. 48-49, 51.

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a United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, United States Possessions i_n the Samoa Islands, (Washington, D. C., Feb. 1929), Chart No. 4190.

governmental organization has resulted in the followingsetup still in operation:

The governor is the head of the government. He derives his authority not only from his commission as Governor of American Samoa, but also from his orders as commandant of the naval station, Tutuila. He is the maker of all laws, and his authority is supreme, subject to orders from the Navy Department.3

Assisting the governor in the administration of thelaws are the following heads of departments who, with oneexception, are officers of the United States Navy attachedto the naval station:

1. The secretary of native affairs (civilian appointed by the Secretary of the Navy).

2. The public health officer (senior medical officer of the naval station).

3. The superintendent of public works (public works officer of the naval station).

4. The director of education (naval station chaplain).

5. The chief customs officer (officer attached to the naval station).

6 . The island government treasurer (supply officer4of the naval station.

15

2 Bryan, op. cit., p. 58.^ Bryan, .op. cit.. p. 59.School Law of American Samoa, (Pago Pago: Govt,

of Am. Samoa, corrected to June 1934, mimeographed for the teachers institute, 1934), Sec. 67, paragraph 4.

The American Samoan group of islands was dividedinto three administrative districts to facilitate nativeparticipation in the government of American Samoa. Thedistricts are the eastern and western districts of Tutuilaisland and the Manu’a district which is composed of three

5islands: Ofu, Olosega and Tau . These districtscorrespond to the native political divisions in existence when the United States took over the government of these islands in 1900. Each district is administered by a native district governor who is appointed by the Governor of American Samoa from among the county chiefs of that district. These county chiefs, in turn, are chosen according to ancient Samoan custom from among certain

gtitled men of each county. Each village is controlled by a p ulema1u (mayor) who is a chief elected annually by the

7council of chiefs of the village and approved by the district governor of the district in which the village is located and by the Governor of American Samoa.

A system of courts is organized in the department of native affairs with the American judge of the high court at

Cf. ante, pp. 13-14, Fig. 1.0The eastern district is made up of four counties.

The western and Manu’a districts are made up of five counties each. Sometimes one chief is chosen to serve as county chief for two counties at the same time.

7 The village council of chiefs is composed of all of the chiefs of the village.

16

its head as secretary of native affairs. Responsible tohim are six native district judges and thirty-five nativevillage magistrates. The native officials are invariablyof chiefly rank, according to Samoan custom.

An annual fono (general assembly) is held inNovember of each year for the purpose of providing thenative representatives of the people with a specialopportunity to advise, recommend and protest action by thegovernor and his subordinates. These representatives haveno delegated power. The membership of the annual fono ismade up of the three district governors, all county chiefs,the six district judges and ten chiefs from each districtselected at district meetings of chiefs according to nativeSamoan custom.®

The island government offices as well as those ofthe United States naval station are located on Tutuilaisland on the southwest side of Pago Pago Bay between

9Fagatogo and Utulei.

NO TEACHER TRAINING PROBLEM IN INDIGENOUS SAMOA

The children in indigenous Samoa were educated

® Bryan, op. cit.. pp. 56-59, 63-65.A.M. Noble, codifier, Codification of the

Regulations and Orders for the Government of American Samoa. (Washington. D.C.s U.S. Govt. Prtg. Ofc., 1931),pp. 2-8.

9 Cf.. ante, pp. 13-14, Fig. 1.

17

directly in anticipation of their adult needs in Samoan society. Growth in "ability to exercise good judgment in personal and social matters" according to the Samoan tradition was required of every child. 10 Although all children of five or six years of age and above were required to contribute to the maintenance of the family according to their ability, their education in specialized work was not closely controlled. They were usually guided by individuals of their own choice, specific learnings being acquired often at times set by themselves. A considerably greater degree of adult control was exercised over the children of high chiefs. There was no problem of teacher preparation, as such, for anyone who could do anything with a skill was called upon to occupy the role of master in the training of one or more voluntary apprentices. 1 1

THE MISSIONS NEEDED TRAINED TEACHERS

The coming of Christian missionaries to Samoa focused attention upon the educational value of working with groups of people as opposed to working with

10 Margaret Mead, "The Role of the Individual in Samoan Culture," A.L. Kroeber and T.T. Waterman, Source Book in Anthropology. (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1931, rev. ed.), pp. 550-51.

1 1 Mead, loc. clt.Keesing, op. cit.. p. 414.

18

individuals. This, in turn, called attention to the needfor trained teachers; a need which the missionaries triedto meet, each mission body working out its own methods.Seventy years of missionary activity had taken place beforethe partition of the Samoan archipelago at the close of the

12nineteenth century.In American Samoa, in 1900, there was in operation a

system of fifty-seven village schools which were being conducted by the established Christian religious organizations. The medium of instruction in these schools was the Samoan language, and practically every village in the entire group of islands was served. These schools were taught by the native pastors (faife'aus). or by catechists of the village churches and were, and still are, referred to as "faife* au schools." The curriculum was made up almost entirely of a study of the Bible and its history and stories. The three-R’s were taught as a means of making the teaching of the Bible more effective. Some instruction in local geography was also given.

The great majority of the faifeTau schools were controlled by the London Missionary Society, referred to hereafter as L.M.S. The policy of this society was one of expansion as rapidly as the resources of the organization would permit. The L.M.S. pastors were trained for their

19

12 Keesing, loc. cit.

godual position of minister and teacher at the L.M.S. Mission Institute at Malua on the neighboring island of Upolu in Western Samoa. By 1900 this institute had already been in operation for more than fifty years. In the Mission Institute at Malua the London Missionary Society had pioneered in reducing the Samoan language to written form. The Samoan language was used as the basic medium of

1 rzinstruction in all of the L.M.S. schools.By the beginning of the present century the Roman

Catholic missionaries had established themselves in American Samoa, but their influence on the village educational system was, as yet, not significant due to the small number of Catholic adherents among the people. The policy of the Roman Catholic mission in American Samoa, as elsewhere, has been to work intensively with a comparatively small group in particular centers (as opposed to the rapid expansion program of the L.M.S. mission work in all villages). This work has been done almost exclusively by a limited number of white teachers who are ”Little Brothers” of the order of Mary, and sisters of the

13 Bryan, op. cit. . pp. 100-01.W. Evans, American Samoa, a General Report by the

Governor. 1921. (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Govt. Prtg. Ofc.,1922), p. 27.

Keesing, op. cit.. pp. 397, 399, 405-07, 411.Lloyd E. Blauch, assisted by Charles F. Reid,

Public Education in the Territories and Outlying Possessions. (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Govt. Prtg. Ofc.,1939), p. 212.

"Third Order Regular of Mary," Roman Catholic educationalmission organizations. Native Samoan catechists who teachin village schools are trained at Moamoa on the neighboring

14island of Upolu in Western Samoa.The Mormon mission (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter

Day Saints) had a staff of young American missionaries atwork on Tutuila island in 1900. They "were teaching

15English to some extent." No village schools of the faife*au type were maintained by them. Their policy was to draw the people into one central settlement.

Although the Wesleyan Methodists had been working in Western Samoa for nearly fifty years they did not open a mission center on Tutuila island until 1901. Their plan of work embraced expansion into the village nearly as much as did that of the L.M.S. mission, but they have had very little success due to the fact that the people were already being served by comparable religious organizations. Their limited increase in number of adherents has caused this group to have a similarly limited degree of influence on

■I Avillage school education in American Samoa.

14 Keesing, op. cit.. pp. 398-99, 406.Bryan, pp. cit.. p. 106.

15 Keesing, loc. cit.Bryan, pp. cit., pp. 107-08.

^ Keesing, pp. cit.. pp. 397-99, 406, 408.Bryan, pp. cit.. p. 109.

21

This village school movement by the missions wasintended to enable every capable person to read suchreligious and sectarian literature as the church saw fit toprovide for him. This had as one of its objectives thesubstituting of new customs, religion, church organization,religious songs, manners and social life in the place ofthose previously held, of suppressing customs which themissionaries considered to be incompatible with thespiritual or material welfare of the Samoan people and ofintroducing alien practices believed by the missionaries tobe desirable. Thus, as the restraining bonds of the oldcustoms broke down new ones could be more adequatelysubstituted. The success of these mission bodies, whichparticipated in the village school movement, as well as thesuccess of their pastor-teacher training agencies, isindicated by reports that by the beginning of the twentiethcentury about ninety-nine per cent of the Samoan people

17could read and write in their own language.By 1900 the missions had begun looking forward to a

more thoroughly educated membership. Workers with better preparation were in demand. As a result "higher schools" were opened. The shortage of properly trained teachers and adequate equipment for these schools made this step a difficult one. The Roman Catholics led in this phase of

17 Keesing, op. pit., pp. 401, 414.

educational endeavor. They were enabled to do so becauseof their large well-trained staff of brothers and sisters.The mission policy of the Roman Catholics enabled them tofurnish leadership in this "higher” school phase of Samoanmission education more easily than in the ’’village” school

18type in which the L.M.S. mission excelled.During the decade previous to the beginning of

American control and the decades immediately following, theRoman Catholic missionaries established five "higher”

19schools in American Samoa. Two were for boys and threefor girls. The boys schools were day schools while thosefor the girls had both day and boarding departments. Allare still in operation, although two of them have operatedfor the past twenty years as public schools, with thebrothers and sisters and their assistants on the islandgovernment pay roll. During this same period, the LondonMissionary Society established three "higher” schools ofwhich two, a boys school and a girls school, are still

P 0functioning. The Mormon mission established five

^ Cf. ante. p. 20-2 1 .19 The Leone Boys, Leone Girls, Atu’u Brothers’, St.

Francis Girls, and Lepua Sisters’ schools are still in operation. The Leone schools are now public schools. Cf. ante, pp. 13-14, Fig. 1.

Bryan, op. clt.. pp. 105-07.20 Fagalele boys and Atauloma girls schools are

still functioning. A boys school at Tan on the island of Tau has been discontinued. Cf. ante, pp. 13-14, Fig. 1.

Bryan, op. clt.. pp. 80-81, 101-02.

23

"higher coeducational schools, only one of which has oflate years been functioning as a mission school. TheMormon elders recently have been withdrawn from Samoa dueto the tense international situation, and their school isnow, at least temporarily, in the hands of the Department

21of Education. The Wesleyan mission has not established any "higher” schools in American Samoa.

AMERICAN EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY IN SAMOA

With the beginning of control over the eastern portion of the Samoan archipelago by the United States, its representatives brought to the islands a new concept of education— differing from that of the early missionaries. American democracy is considered to be dependent upon an enlightened citizenry, and the aim of preparing these people for self government along democratic lines, as well as the natural tendency for American officials to follow American tradition and transplant the American "passion for education," have been the invisible forces behind the ever- increasing vigor of the island government in its educational policies. The native Samoans’ desire for formal education had also been developing. The experience

21 Mapusaga school is now in operation as a semi­public school. Schools at Pago Pago, Tau, Fitiuta, and Olosega have been closed. Cf. ante, pp. 13-14, Fig. 1.

Bryan, op. cit.. pp. 107-08.

24

of living under the leadership of people of a culture other than their own had great influence in building this desire to acquire more of the qualities which appeared to make that culture superior.

During the first decade of American rule in Eastern or American Samoa, nearly every naval governor sent a request to the Secretary of the Navy for aid in establishing free, universal, public education in line with the American tradition. Samoan chiefs, part Samoans, and whites petitioned both the President of the United Statesand the Secretary of the Navy for financial help. But thenational government has not subsidized local educational efforts in Samoa. On the other hand national government subsidy has been granted, not only to Alaska, Hav/aii and Puerto Rico, but also to Guam and the Virgin Islands. It is pertinent to point out that political control, similar to that in Samoa, has been vested in military authority in the three last named island possessions.

There have been, however, a few minor exceptions to this national government relationship with American Samoa. As an inducement to the peaceful and voluntary cession of the Manu’a island group to the United States, the NavyDepartment made a grant of $250 in 1904 as subsidy inbuilding the L.M.S. "higher” school there. The school officials, however, had to agree not to teach religion during regular day school hours. Later, in 1926, some of

25

the public schools received indirect United StatesGovernment aid through the special hurricane relief fund

22voted by Congress.Although the national government did little or

nothing to encourage education in American Samoa, the island government did not hesitate to do so. In spite of friction which developed between the island government and some of the religious organizations (which did not, or could not meet its terms of barring religious education during the regular "public" school hours) it acted to encourage free "public" education. Three times in twelve years a Manu’a district school was opened with direct help from the island government. Each period of operation, however, was short. The Catholic Brothers’ Boys School in the western district of Tutuila, which opened in 1906, was partly supported by the district until 1921 when it became a part of the newly organized public school system. The building of a district school was encouraged in the eastern district. The plan failed because the chiefs, at the last minute, chose rather to build a house for the district

03governor, a high chief.

22 Bryan, op. clt.. pp. 80-81, 91-92.Keesing, op. clt.. p. 429.Blauch, op. cit.. pp. xv, 12-13, 213, 226, 233.Bryan, pp. cit., pp. 81-83, 86, 105-06.Evans, pp. cit.. p. 22.Cf. ante, pp. 13-14, Fig. 1.

26

A GOVERNMENT-SCHOOL NUCLEUS27

One government public day school developed during this period. It was opened at Fagatogo in April 1904. Its basic purpose was to teach the English language. The three-R’s and agriculture were also stressed. Its pupils, both boys and girls, were drawn from all three districts of American Samoa (eastern, western and Manu'a). The first principal, a normal school graduate, was the wife of a United States Navy warrant officer attached to the naval station. She had a part-Samoan woman as her assistant.The total cost of the school, including salaries and supplies, was about $1,000 for nine months. The Samoans immediately objected to the employment of women teachers for boys. In 1906 an Englishman was employed as principal at a salary of $1,000 a year. He remained for six and one-half years. His assistant, for part of the time, was the wife of a chief petty officer of the United States naval personnel stationed at the naval station. She was furnished an island government house for her services.Later an educated part-Samoan woman occupied this position. In 1915 the then newly arrived American principal’s annual salary was $1,320. He remained for three years.

By July 1914, the government school building was so dilapitated that it was totally unfit for further use.Land and buildings across the bay from the naval station

were leased and the school reopened as a boarding school with a plantation of forty acres to sustain it. By 1918 this land had been purchased and buildings erected at a total cost of about $25,000. The new public school, the "high” school of the islands, was named Poyer School in honor of the governor who was instrumental in affecting its purchase and construction. This school was destined to play an important part in the development of education in American Samoa.

Due to the island government leaders’ interest in education which brought about the establishment of Poyer school, many other progressive steps were taken during this period. The possibility of teaching the English language in all of the schools was investigated in 1911, and recommendations for more teaching of English were made. A sanitation and hygiene text for school use was prepared by the island government. In 1911 the governor issued a compulsory education regulation requiring attendance at school for four days a week of all children between the ages of six and thirteen years. Lack of a sufficient number of schools prevented this regulation from being enforced. During the same year a standard curriculum covering the primer and first four grades was prepared under government auspices. The island government furnished free textbooks, stationery, slates, etc. to all non­sectarian schools.

28

"The Education Regulation of 1914” made the villagecouncil of chiefs responsible for local school buildingsand teachers’ residences and for land for playgrounds andplantations. It set minimum school hours at four a dayand school days at four a week. The beginning school agewas reduced to five years. Although some of theseregulations could be enforced only in part, if at all, thefact that they were recorded indicates that the need forbetter education was constantly before the governmentofficials. Several conventions of the public and private

24school teachers were held during this period.

A GOVERNMENT SCHOOL SYSTEM

By 1920 the time was ripe for setting up a complete public school system. The need for "a comprehensive understanding of the English language” was stated as the principal reason for establishing the new system. However, it is quite probable that the officials, as American citizens, felt that it was in keeping with the American philosophy of education and that other reasons were only secondary. Samoan educational ambitions as referred to earlier in this chapter undoubtedly had some influence on

29

24 Bryan, op. pit., pp. 81-85, 87 Evans, op. pit., p. 28.

their decision. Whatever the contributing causes, theregulations of 1921 laid the foundation for an Americantype public school system by establishing a board ofeducational control. The position of director of educationwas created to be filled by the professional head of thesystem. The board, as appointed by the governor ofAmerican Samoa, included the secretary of native affairs,the public health officer, the superintendent of education

26who was the chaplain of the naval station and two civilian residents.

Nineteen government supported schools scattered throughout the three districts at strategic points to serve the villages were put into operation. Seventeen were planned to have a maximum of four grades each; one (Leone Boys), of five grades; and one (Poyer), of eight grades.The Leone Girls school was in the four-grades group. InMarch 1924 the twentieth school was opened, and by 1931 there were twenty-one schools. Four hours daily instruction

25 Bryan, op. cit.. pp. 85-88.Evans, op. cit.. p. 28.Benj. 0. Wist, Report of the Visiting Staff to

the Samoan Teachers Institute. 1932-1955 (bound ms. in the possession of the Barstow Foundation Library, Bishop Museum Bldg., Honolulu, T.H.), p. 19.

The chaplain of the naval station, although not a professional educator, was given the title usually assumed by the professional head of a school system. This was changed when the public school system was reorganized in 1933.

3025

to be given five days a week was established in 1921.The responsibility of the central island government

included the employment of teachers and the furnishing ofstandard school supplies and equipment. The villages wereto furnish the land and buildings— including their upkeep—and food and lodging for the teachers. The islandgovernment’s payments were made one-half from customs

27receipts and one-half from direct taxation.

SHORTAGE OF TRAINED NATIVE TEACHERS

In June 1922 twenty-nine teachers taught 1,567 children in nineteen schools. This was an average pupil- teacher ratio of 54:1. Twenty-four of these teachers were natives who were chosen as those best prepared to teach from among the candidates who requested employment and presented themselves to the superintendent of education for examination. Very few of them had had any special training for the work. The turnover among these teachers during the first few years of operation of the school system was very great. It was reported that of the thirty-six teachers on the island government pay roll on

P7 Bryan, 0£. cit.. pp. 87-88, 91.A.M. Noble, codifier, Codification of the

Regulations and Orders for the Government of American Samoa, (San Francisco: Phillips & Van Orden Co., 1921),section 67, pp. 50-53.

American Samoan Commission Report to the President of the United States. (Washington, D.C.: U.S.Govt. Prtg. Ofc., 1931), p. 4.

31

June 30, 1924, 42 per cent were new.The lack of trained teachers was recognized from the

first as the weakest part of the whole undertaking. The best prepared of the native teachers had had only a poor eighth grade education. To improve this situation a plan for teacher training during the annual vacation period was put into effect. Teacher guidance and improvement was placed in the hands of the Director of Education (professional head of the school system). The first person to fill this position took up his duties in August 1922.The Director of Education was employed by contract. Candidates for the position were educators trained in the United States. 28

SAMOA ADOPTED AN OUTDATED COURSE OF STUDY

In December of 1922 the board of education adopted the course of study and basic textbooks then in use by the Department of Public Instruction, Territory of Hawaii. But apparently the Samoan authorities did not know that Hawaii was making plans, at that time, for a radical change in its curriculum. The Samoan public school curriculum as it developed under this adopted course of study was in keeping with traditional educational practices still in force in many parts of the United States, but it was quite

28 Wist, op. cit.. pp. 20, 69, 78.Bryan, op. cit.. pp. 89-91.

32

inapplicable to Samoan needs. Health and sanitation in their practical application to Samoa were overlooked. Ethnological differences between the Samoans and other peoples for whom the course of study had originally been made were not considered. At a time when curricula throughout the nation, including those of Hawaii, were being liberalized so as to provoke real thinking among the children, Samoa adopted a static course of study of the old type based almost entirely on the question and answer memorizing method of teaching.

This had two bad effects on the system as it developed: First, the teachers gained their experience inthe application of a course of study which was ill adapted to Samoan needs, as well as outdated in the more progressive systems of education throughout the United States. Second, it was so rigid in its makeup that gradual liberalization was very difficult and replacing it in its entirety became a practical necessity. 29

The breakdown of the system using this course of study began almost at once. In 1923, because of the

pq Bryan, op. cit.. p. 89.Ben;). 0. Wist, "Ethnology as the Basis for

Education,” Social Science. Oct. 1935, p. 345.Frank E. Midkiff, "Basic Paper on Schools, Etc.,”

Report of the First Committee of the Barstow Foundation to American Samoa. 1932^ (Honolulu: compiled from BarstowFoundation records; privately mimeographed and bound, 1932).

Wist, Report of the Visiting Staff, op. cit.. pp.23-24.

33

difficulty of conducting the kindergarten and primary work as a one year course for the beginning children, "chart” and primer classes were introduced as prerequisites to admission to the first grade. Charts and primers prepared for use in the Philippines were used. In 1924 a policy was formulated which, within a few years, would have reduced the offerings of twelve of the schools to "chart" and primer classes only, with the village pastors as teachers. It would have reduced the offerings of four of the remaining schools to a maximum of four grades, with only two island government teachers each. The other three schools, alone, would have been permitted to offer work through the eighth grade, and these would have been limited to four island government teachers each. The age for entering school was raised from five to six years.

The danger of this plan lay not in losing a poor school system but in reducing the scope of service of a system, which, while not being very useful in itself, had the potentialities of being transformed into a really valuable one. Governor H.F. Bryan's arrival in March 1925, was timely in preventing this serious retrogression from taking place. However, the minimum school age was left at six years. Modification in policy made possible the development of two eight-grade schools and six with six

34

grades each. 20 By 1926 the two civilian residents on the hoard of education had been replaced by three Samoan chiefs, each representing one of the three districts of American Samoa. The teaching staff of the twenty schools was made up of forty-two individuals. Of these, three were women, the two Marist sisters at the Leone Girls School and one sewing teacher at Poyer school. None of these women teachers taught boys. In 1930 it was reported that the twenty-one public schools were taught by fifty-two teachers.^

CONTROVERSY OVER RESULTS OF EDUCATION IN SAMOA

The United States congressional commission to American Samoa in 1930 reported that the people of American Samoa were, by then, ready for their first extensive step in self-government. This could be interpreted as evidence of the desirable effects of the educational efforts of both missions and government in Samoa, and of the concomitant educational values of other activities not strictly educational in aim. Parenthetically, it may be

^ Bryan, loc. cit.Wist, "Ethnology as the Basis for Education,"

loc. cit.Wist, Report of the Visiting Staff, op. cit..

pp. 19, 50-51.Noble, 0£. cit.. p. 51.

'Z1 Bryan, o_g. cit.. p. 90.American Samoan Commission Report to the

President of the United States, loc. cit.

35

noted that many people concerned did not have this opinion. Among these were many government officials of Samoa and the United States, missionaries, business leaders, and students of Samoan history and government. The failure of the commission’s Samoan self-government bill to pass the Congress of the United States, although it has been revised and revived several times, probably reflects this difference of opinion. 3*2

POORLY TRAINED TEACHERS— A SERIOUS PROBLEM

Although vacation institutes of ten weeks duration were held regularly each year, the very low degree of pre-service training the teachers had received seemed to be an almost insurmountable obstacle. The teachers, themselves, were products of the inadequate schools already described. Some of them had had the added help of formal drill and memorization work which the Roman Catholic Mar1st brothers gave to certain promising students. Some had had the advantage of the all English instruction given by the Mormon elders, and a few had received some education in Western Samoa. Aside from the limited amount of professional help which the island government could bring

32 American Samoan Commission Report to the President of the United States. op. cit.. pp. 4-9.

Wist, Report of the Visiting Staff, op. cit., p. 9, footnote ll.

Keesing, .op. cit.. pp. 203-13, 407.Blauch, op. cit.. p. 209.

36

in, there were very few opportunities for professional growth among the teachers. Up to 1932 this professional help included only that given by the director of education assisted at times by naval personnel or their wives who had had some normal school training. 33

SOCIAL STATUS OF SAMOAN TEACHERS

Another circumstance in the formative years of the American Samoan public school system which contributed to the general ineffectiveness of the work of the teachers was their lack of status in native circles in comparison to that of the other government employed groups of natives and of those in private employment. Prestige resulting from recognized status in Samoa is of great concern to everyone due to the Samoan social organization.

In Samoan life a mature man is considered as being a "young man” or "worker" regardless of his age until his abilities, actions and attitudes have been recognized as being properly efficient and in keeping with traditional Samoan custom. He may never receive this recognition but go through life in the capacity of a mere worker. On the other hand, if he is recognized in this way some matai

33 Wist, "Ethnology as the Basis for Education," op. cit.. p. 346.

Wist, Report of the Visiting Staff, op. cit.,p. 69.Midkiff, jop. cit., p. 14.Bryan, op. cit.. pp. 89-90.

37

title (chief or talking chief designation) left vacant (due to death, "resignation," or deposition) is bestowed upon him by his family and/or the council of chiefs, depending on the rank of the title. The title automatically bestows a certain degree of social status and a full time job on its possessor, the magnitude of the prestige resulting therefrom is determined partly by the rank of that title in the Samoan social system and partly by the matai’ s generous distribution of wealth (fine mats, slapo. food, etc.).There are many distinctions of rank within the title system, and some variance of distinctions used in different localities. 34

Some teachers have had matai titles conferred on them. Paradoxically, instead of the titles being of benefit to them in their positions as teachers, they have usually been a handicap, for two reasons: first, theresponsibilities that go with the titles have demanded so much of the teachers’ time and attention that their teaching work has suffered; and second, often the Samoan tradition that the chief gives the orders and the untitled people carry them out has caused teachers to cease being positive teachers and instead merely to sit in the classroom and give orders in a grandiose manner.

34 Keesing, ag. cit.♦ pp. 30-31, 48-60, 493.Wist, "Ethnology as the Basis for Education," op.

cit., p. 338.

38

To eliminate this handicap the Department of Education, in 1936, provided for compulsory honorable discharge for all principals and teachers holding matai titles. This automatically bars the Samoan, so long as he holds a teaching position, from attaining the oldest and most highly recognized form of status in the native Samoan social organization. Dr. G. Gordon Brown, Principal of the Barstow Foundation experimental School in American Samoa, • sums up this situation when he says,

The result is that a teacher must create his own status, in a community where status is all important.

. . . He is debarred from any direct leadership in the community and, if he is energetic, must depend upon his personal influence with one of the matai. . . .So

The native teacher has attempted to increase hisprestige and power in the native village setting by keeping

. . . a store of knowledge to himself, to impress both inferiors and superiors. The chiefs and talking chiefs maintain their power by a knowledge of tradition which gives validity to their privileges; the teacher /in keeping with this Samoan thought/ must have a similar store of knowledge to give validity to his status.36

The only untitled men living within the bounds of Samoan society who have been accorded prestige comparable

39

G. Bordon Brown, The Native Teacher in Samoa. (mimeographed, 1936), p. 4.

Felix M. Keesing, Education in Pacific Countries. (Shanghais Kelly and Walsh, Ltd., 19377, P* 184.

.Q He Fa1 atonu. (Pago Pago: official news organof the Govt, of Am. Samoa), May 1936.

Brown, loc. cit.Keesing, Modern Samoa. op. cit.. p. 436.

to that of the chiefs, although they are usually not chiefs,are the faife’aus or village pastors. The members of theFita Flta Guard (Samoans enlisted in the United States Navybut permanently stationed in American Samoa) have beenaccorded considerable prestige due to their commandingposition as naval station police and the remunerationattached to such service, but this does not approach thatof the falfe’au. The superior pay of the Fita Fitaguardsmen and the high degree of recognition enjoyed bythe faifeTaus have caused a number of the more promisingteachers to leave the teaching service for these otherpositions as opportunities have arisen. Since thecompulsory honorable discharge regulation of 1936 theren . . . is also the possibility that a large proportion/of the teacher_s7 will resign to accept matai titlesleaving the teaching to the comparatively young,” says

37Dr. Brown. However, "there is a growing disposition to refuse ’matai» titles," according to Dean Wist. This fact may counteract the possibility of many teachers leaving the

2Qservice to become matais.Girls and women in native Samoa are accorded status

in any of the following situations: as a ceremonial virgin

Brown, o£. cit.. p. 5.Wist, Report of the Visiting Staff, op. cit.. p.

79. ............38 Wist, Report of the Visiting Staff, op. cit., p.

14.

40

(taupo) representing a family, a village, or other group (the virgin's prestige is determined by the importance of the group she serves); as the wife of a chief, talking chief or faife'au (her prestige is determined by the rank of her husband among the chiefs)} and as a chief herself (only a few women have been given matai titles). Most of the teachers in American Samoa are men. Owing to the general lack of status of Samoan women, the presence of women in the ranks of the teaching personnel would be an added handicap to the reasonable growth of recognized professional status in Samoan society for that teaching body. This is true in spite of the fact that outside of American Samoa women are generally recognized as superior teachers for primary children. But regardless of whether men or women teach in the schools, the fact that they are working with children which constitute the neglected group in Samoan society, their possible opportunities for building a more desirable status for themselves are even

7Qless promising.The basic importance of status to the teaching

personnel in American Samoa is summed up by Dr. Brown when he says, "If the school is to be a factor of influence in the community . . ." it " . . . must be able to take an active part in village life ..." and in order to do this

S9 Brown, loc. cit.Wist, Report of the Visiting Staff, op. cit.,

pp. 17-18, 78-79.

41

"the more able Samoan teachers /must/ be spared thehumiliating position of inferiority when they know their

40abilities entitle them to something better.”In spite of the magnitude of these problems some

progress has been made. Due to government influence, and more lately to the efforts and presence of imported educators of recognized standing in the teaching profession, the conditions relating to lack of teacher status have tended to change. Because of this change more young Samoan people of ability look forward to becoming teachers.

42

40 Brown, 0£. cit.. pp. 4-5.

CHAPTER III

THE REORGANIZED SCHOOL SYSTEM

The development of the American Samoan public school system to 1933 was traced in chapter II. In that year thesystem was reorganized and redirected. Circumstances1leading to the reorganization, as well as a description of the system after the reorganization and redirection had been consumated, are related in this chapter.

An event took place in Hawaii in 1931 which was destined completely to change the educational situation in American Samoa. Circumstances surrounding the life and death of a young man who was interested in the welfare of the Samoan people were responsible for the creation of the Frederic Duclos Barstow Foundation for American Samoans. " The trustees of this Foundation visited American Samoa in the simmer of 1932 and after studying the situation made recommendations for aid to Samoa based on a broad objective which the Foundation developed and defined, while working in cooperation with the officials of the Government of

Deed of Trust. Frederic Duclos Barstow Foundation for American Samoans. (Honolulu: Barstow Foundation, 1931).

Frank E. Midkiff, ”A Charitable Trust Makes Plans to Serve a Primitive People,” Mid-Pacific Magazine. Jan. 1933, pp. 17-18, 28-29.

Benj. 0. Wist, Report of the Visiting Staff to the Samoan Teachers Institute. 1932-1933, (bound ms. in the possession of the Barstow Foundation Library, Bishop Museum Building, Honolulu, T.H.), pp. 26-27.

44American Samoa. This was a definite educational policy inkeeping with American Samoa's unique needs and with thewhole American philosophy of education. This policy adopts

An objective which recognizes that much in Samoan ways and life is good in itself and is admirably adapted to the people of these islands, but that American Samoa is undergoing change, especially through the influence of western civilization. In view of this changing condition, which is likely to go much further as time goes on, the objective of education should be to conserve the best of Samoan culture and at the same time give acquaintance with the great intellectual tools and social concepts and institutions of the west to the end that the Samoans may maintain respect for their native heritage and skill in their traditional arts and crafts and at the same time may learn to meet on equal terms with other peoples the conditions of the modern world.2

The basic policy for its work in American Samoa determined, the Barstow Foundation set up five immediate objectives as follows:

1. The Foundation, at its own expense, send a committee of three carefully selected educators from Hawaii to American Samoa to conduct the teachers institute which was to be held from December 1932 to February 1933.

2. The Foundation send two selected Samoan teachersp "Objectives of Education of the Government of

American Samoa," Report of the First Committee of the Barstow Foundation to American Samoa. 1952. (Honolulu: compiled from Barstow Foundation records; privately mimeographed and bound, 1932).

Wist, op. pit., pp. 28-29.Benj. 0. Wist, "Ethnology as the Basis for

Education," Social Science. Oct. 1935, pp. 342-45.Lloyd E. Blauch, assisted by Charles F. Reid,

Public Education in the Territories and Outlying Possessions. (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Govt. Prtg. Ofc.,1939), pp. “211-12.

to Hawaii for two months of carefully planned educational experience.

3. The Foundation send two or three selected chiefs to Hawaii to study agriculture and fishing methods.

4. The Foundation establish a senior school in American Samoa to train leaders.

5. The Foundation aid the Government of AmericanSamoa in handling its many unsolved educational problemssuch as the training of medical students, the organizing of

2kindergartens, etc.

THE SCHOOL SYSTEM IS REORGANIZED

These recommendations, in general, were accepted by the Government of American Samoa. Work was begun at once on plans for the institute and the senior school. The educational committee from Hawaii to conduct the institute was made up of Dean Benjamin 0. Wist, chairman, and Professor William McCluskey, both of Teachers College, University of Hawaii, and Principal Robert K. Faulkner of the Kawananakoa Experimental School, Department of Public Instruction of the Territory of Hawaii. While carrying on the wrork of the institute, this committee was requested by the government of American Samoa to recommend a complete

S Midkiff, oja. cit.. pp. 28-29.Wist, Report of the Visiting Staff, op. cit.. pp.29-31.

45

reorganization of the public school system, based on its observation and experience. In cooperation with the Director of Education (professional head) and Superintendent of Education (naval chaplain) the committee decided to use as basic the policy of education adopted a few months earlier by the government and the Barstow Foundation. Four accomplishments were the result, namely: "a course ofstudy; . . . a reorganization of school administration; . .. a recodification of school laws and regulations; . . . a reorganization of the financial budget to make possible the various changes recommended."^

The Controlling Philosophy of the New Curriculum.The basis of the philosophy of education for the reorganized public school system of American Samoa was determined by the Barstow Foundation Trustees in cooperation with the Government of American Samoa in 1932. The vital part of this statement of policy will bear repeating:

. . . the objective of education should be to conserve the best of Samoan culture and at the same time give acquaintance with the great intellectual tools and social concepts and institutions of the west to the end that the Samoans may maintain respect for their native heritage and skill in their traditional arts and crafts and at the same time may learn to meet on

46

^ Wist, "Ethnology as the Basis for Education," op. cit.. pp. 341-42.

Wist, Report of the Visiting Staff, op. cit., pp. 31, 59-70, 96.

equal terms with other peoples the conditions of the modern world.5

The ability to think with discrimination is the means by which this ideal of education for American Samoa can be made functional. A school environment wrhich actively contributes to the upbuilding of this ability is very necessary. Means are found for building such an environment and for obtaining the greatest growth in intelligent thinking for the longest period of time within the limits of available resources.®

The Course of Study. The course of study as prepared for the professional staff consisted of thirty- eight legal size mimeographed pages of instructions and suggestions. The nine school year periods (or grades) as outlined were organized into primary, intermediate, and upper year divisions with pertinent information for teachers in each group. All sizes of schools as well as all year groups were given attention.

The point of departure of any part of the reorganized educational program is determined by the level of the child’s own experiences. To aid teachers of meager professional background to work in accordance with this criterion a series of theme subjects were set up. From the

47

® "Objectives of Education of the Government of American Samoa,’’ loc. cit.

ft Wist, Report of the Visiting Staff, op. cit., pp.53-55.

first through the ninth years, respectively, the themes are: homes and home life, the child’s community life,foods and how they are secured, shelter and clothing, transportation, communication, the Polynesian environment, government, and nations as neighbors. Suggestions for handling the work with these themes were made but the preparation of detailed outlines were not, for plan making was left to local effort.

The course of study emphasized the necessity for beginning all study on desirable elements of native life and approaching the study of other peoples and their cultures only in terms of comparisons and contrasts with elements of the indigenous culture. Local history, geography and government, the tropical approach to health and sanitation, and tool subjects were all to have their place in the curriculum. The need to plan carefully was emphasized, and special training was to be given the children in this art by actual cooperative teacher-pupil planning of daily school activities. Pupil participation in planning, it was emphasized, will do much to build intelligence and foresight.

The native arts, crafts, and agriculture were especially emphasized. The decreasing ratio of agricultural land area to population, due to the rapid and continuous increase of population in American Samoa, has focused attention on the need for better agricultural

48

methods and the general acquisition of the best methods7known to tropical agriculturalists.

Promotion. The promotion of children from grade to grade on the basis of educational age without regard for arbitrary standards of achievement was set up as a principle of the new curriculum. It was considered to be "more important that the child progress normally from year to year and that he" live "in the group of his own age- level than that he should learn the same facts as the other children." As standards of achievement for each grade were gradually built up, the chronological age promotions plan was abandoned, with the result that definite minimum standards based on final examinations were definitely

49

Wist, Report of the Visiting Staff, op. cit.. pp.258-59.

Course of Study. Department of Education. Government of American Samoa. (Pago Pago; Govt, of Am. Samoa, mimeographed, 1933), pp. 1-38.

Earl L. McTaggart, Annual Report of Progress and Needs of the Public School System of American Samoa to the Board of Education. July 1935, (Pago Pago: Govt, of Am. Samoa, ms., 1935), pp. 2-4.

Claude A. Swanson, Annual Report of the Secretary of the Navy for the Fiscal Year 1938. (Washington. D.C.: U.S. Govt. Prtg. Ofc., 1938), p. 31.

Blauch, op. cit., pp. 204-06.W.H. Coulter, Annual Report of the Superintendent

of Education. 1 June. 1940 to 31 May, 1941. (Pago Pago: Govt, of Am. Samoa, ms., 1941), pp. 9-11.

The World Almanac, 1941 (New York: The N.Y.World-Telegram, 1941), p. 43.

Earl L. McTaggart, Agricultural Education in American Samoa, (unpublished Master’s thesis, University of Hawaii, August, 1936), p. ii.

Qestablished as basic for graduation in 1940-1941.In terms of the above philosophy of education and

course of study organization designed to make it function, three requisites are necessary to insure a reasonable measure of educational success in the schools: a staff ofadequately trained teachers and supervisors to guide the children in their growth; adequate physical facilities— a minimum in quality and quantity of grounds, buildings, and furniture— in which to do the work; and a minimum but ever growing supply of printed informational material upon which to draw. The educational problem of providing a staff to carry out this program is duscussed fully in chapter V.The financial problem relating to it is discussed in this chapter. The source of supply of the buildings and grounds is discussed later in this chapter as is the problem of providing the necessary printed material and consumable supplies.

Medium of Instruction. The problem of providing printed material is a much more difficult one if the Samoan language were to be used than if English is made the basis

Q Wist, Report of the Visiting Staff. op. clt.. p.257.

M.V. Heminger, Annual Report of the Superintendent °f Education for the Scholastic Year Ending May 31, 1959, IPago Pago: Govt, of Am. Samoa, ms., 1939;, p. 14.

C.M. Sitler, Annual Report. Department of Education, to the Governor of American Samoa. 1958-1959, (Pago Pago: Govt, of Am. Samoa, mimeographed, 1939), p. 13.

Coulter, op. cit.. pp. 144-46.

