I am the moon.

The moon are my people.

We used to live at large.

Well, it is not very cold, but cool.

We can climb a tree.

We can play with a big child.

There is a big fight.

My dad died.

My grandfather died.

My uncle died.

My cousin's father died.

All those people died.

They are helping all the people in the back.

The people in the front got away.

We went and followed some of my cousins.

Many, many people followed.

We crossed the river.

No one was going to help my family cross the river, but my cousin helped us.

We flew in an airplane.

We came right here to America and St. Paul.

America gave us money to buy fruit.

My cousin came here too.

Now I am happy.

I like learning English in school.

I like snow in the winter.

The people are nice.

I am proud that we are free.

I am proud that my dad helped all people.

I will now forget all my cousins.

Refugee children like Samoan Hur have lived through pain and sorrow.

With the help of effective school programs such as those in St. Paul, Minnesota, they can write about their pain in English and begin the process of adjustment.

Soon their drawings and games reflect American culture.

They begin to fit in.

Hmong parents are pleased that their children are learning English, but they are also concerned.

Will they forget their roots, continue to respect their parents, want to help their community?

(children singing) The Twin Cities have been home to Hmong families since 1975 when they were forced to flee from their mountain villages in Laos.

Today, about 9,000 Hmong live there, one of the largest concentrations in the U.S.

The St. Paul schools have had increasing numbers of Hmong children coming to school speaking Hmong.

The first students that we had in our LEP program were quite different than the refugee students in that they had been in schools and were primarily undergoing an education process in their native land.

When the refugees came, we had a new type of student.

For the most part, the Hmong student had not been in school and had no formal education.

Neither had their parents.

Hmong leaders such as Dr. Yang Dao are aware of the critical role education will play in the adjustment of their people to the United States.

Since 1975, approximately 60,000 Hmong have come to the United States as refugees.

It is estimated that 50 percent are children and young adults from 5 to 25 years old.

How will these children and youth live in the future?

The future depends to a great extent on what we are able to do for them today.

In this regard, education plays an essential role.

How can the American school help the Hmong children and youth?

They can provide them with an educational environment that creates among them a feeling of brotherhood where whites, blacks, Hispanics, and Hmong will learn to know each other better, to appreciate each other more, and to increasingly help one another.

Such a climate of mutual respect will certainly contribute to the morale of the Hmong students and help them study more successfully.

In addition, it is essential for the teacher to understand the Hmong students.

They must be very patient in dealing with them.

If the young Hmong have difficulties in their studies, it is not because they are less bright than the other students.

It is, in general, because they do not understand English well.

For this reason, I believe it is indispensable to adopt programs of ESL, English as a Second Language, to the needs of the Hmong children.

ESL centers have been set up throughout the St. Paul district to provide initial assessment of the language ability of the students and to help them to learn English and fit into a school setting.

Both the availability of space and desegregation were important considerations.

Students were later transferred to neighborhood schools.

We were in a period of declining enrollment, so we did have space available in our schools, but I think even more important than that was the fact that we were undergoing school desegregation.

And so the decision to place the centers where St. Paul did place them was really related to trying to take a look at some long-range effects that could come related to school desegregation.

I believe that the decision to place the centers in a number of schools strategically did, in a way, influence some housing patterns that we're seeing today.

Julianne Kvalbein has been working with the ESL program since 1977.

She recalls what it was like when large numbers of Hmong students started coming to the Highland Park ESL Center.

And before I came in, the halls were just full of people out here.

And, you know, 30, 40 people just standing around or sitting around the hallways.

And we just dug right in and tried to organize what we could and have people come back.

And it was -- we were up to 35 students a day registering at that time.

One time we had, I think it was, eight or ten people registering one little child because -- well, I came in, I said, "Well, how many students are there in this group?"

"Oh, just one."

I said, "Well, who is everybody?"

"Well, there was the mother who came along because she had to sign papers.

And then there was one guy who had to come along because he knew where it was.

And then another one was along because he had to drive, but he didn't know where it was.

And then there was a grandmother along and quite a few other people who just wanted to see what it was like.

So we just had a big party here for one student."

Could you describe the language assessment process?

Usually then, when they're brand new, it's just a matter of checklist.

It's how many letters they know and how many numbers and can they write their name and so forth.

But by the time they leave, it's a lot more complex.

And there we go.

Teachers recommend the students to be leaving, and they also have a mainstreamed, regular classroom for a while.

And that teacher will then also recommend what -- if they think they are ready to go.

And then we do a little final assessment on them, an oral interview and so forth.

