The No Child Left Behind Act calls for a highly qualified teacher in every public education classroom to improve student performance in math and English. The state of Hawai’i recently was able to make an exception to this rule for what is known as the “kupuna program,” a program that brings Native Hawaiian elders into classrooms for an afternoon a week to share broad ranges of Hawaiian culture, from hula to language, from chants to artistry.

These kupuna are our community elders and our family leaders. They are our grandmothers and our grandfathers. Their qualifications to educate are a lifetime of experience and being raised in a previously dwindling culture.

But, in the Department of Education definition, “highly qualified” means having a college degree. The Hawai’i Department of Education had originally sought a waiver to protect the role that our kupuna have had in public education, which was luckily not needed. Instead, U.S. education officials have said that individual states are allowed to maintain their own flexibility for innovative programs. President Bush even says that education is not only a national priority but definitely is a “local responsibility.” This is great news to native communities.

In the Native Hawaiian community, kupuna are the ultimate source of knowledge. Not all knowledge is gained through formal education, and it is through our elders that we learn some of the most important life lessons. Our kupuna are irreplaceable, and they are the first and foremost resource for learning and perpetuating our culture.

The U.S. Department of Education letting the State of Hawai’i Superintendent Patricia Hanamo to independently decide on the program’s existence is on one hand extremely great news. Before that, our community was feeling confused and frustrated.

How dare someone tell our elders they are unqualified? First of all, these elders are often in their seventies. While education is always important, health factors definitely prevent our kupuna from heading back to college for “appropriate” degrees.

There is no substitute for what they have learned in their lives, and a college education would only undermine what they already know. Many times, these kupuna have written the book on many traditional aspects of our culture — they have essentially been the teachers of other educators. While our kupuna are indeed the premier source of cultural knowledge in our communities, they refuse to be acknowledged as experts. They are mere students in a lifelong learning process, yet they are the ultimate learning source. So needless to say, allowing our kupuna to stay in our classrooms is a thrill, but also a reparation to earlier insult.

This is not only great news for the Native Hawaiian community, but is also good news for many native communities throughout the United States, especially in Alaska. Many native communities in Alaska live in extremely rural surroundings commonly nicknamed “the bush.” These removed surroundings are usually only accessible by air or boat and prevents many educators from entering those areas. Educators have instead come from the communities and have allowed some communities, such as Atka, Alaska to dramatically educate the youth in the language and culture, to the point where an entire community is now fluent and familiar with a once little-remembered tradition.

The existence of these programs are not only for educational purposes, but also for cultural expansion with both Native and non-Native student bodies and to improve the standard of living in Native communities.

A college education requirement would have destroyed what was unique about these programs, which was an intergenerational bond formed with students and the kupuna. There is also cultural symbolism therein, since before formal education was set up, it was your own kupuna who would teach you traditions and life skills.

The ability to continue on these programs is a success to all native communities as it is a preservation of our culture and another portion of our day-to-day struggle to increase native rights.

These struggles and their inherent goals have long been in the mindset of Native Hawaiians and all native communities throughout the United States. However, to have these recognized by the U.S. government is a success within itself by keeping communities positive about the future accomplishments to come.