50

i

of instruction. Since the objective of education as proposed by the Barstow Foundation and adopted by the Government of American Samoa looks upon both the Samoan and the Western cultures as having desirable qualities, either the Samoan language or the English language, or both, might be used as mediums of instruction. Due to the very limited amount of printed educational material in the Samoan language and the great difficulty of preparing sufficient quantities of it in contrast to the much larger amount of such material in English and the comparative ease with which more can be prepared, it was decided to use English as the medium of instruction. This choice did not brand the Samoan language as useless but named it as the less desirable of the two for this particular use. The existence of the Ttfalfe,aun school system, with instruction in the Samoan language by highly respected teachers, should guarantee regular instruction in this language for all who wish to have it. There has, however, been a considerable amount of adverse criticism of the policy of using English as the sole medium of instruction on the basis that it is hastening the decay of the native Samoan language and culture. This criticism has come from persons both inside and outside of government circles. In partial answer to this criticism the department of education1s supervisory staff has at least partially closed its eyes to the use of Samoan in grade one. The teachers have used it to greater

51

or less degrees during the absence of the supervising personnel from the beginning, but enough of English has been used to enable retiring superintendent W.H. Coulter in 1941 to say:

The English spoken and used by graduates of the ninth grade here compares favorably with that spoken by similar students of foreign background in Hawaii.In Hawaii the teachers are supposed to be proficient in the use of English. In Samoa the native teachers who instruct in English have never had an opportunity to become very proficient in the use of the English language.9

It is now recommended that the use of the Samoan language in the primary grades be permitted as a tool to help in the teaching of other subjects, including English, but not as a language, itself, to be taught.

52

SAMOA-HAWAII COOPERATION

The Barstow Foundation board of trustees was composed of prominent educators and ethnologists of Hawaii because of their more specialized experience with

9 Wist, Report of the Visiting Staff, pp. cit., pp.61, 157.

’’Objectives of Education of the Government of American Samoa,” loc. cit.

Felix M. Keesing, Education in Pacific Countries. (Shanghai: Kelly and Walsh, Ltd., 1937), pp. 80, 170-71,438-39.

0 _Le Fa’atonu. (Pago Pago: official news organ ofthe Govt, of Am. Samoa), Feb. 2935.

Heminger, op. cit.. p. 3.E.F. Redman, Annual Report. Department of

Education, to the Governor of American Samoa. 1939-1940. (Pago Pago: Govt, of Am. Samoa, mimeographed, 1940), p. 18.

Blauch, pp. cit.. pp. 219, 234.Coulter, pp. cit.. pp. 12-13, 156.

Polynesian peoples. The educational objectives for American Samoa which were adopted by the trustees in 1932 were in reality an outgrowth of their Polynesian educational experience in Hawaii. The educational committee sent to Samoa from Hawaii a few months later had the same viewpoint regarding the needs of the Samoan situation. Thus, an ever-tightening bond between the American Samoan and the Hawaiian educational systems developed. The course of study and the availability of the professional personnel to direct its application were the result of this bond. To insure the continuance of this cooperation between the two island areas an agreement was concluded between the two education departments in 1936 for the exchange, or rather loan, to Samoa for twro (or more) year periods at Samoan Government and Barstow Foundation expense, of educators to fill the key professional positions of superintendence, teacher training, and other higher education instruction. There are now six such people on regular duty in Samoa, in addition to the special vacation teachers institute instructors. In the year 1936, the Dean of the Teachers College of the University of Hawaii was appointed by the Governor of American Samoa with the approval of the Governor of Hawaii to serve for three years as the Hawaiian educational representative of American Samoa, thus guaranteeing to Samoa the wisest choice possible of

its professional leaders. In 1939 Mr. Earl L. McTaggart, former superintendent of education in American Samoa and now executive secretary of the Hawaii Education Association, was appointed to this position.^

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION PERSONNEL

The reorganized department of education of American Samoa is headed officially by the governor. The board of education is responsible to the governor for the administration of the department. The board has the duty of legislating for the department of education within the limits of the school code and its actions are subject to the veto of the governor. Despite the fact that members of the board make suggestions occasionally which might have disastrous results on the school system it has, on the whole, operated very well in the interests of Samoan education. The board consists of the naval station chaplain, the attorney general, the chief public health officer, the chief public works officer, and three native Samoans— invariably of high rank according to Samoan custom. The judge of the high court of American Samoa in recent years has been sitting on the board as an advisory member. The native Samoans are appointed by the governor and represent the three political districts. The naval

54

10 Blauch, ojo. clt.. pp. 215-16, 220-21.

station chaplain, a member of the board, is director of education and the executive head of the department. The members of the board, both Samoan chiefs and naval officers, receive no island government salaries for such service but are allowed expenses for travel and supplies.

The professional head of the education department is the superintendent of education. He is appointed by the governor on the recommendation of the board of education, and is paid from island government and Barstow Foundation funds and serves according to contract with the island government. The superintendent attends all regular meetings of the board of education in an advisory capacity, but he has no vote. He is responsible to the board and in part to the director of education, the executive head of the board. He recommends all teachers and principals to the board for appointment and is otherwise responsible for all professional matters of the school system.

The secretary of education serves as secretary to the board of education at the convenience of the director of education and is secretary to the superintendent. In this capacity, he is in charge of all educational records. His duties as secretary to the board of education are often taken over by a navy yoeman who is secretary to the director of education. The secretary of education and all of the other professional employees of the department of education are paid from island government funds. The

55

director of education and his yoeman are paid by the United States navy.

The supervising principal is immediately responsible to the superintendent. He acts in the capacity of interpreter at board of education meetings. He has aided the superintendent by inspecting all of the regular public schools at least three times a year and supervising the teachers and principals as necessary. He acts as chief liaison officer between the superintendent and the village chiefs. In 1940 the codification of the school laws was changed so as to relieve him of one of these inspection tours annually. Two native supervising teachers have been provided to make surprise inspections of all of the schools. They report on attendance, truants, transfers, agricultural work, the crafts program, sanitation and health, plan writing, condition of buildings and grounds, teachers’ food, etc. They substitute for principals in the larger schools as necessary, serve as special messengers and assist the regular supervisory staff on its field trips to the schools. This change was planned to allow the supervising principal more time in the central office for the preparation of educational reports and the conduct of other important office business.

Principals and special instructors in the three special schools are employed by written contract with the island government which shares with the Barstow Foundation

56

the expenses of these schools. Regular teachers In these schools are employed in the same manner as all regular public school teachers. None of these special school staff members is subject to supervision by the supervising principal.

Regular public school principals are appointed each year without written contract to teach and to be in charge in all schools having more than one teacher. Regular public school teachers are also appointed for one year at a time without written contract. They are assistants to the principals except in one-teacher schools where they are in full charge and are responsible to the supervising principal and the superintendent. 1 1

Women Teachers. Although native feeling against women teachers is still present, it is slowly giving way in the face of the department of education policy to encourage capable girls to become teachers. The presence of the white women instructors in the teacher training school has undoubtedly helped. More girls are now looking

1 1 Wist, Report of the Visiting Staff, op. cit.. pp.66- 68.

School Law of American Samoa, (Pago Pago: Govt,of Am. Samoa, corrected to June 1934, mimeographed for the teachers institute, 1934), Sec. 67, paragraphs 2-6, 10-12.

Sitler, op. cit.. p. 21.Redman, op. cit., pp. 2-3, 13.M.V. Heminger, Superintendent of Education,

letter to Earl L. McTaggart, Hawaiian Educational Representative of American Samoa, 9 Oct. 1939.

Coulter, op. cit.. pp. 96-98, 113.

57

forward to becoming teachers. A few have been employed for primary grades classes, but special care is taken to place them in schools enabling them to live with members of their family or dependable relatives. Appendix D gives an indication of progress made with this problem to date.

COMPULSORY EDUCATION

The public schools of American Samoa are open, without charge, to the children of citizens of American Samoa. At the time of the reorganization, attendance at school was made compulsory for all children between the ages of six and fifteen years. However, it has not been possible completely to enforce this law due to lack of sufficient cooperation from the parents, the chiefs, the pulenu1us (mayors) and the native teachers themselves.The employment of native supervising teachers is a recent step in the direction of more completely enforcing this law. In the discussion in this chapter under the sub-head, "Decentralization Aids Attendance," a statistical example of this difficulty is given. Beginning in September 1940, the department of education decided to raise the minimum age limit from six to seven years. This was a definite move on the part of the department to encourage the faife* au schools to give the children better preparation in the native Samoan language and culture. In November a plan to revise the compulsory education law, so as to

58

require attendance at school for all boys between the ages of seven and fourteen years and for all girls between the ages of seven and twelve years, was presented to the annual fono (meeting) of representative chiefs with the governor and the heads of the departments of the government. The proposal was approved by this body and by the Governor of American Samoa.

In 1933 public school hours in session were set by the board of education at from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. The faifefau schools had sessions both before and after public school hours. In November 1934, by agreement between the faife* au schools and the department of education, school hours for most of the public schools were changed to hold from 8:00 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. for the primary children, and from 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. for the intermediate and upper year groups. Under this plan faife*au school hours were to be entirely in the afternoons. In 1940 the hours for public schools were set at from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. for primary and intermediate groups, and from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. for the upper grade groups in district schools. This plan was made to effect greater cooperation with the faife*au schools in the interests of better Samoan language and culture education, and for the purpose of advancing the new agricultural program of the public schools in which each primary grades child is required to help in the family garden, and each intermediate grades

59

child is required to be solely responsible for the care ofa plantation garden plot for the benefit of the family.Since upper grade groups are hereafter to be taught onlyin the three district schools, the upper grade childrenwill have to spend three days a week during their regularafternoon sessions in the care of the school plantationswhich are used to provide food for the district schoolteachers. In this way the village public school teachersare released at 12:30 p.m. and the district schoolteachers at 2:30 p.m. to work in their own gardens. Inaddition to this the village teachers are responsible fororganizing all intermediate grade children into 4-H clubs

1 Pand for the supervising of their individual gardens.

TYPES OF SCHOOLS IN AMERICAN SAMOA TODAY

The schools of American Samoa have been designated as public, special, private and faifeTau. All public schools are controlled by the department of education and maintained by the island government and the communities in which they are located.

Special schools are organized for special purposes,

12 School Law of American Samoa, op. cit.. Sec. 67, paragraph 18.

McTaggart, Annual Report of Progress and Needs. op. cit.. pp. 18-19.

0 Le Fa’atonu. op. cit.. Oct. 1940.Coulter, cit.. p. 100.The Leone Boys and Girls Schools serve as one

district school of the coeducational type.

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controlled by the department of education and maintainedwholly or in part by the island government and thecommunities in which they are located. They are not on thelevel of the general education system and are, therefore,not subject to supervision by the supervising principal orthe supervising teachers although the law states that theynare to be considered as integral parts of the publicschool system.”

Private schools receive no financial support fromthe island government, but must have curricula which havebeen approved by the board of education. Their schooldays and years correspond roughly to those of the publicschools. Students in attendance at private schools arenot required to attend the public schools. Private schoolsare subject to special regulation by the board of educationin all matters except in the teaching of religion. Theyare subject to periodic inspection by the superintendent.

Faife* au schools are organized by the villagepastors and are conducted outside of the regular publicschool hours. Their students are not exempt fromattendance at public schools. They are subject to specialregulation by the board of education and to inspection and

13supervision by the supervising principal.

13 School Law of American Samoa, op. cit.. Sec. 67,paragraphs 7-9...................."

Cf. ante, p. 19.

61

To aid in a better understanding of the types ofschools here discussed and the relative influence of eachon education in American Samoa the average or approximatenumbers of children in attendance at each type of schoolduring the school year 1939-1940 are here given: privateschools— 508 children; faife* au schools— 3,475 children;special school (Feleti)— 45 children; special school(Poyer teacher training division)— 15 student teachergraduates; special school (.Leone Boys teacher trainingdivision)— 14 student teacher graduates; and publicschools (including children in Poyer and Leone Boys

14intermediate and upper grades— g,770 children.The Special Schools. Two special schools were

opened soon after the new system was organized and a third in 1939. The first, Poyer School, was a reorganized public school planned to serve a threefold purpose: Itwas to serve the Pago Pago bay area of Tutuila island as an elementary school with nine years of work offered; it was to lead in experimentation with the new course of study; and it was to be developed into a teacher training institution. As a teacher training school it had a threefold purpose: It was to serve as a demonstrationschool; it was to provide in-service training for regular

Redman, op. pit., pp. 15-16.W.H. Coulter, Superintendent of Education,

official figures of teacher training graduates in American Samoa, submitted to Mark M. Sutherland in 1941.

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native teachers placed there for a period of one semester or one school year at a time; and it was to be the institution in which candidates for the teaching profession in American Samoa were to receive their professional training. When Poyer School began operating in its new, special school capacity in September 1933, it was supported almost entirely by the Samoan government. The Barstow Foundation aided only in the vacation teachers institutes carried on there. But beginning in 1939 the Barstow Foundation contributed fifty dollars a month to the salaries of the administrative and supervisory personnel, and in 1940 it assumed the added responsibility of providing the full salary of an additional instructor and supervisor employed for the purpose of helping to carry on the second year of the two-year teacher training course then being established.

The second special school, Feleti School, was to be the experimental school for preparing future native leaders for American Samoa. It began as an ungraded institution.It is fully supported by the Barstow Foundation except in the matter of Samoan buildings and some of the food for the students. These were to be provided by the school plantation and the Samoan villages represented by students in the school. Feleti School had its formal opening on September 19, 1934. It will probably be continued as an experimental school at least until 1944.

63

The third of these special schools was, like Poyer, created by adding a teacher training department to an already established public school, the Leone Boys School. This change in original teacher training plans was made for the purpose of attaining desirable ends among which are the following: to increase the number of one-year teachertraining graduates; to draw candidates from a wider area, including the senior class at Feleti School, which is but a short distance away; and as a step in the direction of establishing a two-year teacher training program for American Samoa. The Leone Boys teacher training department, under the direction of a Roman Catholic brother, began giving instruction to its first class in September 1939. Difficulties at the Leone special school during its first two years, involving matters of cooperation with Feleti School because of conflicting purposes, and the sudden demand by defense projects for additional workers has necessitated serious consideration of discontinuing this training project, at least for the

I Ktime being. These special schools will be discussed

15 Wist, Report of the Visiting Staff, op. cit.. pp.80-82.

Thomas L. Kirkpatrick, Annual Report. Department of Education, to the Governor of American Samoa. 1934-1935. XPago Pago: Govt, of Am. Samoa, ms., 1935")’, P* 2.

John W. Moore and Frank E. Midkiff, "Plan for Experimental Senior Schools by Sub-Committee,n Report of the First Committee of the Barstow Foundation to American Samoa. 1952^ (Honolulu: compiled from Barstow Foundationrecords; privately mimeographed and (continued on next page)

64

more thoroughly in a later chapter.The Regular Public Schools♦ Under the new setup In

1933 a few of the smaller schools were consolidated withnearby larger ones. Thus twenty public schools, includingPoyer, but not Feleti, with the teaching staffs paid by thegovernment of American Samoa, were in operation during thefirst few years of the new setup. These schools, withpertinent data about each for the years 1933-1935, are

16listed in Tables I and II. The government had succeeded in reducing the average pupil-teacher ratio from the high 1922 point of 54:1 to below 45:1 in 1932, but because of limited finances and the need for the expansion of the school system in 1933 to include pre-service teacher training, the average ratio for the 1933-1935 period had to be raised to about forty-six children per teacher. But by September 1938, the total number of teachers having been increased to seventy-two, this ratio had again been reduced, this time to about 39:1. By the school year of1940-1941 the pupil-teacher ratio had been reduced to 31:1.

15 bound, 1932).Heminger, Annual Report of the Superintendent.

op. cit., p. 6.Sitler, .op. cit.. p. 17.Redman, op. cit.. pp. 14-15.Blauch, op. cit., pp. 223-34.0 Le Fa»atonu. op. cit.. Sept.-Oct.-Nov. 1934.Cf. ante, pp. 13-14, Fig. 1.

-*-6 Principals» Weekly Enrollment Report, 1933-1935, Department of Education, Government of American Samoa, ms.

McTaggart, Annual Report of Progress and Needs, op. cit.. p. 6.

65

66TABLE I

TEACHER LOAD BY NUMBER OF YEAR GROUPS IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF AMERICAN SAMOA:

SEPTEMBER 1933 TO JUNE 1935District and Number of Number of Estimated. numberschool teachers year groups of year groups

per teachert33-4 *;34-5 ’33-4 ’34-5 ’33-4 »34-5Eastern district:1. Afono 1 1 2 3 2 32. Amouli-Tula 3 3 7 8 2.33 2.663. Aunu’u 2 2 6 7 3 3.54. Fagaitua 2 2 6 6 3 35. Fagasä 2 2 6 7 3 3.56 . Masefau 1 1 3 3 3 37. Nu’uuli 3 3 9 7 3 2.58 . Poyer 7 9 9 9 1.29 19. Vatia 1 1 4 4 4 4

Total 22 24

Western district:1. A’asu 1 1 4 3 4 32. Amanave 1 1 4 6 4 63. Aoloau 1 1 3 3 3 34. Fagamalo 1 1 3 3 3 35. Iliili 3 3 6 7 2 2.336 . Leone Boys 4 4 9 9 2.25 2.257. Leone Girls 3 3 9 9 3 3Total 14 14

Manu’a district:1. Fitiuta 2 2 6 6 3 32. Ofu 2 2 6 6 3 33. Olosega 2 2 6 6 3 34. Tau 4 4 6 9 1.5 2.25Total 10 10

American Samoa:Total 46 48Average 3- 3-Note: See pp. 13-14, Fig. 1, for location of schools

67

TEACHER LOAD BY NUMBER OF CHILDREN IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF AMERICAN SAMOA:

TABLE II

SEPTEMBER 1933 TO JUNE: 1935District and

schoolNumber of teachers

*33-4 *34-5

Average enrollment

of children »33-4 *34-5

Average child-teacher

ratio *33-4 *34-5

Eastern district:1. Afono 1 1 23 22 23:1 2 2 : 12. Amouli-Tula 3 3 162 153 54:1 51:13. Aunu’u 2 2 85 71 43:1 36:14. Fagaitua 2 2 81 114 41:1 57:15. Fagas5 2 2 71 80 35:1 40:16 . Masefau 1 1 28 30 28:1 30:17. Nu'uuli 3 3 139 126 46:1 42:18. Poyer 7 9 392 426 56:1 43:19. Vatia 1 1 47 53 47:1 53:1Totals 22 24 1028 1075

Western district:1 . A* asu 1 1 17 16 17:1 16:12 . Amanave 1 1 41 58 41:1 58:13. Aoloau 1 1 28 27 28:1 27:14. Fagamalo 1 1 -- 29 ---- 29:15. Iliili 3 3 145 134 48:1 45:16 . Leone Boys 4 4 187 205 47:1 51:17. Leone Girls 3 3 69 10 1 23:1 34:1Totals 14 14 487 570

Manu’a district:1. Fitiuta2. Ofu3. Olosega4. Taù

Totals

2224

10

2224

10

981 101282 1 1547

115124134190563

49:155:164:153:1

58:162:167:148:1

American Samoa:Totals 46 48 2062 2208Average 45:1 46:1Note: See pp. 13-14, Fig. 1, for location of schools.

The average number of year groups per teacher in the 1933-1935 period was slightly below three, while in September1938, this had been reduced to an average of about two andone-third year groups to each teacher. However, by 1940-1941 this ratio had increased again to about two and two-thirds year groups per teacher. Due to the present policyof further decentralizing the schools and initiating a sixgrade curriculum in each village not near to a districtschool, the pupil-teacher ratio will probably decrease and

17the year group-teacher ratio will probably increase.

THE SCHOOLS ARE DECENTRALIZED

During the period from 1934 to 1941 quite a number of new primary schools were organized, many of which are being organized into primary-intermediate village schools, usually with one teacher each. Many of the children attending these new schools had previously been attending the primary and intermediate divisions of schools where transportation or walking distance was something of a problem. During the period from 1934 to, and including, the opening of school in September 1938, only one school was consolidated with another, and that only for one year,

^ 0 ii® Fa*atonu, op. cit.. Sept. 1933.List of figures on paid personnel and schools,

checked by W.H. Coulter, Superintendent of Education, 1941.Coulter, Annual Report of the Superintendent. op.

cit.. pp. 5-6.Cf. ante. p. 31.

68

while twelve new schools were brought into being. Thispolicy of decentralization was continued, and by June 1940three more primary schools had been established. Theseincluded the Swain’s Island school which had beenestablished under the control of the American Samoandepartment of education in January 1939. There were,therefore, in June 1940, a total of thirty-five publicschools in American Samoa.

At the beginning of the 1940-1941 school year sixnew public schools were created, and the Mormon privateschool was taken over by the department of education, atleast temporarily, due to the departure of the Mormonelders from Samoa. More schools will be established asthe villages which request them satisfy the requirementsof at least twenty-five primary-intermediate schoolchildren, suitable buildings and grounds, and a supply offood for the teachers. There were, at this time (1940-1941) forty-one public schools in American Samoa,excluding the Mormon school, more than double the number ofsuch schools during the 1933-1935 period, with an increaseof but little more than one-fourth in public schoolenrollment. The teacher increase for this period was

18about 74 per cent. In order to clarify this data these

1 ft 0 Le Fa’atonu. op. cit.. July 1936, Aug. 1936, Aug. 1937, Aug. 1938, Oct. 1938.

Sitler, 0£. cit.. p. 9.Redman, oj>. cit.. pp. 5-8. (continued on next page)

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new schools are discussed specifically in the following paragraphs.

Amouli school in the Eastern district served five villages during the school year 1953-1934. A branch primary school under the principal of Amouli school was established in the near-by village of Tula in September 1934. Two years later separate primary schools were established in Tula and Aoa, leaving a small primary division in the Amouli school. In September 1937, the entire primary department was removed from Poyer School, which is also in the eastern district. The children were divided among the four new primary schools at Utulei, Fagotogo, Pago Pago village, and Aua. In the western district, A’asu school was consolidated with Aoloau in September 1937, but reestablished as a separate school the following year.

In September 1938, the primary departments were taken completely out of the Leone Boys and Leone Girls schools in the western district, and separate primary schools were created in Afao, Malaeloa, Leone, and Vailoatai. At the same time a primary school was opened in Poloa, western district, taking a number of primary

Coulter, Annual Report of the Superintendent. op. cit.. pp. 7, 63-64, 104.

List of figures on paid personnel and schools, checked by W.H. Coulter, Superintendent of Education, 1941.

See Appendix F.

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children from the Amanave school; and Faleasao primary school in the Manu’a district was created for Faleasao primary children who formerly had attended the Tau school. During that school year a primary school was created at Seetaga in the western district. Its children'had been attending the Afao school. During the following school year Laulii was given a primary school drawing its children from the recently formed Aua school.

In January 1939, a school was established on Swain’s Island in the Tokelau group. This island is under the jurisdiction of the government of American Samoa. There had been no regular school on Swain’s before this one was established.

In September 1940, the village of Vaitogi in the western district was given a school. Its children had been attending the Iliili school previously. Following a two weeks recess necessitated by a severe tropical hurricane on March 1, 1941— which destroyed twenty-two school houses and damaged fifteen more— five new schools were set up in villages where there had been no school before. These were located at Alao, Onenoa, Alofau and Matu’u in the eastern district and Pavaiai in the wrestern district. The Alao children had been attending school at Tula and those of Onenoa at Aoa. The Alofau children had been enrolled at Fagaitua and the Matu’u children had been going to the Utulei and Nuu’uli schools. Pavaiai

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children had been attending the Iliili school. Children from the village of Faleniu who also had been attending the Iliili school were now assigned to the Pavaiai school because of the shorter distance to travel.

Native Problems Influence Decentralization. Many of the Samoan village leaders (chiefs) had regularly requested more village schools, one for each village, during the period when the reorganized public school system was getting under way. Their argument was that the distance was too great and the trails too difficult for their children to climb. Undoubtedly this was one reason for the difficulty of enforcing the compulsory school attendance law. The considerable rivalry and jealousy among chiefs, especially the higher ranking ones of rival villages, has undoubtedly helped to cause many villages to demand at least the minimum distinction of being classed with those villages which are large enough (and important enough) to rate schools of their owrn. This same jealousy has continually gotten in the way of genuine cooperation in building and providing the upkeep of buildings for schools and teachers’ residences, and in supplying adequate food regularly for the teachers of schools in central villages, when children of one village attend school in a neighboring village.

The movement to establish new public schools began in 1936, gathered momentum in 1937 and 1938, and has kept

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moving because, once a precedent involving a liberal government’s relationships with its people is made, all groups under somewhat similar circumstances demand similar treatment. The rapid turnover of individuals holding the leading executive and professional positions in the department of education operate against maintaining a consistent policy with the result that persistent local interests are enabled to triumph regardless of the long term wisdom of their demands.

Positive and Negative Values of Decentralization. There is no doubt, however, that positive values are coming to Samoa from this decentralization trend. The schools definitely are being made more convenient for attendance by the smaller children, and a considerable number of these are attending who had not done so before. The greater difficulty which the village teacher is experiencing from the point of view of efficient teaching is contributing to a more gradual change from Samoan customs to Western customs. Since many of the schools are being placed in more isolated positions by this decentralizing action, their influence in breaking down Samoan culture patterns is decreasing. The schools are becoming more a part of the local village life than heretofore, and therefore the influence of the department of education’s new agricultural program for Samoa should be enhanced. And the more villages there are which have such schools, the less the

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schools will he looked upon by the people as unnecessary nuisances. These are values to native Samoan life which are in agreement with the policy of education as adopted by the Barstow Foundation and the government of American Samoa in 1932.

Conversely, decentralization is having its unfavorable influence on Samoa and its school system. A lowering of the pupil-teacher ratio and a concurrent raising of the year group-teacher ratio increases the per- pupil costs at the same time that the teachers’ teaching difficulties are increased. The only alternative to the per-pupil cost increase, and it is very undesirable, is to decrease the teachers’ remuneration still further and to employ more teachers with the money thus saved. Should this be done, and even if it is not done, the turnover among the teachers, themselves, is apt to be large because of the many more lucrative positions available elsewhere in Samoa. Without considering the results of rapid turnover of teachers, the problem of professional improvement of the teaching staff is made more difficult by deliberately placing them in high year group-teacher ratio positions and more definitely in the power of the conservative village chiefs.

From the point of view of department finances, more schools mean a greater cash outlay by the government for salaries, equipment, transportation, and clerical service.

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For the supervisory staff more schools mean more traveling and more delay because of the necessity to visit more places and to hold more lengthy village fonos (meetings) with the chiefs. For the teachers, themselves, more schools mean that more of them have to work in isolated places without the professional support of other teachers. More teachers have to be hired, and since the total salary budget cannot be increased to any great extent, the teachers’ salary increments, recently established, are endangered. For the children, other conditions being equal, more teachers in a school bring them into contact with a greater variety of leadership talents, with the result that they have more opportunities for broader learning. Thus, decentralizing a school removes these opportunities.

In 1933, of the twenty public schools in American Samoa, only seven had one teacher each, six had two teachers each, three were three-teacher schools, two were four-teacher, one was a five-teacher, and one a six-teacher school. Of the thirty-five public schools in 1939-1940, fourteen were one-teacher schools, ten had two teachers each, eight had three teachers each, and one each of three schools had five, six and eight classroom teachers, respectively. The new 1940-1941 schools added four one-teacher and two two-teacher schools to the list. The department’s decision gradually to develop at least

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eighteen small village schools into schools having six year groups each is another step toward increasing the difficulties of the teachers.

Decentralization Aids Attendance. An illustration of the greater attendance values of the decentralization program is offered by the Poyer School, the first major decentralization project. Poyer, in September 1937, opened for the first time with only the intermediate and upper year groups, the children of the primary division having been redistributed among the four new primary schools in the bay area communities. The total enrollment at Poyer during the previous school year (1936-1937) had been approximately 411 children, of which only 134 were in the primary division in May 1937. The total enrollment of the five schools in September 1937, was 643, of which 351 children were enrolled in the four newly established primary schools. This was nearly three times as many primary children as had attended school the previous year in this area, or an increase of 217 within a few months.

By comparing the enrollment of children in the schools in the Pago Pago bay area for the school year 1936-1937 with that of the years 1933-1935, (see Table II) it would appear that there had been no increase in school population in this region during the four-year period. Comparison with the figures of September 1937, however, indicates that there was an increase in total school

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population during these years of about fifty-five per cent. Aside from the small increase due to other causes, this increase indicated the difficulty encountered in enforcing the compulsory school attendance law in the consolidated type schools.

DISTRICT SCHOOLS

It has been the policy of the department of education under the reorganized public school setup to maintain one school of ninth grade standing in each of the three governmental districts, namely, eastern, western, and Manu’a. Poyer in the eastern district, Leone Boys and Girls schools in the western district, and Tau school in the Manu’a district serve this purpose.

ACCESSIBILITY OF SCHOOLS

When school opened in 1938, eighteen of the thirty-two schools could be reached only by trail or boat. None of the non-native teachers— those who needed the least supervision— taught in these schools. Forty-eight per cent of the native Samoan teachers were assigned to teach in these comparatively inaccessible schools. However, in spite of the difficult transportation problem, all of the schools were visited at least three times each school year, and such supervision was given the teachers as was permitted by the limited time of the small supervising

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personnel. Since that time the work of building roads hasprogressed. Incidentally, these new roads benefit the workof education tremendously, helping to overcome some of thedifficulties mentioned above, because they make easier and

"I 9more frequent supervision of the schools possible.

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FINANCIAL SUPPORT

The cost of maintaining the public school system in American Samoa has, since its inception in 1921, been one of the major items in the island government budget. In the 1928-1929 school year the per-pupil cost of the department of education was $10.331. By 1932-1933 it had been reduced to $9.567 due to the increase of enrollment without a proportional increase of teacher personnel. When the system was reorganized in 1933 the number of teachers was

0 Le Fa^atonu. op. cit.. Aug. 1937, Sept. 1937, Aug. 1938, Dec. 1938, Dec. 1939.

Frank J. Drees, Superintendent of Education, questionnaire, Mar.-Apr. 1938.

Frank G. Sutherland, Principal of Poyer Teacher Training School, letter to Mark M. Sutherland, Jan. 6, 1938.

H.F. Bryan, American Samoa, a General Report by the Governor. 1926. (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Govt. Prtg.Ofc., 1927), p. 92: In 1926 fifteen of the twenty publicschools could be reached only by trail or boat.

List of figures on paid personnel and schools, checked by W.H. Coulter, Superintendent of Education, 1941.

McTaggart, Annual Report of Progress and Needs. op. cit., pp. 6, 16-17, and Enclosure nEn.

Sitler, op. cit.. p. 9.Redman, pp. cit.. pp. 9-10.Coulter, Annual Report of the Superintendent, op. cit.. pp. 63-64. ----------Cf. ante. pp. 13-14, Fig. 1.See Appendix F.

temporarily reduced. Some salaries were cut and the enrollment continued to increase. This had the effect of reducing the per-pupil cost to $8,799 during the 1933-1934 school year. By the 1938-1939 school year it had reached an all-time low of $8,003, but rose again the following year to $8,565, higher than during any of the previous four years. These further reductions were accomplished by granting very guarded increases in salary, by reducing the initial salary of beginning teachers, and by reducing the amount of money spent for non-salary purposes.

The yearly budget of the Samoan Government for the new school system was, exclusive of the Barstow Foundation help, approximately twenty thousand dollars in 1933. This approximate budget has been used with but minor modification in the years that have followed. Almost immediately it was necessary to reduce actual expenditures temporarily by a salary cut for the non-contract staff.This cut was restored during the early months of 1935. The enlargement of the school system during the 1933-1939 period, among other causes, has increased this total budgeted amount by about 17 per cent. In 1933 the budget was divided so that about 86 per cent of the total educational allotment provided for the salaries of the professional staff, while in 1939 92 per cent was used for this purpose. As a result the already small allotment for other needs decreased by 31 per cent during this period.

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These other needs include traveling expenses for the Samoan members of the board of education to and from its meetings, for transportation and gifts on official trips, for vocational training, and for equipment and supplies of various kinds. The establishment of the self-supporting special deposit account to handle book and school supply needs has helped to reduce this part of the budget.Although the total amount of the budget has been small, it has maintained a reasonably successful educational organization because salary expenses, the largest part of the budget, have been low.

Financial distress in the government, due to low copra prices and the sudden decline in tourist trade as a result of the war, has recently caused the government to lower taxes from nine dollars to six dollars and seventy- five cents per person. This, in turn, has meant a reduction in governmental expenditures, including those for public education. The large amounts of federal government money spent on the current national defense projects should not only help to alleviate this difficulty but should make money more plentiful than it has ever been. To meet the temporary difficulty of shortage of funds the Barstow Foundation has offered a gift of one thousand dollars to aid with the department of education projects during the present emergency.

Teachers1 Salaries. Public school teachers in

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American Samoa begin service as probationary teachers at six dollars a month. In 1940, because an additional year of pre-service teacher training was offered, the beginning pay for the employed graduates of this second year course was set at nine dollars a month. Until 1940, the native staff members with the exception of the supervising principal and secretary were paid on the basis of eleven months out of each year, provided they attended the six weeks teachers institute during the annual vacation period. Beginning in September 1940, one-twelfth of the monthly salary is being withheld and payments of salary, thereafter, are being made on a twelve months basis.

Having successfully ”graduated” from the probationary period, the beginning salary is twelve dollars a month. Time and the performance of good service will increase this to thirty-three dollars monthly for good teachers and to thirty-six dollars monthly for good principals. Increases of three dollars a month at a time were the usual procedure for all teachers and principals until the mid-year of 1940. These increases were not granted oftener than once a year and usually only once in two, three, or more years depending on the quality of work done by the individual in question and the condition of the budget. In 1940 an Increase of three dollars a month was made automatic each year for those whose salary rating was less than eighteen dollars a month, and an automatic annual

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increase of one dollar a month was set for those receiving eighteen dollars or more monthly. Under this new ruling teachers not deserving the increase are dropped from service.

During recent years official and unofficial statements made by various officers of the government of American Samoa indicate that the educational budget will probably not be appreciably increased during the years to come and may even have to be reduced. Since the government sees little possibility of budget increase in the immediate future, the action of the board of education in 1940 of establishing automatic increments in salary indicates that it is doing the best that it can, under the circumstances. However, the present considerable defense activity in American Samoa, with concomitant increases in more lucrative jobs, is causing teacher candidates, teachers, and principals to become desirous of taking advantage of the situation to make more money. Y/hereas a teacher makes from six to thirty-three dollars a month and a principal but three dollars more, the lowest paid wage for day laborers is ninety-six cents a day. The latter figure is comparable to the salaries of the fifteen highest paid teachers and principals. Not only does this discrepancy exist, but island government employees such as clerks, stenographers and policemen start at eighteen dollars a month and progress according to a set wage scale. It is not surprising that the teachers are demanding salary

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increases all the way up the line. They have, however, agreed to remain in their positions pending action by the government of American Samoa.

The secretary of education is paid on the same basis as the teachers. The supervising principal receives a maximum of forty-eight dollars a month, and the supervising teachers a maximum of forty-two dollars monthly.

Non-Samoan Staff Compensation. The non-Samoan professional personnel, including the Roman Catholic brothers and sisters of the Leone public schools, are paid salaries according to agreement. All are under contract with the exception of the sisters who have long desired one. Of this non-Samoan group the sisters are the lowest paid and the superintendent is the highest paid. According to the 1935-1936 budget the salaries were as follows:Roman Catholic sisters, thirty dollars a month each; Roman Catholic brothers, sixty-five dollars eachj principal of Poyer Teacher Training School, one hundred twenty-five dollars; Poyer principal’s wife (a supervisor in the school), seventy-five dollars; and the superintendent of education, two hundred dollars. The salaries of the sisters have since been increased to thirty-three and thirty-six dollars, respectively, for teacher and principal, and those of the brothers to seventy-five dollars each. Beginning with the 1939-1940 school year the salaries of the Poyer principal and his wife were

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increased to one hundred fifty dollars and one hundred dollars a month, respectively, through subsidy from the Barstow Foundation. The salary of the s uperintendent was increased to two hundred fifty dollars monthly in the same way. In September 1940, a new supervisory position was created to be filled by a non-Samoan. This position of instructor and supervisor for the second-year teacher training class at Poyer carries a salary of one hundred forty dollars a month for nine months each year. It isbeing paid in full by the Barstow Foundation. Thisposition is, in 1941, being temporarily discontinued due to the shortage of candidates eligible for the second-year class. In order to have an experienced as well as a competent person available for this position when it is needed, and for other reasons, a plan has been approvedwhereby the principal of Poyer School becomessuperintendent of education during his second year in Samoa and his wife occupies this newly created position. Then a new professional couple from Hawaii is secured to fill the old Poyer positions. Thus, according to the new plan, the professional couples from Hawaii will spend their first year as principal and first-year teacher training instructor at Poyer and their second year as superintendent of education of the department of education and second-year teacher training instructor at Poyer.

In spite of Barstow Foundation help, slightly more

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than 55 per cent of all salary expenditures in the island government’s educational budget in 1939 and in 1940 was assigned to the above mentioned non-Samoan professional personnel. Despite the fact that this is 7 per cent below the proportion assigned for this purpose in 1934, it is disturbing because of the apparent inability of the island government to raise the total salary allotment for the department of education.

In 1934 the Feleti School principal was employed on contract by the Barstow Foundation at an annual salary of five thousand dollars. His wife was expected to serve in the school without additional salary. This salary was offered to him because of his reputation as an ethnologist who had had considerable experience among the natives in Africa. This salary was considered by many, both in Samoa and in Hawaii, as exorbitant. That the Barstow Foundation trustees came to the same conclusion is evidenced by the salary of three thousand, six hundred dollars being paid by contract to the man who succeeded to this position in 1938.

Finances Influence Teacher Supply. The lack of qualified native teachers in American Samoa is still a major unsolved problem of the educational system. Little more than is being done now, and quite possibly even less, can be done in the future to solve this problem without much more adequate funds than the island government has been able to provide. Although the budget for native

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Samoan teachers’ salaries increased by 41 per cent from 1934 to 1940, the total number of native Samoan teachers increased by 74 per cent. This clearly indicates the falling salary standard of this group. Salaries comparable with those in other island government departments and more money for better teacher training are essential, not to mention the great need for materials and supplies. Samoa looks to the Barstow Foundation for financial assistance, but since the foundation’s entire available income is already being spent in Samoa, little more can be expected from that quarter. The only other possible source of help, aside from the island government itself, is the national government of the United States. For years the national government has subsidized education in the other territories and possessions including Guam which, like Samoa, is governed by the navy department of the United States Government. Without outside help, the only recourse the island government will have left will be to increase taxes, cut the budget in other departments, or reduce the size or offerings of the school system, however undesirable that would be.^®

Budget of the Department of Education of American Samoa, 1934, as furnished by the superintendent of education.

Earl L. McTaggart, Recommendations for the Schedule of Salaries for the School Year 1935-1956. (Pago Pago: Govt, of Am. Samoa, ms., 1936).

E.F. Redman, Director of Education, letter to Earl L. McTaggart, Hawaiian (continued on next page)

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Cost of Living for Teachers. The cost of living in American Samoa for the native Samoan village teachers is low. Village teachers are those teachers whose schools serve a village unit which furnishes living quarters and food, or a money allowance in lieu of food, for the teachers and their families. In cases where a money allowance has been made by a village, there has usually not been an increased allowance for married teachers. This has resulted in hardships in some cases. As food becomes more and more scarce, due to population increase, many of the villages are very desirous of giving money in lieu of food.

For the district school teachers, those in schools having the upper grades children who attend from several villages in the district, neither food nor money is

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Educational Representative of American Samoa, Sept. £6, 1940.

