Coming of Age in Saipan,CNMI and in Reading, Penna.

Part II

By Anthony Pellegrino

Today a youth in the CNMI is forced to make major decisions many of which he does not fully comprehend. His once tranquil islands have become overrun by tourists with many diverse cultures. The economy is dominated by foreign investors who require many alien workers to produce mass commodities. These alien workers bring their own culture. Small shops are in control by outsiders with different cultures. Life has changed from being in control of one’s destiny and familiarity to one of strangeness in one’s own land.

New values and new customs must be learned, new political structures must be adhered to, new work ethics must be cultivated. Youth’s language is confusing him because one group insists that he maintain his language of origin while another group prods him to speak differently. The familiar props on which he could depend upon have been weakened or removed.

The family, what was once the most cohesive form of protection for youth, is now fast dissipating. Respect for the elderly is becoming more lip service than actual practice. Even the clan is now a thing of the past. Villages no longer have the unique characteristics they once held. Too many outsiders reside in them causing the loss of identity. In summary, youth feels alienated in his own territory. So how does all this affect the youth in the classroom?

If we are to educate our youth, we must grasp the mass transformation that they are undergoing. As important it is to understand American culture, we must also understand Chamorro and Carolinian cultures. After we understand the difference between the two cultures, we can make progress in the new life that the youth are thrust into. We will realize the emotional and mental travail youth feels.To simply impose new concepts and foreign cultures on them without understanding the differences will lead to mass failure as we are experiencing today in our school system.

Poor academic performance and even dropping out have less to do with innate ability than with the young person’s perception that staying in school and studying hard have a positive outcome. Once assured that there is a payoff, students will improve their academic performance. We must look at the structure of opportunity to understand individual behavior. Many subcultural attitudes and values tend to undermine academic success. The few who can break their ties to the community will be the ones to succeed academically-but at great personal loss. Group ties will invariably try to pull them down.

Each year we graduate almost three hundred students from our high schools. Yet about only 20% go to college.Tlle 1995 census shows that about 8.6% of the residents in the CNMI have earned a college degree. I wonder if the above discussion doesn’t help to explain the low percentage of our youth who desire to continue their studies.

We must stop insisting that youth be carbon copies of their American counterparts unless we are willing to junk most of the culture that we insist they preserve. The educational system has not taken these factors into account. We insist that the CNMI become a “little America in the Pacific.” This is not bad if we undertake innovative methods required to help youth instead of frustrating them. We must find ways to motivate youth and show them that successful schooling does payoff.

Reading, Pennsylvania is a long way and a long time off for me but the similar experience is still alive for the youth in the CNMI. Hopefully they will successfully meet the challenges. The future is theirs if we show them the path.