The Northwest enterprise. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1931-1952, 1948-08-04
BY M. NJ. D.

This Is the third installment
of the story Of TheIma Johnson
Streets, painter and dancer, con-
cert tour of the Hawaiian Islands.
Now 90 on with the story
The children work very hard in
many of the schools here. They
prepare and serve the meals in
the school cafeteria and they help
to keep clean the elassrooms and
school yards. Many times. | have
seen very young children, on their
hands and knees, scrubbing the
school floors. Though they spend
a lot OF energy, the people of the
Hawaiian Islands believe in the
conservation of this precious pow
er. This was found to be true in
the schools, from nursery to high
school. Regular rest periods are
held. in which the teachers with
their pupils lie on the floor In
sleeping bags and sleep an hour.
I enjoyed my visits to the rural
schools of these islands. Their
charm is well worth remembering.
These schools are rarely visited,
even by parents, never by visit
ing artist. One of these schools
was the Kapapa school, located on
the Libbey plantation. 1t had
staff of eight and a student body
of one hundred forty. This was a
very small enrolment, when COM
pared with the larger schools with
a student body of 5000. Mr.. Quon,
its principal, told me that most Of
the students in Kipapa had not
been outside that particular area
since they were born, and as
many had never seen or heard a
recital of any kind. The lack of
stimulating contact had made the
children of Kipapa very submits
sive. Seldom did they answer, IL
asked a question. They would just
hang their heads in silence. Be-
fore l left that afternoon, they
were stimulated to such a pitch,
there weren't enough answers for
the questions they asked. These
children were fortunate to have
their school located on this beauti-
full stretch of landscape, with miles
and miles of green plantations,
embedded in their rigid leaves,
were rows upon rows of exotic
pineapple. Two of these delicious
fruits were given me by the stu
dents of Kipapa as token OF
their friendship. I usually received
beautiful lei from the students,
when I appeared at their school
in recital, since 1t was an old Ha-
waiian custom to give fragrant
flower garlands as a token of
friendship. I was happy to see
that these children had original
ideas.
Fern school did not have an
auditorium, but there was a little
white chapel, about mile away
from the school, that the principal
had received permission to use
for my recital. Followed by stu
dent body of 700 brown and yellow
children, | walked up a narrow
rock filled path. On either side
of me walked a small child of 8,
carrying my records and costumes.
When we reached the chapel, there
was qquite a demonstration of well
come by these spirited children.
This heart warming experience
ended by one of the students plac-
ing a kappa cloth at the entrance
of the chapel for me to enter upon.
Inside were children scrubbing up
a hand made curtain for the stage.
When this work was finished, the
children marched in and seated
themselves on the floor. I shall
never forget the faces of those
children of Fern school. They
were faces of Hawaiians and part
Hawaiian, Japanese and Filipino,
Chinese and Korean, Puerto Ri
can and others, but to me, all of
them could have been children
of the great stone age. Some of
them were hard and knotty like
little old people at the age of six,
but were spirited as deer. I knew
Ii would he long time hefOre