KNOWING where you came from can guide you to where you want to be.
But here in the Northern Marianas, Kagman High School social science teacher Ambrose M. Bennett said most of the students only know the basics about their written cultural history that was largely influenced by Spanish culture.
However, during the 300-year Spanish colonization of the islands, the contact wasn’t just between the Northern Marianas and Spain. Mexico also greatly influenced the islands. This was from 1568 to 1815 or during the Spanish galleon trade when the colonizers built a new city at the port of Acapulco.
The Spanish and American-centered interpretation of history is not complete, Bennett believes. And maybe, he says, this is the right time that “marginalized cultures” take center stage.
“Mexico is the ideal country because its has definite historical ties to the Marianas dating back to the galleon trade. A distinction must be made as to what is really an indigenous trait from what is Spanish or American. There is real need for a clear understanding of how the Chamorro and Carolinian cultures relate to the Latin American cultures,” Bennett said in a paper he presented to the U.S. Department of Education when he applied for a Fulbright-Hays scholarship.
Last March 29, Ralph Hines, the department’s director for international education and graduate programs service, informed Bennett that he had been selected as one of the participants in the 2002 Fulbright-Hays Seminars Abroad Program.
The program provides short term study and travel opportunities abroad for qualified U.S. educators in the social sciences and the humanities to improve their understanding and knowledge of the people and culture of another country.
The one-month seminar that will start by mid-June of this year will bring Bennett and other 15 teacher-participants from the U.S. to Mexico.
Bennett, who has a master’s degree in educational leadership from San Diego University, was commended by the 12th Legislature for his contribution to the Public School System’s curriculum through his 1st grade resource book “People and Villages.”
His work was also greatly appreciated by Guam Lt. Gov. Madeleine Z. Bordallo who said it was an “important guiding tool for educating school children in the Marianas.”
But Bennett is not after more feathers in his cap. “I am not promoting myself personally. The feathers are actually for the progress of the education in the CNMI. And I’d like to get more of that for the students,” he said.
Once he returns from Mexico, he will launch a project called “Ready…Set…Go!” This involves the development and printing of pre-school, 2nd and 3rd grade books.
“The books that I’m planning to produce will be culturally oriented. Some of these books will also make pre-schoolers ready and set to go reading when they reach 1st grade,” he said. However, he needs money for the project—at least $112,000. Bennett hopes the Public School System and Gov. Juan N. Babauta would help him realize another dream for the welfare of CNMI students.
