Waipahu: An Historical Profile of Education and Community
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1983-05
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Abstract
This study covers the history of Waipahu, O'ahu, Hawai'i, from 1897, when Oahu Sugar Company (OSC) built a mill there, to 1982. It outlines the process by which separate ethnic housing camps developed into a single general-purpose community by 1920 and maintained that community until 1959. New residents split post-1959 Waipahu into numerous special-purpose communities.
Forces of polarization and integration have worked to both pull the community together and put elements of it in opposition to each other. A major force of integration was the public schools, which both represented the self-serving purposes of OSC and taught the democratic philosophies that helped the immigrants reach the goals that enabled them to confront the plantation. The purpose of this study is to examine the interaction of the three major forces in Waipahu--mill, community, and schools. The primary method of investigation was interviews with the people in Waipahu, supplemented with articles, videotaped interviews, books, government documents, and unpublished sources. The data obtained includes recollections of the informants, cross-checked with each other and validated where possible with published materials and records.
From 1897 to 1920, polarization was dominant in the community. OSC situated the itmnigrants in ethnic camps to keep them separate to prevent challenge to the plantation's power. The major polarizing influences of the period were these camps, different languages and heritages, and the goal of many innnigrants to return home. Forces of integration included an emerging pidgin English for communication and similar experiences of the present, such as work, housing, and the plantation store. A group of independent stores formed the nucleus of the emerging town center. The public schools, Waipahu School (1899) and August Ahrens (1916), emphasized Americanization while bringing the younger generation together, forming a bridge to the future and to community. The language schools formed a bridge to the past. Two abortive strikes, in 1909 and 1920, emphasized mill-laborer polarization while beginning to unite the immigrants.
From 1920 to 1941, the integrating influences of school, a comnon language (English), a clear town center, and identification with a common work group coalesced into a traditional general-purpose community. The integrative community made possible clear lines of polarization between the immigrant workers and the mill, and that oolarization reinforced the integration. Waipahu High School expanded schooling to the twelfth grade. Serving the needs of OSC, Waipahu High emphasized vocational agriculture and domestic science, while the elementary schools still stressed Americanization. An end to immigration and an increase in mechanization in the 1930's stabilized the connnunity population as well as giving a feeling of permanence to the town center.
From 1941 to 1959, integrative forces were dominant. However, World War II added a new dimension of interaction with the larger society, the Territory of Hawai'i. After World War II, mill-laborer polarization manifested in a successful move to unionization, the 1954 Democratic Party victory, and two strikes. These actions and a thriving town with a stable population kept the conmnmity integrated. The schools expanded to include kindergarten, yet post-War enrollment dropped. Education remained primarily traditi.onal, and the high school's continued emphasis on vocational agriculture underlined the mill-school relationship.
In 1959, Statehood and the 707 jet ushered in modern Hawai'i. In Waipahu, new subdivisions brought an influx of residents who formed a major polarizing element as the general-purpose commmity became submerged in population which increased by 200%. Schooling expanded--a third elementary school, Honowai, and Waipahu Intermediate School--to handle the increased enrollment. Vocational agriculture was phased out as the mill-school relationship disappeared, but multicultural education, English as a Second Language for the new immigrants, special motivation classes, and other modern innovations addressed the problems of a new polarizing multiplication of special-purpose communities. Leeward Cormnunity College (freshman-sophomore) and West O'ahu College (junior-senior) have expanded education further upward.
Today, the general-purpose connnunity remains as a core surrounded by many special-purpose communities.
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Education -- Hawaii -- Waipahu -- History, Waipahu (Hawaii) -- History, Oahu Sugar Company
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xviii, 313 leaves, bound : maps ; 29 cm
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