Educators Gain Tips in Asian Tour

School officials returning from a trip to Taiwan and Hong Kong say they brought back information that will help them to better deal with the growing numbers of Asian students in the San Gabriel Valley and with the resulting racial strife on their campuses.

Officials of the Alhambra and Garvey school districts said they brought back hundreds of Chinese-language textbooks that will help fill a critical shortage of learning materials in the schools’ bilingual programs. They said they also discussed a teacher-exchange program.

“We learned a lot more about these students, how they perceive our educational programs and why they experience such cultural shock in our schools,” said Heber J. Meeks, associate superintendent of the Alhambra School District who accompanied five other school administrators on the fact-finding mission.

At a press conference last week, the educators said their trip provided insights into the educational and social backgrounds of Asian students that could result in more effective programs aimed at assimilating the newcomers.

They also announced that Taiwan officials had agreed to consider a proposal to initiate a teacher-exchange program between local schools districts and Taiwan.

“Our hope is to take that knowledge and find better ways to teach our students about

the differences in culture and how to avoid misunderstanding,” Meeks said.

Asian community leaders and parents have criticized school officials for not doing enough to promote racial understanding and defuse tensions between their children and Anglo and Latino students at three high schools.

Instead of taking preventive measures, critics say, school officials often are caught reacting to tension and occasional violence between student racial groups.

School officials acknowledge racial tension among groups at Mark Keppel, San Gabriel and Alhambra high schools. They say they have tried to find better ways to deal with the student problems that they feel are inevitable, given the cultural and demographic changes that the Asian influx has brought to the San Gabriel Valley.

Since the 1980-81 school year, the Asian student population has grown from 36% to 47% at Alhambra High School, from 30% to more than 53% at Mark Keppel High School, and from 15% to 27% at San Gabriel High School.

“It’s no secret that we have students that we’re not trained to deal with,” said Jean Turner, an administrator with the Alhambra School District. “This trip has given us the impetus to find ways to fit our programs to these children.”

Turner said Taiwan schools, which typically contain upwards of 10,000 students, are much more structured than their American counterparts. She said this structure was accomplished without much bureaucracy; Taiwan schools do not have secretaries or custodians. As a result, students must take on added responsibilities such as cleaning toilets and taking home messages to parents by word of mouth, she said.

Turner said this might partly explain why in this country printed notices to Asian parents, while written in Asian-language characters, do not elicit much response. She said local schools might be more effective if they ask the students to verbally give their parents the messages.

Meeks said the school district will print hundreds of copies of the Chinese-language textbooks. Because Taiwan is a martial-law country, Meeks said Chinese-speaking staff members will read all the books to screen out propaganda.