Earl L. McTaggart, Hawaiian Educational Representative of American Samoa, letter to E.F. Redman, Director of Education, Feb. 10, 1941.

Frank E. Midkiff, Secretary of the Barstow Foundation Board of Trustees, letter to L. Wild, Governor of American Samoa, Feb. 25, 1941.

McTaggart, Annual Report of Progress and Needs. op. clt.. pp. 7, 14, and Enclosure "A”, pp. 1-2.

Swanson, loc. clt.Heminger, Annual Report of the Superintendent.

op. cit., pp. 7-9, 5-A, 6-A, 6-B.Sitler, pp. cit.. pp. 5-6, 21-22, 25.Blauch, pp. cit.. pp. 220, 226-27, 232, 239.Redman, Annual Report. Department of Education.

op. cit.. pp. 14, 16, 19, 21-22.Coulter, Annual Report of the Superintendent. op.

cit.. pp. 134-37.Cf. ante. p. 40.See Appendixes E and F.

supplied for subsistence at Poyer and Leone. Board and living quarters are furnished at Leone Girls School, for a price plus additional services rendered in the boarding department. Subsistence and living quarters are supplied at Tau and for the principals Samoan assistant at Poyer.To overcome this disadvantage to teachers in district schools, school plantations have been prepared and the produce therefrom is used by the teachers and, in some cases, by boarding students. The new agricultural program begun in 1940 definitely recognizes the right of teachers in these district schools to free food grown on the school plantations and cared for by the children who attend the school.

With ample provision for food and housing, the native Samoan teachers’ salaries are adequate for their needs, but not adequate to hold their interest in teaching in the face of available higher paid jobs in other departments of the island government, and of ever-growing wants resulting from contacts with trading stores, tourists, and other evidences of Western civilization.

Higher salaries are provided for the non-Samoan personnel, with the exception of the Roman Catholic sisters. The cost of living for the non-Samoan is very high, due to the fact that practically all food and household supplies have to be imported. The island government provides free living quarters to the superintendent and the Poyer

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principal and their families. The Feleti school staff is similarly cared for by the Barstow Foundation and the Samoan people. The Barstow Foundation furnishes American food for students and teachers alike, in addition to the Samoan food provided by the school plantation and the Samoan villages. That part of the expense of the public school system which is shared by the local villages includes erecting new buildings and repairing old ones for the schools and the teachers and their families, setting aside land for the teachers’ residences, school buildings and playgrounds, for gardens for the school and for the teachers.^

SCHOOL BUILDINGS

Buildings for regular public school use, as supplied by the villages of American Samoa, are so inadequate as seriously to handicap the teachers in their work. As was pointed out by Dean Benjamin 0. Wist, chairman of the Barstow Foundation Education Committee of 1932-1933, in his report on the committee’s Samoan work, the native Samoan

P I School Law of American Samoa, op. cit.. Sec. 67, paragraph 16.

Heminger, Annual Report of the Superintendent. op. cit., p. 9.

Coulter, Annual Report of the Superintendent, op. cit.. pp. 18, 134-35.

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eghouse is ill adapted for use as a classroom building.Its shape interferes with the convenient use of

blackboards. In many of the buildings the blackboards have to be hung on the inner rows of posts. These inner posts in Samoan buildings are set in the floor to support the rafters. In the type of building usually used for school houses in Samoa the posts are spaced about three feet apart in two rows, one row along each side of the room, about three feet in from the sides. In this way a room fourteen feet wide is actually narrowed down to eight feet for school classroom purposes. A building already too small for adequate classroom work is in this way made even smaller.

The Samoan house cannot be locked. It has no protected storage space. It is often used at night and during week ends as a sleeping and lounging house by members of the village and is often left dirty. No adequate provision can be made for one building to serve more than one class at a time without the handicap of distraction caused by unmuffled sound.

The kind of building which is usually provided for school use by the villages is not the best type of Samoan building. It is carelessly constructed and is often too small to seat the number of children in attendance. It has

22 Wist, Report of the Visiting Staff, op. cit., pp.20, 51.

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poor protection against wind, and has very poor light and ventilation, when the Venetian-like shutters are down to keep out the rain. The roof, being covered with long grass or sugar cane leaves, must be kept in constant repair if it is go give proper service. Furthermore, the village organization is usually slow about making necessary repairs and workers are known to have '’rested” for weeks after removing the worn-out parts of the building, including the

p*Zroof thatching, before replacing them.Better Building Standards Needed. Despite the fact

that some educational leaders in Samoa have maintained that the "Samoan buildings are perfectly adapted" for school use, buildings designed to eliminate these and other difficulties and to provide more convenient facilities for teaching are needed. A few frame classroom buildings have been constructed but better planning and designing is necessary if this type of building is to be made serviceable. The frame type of building cannot be constructed without materials purchased with money. The

p'Z An incident of this nature occurred at Poyer School in 1934.

Wist, "Ethnology as the Basis for Education," op. cit.. p. 344.

McTaggart, Annual Report of Progress and Needs. op. cit.. p. £3.

Sitler, 0£. cit.. p. 13.Donald Dean Mitchell, Education in American Samoa

With Special Reference to Health Problems. (unpublished Master's thesis, University of Hawaii, June 1936), pp. 74-75.

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use of money is still limited among the Samoans, especially in the isolated districts, and consequently, money is much more difficult for the natives to obtain than labor and local materials. With this in mind the American Samoan government has advised all villages not to request frame construction school buildings unless they are willing to pay for them and their upkeep. This being the case there seems to be little present possibility of providing adequate frame buildings for the schools of American Samoa.

The amount of material and labor necessary to build the Samoan type of school building is not difficult for the native Samoans to obtain if they desire it. If they are to procure a more adequate type of Samoan building for school use, it will undoubtedly be more expensive than at present but still within their reach. A solution to the whole building problem, it would seem, would be for the Samoan government to establish a set of minimum standards for adequate school plants both of the Samoan type of building and of the frame type, to one or the other of which each village must conform. In recent years the board of education has made a start in this direction but has far to go to make it a really effective policy. Better school plants, as a result of this policy, would make for greater efficiency in teaching. Since a better type of building indicates a higher social position in Samoan society, such action would also help to raise the recognized status of

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93the Samoan teachers.

BOOKS, SUPPLIES, AND EQUIPMENT

Needs for books and consumable supplies have been met from whatever source was available at the time they were needed. The department of education has provided for some In its yearly supplies budget, the teachers have provided for some from their salaries, some came in the form of gifts, and the children's families provided for some. Equipment such as a teacher’s chair and table, one or more rough wooden blackboards, and a school chest are usually provided for each classroom by the department. In some schools children's writing desks for use while sitting crosslegged on the floor have been made from boxes donated by the navy commissary. The children all sit on the floor. A plan for charging a rental fee for books in school with the dual purpose of providing books immediately for the children's use and of eventually building up useful school libraries was advocated in 1933 but the Samoan chiefs refused to support it, apparently not being ready to accept such an advanced step in school financing.

Some library reference books and other materials,

24

0 Le Fa'atonu. op. clt.. Aug. 1937.Drees, loc. clt.Redman, Annual Report. Department of Education.

op. cit.. p. 1 0 .Sitler, 0£. cit.. pp. 13-14.(Jf. ante, pp. 37-40.

have occasionally been secured as gifts. Some of these books are not as useful as more carefully chosen ones might be, and those on hand are often not of sufficient quantity to meet the needs. In spite of this disadvantage, however, these books have been accepted with thanks because they, at least in part, have filled a need that is much greater than the local finances seemingly could satisfy.

Best Books Are Locally Prepared. In recent years, however, a new and more progressive approach has been made to the problem of providing adequate textbooks and other supplies. Due to the stimulation of professionally interested institute instructors and regular administrative and supervisory personnel, including the Roman Catholic brothers of the Leone Boys School, books have been prepared by committees of Samoan teachers and principals to fit Samoa’s particular needs. Due to the high cost of printing such material, much of it is provided in mimeographed form. In order to handle even this expense and that of the purchase of other necessary school supplies a special revolving fund was set up in January 1939, known as the special deposit account. Seven hundred dollars was borrowed from the island government treasurer as working capital. A total of nearly eight thousand copies of Primary Agriculture Reader. Primary Arithmetic.Intermediate Arithmetic, Government. Health and Hygiene, Samoan Material Culture, and Samoan Social Culture were

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mimeographed for sale to the children the first year. Abook, Samoan Geography, was revised and reprinted and plansfor more mimeographing of revised and new material are inprocess. Among these latter works are Foods and How TheyAre Secured. Communication. Polynesian Environment. Nationsas Neighbors. Science and Agriculture. IntermediateArithmetic. Upper Grades Arithmetic. Course of Study.Teachers Manual. Government of American Samoa. EnglishGrammar. Pre-Primer, Song Book (Native Life and Things),Health and Hygiene. and Samoan Customs and Traditions.

The complete and immediate success of this projectis evidenced by the fact that six hundred dollars of theoriginal loan was paid back at the end of the first yearand the balance soon after. The method of preparation ofthis material in Samoa closely approximates that used inthe United States proper for educational materials there.Reading materials are, consequently, more nearly adaptableto the Samoan child than any that has heretofore been used.Thus, so far as educational materials are concerned, thefuture of American Samoa looks brighter than at any time in

P 'Sthe past eight years.

P 'S 5 li§ Fa* atonu. op. cit.. Feb. 1935.McTaggart, Annual Report of Progress and Needs.

op. cit.. pp. 15-16, 23.Sitler, pp. cit.. pp. 22-24.Redman, Annual Report. Department of Education.

op. cit.. pp. 17-18.Blauch, op. cit.. pp. 219, 222, 234.

CHAPTER IV

EDUCATIONAL NEEDS REVEALED THROUGH TESTS

When a new system of education is being planned or studied it is essential for those concerned to know, among other things, as much as possible about the children the system is expected to serve. When a teacher training system is being planned it is necessary to know the teachers and candidates who are to benefit by it as well as to know the children they are to teach. In chapter II the teacher problems faced by the administrators in American Samoa were described as they were related to the growth of the system of schools. In chapter III the development of the reorganized school system was described and some of its basic problems were discussed. In this chapter the teacher problems are examined from the point of view of the teachers’ ability to work with the children under their care, and the particular educational problems the children present. Both the teachers and the children they teach are studied, as far as this is possible, through the use of tools which were available for measuring them. These tools consisted of the Carrigan'*' Score Card for Rating Teaching and the Teacher and the primary and advanced examinations

Rose A. Carrigan, Carrigan Score Card for Rating Teaching and the Teacher, (New York: World Book Co.,1930), 4 pp.

of the New Stanford Achievement Test.

THE. TEACHERS ARE TESTED

Subjective Test. The Carrigan Score Card for Rating Teaching and the Teacher is not an objective test, but is, rather, a well organized aid in judging a teacher. Mr. Earl L. McTaggart, Superintendent of Education for American Samoa, rated the native Samoan public school teachers in American Samoa in 1935 using the Carrigan Score Card as the basis. He rated them as "Samoan teachers" in the present American Samoan setting. The results are recorded in Table III. Due to the fact that a considerable number of the "poor" teachers had already been replaced by more desirable ones before his ratings were made, nearly all of the teachers have ratings above "unsatisfactory."

These ratings reveal that, according to the American Samoan public school system standards of 1935, the average Samoan teacher did "fairly good" work in teaching, there being four steps in the rating scale above him and three below. The "work in teaching" included the appearance of the room, sufficient preparation, the actual work of

2 Truman L. Kelley, Giles M. Ruch, and Lewis M. Terman, New Stanford Achievement Test, (New York: V/orldBook Co., 1932), advanced examination, third revision, forms V and Z, 24 pp., and primary examination, second revision, forms V, W, X, Y and Z, 7 pp.

g Earl L. McTaggart, Superintendent of Education, letter to Mark M. Sutherland, May 8, 1935.

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TABLE III

CARRIGAN SCORE CARD FOR RATING TEACHING AND THE TEACHER: NATIVE AMERICAN SAMOAN PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHERS, 1935,

AS RATED BY EARL L. MCTAGGART, SUPERINTENDENT OF EDUCATION FOR AMERICAN SAMOA

Steps In rating scale

Part I— Teaching

Numberof Average

teachers

Part II— •The Teacher

Numberof Average

teachers

Parts I and II—average

Superior 0 2

Excellent 0 10

Very good 6 14 XGood 19 12 XFairly good 7 X 2

Passable 7 2

Poor 4 2

Unsatisfactory 1 0

Total 44 44

teaching, and the results as seen in the child. At the same time in personal qualities the average Samoan teacher was rated as being "very good," with only two rating scale steps above him. Items included in this rating were promptness, efficiency, cooperativeness, character, voice, and personal appearance. The average rating of the teachers for the two parts of the test combined is "good" with three steps in the scale above and four below. The most significant thing about the results of these ratings is that the teachers’ success in maintaining high standards in their personal qualities was 26 per cent greater than their success in actually doing the work of teaching. This seems to indicate a lack of understanding of methods of teaching and theory of education rather than a lack of ability to conform to school regulations.

Objective Test. At two succeeding vacation teachers institutes— in December 1931 and December 1932— objective tests were given the teachers and teacher candidates for the purpose of discovering where the teachers needed the most help. The testing tool used was the advanced examination of the New Stanford Achievement Test. 4 Table IV shows the results in terms of average scores, school

4 Kelley, Kuch and Terman, op. pit., advanced examination, forms V and Z.

99

100TABLE IV

NEW STANFORD ACHIEVEMENT TEST, ADVANCED: 126 TESTSTEACHERS AND CANDIDATES FOR THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, AMERICAN SAMOA DECEMBER 1951 AND DECEMBER 1932

Test Averagescore

Average school grade

equivalent3"Average

educationalage a equivalent

1. Paragraph meaning 57.9 4.6 10-6

2. Word meaning 67.7 5.5 11-43. Dictation 76.6 6.3 12 -2

4. Language usage 76.9 6.3 12 -2

5. Literature 64.8 5.2 1 1 - 1

6 . History and civics 59.0 4.6 10-7

7. Geography 65.9 5.3 1 1 - 2

8. Physiology and hygiene 73.1 5.9 11-9

9. Arithmetic reasoning 80.2 6.7 12-6

10. Arithmeticcomputation 90.3 8 . 1 13-11

Average totals: 71.2 5.7 11-7Average total of tests #1, 2, 3, 4, 9 and 10: 74.9 6 . 1 1 1 - 1 1

Average total of tests #5, 6 and 7: 63.2 5.0 1 0 - 1 1

a Based on mainland United States norms.

grade equivalent, and educational age equivalent. Because of the wide chronological age range of the teachers and candidates— approximately twenty years— and because most of the teachers were adults and therefore out of the age range of the test, the scores have not been recorded in terms of the educational quotient.

On the basis of mainland United States norms the total average score of 71.2 for the two tests has the equivalent average school grade standing of 5.7 and the educational age of eleven years and seven months.

In Table IV the tests in English language (tests one to four, inclusive) and in arithmetic (tests nine and ten) are divided so as to test the quality of the individuals thinking and his ability to memorize in these branches of learning. Roughly, tests one, two and nine measure thinking as opposed to memorizing, which, in turn, is measured more by tests three, four and ten. The average total of these tests places the ratio of constructive thinking to memorizing for the average Samoan teacher and candidate at 68.6 : 81.3. This ratio should be more nearly

5 Sixty-two tests of teachers and candidates were given in the 1931 examination (form V), and sixty-four in 1932 (form Z). The results were based on mainland United States norms.

® Benj. 0. Wist, Report of the Visiting Staff to the Samoan Teachers Institute. 1932-1933. (bound manuscript in the possession of the Barstow Foundation Library, Bishop Museum Building, Honolulu, T.H.), p. 24.

1015

one to one If the teacher is ultimately to become efficient in providing suitable educational opportunities for the youth of Samoa. Thus, any plan for helping the teacher personnel of American Samoa must take into consideration this somewhat one-sided ratio and plan to balance it.

Four tests were excluded from use in developing the ratio of thinking to memorizing because they could not be put either in the thinking or the memorizing class, or because their subject matter was too remote in its application to Samoa. The average score in the physiologyand hygiene test is nearly as high as the average score inthe English language and arithmetic tests, showing that the Samoan teachers and candidates had received training in physiology and hygiene comparable to that received in English language and arithmetic. These three branches of study had a certain amount of practical application inSamoa. The subject matter of the tests in literature,history and civics, and geography, having less practical application in Samoa, had probably received less attention in the preparatory education of the teachers and candidates. At any rate the teachers and candidates learned a comparatively smaller amount of the contents of these subjects. The best results in these three less practical branches of study are 14 per cent below the average results in the English language and arithmetic tests.

102

THE SCHOOL CHILDREN ARE TESTED103

To determine in an objective way what problems theSamoan teachers have to face in their wrork writh thechildren, a battery of the primary examination of the NewStanford Achievement Test was given to six hundred childrenin thirteen of the public schools on the island of Tutuila,the main island of American Samoa, during the months

7February to May, inclusive, 1935. The primary examination forms were used exclusively in all tests of the school children. Although these forms were prepared for children of second and third grade standing, they can test, without serious loss of accuracy, up to fifth grade ability or to the educational age of eleven years— according to mainland United States standards. It had been the experience of the writer and of his professional colleagues in American Samoa that the advanced examination forms were so difficult as tobe useless except in the case of children nearly ready tograduate. In using these primary tests it is recognized that an educational age score is not an entirely reliable index. Furthermore, educational age scores actually achieved in the test were not used in the final analysis of results because they were made by individuals who were so advanced in age as to make any calculations based on

7 Kelley, Ruch, and Terman, oja. cit., primary examination, forms V, W, X, Y and Z.

Cf. ante, pp. 13-14, Fig. 1.

standard ages highly undependable, and by Individuals too few in number in each age group to make the average scores a true standard by which to determine the needs of Samoan children. All of these primary test results are of value, however, since they, with their shortcomings known, are being used as a means of securing a bird’s-eye view of the problems which the school children, in general, present to the teachers.

A Testing Technique. The first tests were given in Poyer School where the tester had sufficient time in which to develop an administrative technique suitable for use in the Samoan schools. Testing the children in the third year group and above was found to be sufficiently successful to make the results worth using. A test of thirty-three older children of the second year group, however, proved that the tests were too difficult for the children of that year group, and that results of normal accuracy could not be obtained from them. For this reason the policy of giving the tests only to the children in the third year group and above was adhered to in all of the public schools in which the tests were given.

The new school system in American Samoa called for the organization of the school children into year groups based upon their ages and the length of the time of their attendance at school rather than in grades according to

104

Qtheir success in passing formal examinations. At the time these tests were given the change from the old school grade organization to the new was in progress. Due to this temporary grade instability, the results of the New Stanford Achievement Tests could not be tabulated on the basis of school grade. Rather they were tabulated on the educational age and educational quotient basis. According to the authors of the test this method of interpretation is usually to be preferred over the school grade method. However, even here there are difficulties which, to some extent, reduce the accuracy of the results so far as educational age and educational quotient are concerned.

Securing Children* s Records Is Difficult. Previous to the inception of the new educational organization in 1933 very little had been done in the line of securing and keeping accurate, permanent records of the school children.^ Consequently the problem of building up such a set of records, including the birthdates of the children, was recognized as one of the immediate problems of the new organization. But birthdates were difficult to secure due to several reasons, among which are the following:

1. Lack of accurate vital statistics because of

Q Course of Study. Department of Education, Government of American Samoa, (Pago Pago: Govt, of Am.Samoa, mimeographed, 1933), pp. 1, 13, 87.

® Wist, .op. cit., p. 65, footnote (69).

105

Samoan failure to appreciate the significance of reporting births.

2. General Samoan lack of an appreciation of, and interest in chronological age as an important factor in life.

3. Lack of parental personal interest in the children’s year by year development.The superintendent of education, in his report of the school year 1940-1941, indicates that building accurate records of ages is still a problem, although it is now of much smaller proportions."^

As a result, ages as recorded in school registers were, in a considerable number of cases, only approximately correct. However, because the village pastors cooperated with school and vital statistic authorities, the degree of inaccuracy has been considerably reduced.

On account of this difficulty in obtaining correct ages the process of readjusting the school children among the several grades had proceeded slowly. Quite a considerable number of individuals had been attending school who were as old as, or older than, the teachers who taught them. Since attendance at school tended to add educational prestige to the individual and at the same time

10 Ibid.. pp. 17-18.W.H. Coulter, Annual Report of the Superintendent

of Education. 1 June. 1940 to 31 May. 1941, (Pago Pago: Govt, of Am. Samoa, ms., 1941), pp. 100, 102.

106

to relieve him of much of the work of the village in which he lived, many of these older "children” continued to attend as long as the authorities would permit them to do s o . 1

Wide Range of Ages Per Grade. By 1935 most of these older children had been eliminated and some readjustment had been made in the age-year group distribution. The age-year group distribution of children in the school system above the second grade in 1935 is given in Table V. In this table, and in Table VII and Figures 2 and 3 which come later in this chapter, the numbers 7-6 in the "Age of children" column represent the age group which includes all children who had reached or passed their seventh birthday but had not yet reached their eighth when the test was given. Seven years and six months is the theoretical midpoint of that age group. Other year-month numbers should be interpreted in the same way. In all of the schools which were tested, only sixteen "children" above the age of eighteen years remained in school at the time the tests were given. The median age for the grade was still three to four years too high, and the range in age

H To illustrate: A pupil attending Poyer Schoolduring the 1933-1934 school year was a married man with a family of four children. He was older than the teachers and the principal.

Earl L. McTaggart, Annual Report of Progress and Needs of the Public School System of American Samoa to the Board of Education. July 1935. (Pago Pago: Govt, of Am.Samoa, ms., 1935), pp. 16-17.

107

108TABLE V

AGE AND YEAR GROUP OF 600 CHILDREN PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF AMERICAN SAMOA

FEBRUARY-MAY 1935

Age of children yr.-mo. 3

Year4

groups5

of6

children7 8 9

Total no. of children

7-6. 3 38-6 13 139-6 19 1 20

10-6 30 4 1 1 361 1 - 6 30 12 8 5 5512-6 37m 2 1 2 1 1 3 8313-6 28 2 1 22 7 1 1 80m14-6 20 20 28m 10 12 3 1 9415-6 9 20 20 17m 2 5 4 7716-6 2 9 15 19 15m 8m 4 7217-6 1 4 2 6 12 3 7m 3518-6 2 1 5 1 2 5 1619-6 1 7 1 920-6 1 3 2 6

22-6 1 1

Totals: 192 114 118 73 52 25 26 600Note: Readings in age groups 7-6 to 9-6 and 18-6 to

22-6, inclusive, are of little value because of the small numbers of children tested in these sections. The letter nmn indicates the median age of each year group.

was very great, an average of nine years in each grade.The gradual readjustment of children by age and year grouphad caused the median of each year group to fall nearly inregular progression with one year advance for each higheryear group. The two variations in this progression aresmall, being only one-half of a year and one year,respectively. The larger variation, that between theseventh and eighth year groups, is an indication that themembers of the upper year groups (the older "children") hadbeen forcefully urged to make real accomplishments or leaveschool. It was assumed that the lower year groups wouldgradually come into correct adjustment, normally, to thedegree in which the teachers successfully carry out thepolicy of the department of education of advancing each

12child one year group each year.As a means of determining the degree of progress

which has been made in decreasing the range in ages and bringing the median closer to the chronological age standard as discussed in chapter III, Table VI has been prepared from data supplied by the superintendent’s report for 1938-1939. In an examination of this table we see that all "children" over the age of eighteen years had been eliminated, the median age for each grade had been reduced to slightly more than two years above true chronological

1 2 McTaggart, Annual Report of Progress and Needs, op. clt.. p. 17.

109

110

TABLE VI

AGE AND YEAR GROUP OF 1655 CHILDREN PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF AMERICAN SAMOA

JULY 13, 1939a

Age of children years 3

Year4

groups of 5 6

children7 8 9

Total no. of children

7 14 148 71 2 739 126 51 177

10 116m 96 17 2 2311 1 78 74m 60 17 2 23112 51 86 69m 53 10 26913 17 38 69 94m 28 24614 14 37 58 36m 9 1 15515 2 5 10 23 31 24 3 9816 3 13 21 28m 20 8517 10 14 27m 5118 4 7 14 25

Totals: 475 366 265 260 142 82 65 1655Note: The letter nmn indicates the median age of

each year group.a M.V. Heminger, Annual Report of the Superintendent

of Education for the Scholastic Year Ending May 31. 1939, "(Pago Pago: Govt, of Am. Samoa, ms., 1939;, inclosure18-C.

age standards, and the range in age in each grade had been reduced to an average of seven years, still far too great but indicating that some progress had been made towards the solution of the compulsory school attendance problems. However, it is quite probable that more progress has been made in the effort to enforce the school attendance law than the above figures indicate. Both the median and the age-range per grade would tend to be higher because of the retardation of some of the school children. Some retarding is being done as indicated by the superintendent’s report for 1940-1941, that the department of education has a general policy of promoting by achievement in all grades. Although educational progress in Samoa must be expected to be slow, the program has moved forward in a measurable degree. With good leadership and gradual increase in budget allotments, it can be expected to continue its forward movement. u

Samoan and Mainland Norms Are Different. Table VII gives the main body of information as obtained from the primary examination of the New Standard Achievements Tests. The average educational age and educational quotient of the various year groups is found according to norms established

M.V. Heminger, Annual Report of the Superintendent of Education for the Scholastic Year Ending May 31, 1939. (Pago Pago: Govt, of Am. Samoa, ms., 1939),inclosure 18-C.

Coulter, op. cit., p. 144.Cf. ante, p. 49.

Ill

112 113

t a b l e V I I

RESULTS OF NEW STANFORD ACHIEVEMFwi. -rtfST. PRIMARY, GIVEN TO 600 CHILDREN IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF AMERICAN SAMOA, FEBRUARY-MAY 1935

Chronological Number age tested Average scoris~of the test Average Average

educational educationalArithmetic age quotient

yr.-mo. Paragraphmeaning

Wordmeaning Dictation

Arithmeticreasoning

compu­tation

Averagescore

yr.-mo.

7-6 3 12.3 14.3 15.7 13.7 20.7 15.3 6-10 .918-6 13 15.2 15.3 19.1 22.5 31.8 20.8 7-6 .889-6 20 8.4 15.1 16.0 24.1 28.3 18.3 7-2 .75

— — — — — — — - — - -- - — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — - - - - - - - - - - - — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —10-6 36 5.9 10 .6 13.9 17.5 27.9 15.2 6-10 .6511-5 55 12.5 14.5 22.5 25.5 38.9 22.8 7-10 .6812-6 83 17.8 20.2 28.8 31.8 42.9 28.3 8-3 . 6613-6 80 18.5 2 2 . 1 30.7 36.0 45.8 30.6 8-6 .6314-6 94 23.5 25.1 37.9 43.0 52.9 36.5 9-0 .6215-6 77 24.5 27.6 39.8 41.2 51.2 36.9 9-0 .5816-6 72 29.6 37.3 51.7 51.9 56.3 45.4 9-7 .5817-6 35 32.9 43.0 56.3 58.2 60.3 50.2 9-11 .5718-6 16 35.0 45.4 58.5 60.4 60.1 51.9 1 0 - 1 .5519-6 9 30.7 44.5 56.2 55.8 62.1 49.9 9-11 .5120-6 6 34.8 47.7 61.7 50.8 55.0 50.0 9-11 .4822-6 1 49.0 69.0 72.0 70.0 64.0 64.8 1 1 - 1 .49

Total average of all age groups (total of 600 scores —f- 600 ):14.04 yrs. 21.-2 25.5 35.7 38.7 47.3a 33 .-7 8-8° .63Total average of 10-6 to 17-6 age groups, incl. (total of 53 2 scores 532) :14.07 yrs 2 1 . 1 25.0 35.5 38.6 47.8a 33.6 8-8° .62Total: 600 children in age groups 7-6 to 22-6, incl.; 532 c hildren in age groups 10-6 to 17-6, incl.

numbers of children tested in these groups.a For explanation of a possible inaccuracy see pages 01-02.b Direct reading of Stanford Achievement chart giveS °ne month increase.c Direct computation from total averages decreases th e educational quotient by .01.

by the test authors for children of the mainland United 1 4States.It is recognized that this standard for judging the

effectiveness of the American Samoan school program is bothunjust and inaccurate if used in any but a general way.The lack of an English speaking and reading home backgroundand the general "easy going" attitude of the Samoan parenttowards his children1s schooling are certain to make theachievement test norms of the Samoan children lower than

15those of the mainland children.Samoans Can Make Cultural Adjustments. Figure 2

graphically illustrates the relationship of the educational quotient in Table VII with the chronological age of the same children in Table V. By comparing the fall of the educational quotient with the chronological age of the children it will be noticed that the abruptness of the fall of the educational quotient is checked at the point where the first concentration of children in the age groups occurs. The decline of the educational quotient through these age groups which contain relatively large numbers of children, from 10-6 to 17-6, is less alarming. Isolated cases at both ends of the scale tend to affect the accuracy of that scale as a measure of the educational quotient for

14 Kelley, Ruch and Terman, oj). clt., primary examination, directions for administering.

15 Wist, op. pit., pp. 17-18.

114

115

.92 ,-w—0000•

E .84 ,du .80 ,ca .76 ,ti .72 ,on .68 ,a1 .64 ,

.60 ,q.u .56 ,ot .52ie .48nt .44

.40

.36

.32

• , ^■ -nr

••*••«•••••••

3( ni "I r* r

’hi"532d-Ti=>n • »hi 523 13 20.3«

.. 15 55 83 80 94 7'

L -1 ,i_J7 753 35

15. If 1,

3 3 6 0 ]L7-6 9-6 11-6 13-6 15-6 17-6 19-6 21-6

8-6 10-6 12-6 14-6 16-6 18-6 20-6 22-6Actual ages of children tested

Note: Readings in age groups 7-6 to 9-6 and 18-6 to22-6, inclusive, are of little value because of the small numbers of children tested in these groups.

FIGURE 2

EDUCATIONAL QUOTIENT BY AGE: 600 CHILDRENPUBLIC SCHOOLS OF AMERICAN SAMOA, FEBRUARY-MAY 1935

the whole group. Some inaccuracy in the scores of the advanced-age members of the group might be caused by the possibility that the test is too limited in difficulty to enable a complete reading of the children1s achievement to be obtained even so far as this type of test is ordinarily able to measure. The elimination of many over-age "children" from the school system since 1933, but previous to the time the tests were given, has quite probably prevented a rapid fall of educational quotient at the advanced-age end of the progression. However, this evidence of educational age growth (slow educational quotient fall based on mainland United States norms) gives the indication that the Samoan people have the ability to make adjustments in their growing contact with Western culture. Thus, the efforts of educators are justified in making it possible for the Samoans to obtain an education which will help them maintain a satisfactory balance between their native culture and the incoming Western culture. If this evidence of progress can be made in spite of the influences of the native social culture which does not particularly encourage progress, there is hope that an educational system, based more carefully on the needs of the people, will help them to earn a place of respect in the world of modern peoples.

Teaching of English Must Improve. In Table VII and Figure 3, it can be seen that the majority of the Samoan

117

7266

60T 54es 48t

42s 36co 30re 24s

1812

6

0-j- 36— children* -3 13 20*3<

532]-------children

55 83 80 94 77 72 3 32--children

Actual ages of children tested

Note: Readings in age groups 7-6 to 9-6 and 18-6 to22-6, inclusive, are of little value because of the small numbers of children tested in these groups. Arithmetic computation readings for groups 14-6 to 17-6, inclusive, are probably inaccurate (Cf. post, pp. 118-19).

FIGURE 3

ENGLISH AND ARITHMETIC TEST AVERAGES: 600 CHILDRENPUBLIC SCHOOLS OF AMERICAN SAMOA

FEBRUARY-MAY 1935

children have constantly made more progress in the arithmetic tests than in the English tests. The teaching of the processes of arithmetic has been carried on in both the English and the Samoan languages, while the teaching of English has been quite ineffectively done by a system in which all work in English was translated for the children into the Samoan language by the teachers. This practice limited the opportunities of the children in school for getting real practice in the use of English. These test results prove that a better method for the teaching of English must be found if it is to become an effective tool in the learning process in American Samoa.

Graph Exposes Test Error. In Figure 3, as in Figure 2, readings for the age groups below the 10-6 group and above the 17-6 group are inaccurate as a measure due to the small number of cases in these groups and possibly to the limited breadth of the test for some of the older individuals tested. The area between the vertical dotted lines contains readings that are based on sufficient numbers of cases to make them dependable. There is one place in this area, however, where the use of the primary test as opposed to the advanced test has probably caused an error. That portion of the arithmetic computation test curve for the age groups 14-6 to 17-6, inclusive, probably

118

Wist, op. cit.. pp. 50-51.

represents scores that are lower than the children were able to make, because the primary test in arithmetic computation was neither long enough nor difficult enough to make it possible to obtain an accurate maximum score. The largest possible maximum score of the five forms of the arithmetic computation test is 69.8, only nine points more than the highest point on this curve of average scores made by the children in the 10-6 to 17-6 age groups, inclusive.

It is quite probable that no such circumstances operated against the accuracy of the arithmetic reasoning scores in spite of the general similarity of the curves of the two arithmetic tests. The arithmetic computation scores for the age groups 10-6 to 14-6, inclusive, progress upward at a rate comparable to that of arithmetic reasoning. But above 14-6 the rise in computation falls off and permits the arithmetic reasoning scores to catch up. The arithmetic reasoning scores do not change in approximate rate of rise except for the one dip made by the 15-6 group which has similar dips for all of the tests.The possible average maximum for the arithmetic reasoning scores of the five forms of the primary test is 91. This is more than thirty points above the highest average score made by the children in arithmetic reasoning. It is doubtful whether the limitations due to the length of the tests have caused any appreciable error in the results other than that which appears in arithmetic computation.

119

Thinking vs. Memorizing. A further examination ofFigure 3, which graphically pictures Table VII shows thatordinary mechanical computation in arithmetic iscomparatively easy for the Samoan children, while theprocess of reasoning in that subject causes more difficulty.In the three English sections of the battery test(represented in Figure 3 by the three curves containingdots), the mechanical spelling of spoken words caused lessdifficulty than choosing the correct word as a result ofreading simple sentences. The understanding of paragraphsis seen to be more difficult than either of these. Inother words, according to these test results, the work ofthe schools since their formation and organization in1921, has resulted in the learning of mechanical processessuch as memorizing the spelling of words and thecomputational processes of arithmetic more thoroughly thanit has succeeded in developing the power to do carefulthinking about the problems of life as they arise or maybe prepared for on the basis of future use. This conditionis partly the result of the use of the static course of

17study adopted by American Samoa in 1922. It, also, is what one might expect after having studied the teachers’ scores which are recorded in Table IV in this chapter.

17 Cf. ante, pp. 32-33.

121TEACHERS AND CHILDREN COMPARED

In an effort to determine how much greater theteachers' educational accomplishments were in comparisonwith the accomplishments of the children they taught, thescores of the primary and advanced New Stanford AchievementTests are made comparable. This is done by retaining onlythe six tests in Engligh language and arithmetic in theadvanced examination because the primary examinationcontains tests only in these fields. This excludes thetests in literature, history and civics, geography, and

18physiology and hygiene.Quality of Teaching Improves Slowly. The actual

average improvement of the quality of teaching in thepublic schools of American Samoa from 1931-1932 to 1935 wassmall enough to permit a fair comparison of the two sets oftests to be made. The first few years of operation underthe new school system was a period of adjustment andexperimentation. The teachers were definitely ordered bythe educational authorities to continue teaching by themethods with which they were already acquainted until theyunderstood enough of the new methods to be able to keep the

19children moving forward in their educational experiences•

18 Cf. ante, p. 67, Table II.19 Commander J.W. Moore, Director of Education of

American Samoa, issued this order to all the public school principals during the first term (continued on next page)

The educational background of the teachers was very limited; and even when there is a richer educational background a minimum, working understanding of the new methods and theories of education are not especially easy to acquire. Because of these obstacles it can safely be said that, educationally speaking, the new system of classroom instruction had not been put into universal use within the first few years after the system’s legal inception. For this reason any inaccuracy in the results of a comparison of teacher and child on the basis of the New Stanford Achievement Tests given would tend to make the difference between teacher and child somewhat smaller than it was shown to be. This limitation to accurate comparison can be counterbalanced by allowing the teaching group credit for a few months of educational growth.

Teachers Are Less Than Four Years Ahead of Children. The total average score of teachers and teacher candidatesin the advanced English language and arithmetic tests is

\

74.9 with an equivalent total average educational age of eleven years and eleven months. Even after allowing six chronological age months for teacher growth from 1931-1932 to 1935, this would only be about three and one-half years

of the 1933-1934 school year because the islands had been temporarily left without the assistance of a superintendent of education.

122

in advance of the averages of the children they teach.This is enough margin between teacher and child to insurethat some progress will be made by the children in school.The more complete cultural background of the teachers andthe greater practice in thinking which they have had willgive them a decided advantage. On the other hand, thenarrow margin between teachers and children is certain tolimit the quality Qf teaching when the basically moredifficult problems of adapting the curriculum to immediateschool needs and of developing an adequate teaching method

21are concerned.

PROBLEMS REVEALED BY THE TEST RESULTS

From the analysis of the tests as given in this chapter the educational defects of the initial system of universal public education in American Samoa and the problems which normally would develop in the process of building, with limited funds, a program of mass education w-here none existed before, stand out more clearly, and the following needs which the new system must meet are revealed:

12320

20 Cf. ante, pp.100, 112-13, Tables IV and VII.The scores of children between the ages of 10-6

and 17-6 years, inclusive, only, are used here. Cf. ante, p. 108, Table V.

Felix M. Keesing, Education in Pacific Countries. (Shanghai: Kelly and Walsh, Ltd., 1937J, p. 186.

1. A more effective method for the teaching of English must be used if this language is to be of maximum value to the learners.

2. That very important quality in life, the art of thinking, has been neglected. It must be made basic to all of the work of the schools if that work is to be of much value to the Samoan people.

3. The great range in age in each grade has tended, socially and mentally, to stunt the natural growth in individual thinking as a means for better learning. It also has prevented the teacher from doing his best work in the classroom.

4. Poorly trained teachers contributed in no small measure to the lack of broad child growth in school. More thoroughly trained teachers in a method designed to develop this art of thinking will go far toward enabling the Samoan people to solve their own peculiar problems.

A philosophy of education which embraces these four problems, and others not brought out by the tests, was developed by the representatives of the Frederick Duclos Barstow Foundation in cooperation with the American Samoan government officials as described in chapter III. Definite efforts are being made by the representatives of these interested agencies to solve these problems. Some of the progress already made along these lines is discussed in chapter III of this study. Chapter IV concludes the

124

discussion of the general background essential to an adequate understanding of the work of training teachers in American Samoa under the reorganized educational setup. Chapter V, which follows, deals directly with the problems of training native Samoan teachers.

125

CHAPTER V

TEACHER TRAINING

It was brought out briefly in chapter II that there were no trained native teachers available for the newly organized American Samoan public school system in 1921. In fact, no natives were available to teach who had had more than a poor eighth grade education and very little, if any, training in the art of teaching. With only this type of native teacher material available in the beginning, the government immediately set about the business of improving it. A chief pharmacist mate of the United States Navy, the most capable man available at the time, formed a teacher training class at Poyer School for the new teachers.

