Speech Festival on American Samoa
28March, Friday
Gaby, Sami and Judy attended the Secondary Annual Speech Festival, an event that drew several hundred island students, parents and educators to Tafuna High School. This is an annual event, but last year it was canceled so the enthusiasm had built and many welcomed the event. The Speech Festival is an event sponsored by the Department of Education, Office of Curriculum, Instruction & Accountability, and the English Departments. Students compete against each other for the coveted rank of best school performance including speeches and group acting and recitations. The theme was appropriately named, "All the World's A Stage."
We missed the History Festival last January, which we heard, was a fabulous opportunity to hear High School Students read their original historical research work, so we didn't want to miss another High School local public event. We rode forty-five minute by bus to reach the school, which is on the east side of the island from the anchorage.
All of the participants attend one of the ten High Schools on the island: six public schools and four private schools. Participating schools included: South Pacific Academy, Fagaitua, Leone, Nu'uuli Vocational Technical High School, Samoana, Kanana Fou, Faasao Marist High, Manu'a High School. Iakina Seventh Day Adventist Academy and Tafuna High School. Gaby and Sami know students attending the private school, South Pacific Academy, so they were able to visit with them after their performances, which was fun for them.
Present for the festival's opening ceremony were the Governor, Department of Education and an island Reverend who blessed the gathering with words of prayer. It seems that the blessing of events on the island is as normal as reciting the Pledge of Allegiance on the mainland. There is no separation of state and God in the school system.
Students read poetry, recited monologues, presented original speeches, acted out humorous, dramatic, duals and groups of students spoke traditional choral recitations of "the Raven" by Edgar Allen Poe, as well as choral recitation of contemporary works. This one-day event was a jam-packed schedule with the performances distributed in the Gymnasium, Music Room, Library, and other campus facilities. It was impossible for us to see all performances. In fact, we were sorely disappointed that we were only able to see all of the Dual Acting performances and a few of the traditional and contemporary Choral recitations.
What we saw was impressive. The articulate students were well prepared and projected their material well. They were judged by panels of professionals from all sectors of the community, including the Community College, Territorial Library, Department of Education, and English Departments. Each of the judges had to assess the performance on merit, structure, costume, and the student's ability to stay within the allocated time and parameters.
In the group traditional choral readings of "the Raven" all the students were dressed in black, head to toe, as they recited the poem. They didn't just stand on the stage like frigid souls, but they articulated the poem with dramatic head turns and body gestures to their side and front. Certainly maintained our interest.
Our favorite performance was by two Tafuna High School students, Rani Anyandan and Anthony Toti who acted out a skit called "Anniversary". They portrayed a couple celebrating their first wedding anniversary at the dinner table. The meal starts well with many flowery and complimentary remarks and then begins to degrade over a discussion about "the garbage". They portrayed the common events of a marriage when a simple benign matter, like taking out the garbage, becomes a big deal and discussion with much heat and emotion. Although under seventeen years old, these two students reflected the life of "an old married couple" very well and had the audience in laughter throughout their performance. They won best 'dual' performance for their efforts.
Had we known better, we would have enjoyed listening to the Original Speeches as the topics being addressed were intriguing and thoughtful, including titles like: "What Is a Man?", "Responsibility", "Success through Education", "Minimum Wage In American Samoa", "Human Values", "Knowing Who You Are", and "War Must End Now". The titles alone reveal a thoughtfulness among these teens that was refreshing and commendable.
The school that took the most awards in the categories was Knana Fou High School. The school won many awards, but the performance that seemed to be the most memorable was their dramatic performance of a scene from the Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein play, The King & I, the scene was "Small House of Uncle Thomas. All of the students wore white masks and dressed in shiny satin silk costumes reflective of old Siam. Although many consider this a 'racist' and politically incorrect portrayal of Asians, it remains a popular musical among High School students.
As the day came to an end, I overheard teachers in the audience wondering who was the drama teacher at Knana Fou High School. I could hear the healthy sense of pride and the competitive spirit that these teachers felt for their students and their reflective speculating on how they might do better with their students next year.
In reflection, the Speech Festival was a perfect way to view Samoan students and their abilities to perform. The Samoan culture traditionally is based on oral and kinetic traditions of storytelling, dancing, singing and performing for groups. In addition, the Samoan culture is based on the village and community efforts, so performances as we saw them, especially in the choral recitations, dramatic and dual acting performance, where collaborative and cooperative efforts. It appears to us that the Samoan society learns best in-group efforts and endeavors. Rewarding this form of oral learning and group-based education reinforces many aspects of the culture and fosters learning in a viable way rather than our traditional Western educational structure which is based on the individual's solo performance. Does our "individual based testing standards" and our "no child left behind" educational model for literacy, excludes education by group participation and oral performance?
We walked away richer for having attended the Speech Festival and having gained greater respects for the American Samoan educational system that produced these performers. Most of these students will graduate from High School and that is a BIG DEAL on this island where very few will go abroad to college, a few more will attend the Community College but most will only graduate from High School to get below minimum wage jobs. The promises of higher prospects exist, but not without cultural tolerance and a strong commitment to bridge the 3,000-year-old Samoan cultural ways for learning with the USA educational system and structure.