A regulation was made by the governor of American Samoa in 1921 requiring all native teachers to attend a yearly teacher training course at Poyer School for six weeks, beginning the first Monday in January the following year. The 1922 session was attended by thirty-one teachers and candidates. Instruction was given by a Roman Catholic brother of the Leone Boys School, a navy man’s wife who was a normal school graduate, and the superintendent of education (navy chaplain). Direction and supervision of the school were the responsibility of a navy pharmacist

mate and the superintendent.^"With the arrival of the first director of education

(professional head) in August 1922, the problem of training teachers was turned over to him. In 1924 the period of the teachers institute was lengthened to three months, and two years later was reduced to ten weeks. A special two weeks winter course was added to the teacher training schedule in July 1926, but it was not continued regularly thereafter.In this short course

Instruction was given in phonics, reading, oral and written English, formal grammar, arithmetic, hygiene, and music. Methods of teaching were outlined and discussed. The total attendance was 44— 42 men and 2women.S

In spite of the fact that "teacher training" was the avowed purpose of these institutes, they were used mostly for the review of subject matter for teaching and to a very small extent to the study of method. Other and more professional aspects of teacher training such as the teacher’s psychological relationships with his children were, to all practical purposes, omitted. This was the result of having a supervisory and teacher training personnel made up of only one professional educator (due to

1 F.H. Bryan, American Samoa. A General Report by the Governor. 1926. (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Govt. Prtg.Ofc., 1927), p. 89.

Cf. ante, pp. 29-32.See Appendix A.

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Bryan, op. cit.. pp. 89-90.2

limited finances), the inadequate pre-service preparation of the teachers, themselves, and the unsuitable course of study in use.1"

THE TEACHERS INSTITUTE OF 1932-1933

As was mentioned in chapter III, a committee of three leading professional educators from Hawaii was sent to American Samoa by the Barstow Foundation to conduct the ten weeks Samoan teachers institute which was scheduled to be held from December to February, 1932-1933. Dean Benjamin C. Wist of the Teachers College, University of Hawaii, was chairman of the committee; the other members were Professor William McCluskey, director of training of the teachers college, and Principal Robert M. Faulkner of the Kawananakoa Experimental School of the Department of Public Instruction of the Territory of Hawaii. More than 6,500 dollars was contributed to the institute in goods and cash by the Barstow Foundation and the Government of American Samoa for salaries, transportation, subsistence and living quarters, and also for books and educational supplies. 4

2 Benj. 0. Wist, Report of the Visiting Staff to the Samoan Teachers Institute, 1932-1933. (bound ms. in the possession of the Barstow Foundation Library, Bishop Museum Bldg., Honolulu, T.H.), pp. 78-79.

Cf. ante. pp. 32-35.4 Wist, 0£. clt. . pp. 48, 59, 96.Cf. ante, pp. 45-46.See Appendix C.

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The visiting staff of the institute was assisted bythe superintendent and the director of education, the

/native principal of Poyer School, and other native or white people living or temporarily stationed in American Samoa at the time. Of the sixty-five individuals who enrolled for study, fifty-three were teachers and twelve were candidates. Six of the candidates were young women.During the institute period, three men and three women dropped out for various reasons, leaving fifty-nine in attendance at its close.^

The enrollees in the institute were tested individually to ascertain their ability to use English, and an estimate of their personal characteristics was made. An advanced examination form of the New Stanford Achievement Test was given to all enrollees, including the Poyer School principal. All of these tests were evaluated on a common scale and composite scores were used so as to place the enrollment in three groups for efficient class instruction. The testing program also helped to acquaint the visiting staff with the student body of the institute and to give the staff members a basis for recommendation in preparation for teaching.

The curriculum of the institute included elementary

129

® Wist, op. cit.. pp. 49, 546 Wist, op. cit.. pp. 49-50.

science, agriculture and health, and oral and written English. The approach was from the professional teachers* viewpoint. In addition, a general professional course was given. The new course of study was completed a month before the close of the institute and was as thoroughly studied by the teachers in regard to its practical application to the classroom as time and the educational limitations of the teachers permitted. Active agricultural work, health and sanitation, teacher ethics, daily dramatic and musical programs, both prepared and extemporaneous, and moving pictures completed the institute program. Dean Wist, in summarizing the work of the institute says

. . . that everything taught, everything done centered about the concept of raising_the general level of intelligence of the Samoan people . . that wiseadaptation to a changing civilization is dependent upon developing the intelligence of the children; that this . . . necessitates real life experiences for children based upon Samoan life and culture; that the English language is essential because of the lack of scientific and cultural literature in Samoan.?

The 1933 Review Institute. After a four-month teaching term beginning in March 1933, a five-day institute was held in August by the superintendent of education (title given to the professional head of the school system by the new educational code of 1933) to enable the teachers again to review the new course of study. During this brief institute, a two-day model demonstration class was taught

Wist, op. pit., pp. 52-54.Cf. ante. pp. 50-51.

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by the superintendent, and seminars were conducted to answer teachers questions as to the procedure of handling the new

Qcourse of study.

THE REORGANIZED TEACHER TRAINING SETUP

When the visiting committee planned the new teacher training program it recognized the limitations imposed by meager resources and realized that its plan for teacher training could not be ideal. However, it built a new program that was definitely superior to the old one in spite of these limitations. The new program was capable of being developed into a more adequate one as education and resources progressed. It made three approaches to the problem.

First, the new plan called for a continuance of the vacation teachers institutes with greater emphasis placed on the psychological relationships between teachers and school children and on building a more adequate teaching method. English, agriculture and manual arts (native crafts) were also recommended to be given more attention; the use and value of the library was to be stressed. This

8 0 Le Fadatonu, (Pago Pago; official news organ of the Govt, of Am. Samoa), Aug. 1933.

Arthur E. Lindborg, Program of Teachers Institute. to be Held at Poyer School. August £8th - September 1st. 1933. (Pago Pago: Govt, of Am. Samoa, mimeographed sheet,1933).

Wist, op. cit.. p. 383.

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institute plan was to be made possible by the addition permanently of two professional educators from Hawaii to the staff at Poyer School, and the importation of two or three others for a short period each year. These last were to be on the teachers institute staff. The Barstow Foundation was expected to help in obtaining the services of these special institute staff members.

Second, the new teacher training plan was designed to relieve the superintendent of education from teaching classes at Poyer School. It left him free to give his full time to the work of supervision and administration. The native principal of Poyer School was also set free to aid the superintendent, and was given the title of supervising principal. A new position of secretary of education was created, and the native occupying this position was to assume detailed clerical duties in the department office.

Activity in the third part of the new program centered around Poyer School. Poyer was to become the center of experimentation with the new course of study and, at the same time, was to prepare promising in-service teachers for better work and possible principalships in other schools. The preparation of candidates for the teaching profession was also assigned to the Poyer School staff. The Government of American Samoa was expected to carry the full financial burden of the second and third parts of the teacher training plan. As was pointed out in

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chapter III, It became necessary to make a temporaryreduction in the number of schools and teachers and arevision of the budget generally to put the plan intooperation. Its basic value to the school system, however,was such as to warrant this action. The reduction innumber of teachers provided an excellent opportunity todrop the very poor teachers, who could be replaced lateron with better qualified individuals. The results obtainedfrom the new teacher training setup, to date, are further

gjustification of the changes.

THE TEACHERS INSTITUTES

The seven teachers institutes which have been held at Poyer School from 1934 to 1940, inclusive, were patterned largely after the 1932-1933 institute, and the recommendations made by the visiting committee which conducted it. All of these institutes have contributed toward the building up of the teaching body and have added to the general experience of the department of education, inasmuch as more or less complete reports about each have been made available. Due, however, to the small number of native teachers and principals remaining in June 1941 who have been in the school system during this whole period and were thus able to participate in all of the institutes, the

9 Wist, pp. clt.. pp. 80-85.Of. ante. pp. 46, 78-79.

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earlier institutes have not directly benefited the main body of the present teaching personnel. To be more specific, of the forty-three native teachers and principals in the public school system In September 1933, twenty or 46 per cent were still in the system in June 1941. These twenty teachers made up only 26 per cent of the native staff of June 1941, however. Of the seventy-seven native teachers and principals in the system in June 1941, fifty- seven, or 74 per cent, had entered the system since September 1933, 61 per cent since September 1936, and 39 per cent since September 1939. This information and the knowledge of the rapid turnover, the low educational level of the teachers, the scant pre-service training, and the limited in-service training make it especially necessary to continue unabated the effort directed toward the in-service training of teachers.4^

Grouping of Bnrollees. The method used in the 1932-1933 teachers institute for grouping the teachers and candidates in attendance according to their ability was carried out in the June-August 1934 institute. The only difference was that there were two groups instead of three. Recognizing the need for more special preparation for primary teaching, the method for grouping the institute

W.H. Coulter, Annual Report of the Superintendent of Education. 1 June. 1940 to 51 May. 1941. (Pago Pago: Govt, of Am. Samoa, ms., 1941), pp. 131-32.

See Appendix D.

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members was revised in the 1935 session. On the assumption that the primary teacher is the key individual in an elementary school system, especially in an academically retarded system such as exists in American Samoa, that teaching method can best be taught in teacher classes representing a smaller range of year groups, that the number of classrooms in American Samoa are about equally divided between the first three year groups and the other six, and that there are very few women teachers for primary work available or in prospect in the teaching body of American Samoa, it was concluded that the more flexibly minded of the men teachers should be trained for primary work. With but a few exceptions, necessitated by individual problems and local situations, the younger and more alert teachers were chosen to receive specialized training for primary work. It may be noted, however, that in general the majority of the former advanced group members fell more or less naturally into line for the newly formed primary group. 1 1

It was recognized from the beginning that although the Roman Catholic brothers and sisters teaching in the

1 1 Mark M. Sutherland, Report of the 1954 Samoan Teachers Institute, to the Superintendent of Education. XPago Pago: Govt, of Am. Samoa, ms., 1934), pp. 3-4, 7.

Earl L. McTaggart, Report of the 1935 Teachers Institute, to the Director of Education, (Pago Pago:Govt, of Am. Samoa, ms., 1935), pp. 1-2.

Frank J. Drees, Superintendent of Education, questionnaire, Mar.-Apr. 1938.

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Leone Boys and Girls schools were public school teachersand by law were required to attend the teachers institutes,it was unwise to request that they attend on the same basisas the native Samoan teachers. Their broader educationalbackground, and their peculiar position as members ofhighly exclusive religious organizations, made it advisableto suspend some of the general in-service teacher trainingrequirements for these non-Samoan teachers. The result wasthat, when they did not act as instructors in institutes,they were given the status of auditors. This suspensionof rules, In their case, made it possible for them toattend the courses either in the elementary or in theintermediate and upper division, whichever they felt wouldbe of greatest benefit to themselves. At the same time,this permitted them to attend without violating any oftheir strict religious rules. The wisdom of this decisionis seen in the resulting cooperative energy expended in theinterests of better public education down to the present

12time by the brothers of this group.The Faculties. During the seven teachers Institute

periods following the beginning of the reorganized system of teacher training in September 1933, thirty non-Samoan professional educators, including three Roman Catholic

1 P Sutherland, op. cit., p. 3.McTaggart, op. cit.. pp. 1-2.Cf. ante, pp. 64, 94.See Appendixes B and C.

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brothers, have taught regularly scheduled classes in the institutes. Of these, seven taught regular courses in two or more sessions and one more, a member of the original visiting staff of 1932-1933, returned to one institute to teach regular courses. For the most part the twenty-five professional educators who went to Samoa from Hawaii were among the leaders in their respective fields of work in the department of public instruction of the territory or in the University of Hawaii. The four Samoan members of the staffs who have taken part in the regular instruction of the teachers in the institute are the best among the native personnel of the department of education of American Samoa in points of ability, understanding and cooperation.

In addition to these instructors of regular classes,more than twenty-six non-Samoans and eight Samoans havecontributed to these institute programs by making from oneto seven or more daily appearances in institute assembliesfor the purpose of making instructional contributions tothe work of the institutes. Among these contributors are agovernor of American Samoa, fourteen doctors of medicine ordentistry, agriculturists, educators, native Samoan highchiefs, and others. In addition, members of the regularstaff gave special lectures, contributing to the program in

1 3points not covered by their regular class work.

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See Appendix C.

Financial Support. Having taken a big step toward helping American Samoa to develop a school system that had greater possibilities of accomplishing the aim of preserving the good in Samoan culture while making available the good in western culture, the Barstow Foundation was morally bound to continue its assistance.In addition to the decision to develop a ’'school for chiefs,” as the Feleti School was first called, money was provided by the Barstow Foundation to help in making the vacation teachers institutes real aids in the improvement of the Samoan teachers. The members of the visiting staff of the 1932-1933 teachers institute, who planned the reorganized system, changed the school year from its normal southern hemisphere calendar year term to a September-May, northern hemisphere term so that well trained and experienced professional leaders might be secured from Hawaii to come to Samoa during their annual vacation periods. Thus, by the Barstow Foundation furnishing a small stipend and round trip transportation the most desirable kind of leadership for the needs of the American Samoan system has been obtained. Leaders in the public health, agricultural, and other educational fields in Hawaii are especially valuable to Samoa because of the similarities of climate, of people, and of national unity. The island government, as its share of Institute maintenance, has paid the salaries of its regular

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supervisory and teacher training staffs as well as of the teachers themselves. This was in addition to the subsistence provided by the Barstow Foundation for visiting instructors.^

The Curricula. The curriculum emphases during the first nine teachers institutes, from 1932-1933 to 1940, inclusive, have covered five general interlocking fields. Briefly these are culture, English, health, agricultural science, and professional planning and method. These fields are so interrelated— in their application to the training and improving of Samoan teachers— that each one extends to a considerable degree into the field of each of the other four.

To be more specific, some illustrations are given here which show some of these extremely important interrelationships. The application of practically all of these emphases in carefully planned instructional courses is limited and controlled by the cultural program which includes the social sciences as they relate to Samoa and Samoan culture patterns. To teach agriculture, for instance, without considering the local geographical,

Earl L. McTaggart, Annual Report of Progress and Needs of the Public School System of American Samoa to the Board of Education. July 19351 (Pago Pago: Govt, of Am.Samoa, ms., 1935), p. 10.

C.M. Sitler, Annual Report. Department of Education to the Governor of American Samoa, 1958-1959, (Pago Pago: Govt, of Am. Samoa, mimeographed, 1939),pp. 18, 2 1 .

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economic, and social situations would be to blind the teachers and insure the failure of the educational program or the rapid breakdown of the native social organization, and encourage the rapid growth of a multitude of resulting evils. English is the medium of instruction, both in the institute and in the public schools. The teachers are definitely limited in their knowledge of and ability to use English as was shown by the tests referred to in chapter IV. Therefore, it has been necessary to emphasize English in all institute classes and, consequently, all institute instructors have been teachers of English, both oral and written, regardless of the names of their particular courses. The health of the students being so important a factor in their learning process, the means of securing and maintaining a healthy body and a healthful community has been constantly brought before the Institute student body both by teaching and by example. A regular and sufficient food supply for the population is an important basis for continued satisfactory life. In Samoa, because a rapidly increasing population exists where there has not been a corresponding increase in concern for food supply, everything that the education of the people could accomplish would be valueless unless a part of that accomplishment were the building of concern for an adequate food supply and the teaching of effective methods for securing it. Because of this situation, each teacher

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becomes a teacher of agriculture. And finally, every instructor, regardless of the particular course he has taught, has been almost immediately faced with the problem, not only of teaching a body of subject matter as it related to Samoan life, but of teaching these Samoan teachers how to present it to their own particular classes.

In order to insure programs that teach such details in various units of work as were necessary, the program of each institute was planned around certain courses, and lectures. These were organized so as to provide both specific details and understanding^ of broad Interrelationships among the various important fields of study. History, geography and civics in their relationship with Samoan culture and proverbs were taught In some form in practically every institute session from 1932-1933 to 1940. Samoan law as a unit subject or lecture appeared in three institutes. Library use and care was dealt with specifically in four institutes. Health and sanitation, as well as games, recreation and music in some form were never omitted. Dental care came into the picture in at least three institutes, and health statistics at least once. Arithmetic, after Its initial emphasis in 1932-1933, was not taught as an isolated subject until 1938 and succeeding years when arithmetic texts suitable for various levels were prepared with the cooperation of classroom teachers during the institute sessions. The agricultural emphasis,

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after the initial 1932-1933 institute, was mainly learning how to grow things and learning what to grow. By 1937 a course in general science was offered, and the following year one in nature study was added. These have been repeated in various forms in succeeding institutes indicating a swing in the general approach to the agricultural problem from the acquisition of skill toward a more scientific method. Similarly, the study of native crafts which hed been emphasized by the initial institute staff was allowed to fall by the wayside after 1934. By 1940 the need for better teaching in this line of work had become so obvious to the Samoans themselves, that it was again brought into the institute program as a definite course.

From the beginning, the need for real and continuous effort to stimulate the formation of true professional attitudes in the native teachers was recognized as basic if an effective educational system was to be built. In keeping with this aim such courses as educational theory, the history of education, teaching problems, teaching methods, lesson planning, course of study, theme planning, theme analysis, model school demonstration, school organization and management, and supervision have been included in every institute program. Teacher ethics, duties, and responsibilities have been regularly emphasized. The model demonstration school and

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accompanying seminars conducted for the purpose of helping the teachers to observe and criticise actual teaching of Samoan children were held in conjunction with the institutes from 1933 to 1936, inclusive. Some of the teaching was done by carefully chosen Samoan teachers under close supervision, and some by expert teachers and supervisors from Hawaii. After 1936 these model demonstration classes were discontinued in favor of providing more extensive work in theme planning and textbook preparation. Now that that phase of the work is well under way the model demonstration school should again be conducted about once every two years so as to allow an equitable distribution of time among the various felt needs. The large turnover among the native educational personnel makes this plan urgently necessary because of the numbers of new teachers who have not had the opportunity to observe an expert at work with little children. The extensive decentralization of schools adds to the need because considerable numbers of teachers are being placed in very difficult situations (six grades to a teacher) without the presence and support of fellow teachers.4^

15 See Appendix C.W.H. Coulter, op. cit.. p. 10.Cf. ante, p. 62.

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SUPERVISION IN THE SCHOOLS

In the reorganization of 1933, the teaching duties of the superintendent of education were taken over by the principal of Poyer School, and the superintendent was left free to spend all of his time in administrative and supervisory work, with the result that the school system has become a much more unified whole. The supervising principal, a native Samoan, was given the specific responsibility of supervising all faife1 au schools, in addition to three inspections of the regular public schools required of him each year. Two of these inspections he usually made in the company of the superintendent, when the latter made his semi-annual tours to supervise the teachers and meet the chiefs of the various villages. In 1940 the supervising principal was relieved of one of his required annual inspection trips through the institution of a system of surprise inspections to be made by two native supervising teachers whose duties are, while keeping in constant touch with the central office, to check on such matters as attendance of children and teachers at school, the progress of the agricultural and 4-H programs, the crafts program, plan writing, the keeping of accurate records, and the proper care of supplies and equipment.The supervising teachers are also available to act as substitute principals in the larger schools as necessary.

From the beginning of the reorganized school setup in 1933 various plans have been proposed for the improvement of the school system. Among these has been the proposal to build a larger and more adequate native supervisory personnel. Definite expressions have been made, however, regarding the ineffectiveness of native Samoans as professional supervisors. There is undoubtedly some merit to this criticism, considering their meager educational background and the fact that they are closely tied to the traditional Samoan social system. Their ability to supervise, however, will improve, although slowly, just as their ability to teach is improving. It is no more than just that the best of them should be given an opportunity to improve in this way. Among the recognized values of such procedure would be the following: to aid thesuperintendent more actively and regularly in his efforts to maintain proper supervisory control of the schools; to facilitate the keeping of accurate and sufficient records; to provide special in-service training, along with actual experience for a small number of the best native teachers; and gradually to pave the way for the native Samoans ultimately to become able to take over the more responsible positions of the department of education. The fact that the more immediately practical reasons— such as the improvement of attendance at school and the release of other officials to care for urgent and valuable centralized

office work— were given for the creation of the supervising teacher positions does not minimize the importance of the other values.

When the superintendent makes his inspection and supervisory trips to the schools, he is nearly always accompanied by the supervising principal or a supervising teacher, and often by the director of education. In order to observe the proper respect for Samoan rank, the visiting party, when it makes its inspection trips, visits first the schools in the villages where the district governor lives, then those where the county chiefs live, then the other schools which need the inspection most, and finally the rest of the schools. All regular inspections are preceded several days by notices to the pulenu*us (mayors) of all villages concerned. Plans are made to allow a whole day for the inspecting of each school, when this is possible.On these tours the inspection party has to meet two general groups of people who are important to the success of the school program, i.e., the teachers and the village chiefs.

The first approach to the village is made directly through the school itself, where the supervisors help the teachers and principal with their professional and administrative problems. The class registers are checked to determine the attendance problems. The health conditions of the teachers and children are noted and inquiry made to determine the kind of cooperation which is

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received from and given to the public health workers. Outlines, prepared plans, and suggestions which have been given to the teachers at vacation institute sessions, monthly pay day meetings, and on previous supervisory trips are followed up, and practical help in their use in both planning and teaching is given. Checking the teachers1

plan books, noting the class schedules, observing the teachers at work, and sometimes demonstrating difficult procedures are a definite part of the visit. Inquiries are made concerning the school library (if any), equipment is checked, and a general inventory is taken. School needs are ascertained. The physical features of the school plant are carefully observed, and the condition both of cleanliness and of repair of the school and teachers' buildings, the grounds and the toilet facilities are noted. The work of the children at handcrafts and in the school plantation is critically checked to insure proper and adequate instruction. The supervision of the 4-H club by the teacher is enquired into. Occasionally, after the close of the school day the visiting party, in informal conversation with the local school staff, is able to discover definite causes, not apparent during the more formal inspection period, for particular difficulties.Steps are then taken to eliminate the causes. Often the village chiefs can help in the elimination of such difficulties. No opportunity is lost to encourage the

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teachers and to guide them in their relationships with the children, the parents and the village chiefs.

The supervising principal or supervising teacher, in addition to aiding the superintendent with the inspection and supervision of the school at work, contacts both teachers and the village pulenu* u and checks on the school-village relationships in such matters as school and teachers cottage repair, food for teachers, proper school hours, truancy, 4-H club progress, and related problems.In case difficulties have arisen he obtains as much information as he is able and reports to the superintendent. If the supervising principal is along he inspects the falfe1au schools during the hours in which they are in session. He reports regularly on falfe'au school matters and makes a composite report annually.

After the inspection of the school the visiting party meets with the chiefs of the village (or villages if children attend the school from more than one village) in a fono (meeting) for the discussion of matters relating to the schools. The director of education, since he is considered more directly a representative of the governor of American Samoa than is the superintendent, is an important figure in such discussions. When especially important questions are pending he makes a particular effort to be present— as rank is very important in Samoan life. In these fonos the visitors and the village chiefs

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are seated at opposite ends of the native guest house, each person with a place assigned according to his rank in relation to the others in his group who are present. After the all-important ceremony of drinking kava has been finished, the parties at opposite ends of the guest house proceed with their conversation in order of rank, visitors first, and sometimes each group with the special assistance of a talking chief. The supervising principal, being a native chief himself, or one of the supervising teachers, not only acts as interpreter for the fono but acts, as well, in the capacity of talking chief for the visiting party when necessary, conversations between the visiting party and the local chiefs at such formal meetings, and at more informal ones at other times, are used to explain the purposes of the educational program, straighten out local and general differences between the schools or teachers and the villages, and enlist the support of the chiefs in behalf of the general educational program. Suggestions by the chiefs are requested, and when received are given careful consideration, for without the support of the

■Ichiefs the school program would not function.*| C. School Law of American Samoa. (Pago Pago: Govt,

of Am. Samoa, corrected to June 1934, mimeographed for the teachers institute, 1934), Sec. 67, paragraphs 2-4.

Wist, pp. cit.. pp. 66-68.McTaggart, Annual Report of Progress and Needs.

op. cit. . pp. 14-15, 17, 22, and Enclosure ME”.Sitler, op. cit.. pp. 16-17.E.F. Redman, Annual (continued on next page)

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The Monthly Teachers Meetings. In addition to inspection and supervision in the schools, the superintendent requires all of the educational staff members to meet once a month at a centrally located place on their island for instructions, general discussions, professional reports, and conferences. Special problems and difficulties which are observed by the supervisors and office staff during the month are explained or otherwise cleared up and proper methods, where necessary, are demonstrated. Special events and projects such as the annual public school demonstration day and the coconut beetle collecting contest are announced and discussed. Questions raised by the teachers are answered and announcements of various sorts are made. Professional study assignments are given regularly, and examinations to determine the progress made are conducted at the meeting during the month following the assignments. Some such assignments require written reports, others oral. Occasionally the student teachers from the Poyer teacher training class are invited to attend these meetings.

16 Report. Department of Education, to the Governor of American Samoa. 1959-1940.~TPago Pago: Govt, of Am.Samoa, mimeographed, 1940), pp. 12-13.

Drees, loc. clt.M.V. Heminger, Annual Report of the

Superintendent of Education for the Scholastic Year Ending May 51. 1959. (Pago Pago: Govt, of Am. Samoa, ms., 1939),p. 5.

Coulter, o£. clt.. pp. 96, 110-14.Cf. ante. p. 56.

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During the closing period of the meeting— after allrequired reports of teachers and principals have beenhanded in in proper form— the staff members receive theirmonthly pay. These meetings are usually held on the lastFriday of the month. The director of education ispersonnaly in charge of the meetings on Tutuila island butthe meetings on the other islands are presided over bydelegated subordinates. The teachers association alsoholds its monthly meeting on this day. All native staff

17members are members of the association.

TEACHER TRAINING AT POYER

Although the government of American Samoa did not formally declare Poyer School a teacher training institution immediately in 1933, the way was left clear for it to grow into one. The island government followed the recommendations of the visiting Barstow Foundation education committee of 1932-1933 to the extent of employing a young professional couple as principal and primary teacher of Poyer School. These newly employed educators had received their professional preparation at the Teachers College of the University of Hawaii.

In general it was planned that Poyer School would

17Xf McTaggart, Annual Report of Progress and Needs, op. cit., p. 15.

Coulter, op, cit., pp. 86-95.Heminger, op. cit.. p. 13.

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have a triple purpose under the direction of theprofessionally prepared couple. It was necessary thatPoyer continue as an elementary school and desirable thatit offer work through the ninth grade. It was alsonecessary that the new course of study be used so that itmight have a fair test in a practical Samoan situationunder the best guidance available. And finally, the workof training teachers had to be done. In the capacity ofteacher training school, attention had to be given to boththe in-service and the pre-service training of AmericanSamoan public school teachers, and incidentally, toprovide a demonstration of actual teaching under the newcourse of study in the Samoan setting for observationpurposes for both the in-service and pre-service

1 ftteachers.Selection for In-service Training. The native

Samoan staff of Poyer School already having been appointed, it became the initial duty of the new principal to give these in-service teachers a professional basis on which to work, and practice in making use of the new course of study. These six teachers were young men with two to four years of teaching experience and having ”the most promising prospects for future educational

Wist, o_p. cit. . pp. 80-82.The writer of this thesis is one member of the

11 young professional couple” who went to institute teacher training in Poyer School in 1933.

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leadership . . . and, what is of far more significance,/being7 teachable, earnest and interested in the dynamic

19philosophy of education.”These teachers experienced real difficulty in

grasping an understanding of the basic principles of teaching, but the year allotted to them at Poyer was well spent. One of them dropped out due to ill health and another did so poorly that it was recommended that he be required to attend a second school year. The four others did so well, however, that they were placed in principalships the following year. Three of these four have done outstanding work in the department of education throughout the years that have followed. One is now the "native teacher trainer” for practice teaching for the Poyer Teacher Training School.

It was not until June 1935 that any official recognition was given to Poyer as a teacher training school by the board of education. At this time definite recognition was given only to its capacity of pre-service preparation of prospective teachers. Although the in-service training work at Poyer had been recognized in the superintendent’s report that year, the failure of the board definitely to give official recognition to it may have been due to the fact that this plan for the work at

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49 Wist, op. cit.. pp. 80-81.

Poyer was lost sight of in the rapid turnover of legislativeand administrative personnel after the new system was

20tentatively organized.As preparations were being made to assign the

teachers to their schools for the 1934-1935 school year, it was decided by the superintendent and the principal of Poyer School to place a fair cross section of the native teachers in Poyer School for in-service training. This decision was reached after it was seen that it would take about ten years time for all of the teachers then in the system to be able to spend one year, each, in Poyer for this special training on the job. It seemed that the best solution to the problem of how best to give the most valuable help in in-service training was to place the teachers in Poyer on the basis of convenience, expressed willingness to cooperate, and the needs of the individual teacher. It was assumed that all of those assigned to Poyer would be able to profit by their experience there. However, as the plan developed a few were placed there, on trial, because of apparent failure in other schools.The object was to give them the opportunity to succeed under the best leadership available or be discharged as inefficient if failing under such circumstances. The plan was then carried a little further, when it was decided to

McTaggart, Annual Report of Progress and Needs. op. cit.. pp. 14, 18, 88.

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permit the principals of two of the larger isolated schools (Amouli, which could not be reached by auto at that time, and Tau) to spend one semester, each, consecutively, at Poyer for in-service work. The native teachers at Poyer that year, being more of a cross section of the total group of native public school teachers, made progress which was less marked than that of the group in attendance the first year. In most cases, however, the experience proved of sufficient value to make the project well worth while. Again, one of the group failed to make the progress desired and was retained for a second year of work at Poyer. One was an outstanding success and his subsequent work in the American Samoan public schools has been superior. He is now a supervising teacher.

During the following school year, 1935-1936, the same general plan was carried out. At the close of this year, however, three of these Poyer teachers were retired because of the new regulation, providing for enforced retirement for all teachers with matai (chief) titles.Two teachers who made little progress in their work were retained at Poyer for another year. Of these two, one was discharged during the following year at Poyer and the other-after spending one year in another school— was discharged during the 1938-1939 school year while at Poyer for his third year out of four. Both were discharged for inefficiency. Of the four other teachers at Poyer during

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1935-1936, all were assigned, within three years, to principalships of schools having two or more teachers. One of these is now a supervising teacher.

The next school year the plan for in-service teacher training at Poyer was changed. During that year only three teachers who had not yet been in Poyer under the new professional leadership were placed there. One more, in addition to the two ''retards,” had been a member of one of the previous groups of teachers under the new setup. And three were young teachers who had recently graduated from the Poyer teacher training school. Because the Poyer principal and the superintendent who had been most closely associated with the original planning of the teacher preparation program for American Samoa had already left, and because the professional interest was being centered more definitely on agricultural education, the Poyer in-service teacher training plan just faded out of the educational picture. Thus, again, too rapid a turnover among administrative and supervisory personnel has interfered with consistent growth. The problem of native teacher subsistence probably had its influence on this change also. Older teachers with families, with the exception of those whose home villages were in the neighborhood, resented being sent to Poyer without additional salary due to the significant increase in their living expenses. Food and housing was not furnished to

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Poyer teachers by surrounding villages because it was a district school; yet even native food in the Pago Pago bay region is more expensive than elsewhere. Young unmarried men, on the other hand, preferred to live in the naval station bay region where there is more activity and more interesting things to do. Being single, their expenses were less and it was easier for them to attach themselves to some family in a nearby village.

With this loss of important means for in-service professional improvement, there remained only the monthly pay day meetings and the limited supervision in the field during the school sessions, as means of continuing the in-service improvement of the teachers.

The Weak Teacher Problem. Throughout the entire history of the American Samoan public school system, what to do with the very weak teachers has been a problem that has plagued the supervisory and administrative personnel. To dismiss such teachers outright, although necessary in some cases, has been generally undesirable for several reasons. Better replacements in sufficient numbers have been very difficult to secure. A teacher who has had considerable teaching experience will usually profit more

See Appendix D.Earl L. McTaggart, former Superintendent of

Education, letter to Mark M. Sutherland, August 3, 1939.Drees, loc. cit.Cf. ante. pp. 13-14, Fig. 1, and pp. 87-89.

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by in-service instruction that can be given than a new less experienced teacher. Too many dismissals of teaching staff members cause the public to lose faith in the teachers, or the administration, or both. And the power and influence of certain chiefs in the Samoan social system make it expedient to retain certain of their family members as teachers, regardless of professional qualifications, a s a result dismissals have been postponed or made on the basis of immoral or other undesirable social action rather than on an educational basis. However, at least fourteen have had to be dismissed, indefinitely suspended or not rehired in the past eight years, on the basis of incompetence. As a means of encouraging greater effort on the part of these weak teachers, such devices have been used as giving warnings, cutting pay, transferring teachers to smaller or otherwise less desirable schools, forcing acceptance of sabbatical leaves, and placing on probation. The lack of long term administrative service has tended to make action based on the above factors sporadic, rather than in pursuance of a consistent policy. The result has been that probationary and other plans have been made by one administrator or supervisor and left for another to carry out without an adequate understanding of the purposes behind the action. Democratic leaders are loath to allow severe action to be taken against individuals where the background necessary to fairly supervise such action is

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lacking.In recent years an effort was made to give the

benefit of the teacher training staff to certain of these weak teachers. Instead of offering this service to them as teachers in regular positions at Poyer, they were given enforced sabbatical leave on half pay and placed in the class with the regular pre-service teachers. In view of the fact that personal prestige is so important in Samoan life, it is to be expected that such action would accomplish only the elimination of these individuals from the school system and not their improvement, professionally. The result was just that. Within the year two of the four on sabbatical leave resigned. The other two resigned the following year. The system of placing very weak teachers on probation has since been used. Although the problem of what to do with weak teachers will be a major one for some years to come, the reviving of the plan to give in-service training to them

COas teachers at Poyer would help to lessen the problem.In-service Training Curriculum. The curriculum,

through which the in-service teachers at Poyer were

On M.V. Heminger, Superintendent of Education, letter to Earl L. McTaggart, Hawaiian Educational Representative of American Samoa, 9 October, 1939.

Coulter, op. cit.. pp. 124-125, 129.W.H. Coulter, Superintendent of Education,

answers to questions submitted by Mark M. Sutherland, 1941.See Appendix D.

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acquiring their professional understanding, can be thought of as having four general parts: observation of teaching,theory of education, planning and teaching under supervision, and school administration. Throughout, improvement in the use of both oral and written English constantly was emphasized.

Despite the fact that the teachers were responsible for classes of their own, arrangements were made for them to observe the primary teacher from Hawaii ( principal's wife) teaching the first and second grade children in the Samoan type of school building. Seminars based on the observations made at these periods were held after school to explain techniques and the reasons behind procedures.

General teachers meetings were usually held twice a week. The meetings opened with the discussion of the administrative problems of the school and closed with short lectures and discussions on various phases of psychology, educational theory, and method. Definite attention was given to the language used, care being taken to insure that the lectures and discussions by the instructional staff were couched in terms such as could be grasped by the teachers. Short tests to determine the degree of success of the presentations were occasionally made. The papers were corrected but not graded and then were used as a basis to clarify the teachers’ thinking. Included likewise on the agenda of these meetings were:

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methods of writing plans and using them; interpreting the course of study in terms of the Samoan classroom situations and the needs of Samoa; the teaching of various types of work in the various levels of the elementary school; preparing and administering tests, and the proper emphasis to place on them; and discussions of general teacher problems.

A Poyer teachers reading club was organized in December 1933, and monthly meetings were held in the home of the principal, the superintendent, or one of the teachers. In these meetings educational readings were reported on by individual members and discussed by the group. The meetings also had valuable social aspects.

Personal teacher’s problems in plan writing and classroom teaching were dealt with in personal conferences with the individual teachers. Such conferences were held as often as twice a week at the beginning of the year's work, but as each teacher obtained a better grasp of the situation in his classroom these conferences became less frequent until they were held only about twice a month. These latter conferences were usually of shorter duration. When occasional lapses of effort occurred the conference method was used to help the teacher to obtain a new grasp on his work. Care was taken at the beginning to have the teachers look at their year’s work as a unified whole, outlining it in general terms of expected and desired

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accomplishment. Then, with this yearly outline, they were guided in planning their work from week to week and from day to day so as to he consistent, progressive and thorough. The value of plan writing was demonstrated in this way. Both daily and weekly plans were used at different times to provide the teachers with a broader understanding of plan writing as a tool. Care was taken to observe the teachers in their use of the plans and to help them improve their performance in the classroom.

With the view to preparing these teachers for ultimate principalships, the experience of administering the school was shared with them as much as was possible. From the beginning of their year in Poyer they were given a part in organizing and reorganizing the year group and classroom setup as needs for new adjustments developed and the pre-service program progressed to the point where classes for practice teaching were needed. An understanding of the means of adjusting year groups in rooms so as to equalize teacher load was in this way given. Building schedules for use of the playgrounds because of congestion, for junior police service— affording the children protection in connection with the power launch which brought many of them to school— for school programs— such as the general one at Christmas time— and the use of the limited agricultural and shop tools by the many class groups were participated in by all of the teachers. These

16 £

administrative experiences and those resulting from ordering, selling, and caring for supplies and equipment, preparing required reports, planning the use of the library, and organizing and supervising the school health and sanitation program were matters over which various members of the staff were given individual or group authority. Thus in both theory and practice, in the observation of and the participation in the operation of an actual school, these teachers were being prepared to assure, with some degree of success, administrative positions in the general school system. The degree of actual success which each teacher would achieve in his new position upon leaving Poyer was dependent upon a number of factors among which are the following: the individual's flexibility of mind in being able to develop a scientific attitude towards his problems as they arise, his willingness to achieve by personal effort as well as by influence, his willingness to put more into his work than he gets back in the form of compensation, his ability to judge a practical situation where conservative Samoan tendencies are at odds with the educational policy, and his ability to strike a balance between the traditional Samoan forces and the equally important forces of educational policy. In short, to be really successful the Samoan teacher or principal not only has to be a good teacher and administrator but he must

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164O 'Zthoroughly understand the Samoan social system as well.

Selection for Pre-service Training. The problem of training candidates to become satisfactory teachers for the public school system in American Samoa is more than the technical one of setting up a curriculum, providing the instructors and starting them off on a schedule of operations. Granting that a teacher training staff, a curriculum and a schedule are all available, the very nature of the social situation in Samoa makes the problem of selecting candidates for teaching a most difficult one. Individuals who take advantage of the educational opportunities offered and then enter the school system with the purpose of making teaching their career are needed.

Previous to the educational reorganization of 1933, eighth grade work was the highest offered. The reorganized system raised this offering to include ninth grade work. Poyer, Leone and Tau schools were selected for the advanced work. On this basis ninth grade graduation or the equivalent was set as the academic requirement for entering the teacher training course, and other more subjective standards were tentatively set. Obviously, if this ninth grade graduation rule were to be strictly

23 Earl L. McTaggart, questionnaire submitted for use in ”A Brief Comparative Survey of Teacher Training Practice, Policies and Problems in Pacific Countries,”Aug. 1, 1936.

Fofoga 0 Poia. op. cit.. Nov. 1, 1934, Mar. £8,1935.

enforced there would not be any candidates for teacher training during the first school year— unless candidates from non-public schools were available. None of the latter group was available. Consequently, after the in-service training program had been placed on a firm footing that first school year at Poyer, candidates for the pre-service training course were sought. The students in the ninth grade at Poyer being most nearly available, various ones of these were chosen as student teachers so that in addition to their ninth grade work (which of course suffered as a result) they were given urgently needed training for the work of teaching. Those who were willing and who had at least the very minimum of personal qualifications were accepted. During their training period, several of the student teachers were sent out to other schools as substitutes for short periods of time. Five finished the year’s work satisfactorily. Of these five, two had been placed in regular teaching positions before the end of the school year. The others were placed the following year.The pressure of the demand for more teachers, because of teacher turnover and rapid increase in school enrollment, was so great, in ratio to the supply of trained candidates, that it was some years before the ninth grade prerequisite could be completely enforced. By 1937 the enforcement of the ninth grade graduation requirement was beginning to become a reality, and plans for a second year

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of teacher training were being made. In addition, requirements with respect to the candidates’ mental and physical standards were raised.

In planning the second-year program it was realized that a larger number of ninth grade graduates would have to be reached so that by the time one year of teacher training was finished enough would have passed all requirements to be ready and willing to enter the second-year training class. Leone was chosen as the place for another first- year teacher training school because of the availability of a staff member capable of teaching such a class, and the availability likewise of ninth grade graduates. The class located in the western district would provide a group of substitute teachers located more conveniently for western district schools than theretofore. In addition to the ninth grade graduates available at Leone, it was hoped that a considerable number of the senior students of Feleti School, which was only a short distance away, would attend. Since the entrance requirements for Feleti had been raised to ninth grade graduation, among other things, its seniors would be superior, educationally speaking, to regular teacher training students. But the different aim of the Feleti School caused this part of the plan to prove disappointing. Consequently, relatively few members of the Feleti senior classes registered for and completed the teacher training course, and still fewer accepted the

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teaching positions which were offered. Some of the students, after graduating from the teacher training course, were recommended by Feleti School authorities for other jobs.

By September 1940, with the stimulus of the financial help given by the Barstow Foundation, the board of education had finally been prevailed upon to permit a second-year teacher training course to be offered at Poyer. Unfortunately, four months after this advanced class was started, an unpredictable factor entered the situation which forced this new program temporarily to be abandoned. It also depleted the first-year training classes at Poyer and Leone and forced the teacher trainers again to draw on ninth grade students for teacher training candidates to insure against a shortage of teacher applicants who w'ould have at least some professional training.

The cause of this retrogression— unbalanced governmental finance coupled with the sudden availability of well-paying jobs in the national defense program— has put the problem of training teachers at present in the most serious position in which it has yet been. Under ordinary circumstances public works and public health jobs and the Fita Fita guard have taken many pre-service individuals who might otherwise have been good teachers. They have also taken a few in-service teachers. This was because of the higher remuneration attached to such

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positions. Significantly, it can be seen by an examination of Appendix B that the teachers, once in the service, have not left it for higher pay positions in as large numbers as might be expected under these circumstances. Some credit for this fact must be given to the professional attitude towards their work which many of the teachers who would be eligible for these other and more remunerative positions have developed. Since January 1941, when the National defense projects got under way, many of the first and second year teacher candidates have left training to take the highly paid jobs which are being offered on these projects. On the other hand, the recent action of the teachers in expressing their willingness to stay on the job while requesting the government to consider the salary inequalities shows that if they can get comparable treatment they prefer to remain in the teaching profession. Students in school, ninth grade graduates, teachers in first and second year training, teachers in service— all groups have been affected. Under normal conditions the supply of non-teaching positions is so limited that the difficulties resulting from the low pay of the teachers would not have reached the present dangerous proportions. Thus, the program for the pre-service training of teachers has been set back eight years, and the possibility of sending it and the whole professional teacher system into oblivion has come as a direct result of a low standard of

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pay for the service of the department of education as compared with the pay standard of other groups which have few, if any, preparational prerequisites.24

Occasionally a student who is accepted into the teacher training class has close high ranking family connections. In cases where such individuals fail to meet the minimum standard of achievement established, it is often difficult to refuse them graduation certificates and teaching positions due to their family influence. Those who do secure positions because of family influence usually try to hold those positions by the same means by which they secured them, with the result that the general standards of teaching do not rise as rapidly as they might otherwise.^

Pre-service Training Curriculum. The first teachers

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Fofoga 0 Poia, op. cit.. p. 2.0 Le Fa'atonu, op. cit.. Apr.-May-June 1935.McTaggart, Annual Report of Progress and Needs,

op. cit.. p. 18.Frank G. Sutherland, Principal of Poyer Teacher

Training School, questionnaire, Mar.-Apr. 1938.Frank G. Sutherland, Principal of Poyer Teacher

Training School, letter to Mark M. Sutherland, Jan. 6,1938.Drees, loc. cit.Heminger, Annual Report of the Superintendent.

op. cit., pp. 77-80, 134.See Appendix D.

pc McTaggart, questionnaire, loc. cit.A particular student teacher from a high ranking

family was dismissed from the teacher training class three times during his year of pre-service training, but each time he came back as though nothing had happened. Word was sent to the school's principal, through the native teachers, of the high chief's displeasure in the matter.It was finally decided that the expedient thing to do was to permit him to remain and graduate. After three years of teaching he resigned.

in training were at the same time ninth grade students. Although they had already had as much formal education as the in-service teachers in the school, they had not had the experience which came from several years of teaching and attendance at several teachers' institutes. From the point of view of approach and application they were definitely immature as compared with the teachers who had been placed in Foyer. In order to prepare them for the work of teaching, which it was quite likely some would, have to do before the year was over, only the ''high spots'1 of professional preparation could be given them. Like the in-service teachers in training at Poyer they were given the opportunity to observe the primary teacher from Hawaii and the native in-service teachers as well. Since it was not possible to begin the pre-service training class until January 1934, the in-service teachers were well along in their experience under the new course of study and could teach under student observation without excessive nervousness. Seminars with the principal and supervisor were held regularly after these observation periods.Classes in the interpretation of the course of study, plan writing, and teaching method were held to provide background for practice teaching. Psychology and elementary educational theory were not introduced as separate units but as much as fitted naturally into the picture was added informally through discussion. As soon

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as the student teachers were ready, a class for practice teaching was arranged. Due to the large numbers of children with skin diseases, an ’’isolation” class was formed with the dual purpose of making the entire Samoan personnel of the school, including the teachers and student teachers, health conscious, and also to provide a heterogeneous group of children for practice in teaching,such as would be found in a typical outlying school. Whenit became evident that the demand for new teachers would probably exceed the supply in the existing class and when also some of the students from the eighth grade and two from the seventh asked to be permitted to enter the teacher training class, part-time practice teaching was provided for these lower classmen. They were first, however, made ready for this training by observation and work in the course of study, plan writing, and other study. The large primary class taught by the principal’s wife (primaryteacher and supervisor) was divided into two sections, onein each end of the native Samoan type house. Student teachers, under her supervision, worked with these classes under the same disadvantages they would be required to face in actual teaching situations.

All of the five ’’graduates” had been placed in department of education positions by October of the following school year. That year some of the ninth grade graduates from the Leone Boys School and some from Poyer

School (ninth graders who had not volunteered for teachertraining the previous year) entered the teacher trainingclass with one ninth grader, making a total of nine. Thesame type of work as was given the previous year wasrepeated, with the exception that the training wasinaugurated at the beginning of the school year inSeptember, and more time was allowed for greateraccomplishments. Regular classes for practice teachingwere maintained throughout the year and as thoroughsupplementary studies as possible were added. Thestandards of effort and accomplishment for teachers beingbuilt up by the department of education were too severefor most of those beginning, and six dropped out in thefirst two months. Again ninth graders were drawn upon,and the year closed with seven teacher training graduates

26of which three were also ninth grade graduates.During the following two years the supply of teacher

candidates increased. Aside from observation and practice teaching, however, little was given the students in preparation for their work as teachers. Greater emphasis was beginning to be placed on health and sanitation, and agriculture.

In 1937, in keeping with the growing emphasis on agriculture in Samoa resulting from the revelations made

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26 Fofoga 0 Poia, op. cit.. Nov. 1, 1934, May 29,1935.

by Superintendent McTaggart and others on the inadequacy of native agricultural methods in the face of rapidly increasing population, an agriculture teacher and his wife were secured from Hawaii to take over the training of teachers. An intense personal instructional program was again put into operation. Approximately 18 per cent of the student teachers’ time was spent in the study of educational psychology and theory, observation of teaching, library methods, the preparation of records and reports, lesson planning, and special supervision of groups of Poyer fourth to ninth grade students at work out of their classrooms.

Recognizing the need for broader academic background about 70 per cent of the time given to pre-service training was spent in studying oral and written English, arithmetic, manual arts and native crafts, agriculture, health and sanitation, and the social sciences adapted to the Samoan setting. The remaining 12 per cent of their time, approximately, was spent in practice teaching in the Bay area village primary schools which were opened when the Poyer primary department was decentralized in September that year (1937). The supervision of practice teaching was done by the native principals of these schools.

This practice teaching plan was experimental in that it was designed to relieve the professional teacher training staff at Poyer for other important duties,

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contingent, of course, upon the ability of the native principals to supervise the students in their practice teaching. These native principals and their assistants were carefully selected, with changes made wherever these seemed advisable. After a three-year trial it developed that one of these native principals was especially well qualified to carry on the work of supervising student teaching. He has since been given the tentative title of "native teacher trainer" and began supervising all practice teaching at his school in Pago Pago village in September 1940. In speaking of him the superintendent of education said, he

. . . not only puts on good demonstrations but is an excellent critic. He is deeply interested in his work and it is an inspiration for students in training for teachers to be in the environment of his school andclassroom.27

It was not until 1940 that an attempt was made to standardize the teacher training curriculum so that it might carry on from year to year regardless of changes in training personnel. The establishment of a separate

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Coulter, Annual Report of the Superintendent. op. cit.. pp. 79-80.

Earl L. McTaggart, former Superintendent of Education, letter to Mark M. Sutherland, Aug. 14, 1939.

McTaggart, questionnaire, loc. cit.Earl L. McTaggart, Agricultural Education in

American Samoa, (unpublished Master1s thesis, University of Hawaii, Aug. 1936), 202 pp. .et passim.

F.G. Sutherland, questionnaire, loc. cit.Drees, loc. cit.Heminger, Annual Report of the Superintendent.

op. cit.. p. 14.

teacher training class at Leone, the necessity to plan a curriculum for the second-year class at Poyer, the regular change in supervisory personnel at Poyer, and the plan for shifting the Poyer principal to the position of superintendent each year, all contributed to the realization of the need for standardized training curricula. In addition to the one month of practice teaching in the Pago Pago village school, the curriculum for the first year class was planned to include

1. Basic principles of education and elementary psychology.

2. Primary themes and their correlation with the subjects.

3. Methods in teaching reading in the primary grades.4. Methods in teaching arithmetic in the primary

grades.5. Music, games, and activities for the primary

grades.6. Health.7. Agriculture.8. Samoan crafts.

The course of study for the second-year class included1. School organization, management, planning, and

testing.2. Intermediate themes and their correlation with the

subjects.3. English composition and methods in intermediate

reading.4. Methods in teaching arithmetic in the intermediate

grades.5. Music, games, and activities for the intermediate

grades.6. Geography and social studies.7. Samoan crafts. o88. Teaching science and agriculture.

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OO Coulter, Annual Report of the Superintendent. op. clt.. p. 77.

From the small and difficult beginnings in 1933 the program for the pre-service training of native Samoan teachers had developed to the point in 1940 where two years of well-planned, all-around training was being offered by instructors, who, though transitory, were well trained educationally and intensely interested in the Samoans and their educational problems. The quality of the Samoan educational program has grown greatly through the efforts of the visiting administrators and supervisors, and through the efforts of a great many of the Samoans themselves. The statement made by one of the superintendents that "Samoa is still in the 'Stone Age» and there is no sufficiently good reason for forcing them out

oqof it too rapidly"^ indicates the general attitude of cooperation with the Barstow Foundation's statement of policy towards the Samoans— that of helping them preserve the good that is already theirs while making available to them the good of the Western civilization.

The present disruption of the educational program is something that none of those connected with the work in Samoa could very well have foreseen. This problem's solution belongs to the powers that caused it, the Government of American Samoa and the United States Government.^

Drees, loc. cit.^ ££• ante, pp. 85-86.

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Probationary Teaching. The problem of seriously limited finances has been the companion of the reorganized department of education from its beginnings in 1933. In the budget prepared in 1933 the base pay of fifteen dollars a month was adopted from the pay schedule of the old system. Due to an increase in teaching personnel and to expenditures for non-salary purposes, the budget exceeded the money available. First a pay cut was made on the salaries of all native personnel. As plans were made to restore this pay cut it was seen that reductions in other v/ays would likewise have to be made. The plan of establishing a probationary period of one year at a salary of six dollars a month was adopted. As already pointed out, this plan also proved instrumental in affecting the elimination of some of the least competent teachers. However, to complete the balancing process the base pay for non-probationary teachers was reduced to twelve dollars monthly and more recently to nine dollars, and certain higher paid teachers who were doing poor work were reduced in pay. Since the governor was unwilling to increase the school tax without the consent of the chiefs— which there was little prospect of securing— the educational authorities had to accept the disadvantages and, without reducing the scope of the school system, cut expenses in the only place where it was physically

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possible to do so, the salary schedule. The very few teachers discharged at the close of their first year of service during these past eight years seems to indicate that but little administrative use has been made of the

'Z1device other than to balance the budget.

FELETI SCHOOL, A TEACHER TRAINING CENTER?

The only educational institution in American Samoa which is both non-sectarian and yet provided with adequate support is the Feleti School, named in honor of Frederic Duclos Barstow. The trust fund (about three hundred thousand dollars) was set up by Frederic's parents in the interests of the education of the Samoan people and is administered by the board of trustees of the Frederic Duclos Barstow Foundation for American Samoans. The income from this trust fund, and the principal itself under certain extraordinary conditions, in addition to regular gifts in cash by the donors, has been and is being used in the interests of the Samoan people. The amount of this annual income- and donations has varied between ten thousand and twelve thousand five hundred dollars with the possibility of being somewhat reduced under existing circumstances. The building and maintenance of Feleti

34 Earl L. McTaggart, Recommended Budget for 1935- 1936. (Pago Pago: Govt, of Am. Samoa, ms., 1935).Coulter, Annual Report of the Superintendent, op. cit.. 1936-37.

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(Freddy) School, the sending of a special educationalcommittee to the Samoan public school system, the giving ofspecial aid to the public school system in helping with thetraining of teachers and in other matters already mentionedin this thesis, and the sending of Samoan youth to Hawaiiand to Fiji for special training and broadening experiences

32have been among its activities to the present time.Educating for Leadership, an Experiment. The

initial plans for Feleti, the proposed senior boarding school, were formed in 1932. The school’s main purpose was to train native Samoan leaders who are capable of intelligently facing the ever-growing contact between the Samoan and the pressing non-Samoan cultural influences. Realizing that there was no sufficiently comparable educational unit on record to be used as a pattern, the foundation trustees decided to set up the school as an experiment and to give it a trial for a period of five years. This time limit has since been extended to ten years. The student body was originally to be composed of eighteen students chosen by the governor of American

32 Deed of Trust. Frederick Duclos Barstow Foundation for American Samoans. (Honolulu: BarstowFoundation, 1931).

Wist, op. cit.. pp. 26-31.Frank E. Midkiff, ”A Charitable Trust Makes Plans

to Serve a Primitive People,” Mid-Pacific Magazine. Jan. 1933, pp. 28-29.

Frank E. Midkiff, Secretary of the Barstow Foundation Board of Trustees, letter to L. Wild, Governor of American Samoa, February 25, 1941.

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Samoa. These were apportioned among the various counties, on the recommendation of the chiefs of those counties. The total enrollment capacity of the school has since been increased to thirty-two and later to forty-five students. The American frame buildings were to be furnished by the Barstow Foundation, and the Samoan houses were to be built by the counties cooperating, and food and other native type maintenance provided likewise by the natives. However, special aid in the matter of Samoan buildings has, on occasion, been given by the foundation and its donors.

The teaching staff was to be made up of a well qualified white teacher and his wife, a carefully chosen native Samoan teacher capable of properly interpreting the best in Samoan culture to the students, and a number of specialists in various Samoan activities. The white personnel has been employed as first planned and for the teaching of Samoan culture a faife'au (pastor), a high chief, and a high talking chief have been permanently employed. Together, these three have expert knowledge and ability in native crafts and social customs.

A three-year course of study was planned which aimed at teaching the best in both the Samoan and the American ways of life. To accomplish this aim, a curriculum having three general divisions was adopted. With English as the language of instruction and discussion in this first division, such "constants" as oral and written English,

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numbers, biological and physical sciences, and social sciences based on Polynesian and American history, geography, and civics were to be taught. The second division of the curriculum consisted of the arts, crafts and applied sciences whereby the Samoan material culture was to be taught along with improved methods of health and sanitation, and agriculture. Both Samoan and English were to be the languages of instruction in the second and third parts of the curriculum in accordance with the particular needs of the unit being studied. The third and most difficult part of the curriculum dealt with the social adjustments which have to be made between the two cultures. The Samoan language and proper native social customs are taught. This part of the program was to be made effective by having the students, after graduation, return to their home villages and serve in the capacity most needed until they should receive their elevation to chieftainship according to the proper Samoan custom. It was assumed that if they never became chiefs their service to their villages would still be more valuable because of their studies at Feleti than had they not attended the school. In any case their real value to their communities would depend on how well they learned to reconcile the differences in the two cultures which are in conflict in Samoa. Their success would help a new and more adequate American Samoan culture to develop.

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The difficulty of solving these particular problems of obtaining instructional staff members best suited for the job, arranging for the land, preparing the grounds and erecting the buildings— both Samoan and American— building a curriculum and securing a student body prevented the school from opening until September 1934.

It is recognized that desirable leaders, even in Samoa, are not those of least ability, but rather, are those who can adjust to the existing social structure and improve it by building from within. With this in mind, the new headmaster was faced with the task of educating the Samoan chiefs to the point where they would recommend to the governor the type of individuals who might possibly develop into leaders possessing these qualities. The standards, on paper, of requiring ninth grade graduation as a prerequisite for appointment to the school was impossible of immediate fulfillment for the same reason as the original teacher training standards were not fulfilled— the insufficient number of such graduates available. Of the few who were available for appointment the majority were not sufficiently high in the favor of the chiefs to win their recommendation. The beginning Feleti student body, therefore, was made up of fifth to ninth grade students, and unfortunately included a number of students who were undesirable on account of their personal qualities. As succeeding classes have entered the school a better type of

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student has been recommended for registration. A greatly increased quota of ninth grade graduates from whom to draw, has resulted in a student body with better educational background and has likewise made possible more discrimination in the selection of students with desirable personal traits.

On the basis of an investigation made last year by the department of education a total of thirty-five students had graduated from Feleti School in four classes from 1937 to 1940, inclusive. Of this number, twelve or about 34 per cent, had entered teaching, but only eight remained in this employment in January 1941. Of the thirty who obtained government positions, including the teachers, three had been discharged and had returned to their villages. Of the non-government employed graduates, one was studying in a Fiji medical school (under Barstow Foundation auspices), one was studying in Western Samoa to be a faife*au. one was a commercial store clerk and one had been made a matai. It is still too early to obtain data on which to determine, with any degree of accuracy, the success or failure of the experiment, but an indication can be obtained from the results at hand.

The graduates’ experience in school has encouraged personal ambition as indicated by the success of most in seeking remunerative positions. Such ambition is not approved by traditional Samoan life, but at present the

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remuneration therefrom is desired by the village leaders. The school has undoubtedly succeeded quite well in teaching the American culture practices, for most of those who secured positions with the government have held them. It is not to be expected that considerable numbers of these graduates would already have become matais for such positions usually come to individuals who are some years further advanced in life than these graduates could possibly be at this time. The original aim of the school to have the graduates return to their villages and live according to the traditional Samoan customs, serving according to the wishes of the matais. and then, after being thoroughly tried, become eligible for matai titles themselves, is evidently failing. In the light of the present intensified Westernized activity in American Samoa, however, it may be fortunate for Samoa that this is true. The Barstow Foundation board of trustees, through its secretary, Mr. Frank E. Midkiff, recognizes that the problem facing the native Samoans is being greatly intensified:

There is no question that the /national defense7 work going on now will strike very hard at many of the old customs such as, for example, the custom of family or titular ownership of property. The employees in connection with the government projects doubtless will acquire the habit of retaining their own cash and spending it to procure personal property which they will regard as their own. This is just one instance of

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rZ rZprofound changes that are probably to be expected.It seems logical to assume that natives who have

eceived the carefully planned training of the Feleti Dhool will be better able to understand the effect of this

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Frank E. Midkiff, Secretary of the Barstow oundation Board of Trustees, letter to L. Wild, Governor f American Samoa, February 17, 1941.

Frank E. Midkiff, Secretary of the Barstow oundation Board of Trustees, letter to L. Wild, Governor f American Samoa, January 6, 1941.

John W. Moore and Frank E. Midkiff, "Plan for xperimental Senior Schools by Sub-Committee,” Report of he First Committee of the Barstow Foundation to American amoa. 1932, (Honolulu: compiled from Barstow Foundationecords) privately mimeographed and bound, 1932).

Riley Ewing, Report on Feleti School for October. ovember. December. 1939.

Coulter, Annual Report of the Superintendent. op. it., pp. 67-68.

Frank E. Midkiff, ’’School Survey and Plan of ducation,” Report of the First Committee of the Barstow oundation to American Samoa. 1932. (Honolulu: compiledrom Barstow Foundation records) privately mimeographed nd bound, 1932).

Frank E. Midkiff, ’’Basic Paper on Schools, etc.,” eport of the First Committee of the Barstow Foundation to merlcan Samoa. 1952. (Honolulu: compiled from Barstowoundation records) privately mimeographed and bound,932).

"Prospectus of an Experimental School for merican Samoa," Report of the First Committee of the arstow Foundation to American Samoa. 1952. (Honolulu: ompiled from Barstow Foundation records) privately imeographed and bound, 1932).

Riley Ewing, Headmaster of Feleti School, letter o Mr. Shepard, Member of the Barstow Foundation Board of rustees, 29 November 1940.

L. Wild, Governor of American Samoa, letter to rank E. Midkiff, Secretary of the Barstow Foundation Board f Trustees, January 15, 1941.

Redman, op. clt.. p. 15.Felix M. Keesing, Modern Samoa. (London: George

lien and Unwin Ltd., 1934), pp. 30-31.0 Le Fa’atonu. op. clt.. Dec. 1935.Cf. ante, pp. 37-38.

situation on Samoan life than others who have not received that training. It would seem reasonable to assume that these graduates will be more useful to Samoa by being in the area of this Western activity than they would be if serving dutifully in their respective villages.

It may still be that instead of the old approach to the matai titles, the graduates of Feleti School will have a new approach to title, through education and broadened experience. This may prove beneficial in the rapidly changing Samoa of today.34

The possibility that the national defense activity willendanger the very organization of the Feleti School, itself,as it has the teacher training program, does not detractfrom the benefits Samoa may reap from those alreadygraduated.3^

Teacher Training Possibilities. It is evident that, from the point of view of teaching staff, equipment and curriculum, Feleti School is much better able to do for a few what the public school system has been trying to do for the masses. Both have the same broad educational objectives. But whereas the Feleti School has had an adequate number of expert teachers to handle the various types of work, both Samoan and American, the public schools have had to start from scratch and practically pull

34 Frank E. Midkiff, Secretary of the Barstow Foundation Board of Trustees, conference with Mark M. Sutherland, July 30, 1941.

rZ c Ewing, letter to Mr. Shepard, loc. cit.

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themselves by up their bootstraps. A system of education, like a chain, is as strong as its weakest link. The public schools have been seriously weak in their lack of books and supplies. They have been even weaker in teacher personnel. The progress, such as it is, that has been made in public education there during the past eight years has been mainly due to the improvement of the teachers, although some credit must be given to the preparation of textbooks for the schools. Both the Barstow Foundation and the island government have put considerable money into the work of training teachers since 1932. The enlargement of the school system has added to the cost of its maintenance without a corresponding increase in the cost of the teacher training program to the island government. But as total cost increased and means had to be found to meet that cost, the budget of the island government often has been reduced at the expense of better teachers.

The Barstow Foundation has contributed generously, up to the limit of its available funds, to the government's project of training teachers. This has only served to increase the desire in Samoa for greater support. From time to time the idea has been privately expressed that Feleti School should become the teacher training school for the public school system in American Samoa. This would obviously relieve the island government budget of all teacher training expenditures. Recently, due to reduced

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government Income as a result of low copra prices and lack of tourist trade, the Barstow Foundation has been approached with a view to assuming the work of training teachers. Three possible plans have been mentioned, two of which would involve the use of Feleti School.

In accordance with the first plan Feleti School would take over the work of training teachers, the teacher training to be done by the headmaster’s wife who would receive a salary of one hundred dollars monthly for her specialized services. This proposal ignores the fact that she is now morally obligated to help in several important ways in the education of the boys taking the regular Feleti course. Replacing the three present teacher trainers with one who has other obligations also, would reduce drastically the amount of training given. The teacher training program would have to fit into the schedule of the present work at Feleti with the result that valuable parts of both programs would have to be dropped. The teacher training graduates would have the advantage of the Feleti program and would be culturally better off, but they would be lacking in the professional aspects of their preparation. Since the new course would be of three years duration, even that difficulty might be overcome. Furthermore, the plan would reduce the present opportunity for receiving the full values of the ethnologically based curriculum for the graduate who is not interested in

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becoming a teacher. So far as the school itself is concerned it would have to be expanded physically to the point of providing graduates to fill from six to twenty teaching positions annually. Considering the high rate of teacher training failures (students eliminated from the course as soon as their ineptitude is discovered as well as those who prove to be incompetent on the job) and the number of Feleti graduates who would not desire to teach, the graduating class would have to be enlarged to the point of having from twenty-five to fifty graduates annually. In both this proposal and the one to follow, most of the students would have to live at the school, as it is situated so far from the populous centers that practically no students would have the opportunity to live with families friendly to those of their own villages.Thus additional buildings for both living quarters and classrooms would be necessary. This would mean a physical plant of more than double the present capacity and a cost prohibitive to the Barstow Foundation.

The second plan would give the island government's experimental farm to Feleti School for use in the training of teachers. The farm borders the Feleti School grounds. The teacher training couple from Poyer would transfer to the farm and Feleti School and would occupy the farm buildings which would have to be renovated. With the expanded teaching staff and land area, an enriched program

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could be carried on. Here again the cost would be prohibitive. Five thousand dollars would be needed to make the farm residence livable, and such problems as what to do with current and planned experimental farm projects, how to provide transportation for these white teachers, as well as providing the buildings needed for classrooms and living quarters for the students make the plan scarcely feasible.36

What Is F eleti ’ s F'uture? The principle on which Feleti School is based is that with a consciousness of the needs of a people in mind, relatively few carefully selected and carefully educated individuals representing every section of the country will, in the normal process of life, become the leaders in their various communities, and collectively, will have great good influence on the people’s decisions and actions. That Feleti School, or any school in American Samoa, could not have secured to its advantage every condition necessary for the accomplishment of this desired end, even with the resources of the

L. Wild, Governor of American Samoa, letter to the Frederic Duclos Barstow Foundation for American Samoans Committee, November 26, 1940.

E.W. Hanson, former Governor of American Samoa, letter to F'rank E. Midkiff, Secretary of the Barstow Foundation Board of Trustees, December 14, 1940.

Ewing, letter to Mr. Shepard, loc. clt.Earl L. McTaggart, Hawaiian Educational

Representative of American Samoa, letter to Frank Midkiff, Secretary of the Barstow Foundation Board of Trustees, December 9, 1940.

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Barstow Foundation at its service, is obviously true. But that the possibilities of Feleti School for greater accomplishments along these lines are better than those of any other single institution in American Samoa is also true. The main argument arises not in any comparison of school and school but of school and system. Should not these thousands of dollars, which are now being spent annually at Feleti, be placed at the disposal of the education of the masses so that a far greater number of people can benefit thereby? Public education would be improved if this money were added to that already being spent, but the desire in American Samoa is not that. It is to replace public money which is not, hereafter, to be collected, or if collected again, is probably to be used elsewhere by the government. In this way the money now being used in Feleti School would go to supplant, not supplement, present or recent public expenditures. The two plans to make Feleti School into a public teacher training institution illustrate this. A third plan, not described above, of diverting Barstow Foundation money to the full maintenance of the teacher training school at Poyer and thereby crippling or eliminating Feleti, would have the same effect. For the good of the Samoan people this is undesirable. It would remove from their service a school well fitted to help them in a way that no public school is prepared to do, and it would create the

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Impression in the Samoan public mind of dependence onoutside help so that one of the very important aims ofeducation, that of building self-reliance, would bedamaged or destroyed.

It is advisable to continue Feleti School, at leastto the end of its extended experimental period and probablyfor an additional five years or more. Statements madeduring F’eleti's period of planning and formation to theeffect that it was to be a school for future chiefs wereunfortunate. That thought goes counter to Americanidealism, and as a result has caused unnecessary oppositionto develop. The school should be referred to in terms ofwhat it is, a semi-public high school maintained to giveadditional training beyond the regular public schools, andhaving the same basic curriculum as the public schools.So far as its future is concerned, it is still on trial.

37Final judgment must await further evidence.

PLACING THE FINAL RESPONSIBILITY

For the teacher training program of American Samoa there exists a crisis which has more potential danger than any it has yet faced because the progress of the past few

^ Wild, letter to Barstow Foundation, November 26, 1940, loc. cit.

McTaggart, letter to Midkiff, December 9, 1940,loc. cit.

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years represents gains which, if disaster comes, will be lost along with the original setup. This has very nearly happened already, for when plans for the 1941-1942 school year were being made the teacher training positions of principal and supervisor at Poyer were cancelled only to be reinstated after an offer of special temporary aid had been received from the Barstow Foundation trustees.

The building and maintenance of the public school system, and of the teacher training program within it, have been troublesome problems for practically every administration from the time the Eastern Samoan islands came under the jurisdiction of the United States in 1900 to the present. The problems have grown in number and complexity, but so has the capacity of the people grown to meet these problems. After forty years of American guidance, twenty years of which include the operation of an American type public education system, which, in turn, includes eight years of public school operation under the finest of American educational planning, surely the Samoan people should be in a better position to see the values in the public school system and thus be willing to support it. The fact that thousands of dollars of non-Samoan money is spent in American Samoa by the navy for other governmental functions, in addition to that spent by the Barstow Foundation, undoubtedly has tended to lull the Samoan people into feeling that they need not put forth much

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effort to maintain themselves and the institutions important to them. That being the case, it is the duty of the navy government of American Samoa not only to see that the public educational system— including the teacher training program— is maintained, but to see that it is supported at least in part by the constantly growing self-dependence of the Samoans themselves. Should the navy government suddenly be removed from American Samoa, as a bill in the Congress of the United States some years ago proposed be done, the Samoans would not only have to support their public school system but would have to support their government’s administrative, executive and judicial departments as well.

The necessity for adding to the self-reliance of the Samoans does not bar the department of education from receiving Federal aid as long as such aid is supplementary, which Federal aid always is. Similar aid is given to practically every other portion of the United States and its possessions, including Guam, which is under a naval control similar to that of American Samoa. Thus the burden of maintaining the school system, and with it, the teacher training program, lies with the Samoan people and the United States Government. The Barstow Foundation will continue to help, but its help will continue to be supplementary and limited.

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CHAPTER VI

EVALUATION OF THE TEACHER TRAINING PROGRAM

The history of general public education in American Samoa, and of teacher training in particular, has been given in the preceeding chapters along with a discussion of various problems which have arisen during this educational development. It is the purpose of this chapter to evaluate this teacher training program on the basis of the original teacher training plan and recognized practices of other teacher training institutions. Changing conditions in American Samoa are kept in mind throughout this evaluation.

THE ORIGINAL TEACHER TRAINING PLAN

Teacher training and teacher improvement in American Samoa as planned in 1933 embodied pre-service training and in-service training including the supervision of candidates and teachers. A plan was made for an initial one-year pre-service teacher training course having possibilities of expansion. A two-way plan for the training of in-service teachers was also included in the recommendations of the visiting committee from Honolulu which was reorganizing the public school system at the request of the government of American Samoa. This plan provided for a continuation and elaboration of the vacation teachers institutes and for the intensive training on-the-job of a small number of

teachers each year in active service in the teacher training school. And finally, the plan provided for the relief of the current supervisory personnel from active teaching duty, and the inclusion in the system of other official positions, such as the principal and primary teacher- supervisor of the teacher training school, the secretary of education, and possibly others to enable the supervisors to carry on a comprehensive and growing program for the active supervision of the teachers in the field. Since Samoa had already been tied to Hawaii through the Barstow Foundation and the visiting educational committee of 1932-1933, the plan was to secure the necessary additional professional personnel from Hawaii.'1'

Present Evaluation. The progress of the pre-service teacher training program to the present time has done justice to the vision embodied in the original plan. The beginning offering of a meager few months of teacher training in the ninth grade, has developed to the point where a full two-year pre-service teacher training course has been installed. Had it not been for the current unrest caused by the national defense program, this two-year course would now be an established reality, despite the limited funds available. The exchange agreement with the department of public instruction of the Territory of Hawaii

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1 Cf. ante, pp. 131-32.

provided first two and then three professional educatorsfor this teacher training work. These educators had likephilosophies of education and, therefore, were able tocarry on the educational program of this institution with

2a minimum of unnatural educational policy change.That the vacation teachers institutes have fulfilled

the requirements of promoting the growth of the teaching body, including the pre-service teacher candidates, is evident. Observing the number and quality of instructors and lecturers, and tracing and comparing the program content of the various institutes, while keeping the needs of Samoa in mind, show that a significant contribution has been made to the quality of American Samoa’s teaching body.5 Regarding the program for providing special on-the- job training for in-service teachers each year at the teacher training school, not much can be said, with the exception that an effort was made to put it into operation, and that while functioning, it made a contribution that is felt even to the present time. That this program was allowed to fade out of the educational picture must be considered as retarding progress. It should be revived at the earliest opportunity.4

2 Cf* ante, pp. 52-54, 85-85, 152, 164-76.5 See Appendix C.Cf. ante, pp. 155-45.

4 Cf. ante, pp. 152-64.

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The quality and quantity of the supervision of teachers in the field has very definitely improved as a result of the application of the original teacher training plan in American Samoa. Not only have the superintendent and supervising principal been released to carry on the active supervision of the in-service teachers, but the services of two additional native supervisors have been secured as well. The whole organization is coordinated into one smooth working unit, with the result that the teachers are constantly being guided towards doing consistently better work.'' Where the original plan for the training of teachers has been given the opportunity to function, the results are most gratifying.

Changes indicated by the statements in chapter III, relative to the pupil promotion plan, the choice of a medium of instruction, and compulsory education are the result of the cooperative study and consultation among many of those who went to Samoa from Hawaii for two-year tours of duty. The statement relative to the decentralization of schools refers to an administrative change resulting from the major weakness of the exchange plan with Hawaii, and the system by which the executive head of the department and the majority of the members of the board of education assume their positions. This

Cf. ante, pp. 144-51.

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weakness lies in the fact that one and one-half or two years of service in Samoa is not a long enough period of time in which to become intimately acquainted with the educational needs and peculiarities of the system and the people it serves, and then to act on the basis of that knowledge. The result is that changes, both desirable and undesirable, have unwittingly been permitted to take place by the superintendent, the director, and the board of education. The only possible solution to this problem under present circumstances is the increase of the period of service of the professional personnel from Hawaii. It is obvious that a similar increase could not be expected on the part of the naval personnel stationed there.6

RECOGNIZED PRACTICES OF OTHER TEACHER TRAINING INSTITUTIONS

Although the training of teachers in American Samoa has been carried on for less than a decade, such training in the United States has been in process for many decades. The teaching personnel of a school system is the means by which that system’s course of study is transformed into action in the education of the children it serves. Since American Samoa has adopted a policy of education embracing the desirable elements of American civilization, and since the application of the course of study is patterned after

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6 Cf* ante, pp. 49-54, 58-60, 72-77, 84, 132

progressive American practices, it is logical to choose anauthoritative list of the best current American teachertraining policies and practices to use as criteria inevaluating the present American Samoan teacher trainingsystem. Therefore, in terms of teacher trainingresponsibilities, the general educational background ofteacher candidates, the professional educationalinstructional program, and the selection and elimination ofcandidates, an outline of the basic principles of teachereducation as they can be applied to Samoa is here given astaken from the twenty-third yearbook of the NationalSociety of College Teachers of Education, "The Education of

7Teachers."

CRITERIA FOR TEACHER TRAINING RESPONSIBILITY

1. A state department of education free from political control, adequately staffed and financed, and controlled by a state lay board of education is essential.

2. The first steps in planning a school system is the formulation of a social and educational philosophy of education.

3. In planning to set up a teacher training organization it is basic to consider the teachers* needs as

Thomas Alexander, chairman, The Yearbook Committee, et al.. "The Education of Teachers," Yearbook XXIII of The National Society of College Teachers of Education. (Chicago: The Univ. of Chicago Press, 1935), pp. 2-7, 12-13.

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individuals, as citizens and as teachers, while the preparation of prerequisite and teacher training curricula is being made or revised.

4. Only those institutions should be licensed to train teachers that are most nearly prepared for the work on the basis of staff, library, buildings, and practice teaching facilities.

5. The teacher is so important to the state thatcare should be taken to avoid periods of dissolution ordrastic reduction and reassembling of such important teacher training units as faculties, student bodies, libraries, and physical plants.

6. It is the responsibility of the state to provide for the selection, guidance and, when necessary, the elimination of teaching candidates.

7. The state is responsible to insure an adequatesupply of teachers qualifying for service, and to coordinate the supply and demand.

8. Certification is the responsibility of the state board of education. Its bureau of teacher certification should determine credentials and examination requirements. It should issue certificates for definite periods of time and should set standards for renewal.

Curricula for teachers should be prescribed in terms of the positions for which the teachers or candidates are preparing and should offer a continuing challenge to

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students of increasing maturity. The following objectives must be provided for: a. a broad general education; b.personality development; c. training to fit the job; d. knowledge of the technical work of teaching; e. carefully supervised practice teaching; and f. an understanding of the controversial issues of education. These are discussed in the following paragraphs.

CRITERIA FOR GENERAL EDUCATION

1. Equality of educational opportunity is an American ideal.

2. Teachers should have sufficient general education to compare favorably with that of other professional workers and the leaders in the communities in which they will teach. This should Include a mastery of the material which is to be taught.

3. Teacher education should have both depth andbreadth, and should include supplementary cultural contacts which make for a truly liberal education.

4. The personality development of candidate andteacher, including health, habits and manners, social and religious influences, and the search for latent creative talents, should be a constant aim of the state.

CRITERIA FOR PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION

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1. Training must be given according to the needs

of the system and the work the candidate must do after being employed as a teacher.

2. Each teacher should have a working knowledge of psychology and testing, of children to be taught, of methods and techniques, and class organization.

3. He should build a working philosophy of education.

4. Each teacher training graduate should know the desirable aspects of the school system and those where changes are needed.

5. Teacher training graduation should result from definite accomplishment rather than from time spent in training or courses passed.

6. A high degree of contagious enthusiasm for teaching and sincere instructor interest in the students is necessary in a teacher training institution.

7. Supervised practice teaching is the core of the teacher’s professional education. Initial practice teaching should be very closely supervised to protect the learners from the effects of inexperienced teaching.There should not be a set period for practice teaching but it should vary according to the needs of the individual candidate and should be conducted under circumstances better than the average of the school system.

8. As much of the theoretical education as possible should be given before beginning practice teaching.

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9. Teachers’ certificates should not be issued until after a satisfactory practice teaching period demonstrating the possession of a "safety minimum" of teaching skill.

10. Since education is one of the large forces responsible for social, political and economic stability and betterment, teachers and teacher trainers should understand the important controversial issues in these fields.

11. The period of education for all teachers should be lengthened.

12. To help teachers add to their "safety minimum" of teaching skill, a probationary period and a program for in-service education is necessary.

13. Advanced educational work for teachers should be based on the needs of the teachers and the positions to be filled.

CRITERIA FOR SELECTION OF CANDIDATES

1. Careful selection of candidates to the teaching profession is of first importance.

2. The best youth must be attracted to teaching because of the importance of education to society. To accomplish this, social and economic security must be provided the teacher.

3. Candidates who rate high in health, personality,

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and academic ability should be secured.4. Careful guidance during the training and

probation periods is essential.5. A rigid system must be used for the elimination

of student teachers who show up as being unsuited or unfit for teaching.

In the following paragraphs the relation of present practices in American Samoa to the above criteria are discussed, weaknesses pointed out, and recommendations made:

TEACHER TRAINING RESPONSIBILITY IN AMERICAN SAMOA

1. The centralized department of education setup in American Samoa compares favorably with the criterion stated above. The majority vote by non-Samoan members of the lay board of education, holds political influence in the department of education to a minimum, because these non-Samoan members have no personal interests in petty Samoan jealousies and rivalries. The central staff of the department of education, although still inadequate, is much more nearly adequate now than it was when the present organization was begun in 1933. The department is weakest in the matter of finances. That the department has, within the past year, nearly destroyed its teacher training program, because of a lack of money, is grim evidence of this weakness. According to the criterion used herein it

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is the definite responsibility of the government of American Samoa to provide adequate financial support to this teacher training program. If national government subsidy is to be obtained it is the responsibility of the island government to make representations in such a way as to obtain it.

2. The social and educational philosophy of education for American Samoa was formulated cooperatively by the Barstow Foundation trustees and the government of American Samoa in 1932. According to this philosophy there is good in native Samoan life and good in American life and both should be made available to the Samoan people.

3. Although teacher training prerequisites, which are beyond the ability of the available candidates to satisfy, have been set up in American Samoa, they have been enforced in practical use only to the point of eliminating obviously undesirable candidates and stimulating the others to put forth at least minimum effort. Curricula have been planned with the view to carrying the individual forward from his present attainment in matters of culture, appreciation for his country, and understanding of and skill in teaching.

4. That Poyer School is the best prepared school in American Samoa to give professional teacher training instruction cannot be denied. Its teacher training staffis made up of well trained and currently successful teachers in the public school system of Hawaii, which is practically

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a century ahead of Samoa in the development of its educational program. Despite the fact that Poyer has an inadequate library, it is more nearly adequate for teacher preparation than that of any other school in American Samoa. Under the decentralization plan not only the first three grades but the fourth as well have been removed from Poyer School. The removal of the fifth grade is also being planned. This leaves adequate room for the academic work of training teachers. The recent plan of concentrating all Poyer practice teaching at Pago Pago village school under the best native classroom teacher and teacher-supervisor fulfills the requirements laid down by the criteria given above. The Leone Boys School staff of Roman Catholic brothers, though the brothers are professional educators, does not have the advantage of recent training and experience in a modern American school system such as that in Hawaii. Here the professional library is not as good as that at Poyer, the buildings are adequate for academic work and practice teaching is carried on in the school’s intermediate grade classes. There is no doubt that the Leone school does not provide as expert native demonstration teaching as is provided for the Poyer student teachers. It must be recognized, therefore, that, so far as actual student teacher instruction, observation and practice go, Poyer Teacher Training School graduates must, necessarily, be superior to Leone Boys Teacher

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Training School graduates. Other values, such as the proximity of the Leone Boys School to the Feleti School, the drawing of additional teacher candidates from a district which is distant from Poyer, and the ease of providing substitute teachers on short notice to a larger number of schools, may be enough to offset the disadvantages. In any case, the Leone Boys School should not be regarded as more than a supplementary teacher training school. Feleti School qualifies for teacher training in point of staff but not so far as library, buildings and practice teaching facilities are concerned.In addition to these, its distance from residential centers, and its value as a high school prevent it from being made easily, or desirably, into a teacher training institution.

5. The recent action of the Barstow Foundation in offering a temporary subsidy to the department of education of American Samoa has, for the time being, prevented the reduction of the staff of Poyer Teacher Training School.The problem belongs immediately to the American Samoan Government and secondly to the Federal Government.According to the standard American criterion listed above, the island government has but one choice, that of maintaining the present offering with little or no reduction in quality or quantity and, at the earliest possible moment, of continuing its growth. This growth

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may or may not come as a partial result of federal aid.6. The present department of education in American

Samoa has adequate machinery for the selection, guidance, and elimination of teacher candidates within its present needs.

7. The only way the American Samoan government can maintain an adequate supply of teachers qualifying for service is to insist upon the continuance of the present teacher training program. There will be no problem of coordinating teacher supply with demand for some years to come.

8. In 1934 a set of Requirements of teachers,” including certification for a trial period of one probationary year, after which a permanent certificate would be issued, was recommended by the incoming superintendent of education and adopted by the board of education. These requirements have been revised from time to time, but due to the perennial shortage of teachers who are able to qualify, they have remained more as a goal than as a standard to be at once reached. As the system develops and the present financial emergency passes, the supply of teachers will exceed the demand, and the department of education will be in a position to maintain a high teacher standard by more carefully working out the requirements of teachers and setting up an effective teacher certification plan.

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GENERAL EDUCATION BACKGROUND FOR TEACHERS IN AMERICAN SAMOA

1. Equality of educational opportunity in American Samoa has recently Been endangered through the effort to ease the financial strain of the department of education. The establishing of ninth grade schools, one in each of the three governmental districts, in 1935 made it possible for all children who so desire to graduate from the ninth grade. But the more recent setting up of artificial barriers to entering these schools is endangering equality of educational opportunity. Favoring these restrictions are arguments to the effect that all ninth grade graduates expect government jobs. This indicates the need for a revised curriculum embodying more desirable native culture rather than setting higher academic standards. Private schools are available, attendance at which exempts the student from public school attendance. Feleti, the semi­public high school, is the only school which has entrance requirements other than academic achievement and age.

2. The teachers of the public schools of American Samoa have had academic education which compares favorably with that of the only other government employed group of native professional workers— the group in the department of public health. The falfetaus (pastors) having received many years of special religious and general instruction at the faife*au training schools in Western Samoa, in

addition to being the recognized religious leaders of the communities, are considered by the Samoans to be in a higher class, educationally, than the public school teachers. There is no doubt that, although the faife’aus are very influential with the village chiefs, the regular public school teachers are less influential. The social and educational philosophy of education for American Samoa as formulated in 1932 and which is used as the basis of education both in the public schools and in Feleti School, should be brought more definitely into play in the work of preparing teachers. It is doubtful whether a sufficient number of graduates of Feleti School can be secured to enter the teacher training school for some years to come, if at all, and therefore it would be advisable to provide some expert instruction in proper faa’Samoa (like Samoa) social and material culture as a part of the teacher training program for candidates who have not graduated from Feleti School. The teacher training course should be lengthened If necessary to include such background. The recent inclusion of such faa-Samoan studies in the vacation teachers institute is an example of the planning which is already being done along this line. The teacher training school for some years has been giving careful attention to the matter of a mastery of the knowledge which is to be taught.

3. It has been the aim of the department of

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education from the beginning of the reorganization to provide the teachers with as great a depth and breadth of education as possible. Studies in education and teaching method have been intensified. The plan suggested above for more extensive social and material native culture education has not been made effective for the pre-service teachers except for those who attended the vacation teachers institute. Even in the institutes this type of work has been limited. These studies conducted by able instructors should be included in the regular pre-service teacher training curriculum. One of the weaknesses of educational leadership by short term non-Samoans is that in their enthusiasm they overlook the necessity of teaching native social and material culture.

4. The health of teacher candidates in-training is more definitely being watched than heretofore, but the shortage of teacher candidates militates against effective action in this matter. The proximity of the Samoan Hospital staff and facilities enables more to be done at Poyer than at Leone. Habits and manners, and social and religious influences in the candidates* lives are checked before ninth grade graduation, and as many undesirables are refused admission to teacher training work as possible on the basis of principals* recommendations and supervisors’ observations. Here again the shortage of teacher material operates against the best interests of

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the school system. It is a recognized fact that, so far as the native teachers are able to accomplish it, the latent creative talents of the public school children are developed to the greatest extent possible. The students in teacher training receive more stimuli in developing their talents through their contact with the progressive instructors from Haxvaii. These personality development possibilities have increased since 1933 and will continue to increase, with the growth of a greater consciousness of ethnological values on the part of the non-Samoan instructors and supervisors from Hawaii— assuming, of course, that the teacher training program is not eliminated because of financial considerations.

PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION FOR TEACHERS IN AMERICAN SAMOA

1. Personnel from Hawaii to carry on the teacher training program and fill the position of superintendent of education have gone to Samoa with the attitude of learning the needs and peculiarities of the public educational system and of fitting the teacher training program to them. As the needs of the school system become apparent, additions to the training program have been made as was done in the case of the agricultural emphasis, which has been begun In 1937. The greatest weakness of this personnel was in the short term of service and inadequate ethnological preparation for that service. Beginning in

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1935, student teachers and teachers found to be temperamentally better able to teach in the primary, or the intermediate and upper grades, were given special help in planning and preparing needed subject matter. The progress made in this connection, however, has been somewhat offset by the decentralization of the schools, whereby one teacher is expected to teach as many as six grades. The short period for training has also reduced the greatest possible effectiveness under this plan. As the teacher training course is lengthened, and as the prerequisites are increased, this and other aspects of teacher training discussed below will improve.

2. The development by the student teachers of a working knowledge of psychology and testing, an understanding of children to be taught, of methods and techniques, and of class organization in general, has suffered somewhat as a result of two conditions— the lack of a planned and specified dynamic teacher training course of study and the short terms of the teacher training staff members. An effort has been made within the past year tobegin the development of a professional course of studyparticularly suited to American Samoa. An increase in the term of service in Samoa for the superintendent and the teacher training staff members, and more careful ethnological preparation for them before going to Samoa,will help to improve the personal supervision and teaching

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by causing it to be based more thoroughly on a background knowledge of Samoa and its needs.

3. The non-Samoan educational personnel from Hawaii, both those on duty during the school year and those at the teachers institutes, and the other supervisory personnel regularly in the department of education have,as a background, more or less of an effective knowledge of and an appreciation for the educational policy and philosophy formed for American Samoa in 1932. These people in contacting the native candidates and teachers, both formally and informally, have helped those candidates and teachers to form for themselves a working philosophy of education. That this philosophy has been unconsciously weighted in favor of Western civilization standards to the disadvantage of the real needs in the schools in Samoa is indicated by reports that native crafts have been neglected. That native influences are also at work on this working philosophy of education, is indicated by the quiet refusal of most of the primary teachers and many of the others to use English as the sole medium of instruction. Teaching experience, contact with the chiefs and the people, and contact with other non-Samoans among the navy personnel, tourists, and traders modify the philosophy of each individual according to the circumstances surrounding his contact with these people.

4. Since the attitude of most of the visiting

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non-Samoan personnel in Samoa is to prepare the Samoans, themselves, for leadership, care is taken to give the nativ« teachers as thorough an understanding as possible of the desirable and undesirable aspects of their school system.As stated above, the short terms of these visiting non- Samoans— two years for those in regular positions and two months for the special vacation institute instructors— their basic understanding of the various aspects of the school system must necessarily be limited.

5. In a way the principle of graduation from the teacher training schools on the basis of accomplishment rather than according to the time spent in training has been functioning in American Samoa. Those teachers in training have been chosen first for placement who have accomplished the most in the time spent. Usually the candidates not placed by the end of the year in which they graduated, or during the vacation period immediately following, returned to the training school the following year and, while waiting for an appointment, continued their training. This has been an abnormal situation, however, and will change as soon as the problem of the shortage of teachers is solved. The greater the length of the training course, the easier it becomes to make this principle a reality. The American Samoan teacher training program is still in its infancy and cannot at present be judged on the basis of the accomplishment versus time

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requirement for graduation.6. There can be little doubt that the candidates

and teachers, both in the regular teacher training course at Poyer and in the vacation teachers institutes, have had the privilege of association with enthusiastic instructors. Successful teachers in Hawaii who leave their homes to live in an isolated place like Samoa for a period of months or years for the purpose of helping the native Samoans must certainly have the enthusiasm and personal interest necessary to build into the Samoan teacher the greatest appreciation possible for his profession. The sincerityof purpose of the Roman Catholic brothers at Leone has made a similar contribution.

7 . During the past several years an experiment has been in progress in connection with the teacher training program at Poyer School. The program of practice teaching was put in the hands of four carefully chosen native principals in 1937. Three years later all practice teaching was concentrated in one of four village schools, and the native principal who had proved to be superior in the work of demonstrating and supervising was placed in charge. This plan has the advantage of providing a school of the native village type in which the student teachers gain their initial skill in teaching; it also has the advantage of placing the native student teachers in a position of coming into intimate professional contact with

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the most enthusiastic, expert and level headed native Samoan teachers in the system. Thus, the setup forpractice teaching, in connection with the Poyer TeacherTraining School, meets every standard in our chosen criteria with the exception of one, that of varying the length of practice teaching to fit the needs of theindividual student teacher. Although varying periods ofpractice teaching have been provided for individuals at different times, the additional teaching has very often been required by circumstances having no bearing on the particular need of the individual student. The practice teaching program at the Leone Boys Teacher Training School has been conducted in this school by the Roman Catholic brother in charge. It does not have the advantage of being done in a native setting.

8. The criterion of finishing the greater part of the professional theoretical education before beginning practice teaching in a practice school of three or four classrooms, is obviously difficult to satisfy in a system having a one year teacher training course with candidates entering usually only at the beginning of the school year.A plan whereby half of the total teacher training enrollment enter the class at the beginning of each semester would simplify the problem of doing practice teaching after receiving some theoretical training, but it would increase the problem of providing the theoretical

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work. With the present outlook in American Samoa a much better plan to meet the requirement would be to build a two or more years course and provide practice teaching in the last year with observation of and participation in teaching during the year previous. This would also simplify the practice teaching problems in the first year teacher training class at Leone by leaving to this class only the work of demonstration of and participation in teaching.

9. As long as the financial situation in American Samoa keeps the personnel of the department of education unstable, the practice teaching will be done during the first year of teacher training because the department recognizes the value of a ”safety minimum” of teaching skill for every member of its teaching staff. The possession of this ’’safety minimum” of teaching skill has been one of the recognized qualifications for becoming a teacher despite the necessity, at times, to overlook its enforcement.

10. The regular and institute instructors from Hawaii have had contact with the various controversial issues in education, due to the changes in educational policy and procedure which have taken place in Hawaii during the past fifteen years. There are also controversial educational issues in American Samoa. The radical changes in educational policy and procedure

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introduced in American Samoa at the time of the reorganization in 1933 is even yet an open issue, not only among the teachers but among the chiefs as well. Guidance in this type of thinking has come to the native Samoan teachers and candidates through the intimate contact with the educators from Hawaii. Although this guidance may have been misdirected at times, its general trend has been desirable. More desirable guidance can come only from better informed educators from Hawaii. More thorough ethnological training and longer periods of service, in which a more thorough understanding of the values involved are obtained, are necessary.

11. That the period of education for all teachers should be lengthened, Is recognized as vital in American Samoa. In 1933 the maximum public school education offering was increased from eight to nine years as well as being intensified. Graduation from the ninth grade was made a prerequisite for entrance into the teacher training program and enforced whenever it was practical. In 1940a second year was added to the teacher training program, and would now be an established reality were it not for the current financial crisis. The effort to increase the period of training should be continued.

12. A probationary period was set up in the American Samoan educational system in 1933 and has been continued to the present time (1941). Although the force behind the

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establishment of this period was mainly financial, it has carried with it some desirable educational values: It hastended to make the teacher candidates realize that graduating from a teacher training institution did not necessarily guarantee successful teaching. It indicated, likewise, that they had to prove their teaching ability in the field before they would be recognized as successful teachers, despite high rating as teacher training students. The main lack in the application of this plan is that the probationary teachers have not been placed in schools where they could and would receive good native supervisory guidance from the principals of the schools. The plan should definitely be put on a ”teaching under supervision” basis. Earlier in this chapter the program for the in- service training of teachers was discussed. That part of it which involves the vacation teacher institutes has been successful and is desirable. The plan for regular teacher instruction on-the-job at Poyer should be revived because of the recognized inadequacy of the present teaching body.

13. As in the case of the pre-service instruction program for teachers, the in-service program is based on the needs of the system, as these have been understood, and on the problems the teacher will have to face. The Poyer in-service program, before its discontinuance, was aimed at helping the teachers solve their practical problems as they met them, at the same time that methods

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for teaching in various situations were tried and discussed. Although a minimum theoretical background was built, the emphasis was on practical teaching situations. The only form of In-service teacher development at present, aside from that afforded by the monthly teacher meetings and the supervision of teachers in the field, is the regular conduct of the six to eight weeks teachers institutes held during the annual vacation period at Poyer School. To these institutes each year (1941 being an exception because of limited finances), have been brought two or three educational specialists in one or more of the following fields of teacher study: primary teaching, intermediateteaching, plan writing, educational theory, agriculture, manual arts, health, arithmetic, and English. These specialists, with the assistance of the teacher training and supervisorial staff stationed in Samoa, carry out a training program carefully planned in advance by the local staff with the assistance of the Hawaiian educational representative of American Samoa. This program has, in the past seven yearly institutes, included studies in native and Western culture, English, health, agricultural science, and professional planning and method. The latter professional studies have included demonstration teaching and seminars. These institutes are definitely valuable and should be continued. To increase their value the same visiting instructors should return to Samoa for at least

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two consecutive institutes. In this way the ethnological and local professional information gained one year would enhance their usefulness the next year.

SELECTION OF TEACHER CANDIDATES IN AMERICAN SAMOA

1. The policy of selecting suitable candidates for preparation to the teaching profession in American Samoa has not been emphasized. This has been due to the scarcity of candidates who qualify under the minimum requirements set up and to the competition offered by Feleti School.The minimum standards adopted by the department of education remain the sole basis for such selection as is done. Were it not for the condition of excessive turnover in the teaching personnel, there would be considerable latitude in the selection of suitable candidates for teacher preparation. This turnover is due directly to the inadequate salary schedule, a condition which can be remedied only by an equalization of the teachers’ salaries with those of other government employed groups.

2. The problem of drawing the best of Samoan youth to the work of teaching is dependent upon an improved teacher status in the local communities as well as upon finances. The building of teacher status in the communities where they must work is also an important factor in providing social security for the teachers. A more thoroughly native culture educational background will

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help the teacher to build and maintain this status. It is not to be expected that the teachers would be able to assume the social power of the matais (chiefs) but they should eventually develop to the place of social equality, or nearly so, with the faife’aus (pastors). In the American Samoa of today the question of future economic security for the native teachers is hardly a problem at all. What it may be thirty to fifty years from now will depend largely on how much of the ways of the outside world the Samoans adopt. If their present communal social system is replaced by one recognizing individual ownership of property— the possibility of which was suggested in chapter V— the question of future as well as immediate economic security for the native teachers will assume significant proportions as a problem. The present tremendous difference between the pay scales of the Samoans and the non-Samoans is an indication of the influence which the Western system of livelihood would have on life in the native social organization. However, to attract the best youth to the teaching profession today, the aspect of economic security dealing with present support must be dealt with. Salaries must be made comparable to those of other native groups, so as to provide the native teacher with the same opportunity to influence native life by traditional gift giving as the other government employed native groups have •

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3. The set of standards for teachers, in effect in some form since 1933, has recognized health, personality and academic ability as desirable criteria for the selection of teachers. That these standards have only been partially enforced is the result of the shortage of a sufficient number of young people available from which to choose.

4. The school system in Samoa, being so small, leaves little choice of type of teaching to a beginning teacher. Practically every teacher will have to teach at least part of the time in a one-teacher school. Since the most of these are being planned to consist of six grades each, the teacher will be forced to teach at both primary and intermediate levels. As long as such situations are being created in which the teachers must work, there is little need even to consider providing guidance for the teacher candidates at varying curricular levels, to say nothing of specialized fields of study.

5. The criterion providing for a rigid system of elimination of unsuited or unfit student teachers has its application in Samoa. The main difference between such a system in a typical American state and the one used in Samoa is in the matter of rigidity. In Samoa the elimination of such student teachers has been done by the principal of the teacher training school or by the student himself. The greater number of eliminations has been

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performed during the opening months of the school year, and those students who have lasted for three months have usually completed the year’s work and graduated. Many of the eliminations have occurred because of the students’ unwillingness or inability to cooperate and really put forth the effort necessary to assure minimum success in completing the training course of study. Therefore, an objective means of rigid elimination would be ineffective at the present time. Until the academic and social background of the candidates for teacher training progresses a great deal further, such an objective standard for rigid elimination would be useless. As is the case with other problems mentioned, as long as the present high rate of turnover of native teachers keeps up, there can be no progress in establishing definite standards for the elimination of undesirable students.

COLLECTIVE RECOMMENDATIONS OF THIS STUDY

Throughout this thesis the public education system in American Samoa, including the program for training public school teachers, has been discussed and its progress and problems noted. The recommendations, both stated and implied, which have grown out of this study, are here presented under the following general headings: responsibility; department of education organization and policy; organization for teacher training and improvement;

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the public school curriculum; and the teacher training curricula.

RESPONSIBILITY

1. In American ideology public education is a state responsibility. In American Samoa this responsibility belongs to the island government. The limited financial resources of this government, the progress in education already made, and national government precedent in other military controlled areas, suggest a sharing of this responsibility by the federal government of the United States, through subvention grants.

2. The island government responsibility for providing universal public education in American Samoa places the burden of financial support on the people of American Samoa. The fact that the legislative and executive officers of the Government of American Samoa are on duty there for such short terms should not interfere with their insisting that the people fulfill these obligations. The native leaders have consistently urged the decentralization of the schools. This has added to the cost of the school system. They should therefore be willing that the public of Samoa pay this cost.

3. Intervillage rivalry or noncooperation should not be tolerated when the welfare of the school system, or a part of it, is at stake. Such attitudes not only harm

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the schools, but interfere with the people’s growth towards self government.

4. All native Samoans’ salaries, ranging from the lowest to the highest ranking positions in the department of education, should at least compare favorably with the salaries paid in other island government departments.Where pre-service preparational requirements differ, salary differentials should exist to compensate. The present economical and social security of teachers is at least partially dependent upon an equalized pay scale. An adequate (or comparable) pay scale for teachers would help them in attaining a satisfactory social status in the villages in which they teach. Village cooperation with the school is often dependent on such factors as the extent of gifts received in the faa-Samoan traditional practice. The problem of the future economic security of the teacher is unimportant as long as American Samoa continues its present communal social-economic system, but it will become a serious problem if this system changes to one embracing personal property ownership. In such a case materially greater salaries and some provision for retirement compensation will have to be provided. Low teachers’ salaries, in comparison with the salaries of other government employed groups, causes an inadequate teacher supply which, in turn, causes a lowering of teacher personality, health, and g eneral education and professional

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standards, reduces the opportunity for the selection and elimination of teachers, and results in a poorer quality of teacher training.

5. All department of education salaries should be on a twelve months basis.

6. Standard food or cash allowances for each single teacher, each married teacher, and each married teacher with a given number of children, should be required of the village or villages which each school serves, with the exception of district schools. (These allowances presuppose that the families in question live with the teachers.)

7. Standard salary differentials for district teachers where food and/or living quarters are not furnished should be made by the Government of American Samoa. (Adequate supplies of food for a teacher from the district school garden should make unnecessary any salary differential for food by the government.)

8. Adequate teacher supply is the responsibility of the island government. In order to assure this supply an adequate system of regular ”highn schools to provide the prerequisite trainining which is required, and an adequate functioning teacher training setup must be maintained. In American Samoa the district schools are the former, and the present pre-service and in-service teacher training program is the latter. These must, therefore, be

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maintained or replaced by others capable of the same accomplishments.

9. The island government should establish and revise, from time to time, standard prerequisites for teacher training.

10. The island government should set up adequate machinery for the certification of teachers. (This will be effective, however, only after an adequate teacher supply has been secured.)

11. The island government should establish, as standard, a pupil-teacher ratio of 30:1 and a year group- teacher ratio of 2:1.

12. The government, with the cooperation of the Barstow Foundation, has established a policy of education for its school system. This educational policy is well suited to American Samoa and should be retained.

13. The special deposit plan for making available the necessary books and supplies for the public school system is adequate for present needs and should be continued. The present plan of local preparation of school texts is superior to any other within the resources of the government and, therefore, also should be continued.

14. The providing of land, buildings and their repair, and of food is, and should be, a local community responsibility.

15. The standardization of school buildings is a

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government responsibility. The list of standardized rules for school buildings to which all villages should be required to conform should include the following: only oneclass in a native type building; specific minimum dimensions within the inner rows of posts, for the proper seating of the class; specific minimum height of eaves from the floor level to admit adequate light; Western or frame type buildings to be built only when the village is willing and able to bear the whole cost of building and repairs; and means for locking the buildings or the establishing of an effective tabu on the use of the building without the principal’s authorization.

16. The government— island, district or county— is responsible for furnishing adequate numbers of teacher’s tables and chairs, of blackboards, chests, safes, cupboards, and portable school desks for the use of the children sitting crosslegged on the floor. The latter are inexpensive but are effective means of preserving children’s posture and eyesight, and of aiding in building good writing form.

17. The low public cost of education per pupil in American Samoa as compared with other American off-shore areas is an indication of the need to increase public expenditure for that purpose.

18. The Barstow Foundation should continue to give subsidy to the department of education for specific items

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such as aid in teacher training, but should not assume responsibility that properly belongs to government.

19. The present Feleti School staff salaries are satisfactory and should be maintained as long as present circumstances exist.

20. The cooperation of the Government of American Samoa with the department of public instruction of the Territory of Hawaii should be continued.

21. The position of Hawaiian Educational Representative of American Samoa should be continued either with or without remuneration.

22. The government of American Samoa should arrange for a periodic survey of public education, approximately once every ten years, by well qualified disinterested educators.

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION ORGANIZATION AND POLICY

1. The board of education and the positions of director and superintendent of education should remain unchanged. The position of secretary of education should be given a salary and status above that of supervising principal. A clerk should be made assistant to the secretary of education. The number of supervising principals should be increased to two or more and the present designations of supervising teachers should be dropped. The presently designated position of ’’native

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teacher trainer” should be changed to "native supervisor of practice teaching” and placed on a salary and status equal to those of the supervising principals. Since the amount of office work is increasing to the point where more competent help is needed this plan will satisfy the need and make the best use of present native personnel. The experience and personal prestige of the present supervising principal, as well as his growing difficulty in hiking the trails on supervisory trips, should entitle him to elevated position of secretary of education. The incumbent in this position, a younger man, should become the clerk and the present supervising teachers should become the supervising principals with the responsibility of supervising the faife’au schools.

2. The practice of promoting worthy native teachers and principals to positions of responsibility in the department of education should be continued.

3. Written contracts for all native personnel should be used. These would help to give security and prestige to the native teacher.

4. The employment of women teachers should be promoted cautiously to avoid damaging the prestige of the teaching body in the opinion of the faa-Samoan village leaders.

5. The present plan for the retirement of all teachers and principals who hold matai (chief) titles

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should be continued but should not be extended to include supervising principles or supervising principals.

6. The non-Samoan brothers of the Leone Boys School have made valuable contributions to the public school syster and should be retained. If arrangements could be made to have them teach in a coeducational district school at Leone, it would be to the advantage of the department of education to do without the services of the sisters, who are now teachers at the Leone Girls School. The replacing of the two intermediate-upper grade schools in the same village with one such school, and the releasing of the non-Samoan teachers who have not regularly cooperated with the department of education, would eliminate the disadvantages of the Leone district school situation while retaining the advantages.

7. The change of non-Samoan educators from Poyer teacher training school principal and first year instructor positions to superintendent of education and second year teacher training instructor, respectively, after but one year of service in Samoa, is undesirable because their experience in the work of training teachers by that time is just beginning to make them really effective teacher trainers for the greatest good of Samoa.

8. Two-year periods of duty for the non-Samoan educators in Samoa are too short and should be increased to three years, and possibly to four years. Evidence of this

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need is the lack of consistent administrative, teacher training and supervisory policy during the past eight years. In order to carry on the work of professionally administering and supervising the public education system there, and to conduct the work of teacher training in the most intelligent and efficient manner according to the needs of the situation, these officials should remain in their position for three or more years, consecutively.

9. The non-Samoan educational personnel who go to Samoa for service in the vacation teachers institutes should serve in two or more institutes, consecutively, so that the native teaching personnel can receive instruction based more consciously on the needs of Samoa.

10. The best possible educational ethnological preparation should be given the regular and institute non-Samoan personnel before they go to Samoa in order to make their work in the islands more nearly meet the needs of the Samoan situation. This should include studies of Samoan history, geography, social culture, the Samoan educational setup and problems, the public school curriculum, teaching methods and techniques in use, and the needs of the system at the time. The aid of Hawaiian educational personnel recently and formerly in Samoa should be enlisted as well as that of the members of the Barstow Foundation Board of Trustees. This instruction should be carried on under the guidance of the Hawaiian educational

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representative of American Samoa.11. The department of education should continue to

maintain the district schools and should plan to increase the number of these schools as the demand for upper grades schools increases. This will help to provide for the application to Samoa of the American principle of universal free public education, and it will provide a more ample supply of candidates for teacher training. The improving of native personnel now in the department of education should provide principals capable of managing these schools.

12. The trend of decentralization of schools has encouraged the attendance of primary children. The advantage thus gained should be retained by continuing the primary schools (those having the first three grades or year groups) and even establishing more as finances permit. The intermediate grades, however, should not be taught in one-teacher schools, for this increases immensely the problems of the teachers in these schools and interferes with the opportunity of teacher specialization in primary or intermediate-upper grade work. This interference, in turn, reduces the quality of teaching.

13. Artificial academic standards of education in the public schools should be held at a minimum to help reduce the wide range in ages per grade. This is one means of simplifying teacher difficulty and of increasing the native teachers’ chances of success.

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14. Attendance at school should begin on the first school day in September in the calendar year in which the child’s sixth birthday occurs.

15. Regular attendance during regular public school hours at a recognized faife’au school having an approved course of study for this class should excuse such attendance in the public schools during the first year of the child’s school life.

16. Attendance at public school should be required through the school year in which the child’s fourteenth birthday occurs.

17. Recognizing the possibility of future stabilizing influence of the Samoan women on changing conditions in American Samoa, and also recognizing the present early marriage age of Samoan girls and the unmoral qualities in present day Samoan life, it is to the advantage of the Samoan people to give their girls the same educational opportunities as they give their boys. Special permission for girls to leave school before the close of the compulsory attendance period should be granted only by the superintendent of education.

18. School hours should be shortened only where it wTill expedite the agricultural 4-H club program.Regularly scheduled classes for public school children during public school hours by the faife’aus for the purpose of teaching the Samoan language and culture (not

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religion) should be officially incorporated into the public school program and attendance required under the same laws. This will obviate the necessity of shortening public school hours for additional faife’au school attendance and will make the faife’ausT services in teaching Samoan language and culture more effective. The faife* au could still teach religion outside of the regular public school hours. The following hours would seem to be best for the schools in American Samoa: 8:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. for the primarygrades; 8:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. for the intermediate grades not in district schools; 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. for the intermediate and upper grades in district schools. Hours in any particular school should be subject to change by the board of education on the recommendation of the superintendent. Earlier hours in village schools leaving the afternoons free for agricultural and other work is most desirable where distances from home to school are short.

19. To expedite the obtaining of non-Samoan professional help from American areas the school year should continue to be from September to May, inclusive, and the teachers institute should come within the period of June to August, inclusive.

20. The Feleti School should be continued as a special school under its present program for at least the completion of a fifteen-year trial period. It should not be made into a specialized teacher training institution at

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least before the completion of the above mentioned trial period.

21. The departments of education and public health should adopt a plan of complete cooperation in the work of obtaining regular and complete vital stitistice for jointuse.

ORGANIZATION FOR TEACHER TRAINING AND IMPROVEMENT

1. The plan for the teacher training work of background studies, professional theory, study of methods and plan preparation, and the observation of and participation in teaching should continue to be done at Poyer School under the non-Samoan educators from Hawaii, and the work of practice teaching under supervision should be done at the primary-intermediate Pago Pago village school under the native supervisor of practice teaching. This is an excellent setup because it provides the highest quality of academic, analyzing and planning guidance in a setting conducive to study and practice teaching in the native school setting with the best native supervisory guidance available. It makes the student teachers conscious of the possibilities of education in their native setting. It also develops native teacher leadership of the highest quality.

2. If the Leone Boys School is used as a teacher training institution it should be recognized that it does

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not have the advantages for training teachers that the Poyer-Pago Pago setup has. Other reasons such as providing substitutes for western district schools and drawing teacher training students from a larger area including the senior class of Feleti School, must be recognized as secondary factors. As soon as a larger choice of possible teacher training students becomes available to Poyer a greater degree of selection can be employed and the number of failures will decrease both during the teacher training period and in the field after employment. This will enable Poyer not only to satisfy all of the demand for teachers but to increase its teacher training course, as well, obviating the necessity for a second teacher training unit at Leone. More uniform training can be given if only one teacher preparation institution is used.

3. The interest, knowledge and ability of the Leone Boys School brothers should continue to be used in the teachers’ institutes and also in the preparation of textbooks. When not actively instructing in the institutes they should be given the status of auditors. As long as the Leone Girls School sisters are on the pay roll of the department of education they, also, should be given the status of auditors.

4. The second year teacher training course at Poyer should be restored at the earliest possible opportunity. Thereafter, as soon as conditions warrant,

240

a third year of teacher training should be added. The extent of preparation of the teachers is a vital factor in the education of the people.

5. Candidates and teachers in all branches of teacher training and supervision should be grouped in primary grades and intermediate-upper grades divisions for a degree of specialization. This should not interfere with their general teacher preparation studies.

6. The plan for probationary teaching during the year following graduation from the teacher training school should be put on a ”teaching under supervision” basis. Probationary teachers should be placed only in schools having principals capable of giving them beneficial supervision. They should not, under any circumstances, be placed in one-teacher schools.

7. The on-the-job training program for in-service teachers at Poyer should be revived. Assignment to Poyer for this training should be made on the basis of the needs of the individual teacher, his expressed willingness to cooperate, and the convenience of the department of education.

8. The vacation teachers institutes should be continued and special instructors from Hawaii should continue to be brought to help with the instruction.More specialized faa-Samoan instructors should be secured. Those on the Feleti School staff during the regular school

241

year should be ideal.9. General inspection-supervision trips to the

schools twice yearly should be made by the superintendent. Special surprise inspection-supervision visits by the supervising principal should be made to each school not less than twice during each school year. The superintendent, and director when he attends, should continue the policy of keeping the chiefs informed regarding educational matters, and of enlisting their support.

10. The monthly teachers meetings are valuable and should be continued. Oral or written reports should continue to be required of the teachers at these meetings. When satisfactory, the help of the chief pharmacist mate’s wife in Manu’a should be secured, either with or without a small remuneration, to conduct the monthly teachers meeting for the teachers in the Manu’a schools. Each teacher training student should attend the teachers meetingon Tutuila at least twice during each of his years of*training.

THE PUBLIC SCHOOL CURRICULUM

The course of study in present use should be retained with modifications indicated below.

1. The public school curriculum should be broadened by more emphasis on desirable elements of social

242

and material Samoan culture including the Samoan language. The desirable elements of Western culture must not be deleted, however.

2. Whatever academic basis for promotion of children from grade to grade is used, it should be of sufficient lenience to reduce the range of ages per grade, and not to interfere with the right of any child living under strong faa-Samoan influences to a full period of progressive education. The desired results of education in American Samoa, of the youth remaining in the villages and becoming productive citizens rather than in flocking in large numbers to the governmental center to seek government and other money paying jobs, are best obtained by changing the content emphasis of the curriculum to material useful in village life rather than setting up an artificial standard of achievement of increasing difficulty as the child progresses through school.

3. The medium of instruction in the three primary grades should be the Samoan language, and English should be taught as a subject. By the end of the third year the child should be able to carry on a conversation in the English language. Beginning with the fourth year the medium of instruction for the intermediate and upper grades should be English with Samoan taught as a subject.

4. The agricultural program in present use should be emphasized.

243

244

THE TEACHER TRAINING CURRICULA

1. A dynamic and flexible course of study for teacher training in American Samoa should be carefully prepared and revised as needed.

2. As the public school system progresses the prerequisite requirements for entrance to teacher training should be raised to keep the progress of the teachers at least a minimum distance ahead of the children they teach. These requirements should include a knowledge of the material taught in the public schools, including Samoan social and material culture, high standards of health, personality and character, in addition to the standard subject matter now taught.

3. All divisions of the teacher training effort should emphasize constant and high quality thinking.

4. The study of both the English and the Samoan languages should be included in all teacher training work.

5. The pre-service teacher training curriculum should include the basic principles of psychology and elementary educational theory; course of study interpretation; plan writing; and methods in teaching specifics like primary or intermediate-upper grades reading, writing, arithmetic, health and sanitation; agricultural science; social science (including Samoan social and material culture), language, music and games;

observation of teaching; participation in teaching; and practice teaching; content and tool studies mentioned above approached through the themes, testing, and administration including preparation of records and reports; and class and school organization and management.

6. In a two or more year course students should have their practice teaching during their last year of pre-service preparation, and their observation of and participation in teaching during the year previous.

7. A "safety minimum" of teaching skill should be required for graduation from a pre-service teacher training institution.

8. Graduation from a pre-service teacher training institution and selection for employment as a teacher in the public schools of American Samoa should be based on accomplishment during the training period and not on the completion of a prescribed period of time in training.This recommendation is not in conflict with that for holding public schools1 promotions standards at a minimum because the aim is different; there it is to provide a general education for the masses to better enable themto meet the unpredictable problems of their life in a changing Samoa, while here the aim is to prepare a limited group of students to do a specific job well.

9. The in-service training course of study at Poyer should include the observation of demonstration

245

teaching by the instructor from Hawaii and by the native teachers themselves, and seminars on such teaching, simple lectures and discussion meetings on the basic principles of psychology and education, practice under supervision, the interpretation of the course of study, plan writing, methods in teaching specifics, and school administration through sharing in the managing of the school. The relationship of all of these things to the native public school setting should constantly be kept in mind.

10. The vacation teachers institute sessions should continue to emphasize culture (including native social and material culture and the Samoan language), English, health, agricultural science and professional planning and method. The Samoan culture laboratory idea should be used, modified as needed. The demonstration school should be conducted about once every two years.

11. The above added emphasis on Samoan language, social and material culture is also needed by the teacher to help raise the prestige of his position in the native situation and to increase his social security within the confines of the native group.

246

BIBLIOGRAPHY

BIBLIOGRAPHY248

A. BOOKS

Keesing, Felix M., Modern Samoa. London: George Allen andUnwin Ltd., 1934. 506 pp.

— > Education in Pacific Countries. Shanghai: Kellyand Walsh, Ltd., 1937. 226 pp.

Mead, Margaret, "The Role of the Individual in SamoanCulture," A.L. Kroeber and T.T. Waterman, Source Book in Anthropology. Revised edition. Hew York:Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1931. pp. 545-61.

B. PERIODICAL ARTICLES

Keesing, Felix M., "Language Change in Relation to Native Education in Samoa," Mid-Pacific Magazine. 44:302-13, October 1932.

Midkiff, Frank E., "A Charitable Trust Makes Plans to Serve a Primitive People," Mid-Pacific Magazine. 45:2-29, January 1933.

Wist, Benjamin 0., "Ethnology as the Basis for Education," Social Science, 10:336-47, October 1935.

C. PUBLISHED PAMPHLETS AND REPORTS

Alexander, Thomas, chairman, et al., "The Education of Teachers," Twenty-third Yearbook of the National Society of College Teachers of Education. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1935. 266 pp.The chapter on general issues lists the basic principles of teacher education and emphasizes points of agreement among leading educators and teacher training institutions.

American Samoan Commission Report to the President of the United States. 71st Congress, 3rd Session, Senate Document No. 249. Washington, D.C.: United StatesGovernment Printing Office, 1931. 27 pp.

249Blauch, Lloyd E., assisted by Charles F. Reid, Public

Education in the Territories and Outlying Possessions. Staff study number 16. Prepared for the Advisory Committee on Education. Washington, D.C.: UnitedStates Government Printing Office, 1939. 243 pp.

Bryan, H.F., American Samoa. A General Report by the Governor. 1926. Washington, D.C.: United StatesGovernment Printing Office, 1927. 138 pp.

Evans, W., American Samoa. A General Report by the Governor. 1921. Washington, D.C.s United States Government Printing Office, 1922. About 40 pp.

Noble, A.M., codifier, Codification of the Regulations and Orders for the Government of American Samoa. San Francisco: Phillips and Van Orden Co., 1921, 99 pp.

Noble, A.M., codifier, Codification of the Regulations and Orders for the Government of American Samoa. Revised to October 1930. Printed for the use of the American Samoan Commission. Washington, D.C.: United StatesGovernment Printing Office, 1931. 126 pp.

Swanson, Claude A., Annual Report of the Secretary of the Navy for the Fiscal Year 1938. Washington, D.C.:United States Government Printing Office, 1938. 32 pp.

United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, United States Possessions in the Samoa Islands. Chart number 4190. Washington, D.C., February, 1921.

World Almanac. 1941. New York: The New York World-Telegram, 1941. 960 pp.

D. UNPUBLISHED REPORTS, LETTERS AND OTHER MATERIALS

Brown, G. Gordon, "The Native Teacher in Samoa." Readbefore the Seminar-Conference on Education in Pacific Countries conducted at the University of Hawaii from July 3 to August 7, 1936, under the auspices of the Universities of Hawaii and Yale. Mimeographed. 5 pp.

"Budget of the Department of Education of American Samoa, 1934," as furnished by Superintendent of Education Earl L. McTaggart.

Coulter, W.H., "Annual Report of the Superintendent ofEducation, 1 June, 1940 to 31 May, 1941." Manuscript. 159 pp.

250------ , Superintendent of Education of American Samoa,

general information concerning the American Samoan public school system, submitted to Mark M. Sutherland, April 1941.

------ , Superintendent of Education of American Samoa,official figures and lists of names of teacher training and Feleti School graduates in American Samoa, submitted to Mark M. Sutherland, April 1941.

"Course of Study, Department of Education, Government of American Samoa." Mimeographed for use in the Public Schools of American Samoa, 1933. 38 pp.

.*4"Deed of Trust, Frederic Duclos Barstow Foundation for

American Samoans." Recorded in the Hawaiian Registry of Conveyances, Honolulu, 10:45 A.M., September 16,1931, in Liber 1130, on pages 133-43.

Drees, Frank J., Superintendent of Education of American Samoa, answers to questionnaire on the American Samoan public school system, March-April 1938.

Ewing, Riley, Headmaster of Feleti School in American Samoa, letter to Mr. Shepard, Member of the Barstow Foundation Board of Trustees, 29 November, 1940.

------ , "Report on Feleti School for October, November,December 1939*" Manuscript. Text, 5 pp. Appendix,12 pp.

Hanson, E.W., former Governor of American Samoa, letter to Frank E. Midkiff, Secretary of the Barstow Foundation Board of Trustees, December 14, 1940.

Heminger, M.V., "Annual Report of the Superintendent ofEducation for the Scholastic Year Ending May 31, 1939." Manuscript. Text, 16 pp. Inclosures, 59 pp.

------ , Superintendent of Education of American Samoa,letter to Earl L. McTaggart, Hawaiian Educational Representative of American Samoa, 9 October, 1939.

------ , Superintendent of Education of American Samoa,lists of "Teachers and Place to Teach," for the years 1934-1935 to 1939-1940, inclusive. Supplied to Earl L. McTaggart, Hawaiian Educational Representative of American Samoa, 1939.

251Judd, Albert F., chairman, "Report of the First Committee

of the Frederic Duclos Barstow Foundation to American Samoa, 1932." Compiled from Barstow Foundation Records. Mimeographed and bound by the Barstow Foundation, 1932. 55 pp. The following units from this report have been quoted from, or listed in, the footnotes in this thesis:Midkiff, Frank E., "Basic Paper on Schools, Etc.” 16 pp.------ , "School Survey and Plan of Education." 7 pp.Moore, John W., and Frank E. Midkiff, "Plan for Experimental Senior Schools by Sub-Committee." 4 pp."Objectives of Education of the Government of American Samoa." 1 p."Prospectus of an Experimental Senior School for American Samoa." 2 pp.

Kirkpatrick, Thomas L., "Annual Report, Department ofEducation to the Governor of American Samoa, 1934-1935." Manuscript. (Attached to it is the Superintendent’s report by McTaggart for that school year.) 3 pp.

Lindborg, Arthur E., "Program of Teachers Institute, to be Held at Poyer School, August 28th - September 1st,1933." Mimeographed. 1 p.

List of figures on paid personnel and public schools,checked by W.H. Coulter, Superintendent of Education, April 1941.

McTaggart, Earl L., "Agricultural Education in American Samoa." Unpublished Master’s thesis, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, T.H., 1936. 202 pp.

-, "Annual Report of Progress and Needs of the PublicSchool System of American Samoa to the Board of Education, July 1935." Manuscript. Text, 24 pp. Enclosures, 25 pp.

-, Superintendent of Education of American Samoa,answers to questionnaire submitted for use in "A Brief Comparative Survey of Teacher Training Practice,Policies and Problems in Pacific Countries," August 1, 1936, in connection with the Seminar-Conference on Education in Pacific Countries conducted at the University of Hawaii from July 3 to August 7, 1936, under the auspices of the Universities of Hawaii and Yale.

2 5 2

------ , Superintendent of Education of American Samoa,letter to Mark M. Sutherland, May 8, 1935.

------ , former Superintendent of Education of AmericanSamoa, letter to Mark M. Sutherland, August 3, 1939.

------ , former Superintendent of Education of AmericanSamoa, letter to Mark M. Sutherland, August 14, 1939.

------ , Hawaiian Educational Representative of AmericanSamoa, letter to Frank E. Midkiff, Secretary of the Barstow Foundation Board of Trustees, December 9, 1940.

------ , Hawaiian Educational Representative of AmericanSamoa, letter to Emil F. Redman, Director of Education of American Samoa, February 10, 1941.

------ , "Recommendations for the Schedule of Salaries forthe School Year 1935-1936." Manuscript. 4 pp.

------ , "Report of the 1935 Teachers Institute, to theDirector of Education." Manuscript. Text, 8 pp. Appendix, 5 pp.

Midkiff, Frank E., Secretary of the Barstow Foundation Board of Trustees, letter to L. Wild, Governor of American Samoa, January 6, 1941.

------ , Secretary of the Barstow Foundation Board ofTrustees, letter to L. Wild, Governor of American Samoa, February 17, 1941.

------ , Secretary of the Barstow Foundation Board ofTrustees, letter to L. Wild, Governor of American Samoa, February 25, 1941.

Mitchell, Donald Dean, "Education in American Samoa with Special Reference to Health Problems." Unpublished Master1s thesis, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, T.H.,1936. 204 pp.

"Principals’ Weekly Enrollment Reports, 1933-1935,Department of Education, Government of American Samoa." Manuscript.

Redman, Emil F., "Annual Report, Department of Education, to the Governor of American Samoa, 1939-1940." Mimeographed. 19 pp.

------ ’ Director of Education of American Samoa, letter toEarl L. McTaggart, Hawaiian Educational Representative of American Samoa, September 26, 1940.

253"School Law of American Samoa." Corrected to June 1934.

Mimeographed for the 1934 Samoan Teachers Institute, Pago Pago, American Samoa. Section 67 of the "Codification of the Regulations and Orders for the Government of American Samoa." 5 pp.

Sitler, C.M., "Annual Report, Department of Education, to the Governor of American Samoa, 1938-1939."Mimeographed. 26 pp.

Sutherland, Frank G., Principal of Poyer Teacher Training School in American Samoa, answers to questionnaire on the American Samoan public school system, March-April 1938.

------ , Principal of Poyer Teacher Training School inAmerican Samoa, letter to Mark M. Sutherland, January 6, 1938.

------ , "Report of the 1938 Teachers1 Institute."Manuscript. 14 pp.

Sutherland, Mark M., "Report of the 1934 Samoan Teachers Institute, to the Superintendent of Education." Manuscript. Text, 10 pp. Test result supplement,1 1 pp.

Wild, L., Governor of American Samoa, letter to theFrederic Duclos Barstow Foundation for American Samoans Committee, November 26, 1940.

------ , Governor of American Samoa, letter to Frank E.Midkiff, Secretary of the Barstow Foundation Board of Trustees, January 15, 1941.

Wist, Ben;). 0., "Report of the Visiting Staff to the Samoan Teachers Institute, 1932-1933." Manuscript. Bound by the Barstow Foundation, and is now in the Barstow Foundation Library, Bishop Museum Building, Honolulu, T.H. 393 pp.This is a comprehensive report of the 1932-1933 American Samoan teachers institute and the first-hand story of the reorganization of the American Samoan public education system.

254E. NEWSPAPERS

Fofoga 0 Pola. mimeographed student newspaper of PoyerSchool, Pago Pago, American Samoa, November 1, 1954 to May 29, 1935.

0 Le Fa*atonu. Pago Pago: official news organ of theGovernment of American Samoa, January 1933 to June1941.

F. TEST MATERIALS

Carrigan, Rose A., Carrigan Score Card for Rating Teaching and the Teacher. Subjective testing instrument for teachers. New York: The World Book Co., 1930. 4 pp.

Kelley, Truman L., Giles M. Ruch, and Lewis M. Terman, New Stanford Achievement Tests. Advanced examination, third revision, forms V and Z. 24 pp. Primary examination, second revision, forms V, W, X, Y, and Z. 7 pp. Directions for administering. New York: TheWorld Book Co., 1932.

APPENDIX

APPENDIX A256

PARTIAL LIST OF POBLIC SCHOOL PERSONNEL OF AMERICAN SAMOA

1900-1932

Mary Joseph, Roman Catholic Sister of the Third Order, Regular, of Mary:

Principal of Leone Girls School, 1897-1929?Trevorrow, Mrs. William (wife of a Warrant Machinist, United

States Navy, stationed in American Samoa):Principal of government school in Fagatogo,Apr. 1904-June 1906.

Schowels, Miss Florence (part-Samoan daughter of the Fagatogo baker):

Teacher in government school in Fagatogo under Mr s. Tr evorrow.

Kenison, Miss Carrie (part-Samoan daughter of a boat builder in American Samoa):

Teacher in government school in Fagatogo under Mrs. Trevorrow.

Moore, Charles, Oxford, England, Graduate:Principal of government school in Fagatogo,Nov. 1906-Mar. 1913.

Moore, Mrs. Charles (wife of government school principal): Assistant teacher (without pay) under Mr.Moore, 1906-1913. Member of English committee, 1911.

Miller, Mrs. Zelie P. (wife of a chief gunners mate, United States Navy, stationed in American Samoa):

Teacher in government school in Fagatogo under Mr. Moore, Jan. 1907-0ct. 1907.

Vaega, London Missionary Society Faife*au:Principal-teacher of government school at Tau, June 30, 1908-early in 1910.

Pearce, H.M.T., Chaplain, United States Navy, stationed in American Samoa:

Chairman of English committee, 1911.

257Connor, W.H., M.D., Assistant Surgeon, United States Navy,

stationed in American Samoa:Member of English committee, 1911.

Cottle, ______ , M.D., United States Navy, stationed inAmerican Samoa:

Committee of one to prepare sanitation and hygiene pamphlet for the schools, 1911.

Bohl, F.J., professional educator from the United States: Principal of government school in Fagatogo,July 1913-July 1914. Principal of Poyer School, July 1914-July 1916.

Scanlan, Charles, part-Samoan youth:Teacher in government school in Fagatogo, 1913- 1914. Teacher in Poyer School, 1914-1917 or later.

Faiaoga Tofele, native Samoan youth:Teacher in government school in Fagatogo, 1913- 1914. Teacher in Poyer School, 1914-1917, or later.

Dykstra, David, professional educator from the United States:

Principal of Tau School, Aug. 1914-Apr. 1915. Principal of Poyer School, July 1916-June1919.

Iosefa, London Missionary_Society Faife1au:Teacher in Tau School •under Mr. Dykstra.

Loni, native Tokelau islander:Teacher in government school, 1916?

Vi Fuimaono, native Samoan youth:Teacher in government school, 1916-1920.

Nelsone Uaine, part-Samoan youth educated in Hawaii:Teacher in Poyer School, July 1916-Dec. 1920.

Faatoia, native Samoan youth educated in Hawaii (later became District Governor Tufele):

Teacher in Poyer School, 1916?-?Green, W.M., professional educator from the United States:

Principal of Poyer School, June 1919-Apr.1920.

258Link, A.J., M.D., Lieutenant (Medical Corps), United States

Navy, stationed in American Samoa:Principal of Tau School, Apr. 1920-Sept. 1920.

(Hospital corps man and radio man of the United States Navy, stationed in American Samoa, were his assistants.)

Hardege, A.B., Chief Pharmacist Mate, United States Navy, stationed in American Samoa:

Principal of Tau School, Sept. 1920-?Noble, A.M., Secretary of Native Affairs:

Superintendent of Education, 1920?Spicer, ______ , Chief Pharmacist Mate, United States Navy,

stationed in American Samoa:Principal of Poyer School, Apr. 1920-1922? Teacher trainer for the public schools of American Samoa, 1921-1922?

Adalbeaud, Roman Catholic ’’Little Brother”of the Order of Mary:

Teacher in (or principal of) Leone Boys School. Teacher trainer, Jan.-Feb., 1921 and 1922?

Ingram, Mrs. Harris J., Normal School Graduate:Teacher trainer, Jan.-Feb., 1921 and 1922?

Harris, John F., professional educator from the United States:

Director of Education (professional head of the school system) and Principal of Poyer School, Aug. 1922-Jan. 1924.

Thornburg, Lester H., professional educator from the United States:

Director of Education and Principal of Poyer School, Jan. 1924-Apr. 1925.

Dollinger, F.J., professional educator from the United States:

Director of Education and Principal of Poyer School, Apr. 1925-Oct. 1926,

Hubert, W.V., professional educator from the United States: Director of Education, Oct. 1926-Nov. 1927.

Gerard, Roman Catholic ’’Little Brother” of the Order of Mary:

Teacher in Leone Boys School, 1926?

259Leo, Roman Catholic ’’Little Brother” of the Order of Mary:

Teacher in Leone Boys School, 1926?Instructor in teachers institutes.

Mary Bernardin, Roman Catholic Sister of the Third Order, Regular, of Mary:

Teacher in Leone Girls School, 1926?Mary Isabella, Roman Catholic Sister of the Third Order,

Regular, of Mary:Teacher in Leone Girls School, 1926?

Diefenderfer, Paul T., scientist from the United States: Director of Education, Dec. 1927-Nov. 1931.

Lindborg, Arthur E., Major, United States Army (Retired), formerly Superintendent of Education of the Virgin Islands:

Director of Education, Dec. 1931-Dec. 1933.

An incomplete list of native Samoans and part- Samoans who served during part or all of the period from 1921 to and including 1932 as public school teachers or principals in American Samoa is here arranged in alphabetical order by their most commonly used names:Aliifano: 1923?Alisa Fanene, formerly assistant principal of Mapusaga

private school:Assistant Principal of Poyer School, 1929-1930? Director of Poyer band, 1929-1936.

Amisone Fuga Tuaolo:?-1940.

Bessie: ?-1935.Eddie Taulago:

1930?Elifasa: 1921?Elisa (Elisabeth) Su’a (wife of K. Su’a):

?-1929.Epenesa: ?-1938.Epo: ?-1937

Eutika Molio’o:7-1934.

FaTafeu Mauga (f):Teacher at Poyer, 7

Fa’amatu: 19217-1922?Fa’amau, Sausau:

Principal of Poyer School, 19307-1933. service, 19257-1941 or later.

Faga T. Solipo:19217-1936.

Falefuafua Tofaoa:1932-1941 or later.

Falesau: 19217-1922?Filo, Matai*a Kolose:

1923-1941 or later.Fitisamalu: ?Fuavai, L.: 1930-1941 or later.Galea*i, Apelu:

7-1936.Gort: 19217-1924?Hannemann, Gustav Arthur, Jr.:

7-1938.Harbor Taesali:?Ietl Meauta Mageo:

7-1933.Iulio: 7John H. Leasau:

1930-1941 or later.Julia Taesali:

Teacher of sewing in Poyer, 7

Euta: 19217-1923?

Kovana: 19217-1922?

260

Total

261Leatualiii ?Lemoe Aiumu:

?-1940.Logona, Soatoa:

7-1933.Lolaile: ?Lone: ?Malauulu, Tuli:

19217-1935.Malauulu, (Mrs.), (wife of Tuli Malauulu):

19257-7Manutui (Manuel Tanoi):

?Mapu: 19217-1922?Matala Leota (Maud M. Frank):

1921-1922?Muliufi Leiato:

1932-1941 or later.Mulu: ?Napoleon Tuiteleleapaga:

19247-1929?Nikolao lull Tuiteleleapaga:

1930-1941 or later.Noa Elele: 7-1929?Norman Foster:

19217-1922?Olasaposea: 19217-1922?Onesemo Salave’a:

7-1936.Palepoi Mauga:

19217-1922?Panama: 1921?

Papú Siofele:1952-1941 or later

Pemasa ütu: 1928?Petero Avegallo:

1921-1941 or laterPolikapoî 19217-1922?Poutoa Ape: 7-1938.Sa’aga Aifelë Levi:

7-1955.Saipele Mauga:?Salofi Soatoa, M. Rapi:

1931-1941 or laterSsirmelu: ?Sautia, S.: 1925-1941 or laterSeroaia L. Muli:

1925-1941 or laterSemu: 19217-1922?Sepetaio, Tu’ugalue:

7-1936.Sete Avegalio:

1932-1941 or laterSiatu’u, Asa:

1925-1941 or laterSifoa Loa: 19217-1922?Sipusi Afoa:9Solosolo Asuega, S.M.:

19217-1939.Sonoma Luifau:

19257-1928?Su*a, K.: 1923-1929.

Suiava A. Utu:1929-1941 or later.

Suitono: ?Sunako: 19217-1922?Tafu Mauga: 7Tai’u, S.: 7-1935.Talaga, M . : 1931-1941 or later.Taniela: 7-1941.Taula Siva’aetasi:

7Telefoni, M.:

7-1940.Tilo, 0. Kalepo:

19257-1936.Tllofal Saleopaga:

7-1937.Toso Tiumalu Tuiasosopo:

1922-1941 or later.Tula Elifasa, G.:

1927-1941 or later.Tulaga, Masaniai:

1930-1941 or later.Tupua, Le’i:

1928-1941 or later.Uflufi (Onosa'i), Mageo:

1931-1941 or later.Varaomala: 19217-1922?Vimoto: 19217-1922?

263

H.F. Bryan, American Samoa, a General Report by the Governor. 1926. (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Govt. Prtg. Ofc.,I927y7"pp. 81-82, 84-91, 105-07.

W.H. Coulter, Annual Report of the Superintendent of Education. 1 June. 1940 to 51 May. 1941. (Pago Pago: Govt,of Am. Samoa, ms., 1941), pp. 131-32.

Courtesy of K. Su’a of Honolulu and Aivao Leota, Matala Leota, Aiulu Tufaga, Valovalo Satanoa, and Mataniu Fauoinaoana, with the courteous cooperation of High Chief Anai of Laie, Oahu, T.H.

APPENDIX B264

NON-SAMOAN EDUCATORS AND ADMINISTRATORS REORGANIZED DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

GOVERNMENT OF AMERICAN SAMOA

Lindborg, Arthur E., Major, United States Army (Retired), formerly Superintendent of Education of the Virgin Islands:

Superintendent of Education, Dec. 1931— Dec.1933.

Moore, John W., Commander (Chaplain Corps), United States Navy:Director of Education, 1932— Feb. 1934.

Fred Henry, Roman Catholic "Little Brother" of the Order of Mary:

Principal of Leone Boys School, Sept. 1933— Aug. 1936; Teacher in Leone Boys School,Sept. 1937— Apr. 1941.

Sutherland, Mark M., Ed.B., formerly Teacher of Mathematics and Journalism in Iolani School, Honolulu, T.H.:

Principal of Poyer Teacher Training School,Sept. 1933— Aug. 1935.

Sutherland, Mrs. Zelie M., formerly a student at the University of Hawaii, Honolulu, T.H.:

Primary Supervisor in Poyer Teacher Training School, Sept. 1933— Aug. 1935.

Earnest, J.B., Lieutenant Commander (Chaplain Corps), United States Navy:

Director of Education, Feb. 1934— May 1935.Brown, G. Gordon, Ph.D., formerly of the Rockefeller

Foundation; Principal of Malangli School, Mombasa, East Africa:

Headmaster of Feleti School, May 1934— May 1938.McTaggart, Earl L., B.A., formerly Teacher of Agriculture

in Honokaa High School, Honokaa, Hawaii, T.H.:Superintendent of Education, June 1934—June 1936.

Leo, Roman Catholic "Little Brother" of the Order of Mary:

Teacher In Leone Boys School, Sept. 1933— Aug.1934.

Mary Isidore, Roman Catholic Sister of the Third Order, Regular, of Mary;

Principal of Leone Girls School, Sept. 1933— Aug. 1937.

Mary Aloysia, Roman Catholic Sister of the Third Order, Regular, of Mary:

Teacher in Leone Girls School, Sept. 1933—Aug. 1937.

Pike, L.A., formerly a carpenter in the United States and Samoa:

Shop Teacher in Poyer School, Sept. 1933— May1934.

Kirkpatrick, Thomas L., Commander (Chaplain Corps), United States Navy:

Director of Education, May 1935— Mar. 1937.Grinager, Kenneth P., B.A., formerly of the public schools

of Hatton, N. Dak., and of the Department of Public Instruction of the Territory of Hawaii:

Principal of Poyer Teacher Training School,Sept. 1935— Aug. 1937.

Grinager, Mrs. Esther, B.A., formerly of the public schools of Hatton N. Dak., and of the Department of Public Instruction of the Territory of Hawaii:

Primary Supervisor in Poyer Teacher Training School, Sept. 1935— Aug. 1937.

Drees, Frank J., B.S., formerly Teacher of Agriculture in Honokaa High School, Honokaa, Hawaii, T.H.:

Superintendent of Education, Aug. 1936— July 1938.

Charles, Roman Catholic "Little Brother" of the Order of Mary:

Teacher in Leone Boys School, Sept. 1936— Aug.1937.

Michael, Roman Catholic "Little Brother" of the Order of Mary:

Principal of Leone Boys School, Sept. 1936—Aug. 1937.

Markle, G.L., Lieutenant (Chaplain Corps), United States Navy:

Director of Education, Mar. 1937— Aug. 1938.Sutherland, Frank G., B.S., formerly Teacher of Agriculture

in McKinley High School, Honolulu, T.H.:Principal of Poyer Teacher Training School,Sept. 1937— Aug. 1939.

265

266Sutherland, Mrs. Mary, B.S., Formerly Teacher in Kalakaua

Junior High School, Honolulu, T.H.:Supervisor in Poyer Teacher Training School, Sept. 1937— Aug. 1939.

Mary Arsenius, Roman Catholic Sister of the Third Order, Regular, of Mary:

Teacher in Leone Girls School, Sept. 1937—Aug. 1938; Sept. 1939— Aug. 1941.

Herman, Roman Catholic ’’Little Brother” of the Order of Mary:Principal of Leone Boys School, Sept. 1937—

Aug. 1939; Principal of Leone Boys Teacher Training School, Sept. 1939— Aug. 1941.

Mary Matthew, Roman Catholic Sister of the Third Order, Regular, of Mary:

Principal of Leone Girls School, Sept. 1937— Aug. 1938; Teacher in Leone Girls School,Sept. 1938— Aug. 1939; Principal of Leone Girls School, Sept. 1939— Aug. 1941.

Ewing, Riley, B.S., M.S., Teacher of Agriculture, Kalakaua Junior High School, Honolulu, T.H.:

Headmaster of Feleti School, Sept. 1938— Aug.1942.

Sitler, C.M., Lieutenant (Chaplain Corps), United States Navy:

Director of Education, Sept. 1938— Feb. 1940.Heminger, Murray V., B.S., Teacher of Agriculture in

Leilehua High School, Leilehua, Oahu, T.H.:Superintendent of Education, Aug. 1938— July 1940.

Mary Rosalie, Roman Catholic Sister of the Third Order, Regular, of Mary:

Principal of Leone Girls School, Sept. 1938— Aug. 1939.

Coulter, W.H., B.S., M.S., Teacher of Agriculture in Benjamin Parker School, Kaneohe, Oahu, T.H.:

Principal of Poyer Teacher Training School, July 1939— June 1940; Superintendent of Education, July 1940— June 1941.

Coulter, Mrs. Gladys, B.S.:Supervisor in Poyer Teacher Training School,July 1939— Aug. 1940; Second Year Teacher Trainer in Poyer Teacher Training School,Sept. 1940— May 1941.

267Redman, Emil F., Lieutenant (jg) (Chaplain Corps), United

States Navy:Director of Education, Feb. 1940— June 1941.

Budin, Harry M., B.S., Teacher of Agriculture in Waipahu High School, Waipahu, Oahu, T.H.:

Principal of Poyer Teacher Training School, July 1940— June 1941; Superintendent of Education, July 1941— June 1942.

Budin, Mrs. Olga, B.S., Laboratory Technician in Queen’s Hospital, Honolulu, T.H.:

Supervisor in Poyer Teacher Training School, July 1940— June 1941.

Smith, Mrs. Susan (wife of Chief Pharmacist Mate, United States Navy, stationed on the island of Tau):

Supervisor in TaU School, Jan.— May 1939.Lusk, Mrs. B.D. (wife of Chief Pharmacist Mate, United

States Navy, stationed on the island of Tau): Supervisor in Tau School, ?— May 1940.

Gibson, Warren, B.S., M.S., Teacher of Agriculture in Waipahu High School, Waipahu, Oahu, T.H.:

Principal of Poyer Teacher Training School, July 1941— ?

Gibson, Mrs. May:Supervisor in Poyer Teacher Training School, July 1941— ?

0 Le Fa’atonu. (Pago Pago: official news organ ofthe Govt, of Am. Samoa), Aug. 1933, Sept. 1933, Jan. 1934, Mar. 1934, Apr. 1934, May 1934, June 1934, Apr.-May-June 1935, July-Aug.-Sept. 1935, May 1936, Mar. 1937, Sept. 1938, Oct. 1939, Sept. 1940.

E.F. Redman, Annual Report, Department of Education. to the Governor of American Samoa. 1939-1940. TPago Pago: Govt, of Am. Samoa, mimeographed, 1940), p. 2.

Riley Ewing, Headmaster of Feleti School, letter to Frank E. Midkiff, Secretary of the Barstow Foundation Board of Trustees, 5 May, 1941.

Wr.H. Coulter, Annual Report of the Superintendent of Education. 1 June. 1940 to 51 May. 1941. (Pago Pago: Govt,of Am. Samoa, ms., 1941), p. 3.

Courtesy of the Department of Public Instruction of the Territory of Hawaii, and of M.V. Heminger, former Superintendent of Education of American Samoa.

268

APPENDIX C

TEACHERS INSTITUTE INSTRUCTORS, AND COURSES, LECTURES, ETC. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, AMERICAN SAMOA

DECEMBER 13, 1932— FEBRUARY 21, 1933

Wist, Benj. 0., B.A., M.A., Chairman of the Visiting Staff of the Barstow Foundation, Dean of the Teachers College, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, T.H.:

Director of the Institute.Social Studies (History, Geography, Civics) for Samoans, and Professional Methods for Handling Them.

McCluskey, William, Associate Professor of Education and Director of Training of the Teachers College, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, T.H.î

Oral and Written English, Literature and Arithmetic, and Professional Methods for Handling Them.

Faulkner, Robert M., B.A., Principal of Kawananakoa Experimental School, Honolulu, T.H.:

Elementary General Science, Nature Study, Agriculture Study and Practice, and Health Education and Professional Methods for Handling Them.

Lindborg, Arthur E., Major, United States Army (Retired), Director of Education of American Samoa (under the old lawr) :

Educational Theory and Teaching Methods Based on Samoan Teacher Backgrounds and Available Equipment.

Lectures. Shor-t Talks. and Other Instructional Activities :Landenberger, George B., Captain, United States Navy,

Governor of American Samoa.Moore, JohnW., Commander (Chaplain Corps), United States

Navy, Superintendent of Education of American Samoa (under the old law).

Pele, Native Samoan High Talking Chief.

269Leito, Native Samoan High Chief, District Governor of the

Eastern District of American Samoa.Masagiai, Native Samoan High Chief.Ufuti, Native Samoan High Chief, a County Chief.Alexander, _______ , Chief Radio Electrician, United States

Navy, Head of the Department of Agriculture of American Samoa:

Agriculture.Hand, Miss _______ , R.N., United States Navy:

Nursing.Blodgett, George F., M.D., Lieutenant (Medical Corps),

United States Navy, Deputy Health Officer of American Samoa:

Health and Sanitation.Wist, McCluskey, Faulkner, and Lindborg:

Course of Study, faa-Samoa. and Parliamentary Procedure.

Silent Moving Pictures loaned by the Bishop Museum, and the University of Hawaii,_Honolulu, T.H.:

The Virgin of Tau.Health Films (twelve reels).

Benj. 0. Wist, Report of the Visiting Staff to the Samoan Teachers Institute. 1952-1933~ (bound ms. in the possession of the Barstow Foundation Library, Bishop Museum Bldg., Honolulu, T.H.), pp. 2, 52-53, 355, 370.

0 Le Fa*atonu. (Pago Pago: official news organ ofthe Govt, of Am. Samoa), Jan. 1933.

AUGUST 28— SEPTEMBER 1, 1933270

Lindborg, Arthur E., Major, United States Army (Retired),Superintendent of Education of American Samoa (under the new law):

Director of the Institute.Course of Study.Model School Demonstration Instructor and Seminar Leader.

Library Work.Lectures and Other Guidance:Moore, JohnW., Commander (Chaplain Corps), United States

Navy, Director of Education of American Samoa (under the new law).

Ferguson, R.A., D.D.S., Lieutenant Commander (Dental Corps), United States Navy.

Stephenson, C.S., Commander (Medical Corps), United States Navy, Public Health Officer of American Samoa.

Johnson, Edward C., Chief Justice of American Samoa.Blodgett, George F., M.D., Lieutenant (Medical Corps),

United States Navy, Deputy Health Officer of American Samoa.

Fulton, J.F., M.D., Lieutenant (Medical Corps), United States Navy, Director of the Samoan Hospital.

Landenberger, George B., Captain, United Stated Navy, Governor of American Samoa.

Arthur E. Lindborg, Program of Teachers* Institute. To be held at Poyer School. August 28th— September 1st. 1953. (Pago Pago: Govt, of Am. Samoa, mimeographedsheet, 1933).

271

*Sutherland, MarkM., Ed.B., Principal of Poyer Teacher Training School:

Director of the Institute.Samoan School Lav;.

Leo, Roman Catholic "Little Brother" of the Order of Mary, Teacher in the Atu’u Brothers’ School, American Samoa:

Geography of the Pacific.McTaggart, Earl L., B.A., Superintendent of Education of

American Samoa:Agriculture.School Organization and Management.Teaching Method Seminar.

Smith, Walter W., B.S., Teacher of Manual Arts and Mechanical Drawing in McKinley High School,Honolulu, T.H.:

Practical Arts.Steeves, Blanchard P., Ph.D., Former Principal of the Rural

Teacher Training School of the Teachers College, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, T.H.:

Principles of Education.History of Education.Teaching Method Seminar.

Sutherland, Mrs. Zelie M., Supervisor in Poyer Teacher Training School:

Model School Supervisor.Teaching Method Seminar.

Fa’amausili, Native Samoan Chief, Supervising Principal: Recorder of the Institute.

Lectures and Other Guidance:Dowling, O.C., Captain, United States Navy, Governor of

American Samoa:The Duty of Samoan Teachers.

Lowery, H.C., D.D.S., Lieutenant Commander (Dental Corps), United States Navy:

Tooth Troubles.and Their Remedy in Samoa.Brown, G. Gordon, Ph.D., Headmaster of Feleti School:

Feleti School.

JUNE 18— AUGUST 10, 1934

Johnson, Edward <J., Chief Justice of American Samoa:The Law Courts.

McTaggart, Earl L., B.A., Superintendent of Education of American Samoa:

Teachers' Requirements and Teachers'Positions.

Quinn, C.H., Lieut. (jg), United States Navy, U.S.S.ASTORIA:

Operation and Use of the Airplane (Lecture given beside a seaplane from the U.S.S. ASTORIA).

Smith, Walter W., B.S., Visiting Professor:Manual Arts in America and Hawaii.

Steeves, Blanchard P., Ph.D., Visiting Professor:The Growth of Teacher Training in American Samoa.

Price, W.A., B.S., M.S., D.D.S., M.D., Ph.D., F.A.C.D.,Outstanding Visiting Dentist:

The Relationship Between Food and Disease.Stephenson, C.S., Commander (Medical Corps), United States

Navy, Public Health Officer of American Samoa:Public Health Work and the Samoan Schools.

Hollander, Ben, M.D., Lieutenant (Medical Corps), United States Navy, Director of the Samoan Hospital:

Personal Hygiene.Carter, T.J., M.D., Lieutenant (jg), (Medical Corps),

United States Navy:The Development of Medicine in Arabia

(delivered by proxy).Earnest, J.B., Lieutenant Commander (Chaplain Corps),

United States Navy, Director of Education:Loyalty.

272

Mark M, Sutherland, Report of the 1934 Samoan Teachers Institute, to the Superintendent of Education. (Pago Pago: Govt, of Am. Samoa, ms., 1934J7 pp. 4-6.

0 Le Fa'atonu. (Pago Pago: official news organof the Govt, of Am. Samoa), Aug. 1934.

£73JUNE 10— AUGUST £, 1935

McTaggart, Earl L., B.A., Superintendent of Education of American Samoa:

Director of the Institute.Agriculture.Course of Study and Planning.

Brown, G. Gordon, Ph.D., Headmaster of Feleti School: Samoan Culture.

Engle, Miss Ella Mary, B.A., M.A., Principal of Puuhale School, Honolulu, T.H.:

Intermediate Demonstration Teaching.Teaching Method Seminar.

Fred Henry, Roman Catholic ’’Little Brother” of the Order of Mary, Principal of Leone Boys School:

Samoan History.Rhea, Theodore, B.A., Director of Health Education of the

Department of Education, Territory of Hawaii: Hygiene and Health Education.Games and Recreation.(Mr. Rhea also lectured on Health in the Nurses' Training School at the Samoan Hospital.)

Sutherland, Mark M., Ed.B., Principal of Poyer Teacher Training School:

Recorder of the Institute.Library Methods and Book Care.Remedial English.

Woodhull, Mrs. Deborah, B.A., Principal of Thomas Jefferson School, Honolulu, T.H.:

Primary Demonstration Teaching.Teaching Method Seminar.

Lectures and Other Guidance:Ball, 0.0., Superintendent of Maori Education in New

Zealand, and Inspector of Western Samoan Schools: Western Samoa.The Maoris.

Begg, Miss Jean, Social Worker Visiting from India: Y.W.C.A. Work in India.

274Burton, The Reverend Mr. _______ , Secretary of Foreign

Missions in the South Seas:My Work in Education.

Dowling, O.C., Captain, United States Navy, Governor of American Samoa:

A Teacher's Duty to His People.Greenwell, P.A.E., Chief Radio Electrician, United States

Navy, Head of the Department of Agriculture of American Samoa:

Agriculture.Radio Possibilities at Home.

Hart, Sir Herbert, General British Army (Retired), Administrator of Western Samoa:

Education in Western and American Samoa.Kirkpatrick, Thomas L., Commander (Chaplain Corps), United

States Navy, Director of Education of American Samoa:

Loyalty and Professional Pride.Leiato, Native Samoan High Chief, District Governor of the

Eastern District of American Samoa:A Teacher's Duty to His Village.

Leoso, Native Samoan High Talking Chief:The New Educational System in American Samoa.

Miller, Miss Carey D., A.B., M.S., Nutritionist of the Hawaii Experiment Station and Professor of Foods and Nutrition in the University of Hawaii,Honolulu, T.H.:

Basal Metabolism Tests.Pele, Native Samoan High Talking Chief, Judge:

Teachers' Duties.Strout, Roger, Skipper of the Yacht "Igdrasil":

From Florida to Samoa.Tuiasosopo, Native Samoan High Talking Chief:

Samoan Culture in the Public Schools.

Earl L. McTaggart, Report of the 1955 Teachers Institute. to the Director of Education. (Pago Pago: Govt,of Am. Samoa, ms., 1955), pp. 1, 3-4, and Appendix I.

0 Fa'atonu. (Pago Pago: official news organof the Govt, of Am. Samoa), Apr.-May-June 1935.

JUNE 8— JULY 31, 1936£75

Grinager, Kenneth P., B.A., Principal of Poyer Teacher Training School:

Director of the Institute.Library Methods.

Fa’amausili, Native Samoan Chief, Supervising Principal of American Samoa:

Respect for Elders and Matals.Kirkpatrick, Thomas L., Commander (Chaplain Corps), United

States Navy, Director of Education of American Samoa:

Policies of the Department of Education. Teachers’ Duties and Responsibilities.

McCleery, Mrs. Maybelle B., Ed.B., Cadet Supervisor in Pohukaina School, Honolulu, T.H.:

Primary Demonstration Teaching.Primary Seminar.

McCluskey, William, Associate Professor of Education and Director of Training of the Teachers College (Retired), University of Hawaii, Honolulu, T.H.:

Samoan Economics.Health and Sanitation.

Traut, Miss Gladys M., B.A., M.A., Supervisor of Practice Teaching in the Teachers College, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, T.H.:

Intermediate Demonstration Teaching. Intermediate Seminar.

No Lectures on Record for 1936.

0 Le Fa’atonu. (Pago Pago: official news organof the Govt, of Am. Samoa), May 1936.

W.H. Coulter, Superintendent of Education, information submitted to Mark M. Sutherland, 1941.

JULY 7— AUGUST 23, 1957276

Drees, Frank J., B.S., Superintendent of Education of American Samoa:

Director of the Institute.Johnson, Miss Eleanor, Primary Teacher in Kawananakoa

Experimental School, Honolulu, T.H.:English.Science.Lesson Planning.

Kinnison, Frank, B.S., Teacher of Agriculture in Hoolehua School, Molokai, T.H.:

Agriculture.Vance, Mrs. Agnes, Ed.B., Principal of Holomua School,

Kaunakakai, Molokai, T.H.:Library.Seminars on Teaching.Theme Planning.

Lectures and Other Guidance:Brown, G. Gordon, Ph.D., Headmaster of Feleti School:

Our Social Relationship to Polynesian Peoples.Crosby, Paul T., Commander (Medical Corps), United States

Navy, Public Health Officer of American Samoa: Health and Sanitation.

Fred Henry, Roman Catholic ’’Little Brother” of the Order of Mary, Teacher in Leone Boys School:

Samoan History.Fa’amausili, Native Samoan Chief, Supervising Principal of

American Samoa:Samoan Culture.

0 lje Fa’atonu. (Pago Pago: official news organof the Govt, of Am. Samoa), June 1937.

W.H. Coulter, Superintendent of Education, information submitted to Mark M. Sutherland, 1941.

277JULY 5— AUGUST 19, 1938

Sutherland, Frank G., B.S., Principal of Poyer Teacher Training School:

Director of the Institute.Agriculture and Samoan Problems (both class and demonstrations), Editing Primary Agricultural Reader.

Herman, Roman Catholic "Little Brother” of the Order of Mary, Principal of Leone Boys School:

Music and How to Read it When Singing.Sutherland, Mrs. Mary, B.S., Supervisor in Poyer Teacher

Training School:Primary and Intermediate Arithmetic:Editing Primary and Intermediate Arithmetic Books.

Tinker, Spencer, B.S., M.S., Director of the Honolulu Aquarium, Honolulu, T.H.:

Nature Study and Samoan Problems.English and Theme Development:Supervising the preparation of reports on the second year theme, "The Child’s Community Life," and the fifth year theme, "Transportation.”

Lectures and Other Guidance:Blew, _______ , M.D., (Medical Corps), United States Navy:

Eyes, Ears and Throat.Crosbv, Paul T., M.D., Commander (Medical Corps), United

States Navy, Public Health Officer of American Samoa:

Public Health.Summary of Health Lectures.

Fa’amausili, Native Samoan Chief, Supervising Principal of American Samoa:

Samoan Culture (seven lectures).(Also assisted in program planning.)

Fred Henry, Roman Catholic "Little Brother" of the Order of Mary, Teacher in Leone Boys School:

Samoan History (six lectures).Samoan Proverbs (two lectures).

Julio, Native Samoan Statistician of the Department of Public Health, Government of American Samoa:

Health Statistics, Their Compilation,Use and Meaning (two lectures).

Miser, _______ , M.D. (Medical Corps), United StatesNavy, Director of the Samoan Hospital:

Health, First Aid, and Common Disease in Samoa (two lectures).

Morrow, Arthur A., Chief Justice of American Samoa: Laws (four lectures).

Tuiasosopo, Native Samoan High Talking Chief:Samoan Customs.

0 Le F'a’atonu. (Pago Pago: official news organof the Govt, of Am. Samoa), June 1938, _et, alii.

Frank G. Sutherland, Report of the 1938 Teachers’ Institute. (Pago Pago: Govt, of Am. Samoa, ms., 1938),et. passim.

C.M. Sitler, Annual Report. Department of Education, to the Governor of American Samoa. 1938-1959. (Pago Pago: Govt, of Am. Samoa, mimeographed, 1939),~p. 17.

W.H. Coulter, Superintendent of Education, information submitted to Mark M. Sutherland, 1941.

279JULY 3— AUGUST 23, 1939

Heminger, Murray V., B.S., Superintendent of Education of American Samoa:

Director of the Institute.School Records and Grading.

Coulter, Mrs. Gladys, B.S., Supervisor in Poyer Teacher Training School:

Arithmetic.Coulter, W.H., B.S., M.S., Principal of Poyer Teacher

Training School:Agriculture.Science.Nature Study.

LeRoy, Gaylord C., B.A., M.A., Ph.D., Instructor of English in the University of Hawaii, Honolulu, T.H.:

English.Fred Henry, Roman Catholic ’’Little Brother” of the Order

of Mary, Teacher in Leone Boys School:Samoan History and Culture.

Herman, Roman Catholic "Little Brother” of the Order of Mary, Principal of Leone Boys School:

Music.Fa’amausili, Native Samoan Chief, Supervising Principal of

American Samoa:Assistant Director of the Institute.

Lectures and Other Guidance:Murdoch, F.F., M.D., Commander (Medical Corps), United

States Navy, Public Health Officer of American Samoa:

Health and Sanitation.Sitler, C.M., Lieutenant (Chaplain Corps), United States

Navy, Director of Education of American Samoa: Policies of the Department of Education.

E.F. Redman, Annual Report. Department of Education, to the Governor of American Samoa. 1939-1940. (Pago Pago: Govt, of Am. Samoa, mimeographed, 1940), p. 4.

W.Hi Coulter, Superintendent of Education, information submitted to Mark M. Sutherland, 1941.

280JULY 8— AUGUST 24, 1940

Coulter, W.H., B.S., M.S., Superintendent of Education of American Samoa:

Director of the Institute.Practical Problems in Teaching.Science and Agriculture for the Upper Years. Presentation of Mew Materials and Policies.

Budin, Harry M., B.S., Principal of Poyer Teacher Training School:

Mature Stories for the Primary Years.Science and Agriculture for the Intermediate Years.

Native Crafts Supervisor.Budin, Mrs. Olga, B.S., Supervisor in Poyer Teacher

Training School:Reading for Comprehension and EnglishComposition for the Intermediate and Upper Years.

Coulter, Mrs. Gladys, B.S., Second Year Teacher Trainer in Poyer Teacher Training School:

Theme Study and Analysis for the Primary and Intermediate Years.

Songs, Games and Activities for the Primary Years.

Fa’amausili, Native Samoan Chief, Supervising Principal of American Samoa:

Assistant Director of the Institute.Samoan Culture Laboratory.Problems in Supervision.

Filo, Tuia and Nikolao, Native Samoan Supervising Teachers and Native Teacher Trainer, Respectively, of American Samoa:

Native Craftwork Instruction.Herman, Roman Catholic ’’Little Brother” of the Order of

Mary, Principal of Leone Boys School:Theme Analysis for the Upper Years.

Woodhull, Mrs. Deborah, B.A., Principal of Thomas Jefferson School, Honolulu, T.H.:

Teaching of Reading for the Primary and Intermediate Years.

Lectures and Other Quid ance:281

Redman, Emil F., Lieutenant (jg), (Chaplain Corps), United States Navy, Director of Education of American Samoa:

Character Education— short lectures on Honesty, Work Habits, Disciplining,Moral Deportment, Debts and HandlingMoney, Respect for Elders, and Indoctrination.

Wilson, Paul W., M.D., Captain (Medical uorps), United States Navy, Public Health Officer of American Samoa, and Assistants:

Morton, _______ , M.D., (Medical Corps), United StatesNavy;

Fuhring, A.S., M.D., Lieutenant (Medical Corps), United States Navy;

Chastain, R.V., D.D.S., Lieutenant (jg), (Dental Corps), United States Navy:

Health Education— lectures, laboratory exhibits and demonstrations, twice a week.

Tuia, Petero and Papu, Native Samoan Supervising Teacher, Principal of Tau School and Teacher in Poyer Teacher Training School, Respectively, of American Samoa:

Teachers' Chorus.Suiava, Native Samoan Teacher in Poyer Teacher Training

School:Director of a Play by the Teachers (ten acts and twenty-two scenes).

Note: No visiting instructors were sent to the1941 institute.

W.H. Coulter, Annual Report of the Superintendent. of Education. 1 June. 1940 to 51 May. 194.1. (Pago Pago: Govt, of Am. Samoa, ms., 1941), pp. 81-85.

W.H. Coulter, Superintendent of Education, information submitted to Mark M. Sutherland, 1941.

282 285

APPEÜilX D

TABLE VIII

NATIVE TEACHER TRAINING AND TEACHER PLACEMENT IN THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

OF AMERICAN SAMOA

Number and sex of teacher

Each teacher’s pre-service training, if any, and school in which served, for each of the f

1933-1934 1934-1935 1935-1936 1936-1937position occupied if other than ordinary teacher, and/or ollowing school years:1937-1938 1938-1939 1939-1940 1940-1941

#########

12345678 9

[m!fm)fm)fm)ini]fm)fm)fm)imj

Sup. Prin. Sup. Prin. Sup. Prin. Sup. Prin. Sup. Prin. Sup. Prin. Sup. Prin. Sup. Prin.Sec. of Ed. Sec. of Ed. Sec. of Ed. Sec. of Ed. Tau (P)— discharged, unprofessional.A’asu (A) Tau Poyer Tau ¡Fitiuta Fagasa Fagasa FagasaAfono (A) Poyer Poyer Retired (matai).

(A) Amanave (A) Amanave (P) Amanave (p) Olosega (p) Resigned to become a faife’au.Retired Poyer

AmanaveAoloau (A) Leone B. Leone B.Aunu’u (p) Aunu’u (P) Aunu’u (P) Aunu’ u— deceased.Amouli (P) Poyer— (first semester)

(second semester)— Amouli (P)

(matai).Cliili (P) Tau (P) Tau (P) Tau (P)

Amouli— discharged, immorality.Nu’uuli (P) Nu’uuli (P) Poyer Poyer Poyer Sup. Teacher.

Amouli Poyer_Fagasa (P) Fagasa (P) Fagasa Afono (A)Fagaitua(P) Poyer

Tau Leone B. Poyer

TauLeone B. Tula (P)

Aoloau (A) Aoloau (A)

Aoa (A) Aoa (P) Aunu’u (p) Aunu’u (P) Amanave (P) Olosega (p) .oloau (A) Tula (P)

# 15# 16# 17# 18# 19# 20

# 21 # 22# 23# 24# 25# 26# 27# 28 # 29

$

>m<fm)(m)ffm)(m)fm)fm)fm)

Fagaitua Fagamalo(A Fitiuta Fitiuta Iliili (P) Iliili

Iliili Leone B. Leone B. Leone G. Masefau NuT uuli Nu’uuli Nu’uuli Ofu (P)

Poyer Fagasa Ofu (P)IliiliIliili (P) _ . _ vNu’uuli (P) Fitiuta (p) Poyer

Amouli (P) Ofu (P)Iliili Amouli (P)Discharged, ineompetenti Poyer Retired (mat&i).Olosega Olosega Masefau (A) Masefau (A]Poyer Ofu (P) (P) “' ' " Tau

Poyer Aunu’u (P)Amouli (P) Leone B.Iliili (P) Iliili (P)Aunu’u (p)— suspended indefinitely, incompetent.Fitiuta (P) Fitiuta (P)

$

# 30 (m) Ofu

_____ Poyer PoyerFagaitua(p) Fagaitua(P) Sup. Teacher.Tau Sabbat. Lv.— Tau

Amouli— resigned for public works job.

Iliili Tau Tau pagamalo(A) Fagamalo(A) Fagamalo(A) Fagamalo (A)Leone B. Ofu (P) Retired (mat §i).Fagamalo(A) Poyer Poyer Nu’uuli (P) Poyer— discharged, incompetent.Leone G. Resigned (?).Amouli— discharged, immorality.Aoloau (A) Discharged, incompetent.Poyer Tau Tau Afono (A) Aoa (p) Resigned (?).Nu’uuli Olosega (p) Olosega (P) ;agatogo(P) Fagatogofp) Fagatogo(P) Aoa (P)Tau Vatia (a) Poyer ula (P) Leone Pr.(P) Afao (A)— suspended indefinitely,

incompetent.Olosega Poyer Poyer— disch e-£ged, incompetent.

284 285TABLE VIII ¡(CONTINUED)

NATIVE TEACHER TRAINING' AND TEACHER PLACEMENT IN THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

OF AMERICAN SAMOA

Number and sex of teacher

Each teacher1 s pre-service training, if any, aiid position occupied if other than ordinary teacher, and/orschool in which served, for each of the f o l l o w i n g school years:

1935-1934 1954-1955 1935-1956 1936-1937 11957-1938 _1938-1959 1959-1940 1940-1941 .# 31 (m) Olosega (P) Olosega (P) Amouli-Tula(P) | x x , .Fagaitua (p) Pagai tua (P) Amanave (P) Amanave (P) Nu’uuli (P)# 32 (m) Olosega#33 (m) Poyer

(second semester)-# 34 (m) Poyer

Vatia (A) Fitiuta Tau Amouli (P)— (first semester)

Nu’uuli Aua (p) Aua (P) Aua (P)-Taü (P) Taü Fitiuta (P) Iliili (P)

Poyer Iliili (P)

# 35# 36 #37# 38# 39# 40# 41# 42# 43# 44# 45# 46# 47# 48# 49# 50# 51# 52# 53# 54# 55# 56# 57# 58# 59# 60 # 61 # 62

(m) im) [mi [mi l mi

Poyer Poyer Poyer— left Poyer Tau (P)

Masefau (Aj Fagasä (p)

Aua (P) Fitiuta (P) Ofu (P) Utulei (P)Pago Pago(P) Pago Pago(P) Pago Pago(P) Pago Pago(P)— was

appointed Native Teacher Trainer for Poyer Teacher Training School beginning 1940-1941.

Olosega (P) Fagaitua (P)PoyerPoyer

_ Fagasa (P) Fagasa (p) PoyerFagaitua(p) Tau (P) Tau (P) Poyer Iliili (P), sick. Leone B.— left, sick, deceased.Poyer Poyer Retired (mat ai).

Tau (P) — (first semester) j(second semester)— Poyer Fagaitua(P) Retired (mat |i).■ ' ' ' Poyer Fitiuta (p; Fitiuta (p) Faleasao(A) Leone Pr.(P) Leone Pr.(P)[ m]

[mi[mi[mi[mi[mi[mi[mi.mi[mi.mi

.m)

.mi[mi[mi[mi[mir>mi[mifiimj

Tau Tau TauVatia (A) Gen. Sub. PTTG— Poyer PTTG— Aunu’u

PTTGPTTGPTTG

A’asu (A) Taü Ofu Amouli Nu’uuli Fagaitua Aunu’u Fitiuta Ofu

Poyer -- -----Masefau (A) Masefau (A) Olosega— deceased. Fagamalo(A) Fagamalo (A) Jot rehired, incompetent.Amouli-Tula Aunu’u (P)' ’ (p) ' Utulei* (P) Utulei (P) Tula [A)Ofu Ofu TaV. Aoloau (A) Faleasao(A) Afao (A)Amanave Amanave iliili Vailoatai(P) Vailoatai(A) Fagatogo (P)Aunu’u Afono (A) Afono (A) Poloa (A) Poloa (A) Alao (A)Olosega Olosega rehired, incompetent.Ofu Discharged, incompetent.

PTT— Amouli Amouli-Tula Amouli M l rehired, incompetent.PTT— Olosega Olosega PTT PTTGPTTGPTTGPTTGPTTGPTTGPTTGPTT

— Poyer— resigned to go to Hawaii •G A1asu (A) A’asu (A) lli a (A)G Afono (a) Poyer u

Fagaitua Fagaitua Fagaitua Afono (A) Olosega (P)

FagasaOlosegaFitiutaOfu

Amouli-Tula Tula Fagaitua FagaituaFitiuta FitiutaIliili Iliili _Nu’uuli— maternity le&v0k>î resigned. Fagaitua Leone B. ÌTSnaveFagasa Iliili iî^u

Leone G. on

Resigned, joined USN dispensary service. Poyer_ Poyer PoyerFagasa Tula (P) Afono (A)Olosega Aoloau (A) Amanave (A)Resigned, poor health.Aunu’u— suspended indefinitely, immorality.Vatia (A) Vatia (A)Leone B. Leone B.

Leone G.^ • u c u i i t i u • - i • xtc;Nu’uuli Not rehired> nc°mpatible.e G. Resigned, left Samoa.

TaüVaitogi (P)

286t a b l e vin (continued)

287

NATIVE TEapttft? TRAINING ' AÎ]D TEACHER PLACEMENT iÄ ? ^ fÄ ient OF EDUCATION ™ Eo f SœüICAH SAMOA

Number Each teacher's pre—service trairiTnp . f~anyT"~an< position occupied if other than ordinary teacher, and/orand sex school in which served, for pflph of the f ollowing school years:of teacher 1955-1954 1954-1955 1955-lQSfi igsfi-1957 1957-1958 1988-1959 .1959-1940 1940-1941# 65# 64# 65# 66

# 67 (m)# 68 (m)

# 69 (m)# 70# 71# 72# 75# 74

m)m)>m<m)m)

# 75# 76# 77# 78# 79# 80

m)>m<mim)m)m)

# 81 (m)

# 82# 85# 84# 85

,m)m) m) . m)

P9thGG

Nu’uuliPTTGPTTGPTTGPTTGPTTGPTTGPTTGPTTGPTTG

Vatia (A) Aoa (A)Aunu’uFagasa

Fitiuta

Leone B.Nu» nuliNu’uuli

Aunu*u Sec. of Ed. Discharged, Leone B.

Afao (A) Not rehired, incompetent. Sec. of Ed. Sec. of Ed. Sec. of Ed. incompetent.Leone Pr. Poyer

Poyer— suspended, immorality.Tula Ofu

Leone B. Amouli (A) PoyerIliili Taü TauTau— discharged, immorality.

Vailoatai— suspended, damaging teacher morale.Ofu (P)Aoa— resigned for public works job.Tail— discharged, immorality.

Ofu— dischar ged, immorality, drunkenness, general bad conduct.PoyerPoyerPTT— Fagasa

Resigned, Poyer Poyer

joined USN dental service.Resigned, joined Fita Fita band.Poyer

PTTGPTTGPTTGPTTGPTTGPTTGPTTG

PTTGPTTGFSGFSG

# 86 (m)# 87 (f)

(Returned from Suva, Fiji, medical school.)

AmouliAunu’uFagaituaLeone B.Nu’uuliFagatogoAua

Utulei pago Pago Poyer TulaLeone B.I Leone G.

Nu» uuliTauTaüSeetagaAoaAunu’u

(A)

Poyer Tau— released forBarstow Foundation scholarship for medical training in Suva, Fiji; recommended by department of education. Vatia (A)UtuleiDischarged, incompetent. Faleasao (A)Poloa (A)

Sabbat. Lv.— Leone B.— resigned to go to Honolulu.

Masefau (A) Malaeloa(A) AuaSeetaga (A) Taü

Poyer— discharged, immorality and falsification of records.

Iliili Matu’u (A)Pago Pago Tau Resigned, another job.Not rehired, incompetent and financial difficulties.

Nu’uuli (P) Nu’uuli (P) Aoloau (A)— suspended,damaging teacher morale.

Discharged, incompetent.

Fagaitua Fagaitua

Iliili Pago Pago Malaeloa(A) Poyer

286

TABLE VIII (CONTINUED)287

NATIVE TEACHER TRAINING* AND TEACHER PLACEMENT IN THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

OF AMERICAN SAMOA

Number Each teacher’s pre-service training, if any, and Sposition occupied if other than ordinary teacher, and/or and sex school in which served, for each of the f ollowing school years:

OL teacher,, ,1985-1954 1934-1935 1935-1936 1956-1957 1957-1958 1958-1959 1959-1940 1940-1941___________# 65 (m)# 64 Cm)# 65 Cm)# 66 (m)# 67 iCm)# ooCO (m)# 69 (m)# 70 (I’m)# 71 (>m<# 72 (>m<# 75 (# 74 (,m) P9thGG

Nu’uuliPTTGPTTGPTTGPTTGPTTGPTTGPTTGPTTGPTTG

# 75 ) • •# 76 >m<f • • «# 77 iCm1 • • 9# 78 iCmf • • 0# 79 iCnn1 • ♦ 0# 80 I(m;' • • •# 81 (m) • •

# 82 <'mi • • •# 85 ( ♦ • •# 84 ((m) • • •# 85 (m) • • •

Vatia (A) Aoa (A) Aunu’u FagasIFitiutaLeone B.Nu’uuliNu’uuli Ofu— dischar Poyer PoyerPTT— Fagasä

Aunu’u Afao (A) Not rehired, incompetent.Sec. of Ed. Sec. of Ed. Sec. of Ed. Sec. of Ed.Discharged, incompetent.Leone B. Leone Pr. PoyerPoyer— suspended, immorality.

Tula OfuLeone B. Amouli (A) PoyerIliili Taù Taü

Vailoatai— suspended, damaging teacher morale.Ofu (P)Aoa— resigned for public works job.Tau— discharged, immorality.

Tau— discharged, immorality, ged, immorality, drunkenness, general bad conduct. Resigned, joined USN dental service.PoyerPoyer

PTTGPTTGPTTGPTTGPTTGPTTGPTTG

PTTGPTTGFSGFSG

# 86 (m) (Returned# 87 (f)

from Suva, Fiji, medical school.)

AmouliAunu’uFagaituaLeone B.Nu’uuliFagatogoAua

Utulei Pago Pago Poyer TulaLeone B. Leone G.

Resigned, joined Fita Fita band.Poyer Poyer Tau— released for

Barstow Foundation scholarship for medical training in Suva', Fiji; recommended by department of education. Vatia (A)UtuleiDischarged, incompetent. Faleasao (A)Poloa (A)

Sabbat. Lv.— Leone B.— resigned to go to Honolulu.

Nu’uuliTaüTaüSeetagaAoaAunu’u

(A)

Masefau (A) Malaeloa(A) AuaSeetaga (A) Taü

Fagaitua Fagaitua Poyer— discharged, immorality and falsification of records.

Iliili Matu’u (A)Pago Pago Tau Resigned, another job.Not rehired, incompetent and financial difficulties.

Nu’uuli (P) Nu’uuli (P) Aoloau (A)— suspended,damaging teacher morale.

Discharged, incompetent.

Iliili Pago Pago Malaeloa(A) Poyer

289288TABLE VIII (CONTINUED)

NATIVE TEACHER TRAINING AND TEACHER PLACEMENT IN THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

OF AMERICAN SAMOA

Number Each teacher*s pre-service training, if any* and position occupied if other than ordinary teacher, and/orand sex school in which served, for each of the following school years:of teacher 1955-1936 1956-1957 1957-1958 1958-1939 1959-1940________ 1940-1941.# 88 j# 89 (m)# 90 (f)# 91 (>m<# 92 ((m)# 93 (►m<# 94 (►m<# 95 (>m<# 96 (>m<# 97 (>m<# 98 (>m<# 99 (>m<#100 <>m<# 10 1 <#102 (W#103 (,m)#104 1fm)#105 <fm)#106 1 m)#107 1fin)#108 1fm)#109 I(m)# 110 1fm)# 1 1 1 ifm)# 112 ifm)#113 iff)#114 ifm)#115 iCm)#116 fm)#117 i(f)#118 fm)#119 Cm)#120 fm)# 12 1 (m)

FSG

FSG

PTTG A’asu (A)PTTG AmanavePTTG AuaPTTG FagatogoPTTG FitiutaPTTG FitiutaPTTG UtuleiPTTG IliiliPTTG Nu’uuliPTTG OfuPTTG OfuPTTG Olosega

TauP9thGG Leone B.• PTTG• PTTG• PTTG• PTTG• PTTG• PTTG• PTTG• PTTG• PTTG• PTTG• PTTG• PTTG• FSG• FSG• FSGstern Samoa.)• PTTG• PTTG• PTTG• • PTTG

A’asu (A) PoyerLaulii (A) Seetaga (A)Tau AuaFagatogo Pago PagoFitiuta— discharged, immorality.Fitiuta TauSabbat. Lv., resigned.Iliili Alofau (A)Nu’uuli Not rehired, incompetent.Leone Pr. Swain*s Is. (A)Aoa TauUtulei Malaeloa (A)Tau Masefau (A)Sabbat. Lv. Poyer— resigned to learn mechanics trade

to help people of Manu*a.Aunu’u— sent back for further training.Fagaitua— sent back for further training.

Leone Pr.Fagasa ?Fitiuta FitiutaLeone B.— resigned, poor health.

Aunu*u A’asu (A)OfuOlosega— resigned, joined Fita Fita guard.Fagaitua OfuTula— discharged, immorality Fagatogo— health leave.Pavaiai (P)Nu’uuli Pago PagoSwain’s Is. (A)— on leave on Tutuila to improve her son’s health.P2ndYrTT— Onenoa (A)Laulii (A)— resigned, disliked teaching. Leone B.Olosega

VatiaOfuOlosegaOlosega Tau Tulaeone G. bnouli Yu’uuli ?ago Pago 3wain’s Is. (A)

— Fagaitua mm— Laulii (A) pJSr-£eone B. ■rfT— Tau

290TABLE VIII' (CONTINUED)

291

NATIVE TEACHER TRAINING AND TEACHER PLACEMENT IN THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION OF AMERICAN SAMOA

Number Each teacher’s pre-service training, if any, and position occupied if other than ordinary teacher, and/or and sex school in which served, for each of the f ollowing school years:

#122 X • • • • FSG— -Office Boy Office Boy— resigned, another job.#123 >m< • • • PTTG PTT Tau#124 X « • • • FSG— LTTG Leone B.#125 ,m • • • • FSG— LTTG Fitiuta#126 f] • • • • LTTG Leone G.#127 X • • • • • Fagatogo#128 .m< • • • PTTG • P2ndYrTT— Amouli (A)#129 X • • • • PTTG P2ndYrTT— Nu’uuli#130 f • ♦ • • PTTG P2ndYrTT— Poyer#131 ,m( • • • • PTTG P2ndYrTT— Fagatogo#132 X • • • • PTTG P2ndYrTT— Iliili#133 • • • • PTTG P2ndYrTT— Laulii (A)#134 >m( • • • « PTTG P2ndYrTT— Aoloau (A;#135 • • • • PTTG P2ndYrTT— Aoa#136 • • • • LTTG P2ndYrTT— Vaitogi#137 • • » • LTTG P2ndYrTT— Leone B.#138 1 • • • • PSG— LTTG P2ndYrTT— Fitiuta— sent back for further

training•#139 fm' • • • LTTG P2ndYrTT— Pavaiai#140 W . • • • LTTG P2ndYrTT— Nu’uuli— sent back for further

training.#141 x<’ • • • • • PTT— Office Boy#142 >m<' « • • • • PTT— Olosega#143 • • • • P2ndYrTT— Vailoatai (A)

#144#145-146#147#148#149-150#151#152#153#154#155#156#157#158

PTTGPTTG PTTG

PTTGPTTGPTTGPTTGPTTGFSG— LTTGlttgFSG— LTTG.lttglttg

P2ndYrTT— dropped, sought nati. def. job• .P2ndYrTT— dropped, •

sought nati. def. job•

P2ndYrTT— dropped, •

sought nati. def. job•

P2ndYrTT— dropped, sought nati. def. job

292TABLE Vili

NATIVE TEACHER TRAINING IN THE DEPARTMENT

OF AMERICAN

293(CONTINUED)

AND TEACHER PLACEMENTOF EDUCATIONSAMOA

Number Each teacher’s pre-service training, if any, and and sex school in which served, for each of the f of teacher 1935-1936 1936-1937 1937-1938 1938-1939

position occupied if other than ordinary teacher, and/or ollowing school years:1939-1940 1940-1941

#159 . . . . #160-180 . . . . #181-182 . . . . #183-194 . . . .

1...... ... 1LTTG

PTT• P2ndYrTT— dropped, sought nati. def. job.

LTTLegend: (A), acting principal (one teacher only in a

(matai), received chief title; B., boys school; G., girls sc Gen. Sub., general substitute; PTT, in training at Poyer Tea graduate; P9thGG, Poyer ninth grade graduate; FSG, Feleti Sc Training School; LTTG, Leone Boys teacher training graduate; nati. def. Job, national defense Job. Information for the s

'

.1 1

school); (p), principal (two or more teachers in a school); hool; Pr., primary school; Sabbat. Lv., sabbatical leave; cher Training School; PTTG, Poyer teacher training hool graduate; LTT, in training at Leone Boys Teacher P2ndYrTT, Poyer second year teacher training class; and tudent group in this Table is incomplete.

294Teachers’ names represented by numbers 1 to 145 in

Table VIII are here given alphabetically; Agatonu, Aifili, Aipopo, Akapo, Alisa, Amanda (f), Amisone, Annie Young (f), Apelu, Aunu’ua, Bernard, Bessie (f), Ene, Epenesa, Epo, Eseroma, Evile, Eutika, Fa’aloloi, Fa’amaile, Fa’amausili, Fa’asamoa, Fa’asoa, Faga, Fagatele, Fagauli, Fagu,Failelei, Falani, Falefuafua, Faleifa, Fasi, Fasimoli,Fatu, Faufano, Fiafia, Fiaigoa, Fiaui, Filo, Folau,Fualelei, Fuavai, Galea’ i, Hannemann, Haro, Ieti, Irene (f), John,Keniseli, Keila, Lauifi, Lemoe. Leuma, Logona, Loi, Lopati, Luaao, Lulu, Mabel Young (f;, Meaoli, Maina, Malauulu, Maligi, Mane, Manu, Mataese, Matagi, Mataniu (f ),Moetoto, Muliufi, Naituli, Nei, Nepo, Nikolao, Onesemo,Onosa’i (Ufiufi), Opie, Otaota (f), Paepaeala, Panama,Papu, Petero, Pita. Poutoa, Puia’i, Pulotu (f), Pulou,Putuga, Rosalia (f), Sa’aga, Saelua, Saipele, Sala, Salofi, Sanerive, Sautia, Semaia, Sepelini, Seperini, Sepetaio,Sete, Sianava, Siatu’u, Sipoloa, Siva Jennings (f), Solofua, Solosolo, So’oga, Sopa, Suiava, Suivai, Tafatafa, Tai’u, Talaga, Talagu, Talani, Tama, Taniela, Tanu, Taofi,Taua’iga, Taualai, Tauelia, Tauva’a, Tauveve, Telefoni,Tilo, Tilofai, Tilotilo, Toa, Togafau, Toso, Tuia,Tulaga, Tulua, Tupua, Tusiofo, Oatoivao, Diligi, Va’alele, Va’atui’a, Vaita, Valoaga.

Student teachers’ names represented by numbers 144 to 194 in Table VIII are here given alphabetically; Afa Ripley, Agai, Aifala, Apu, Asuemu, Eddie Ripley, Edgar Reid, Eliga, Fa’afeu, Fa’alavea, Fa’alepo, Fa’asavala, Fa’asese, Fa’ava’a, Fa’avae, Fautua, Fineauga, Freida, Fua, Iese, Keneti, Lafoai, Laufuluvalu, Lorenese, Losivale, Mago, Misimoa, Moemoe, Moetoto, Mulinu’u, Pavota, Pautoa, Pele, Pitoau, Pu’avai, Seilusi, Sigalu, Siona, Siutupu, Sofala, Sualua, Su’seu’e, Taielua, Taliga, Talusa, Tapuni, Terry, Utuone, Vaiao, Veve, Voloia.

List of schools and teachers for 1933-1934 supplied to director of the 1934 teachers institute by the director of education of American Samoa in May 1934.

Fofoga 0 Poia, mimeographed newspaper of Poyer School, May 29, 1935.

Earl L. McTaggart, Annual Report of Progress and Meeds of the Public School System of American Samoa to the Board of Education. July 1935. (Pago Pago; Govt, of Am. Samoa, ms., 1935), p. 19, and Enclosure B.

M.V. Heminger, Annual Report of the Superintendent of Education for the School Year Ending May 51. 1959. (Pago Pago; Govt, of Am. Samoa, ms., 1939), pp. 1-3, 12,Inclosure 11A-B.

295C.M. Sitler, Annual Report. Department of Education.

to the Governor of American Samoa. 1 July. 1958 to 50 June. 1959. (Pago Pago: Govt, of Am. Samoa, mimeographed, 195§J,pp. 2, 6-9.

Lists of Teachers and Place to Teach for the years 1954-1955 to 1959-1940, inclusive, supplied by M.V.Hercinger, Superintendent of Education, to Earl L. McTaggart, Hawaiian Educational Representative of American Samoa, in 1959.

M.V. Heminger, Superintendent of Education, letter to Earl L. McTaggart, Hawaiian Educational Representative of American Samoa, October 9, 1959.

E.F. Redman, Annual Report. Department of Education. to the Governor of American Samoa. 1940. (Pago Pago: Govt,of Am. Samoa, mimeographed, 1940), pp. 5-6.

W.H. Coulter, Annual Report of the Superintendent of Education. 1 June. 1940 to 51 May, 1941. (Pago Pago':'' Govt, of Am. Samoa, ms., 1941), pp. 5-6, 65 -64, 77-79,121, 124-152.

W.H. Coulter, Superintendent of Education, answers to questions submitted by Mark M. Sutherland, 1941.

List of graduates of Poyer and Leone Boys Teacher Training Schools and of Feleti School supplied by W.H. Coulter, Superintendent of Education, 1941.

0 ¡¿e Fa*atonu, (Pago Pago: official news organ ofGovt, of Am._SamoaJ7 Feb. 1955, July-Aug.-Sept. 1955, May 1956, July 1956, Aug. 1957, Dec. 1958, Aug. 1959, Sept.1940.

296

APPENDIX E

TABLE IX

APPROXIMATE BUDGET ALLOTMENTS FOR 1954, 1959 AND 1940 DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION OF AMERICAN SAMOA

Budget items 1954 1959 1940Total education budget: $19,425.85 $22,780.00 $22,516.47

Total salaries: 16,678.85 20,889.00 20,952.45Non-Samoans1salaries: 7,116.00 7,428.00 7,428.00

Native Samoans’ salaries: 9,562.85 15,461.00 15,504.45

Non-salaryexpenditures: 2,745.00 1,891.00 1,584.02

Note: The non-Samoan positions with salaries paidin twelve monthly installments are the principal and one teacher each of the Leone Boys School and the Leone Girls School, the principal and the first-year teacher training vclass instructor-supervisor in the Poyer School, and the superintendent of education. Salaries and portions of salaries paid by the Barstow Foundation are not included. These figures deal entirely with budgeted (not necessarily expended) island government funds.

APPENDIX F297

TABLE X

NUMBER OF PUBLIC SCHOOL PAID PERSONNEL AND PUBLIC SCHOOLS— 1933-1941

AMERICAN SAMOAa

1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940....Unit 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 19411. A’asu 1 1 1 1 closed 1 1 12. Afao • • • • • 1 1 13. Afono 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 14. Alao • • • • • • • 15. Alofau • • • • • • • 16. Amanave 1 1 2 2 2 2 1 17. Amouli 3 3 2 2 1 2 1

Amouli-Tula • • 4 • • • • •8. Aoa • • • 1 1 2 2 29. Aoloau 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 110. Aua • • • • 2 2 2 211. AunuTu 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 212. Fagaitua 2 2 3 3 3 3 3 213. Fagamalo 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 114. Fagasä 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 215. Fagatogo • • • • 2 2 2 216. Faleasao • • • • • 1 1 117. Fitiuta 2 2 3 3 2 3 3 318. Iliili 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 219. Laulli ♦ • • • • • 1 lh20. Leone BovsîSamoan 2 2 3 3 3 2 2 3

Leone Boys:non-Samoan 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 D

21. Leone Girls:Samoan 1 1 1 1 2 • 1 1

Leone Girls:non-Samoan 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2

22. Leone Primary • • • • • 2 2 223. Malaeloa • • • • • 1 1 124. Masefau 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 125. Matu’u • • • • • • • 126. Nil’ uuli 3 3 4 3 3 3 3 327. Ofu 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 328. Olosega 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 3Totals carriedforward: 34 36 42 40 43 47 49 49

298TABLE X (CONTINUED)

NUMBER OF PUBLIC SCHOOL PAID PERSONNEL AND PUBLIC SCHOOLS— 1933-1941

AMERICAN SAMOA8-

1933Unit 1934

19341935

19351936

19361937

19371938

19381939

19391940

19401941

Totals broughtforward: 34 36 42 40 43 47 49 49

29. Onenoa • • • • • • • 130. Pago Pago • • • • 2 2 3 331. Pavaiai • • • • • • • 232. Poloa • • • • • 1 1 133. Poyer:Samoan 6 8 9 8 6 7 8 5Poyer:non-Samoan 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 334. Seetaga • • • « • 1 1 135. Swain’s Island • • • • • 1 1 136. Tau 4 4 5 6 6 6 6 6

Tau:non-Samoan supervisor • • • • • Ie Ie •

37. Tula • • • 2 2 2 2 138. Utulei • • • • 2 2 2 239. Vailoatai • • • • • 1 1 140. Vaitogi • • • • • • • 241. Vatia 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1

Supervising teachers • • • • • • • 2Supervising principal 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1Secretary of Education 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

Superintendent of Education 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

Total paid personnel: 50 54 62 62 67 77 82 84Number of Samoanpersonnel: 43 47 55 55 60 69 74 77

Number of non-Samoanpersonnel: 7 7 7 7 7 8 8 7

Number of publicschools at close of each school year: 20 20 20 22 25 34 35 41

299a List of figures on paid personnel and schools,

checked by W.H. Coulter, Superintendent of Education, 1941.b One of the non-Samoans at Leone Boys School became

ill near the close of the year and was replaced by a Samoan teacher. The non-Samoan teacher not the Samoan, was planned for in the budget. Thus, expenditures for that school were less than the amount budgeted.

c Because of poor management by the Samoan principal of Tau School, a non-Samoan temporarily residing near the school on the island of Tau was employed as supervisor at Tau School for a few' months in the latter part each of the two succeeding years indicated.

APPENDIX G300

GLOSSARY OF NATIVE TERMS

(Note: The following definitions of the Samoan termsused in this thesis are those commonly given to these native terms hy the non-Samoans in American Samoa, including the naval personnel and the professional educators from Hawaii. No attempt is being made here to establish a gramatically correct authoritative glossary of native terms.)faa-Samoa

faa-Samoanfaife’au

faife’aus faife’au school

Fita Fita guard

Fita Fita guardsman fono

like Samoa, as opposed to being like Western culturethe adjective form of faa-Samoaa native pastor trained for the dual purpose of acting as the village religious leader and as the village native culture teacherthe plural of faife* authe local organization in which the native Samoan language and culture and certain religious beliefs are taught for the purpose of furthering the work of the church; faife* au schools are sponsored by the various churchesthe designation of the group of native Samoans who have enlisted in the United States Navy with the provision that they will permanently be stationed in American Samoa; they act as naval station policea member of the Fita Fita guardan assembly or meeting for purposes of discussion

fonos the plural of fono

301annual fono

matai matais matai title

pulenu’u

pulenu» us siapo

tabu

taupo

the annual general assembly of Samoan chiefs representing the native people in American Samoa, the heads of the departments of the government of American Samoa, and the Governor of American Samoa; it is advisory in character, having no specific powersone who holds a matai titlethe plural of mataia chief name or title which carries with it certain native responsibilities and privileges in family or larger groupsa village mayor who is a chief elected annually to the position of mayor by the village council of chiefs with the approval of the district governor and the Governor of American Samoathe plural of pulenu»unative cloth made from the inner bark of a treethe state of being forbidden by the native authoritythe ceremonial virgin of a native Samoan group

Jk X!