But they also have a long checklist that they have to have covered in the classroom before leaving.

The thing that I'm most proud of is that I know, and I think the Hmong community and the refugee community in general knows, that St. Paul is committed to an equal educational opportunity for all of its children, and that they will go to great lengths to provide that.

There were times, in terms of a large transportation program that we had, that kids were lost, in a way.

We had a bus driver who picked up a child in the morning, and on the return trip, the child refused to get off.

He said, "I don't live here."

Of course, the bus driver was panicking.

"What do you mean you don't live here?"

And the child is limited English proficient, okay?

The child was right.

He didn't live there.

He knew that his parents had moved that afternoon.

We didn't know that his parents had moved that afternoon.

And so, finding where they moved to became a problem, because the child had no idea.

There were a number of instances like that where my only hope was that if I had to take the child home and return him to school the next day, that he wouldn't panic.

We have native language speakers in our program.

We have bilingual teachers.

They perhaps were the hardest people to identify.

Not perhaps, definitely they were.

What I ended up having to do is go to the leadership of the Lao Mung Family Association and express to them what the district's desire was, to educate their children to the best possible means available.

Part of that meant that we had to have the best possible resources.

And so, my simple question to them is, "If you want the best, you have to tell me where that is."

And it ended up being a college graduate in Honolulu, Hawaii.

It ended up being a paint manufacturer individual working in Indiana, somebody who was working as an order picker in Chicago, Illinois, somebody who was working, you know, as a laborer in Kentucky.

They were able to identify those individuals and said, "Here's the person.

He's been a teacher in our country.

He's been educated.

These are the phone numbers.

You know, call them.

We have already made contact with them."

Chang Vang is Education Director of the Lao Family Association and father of two young children.

He is concerned that they may become Americanized too rapidly.

Well, I personally feel that we are not ready to be that Americanized.

And that's why I think that I like my children to, excuse me, to remember that they are refugees from Indochina and they are also a, you know, a clan of Hmong or something like that.

So, I don't give them their name.

And I'm not sure in the future they might want to change that or not, but I now give them Hmong name, yeah, which is much easier for my parents to call them and, you know, for other older people to call them.

In the beginning, I tried to speak Hmong to them because I don't want them to, you know, lose any of their Hmong spoken language.

I haven't teach them any Hmong written language yet and not even Laotian script.

So, I'd like them to first start with English and then speak the language in Hmong and then later on they could probably go back and write some of the Hmong language.

The area I've been working in has to do with language, language learning and adaptations.

And, of course, it's been a major problem for the Hmong because their language is very different from English.

They typically have had not, have not had a great deal of education and haven't learned to read and write their own language.

And so, for the adults, it's been very difficult to learn English sufficiently to get along in society and to get and keep a job.

And then you have the young people and if they're young enough, they learn English quite easily relative to their parents.

They may have trouble in school, but they're rapidly learning English and they may be ahead of their parents and so you have different situations where the children are maybe carrying on some of the responsibilities that parents would ordinarily take on.

They have responsibilities at home for helping with the shopping and helping with family business and things like that.

And there are sometimes conflicts that arise because of the faster adaptation of the children to the society than is taking place on the part of their parents.

Teaching the Hmong children to read, write and speak English is not enough to guarantee them a happy life.

It will also be valuable to devote at least an hour per week to teaching them the language, cultures and tradition of the Hmong so that the Hmong youth are not completely cut off from their roots.

They need to know where they came from and to what culture they belong in.

Just as a tree torn from its roots and replanted cannot survive, so the child cannot truly blossom without the ability to relate to its sources, to its origin.

Molly, a sixth grader, fits in well with her American neighbors but is forgetting her language and knows very little about her culture.

Now Molly's father, Tong, is going to move the family to a Hmong cooperative farm in order to help older Hmongs return to farming and feel useful.

How do you feel moving to the farm?

Sometimes I'm excited, sometimes I'm not, because I like living here.

You've lived here most of your life, haven't you?

In the city, at least, in St. Paul.

And you have many American friends, do you?

Yeah.

Do you speak Hmong at all when you're outside of your house?

Well, when I'm over at my cousin's or something, yeah.

But when I'm in school and everything, I don't.

Do you know about Hmong culture?

Not really.

Well, I know some, but... How do you learn about the culture?

Well, I hear my mom and my dad talk about it and... What do you speak to your mom and dad at home?

English and Hmong mixed together.

Uh-huh.

And do you have a problem sometimes finding the right word?

Yeah.

Like, a word in English, I want to say it in Hmong, because my mom and dad, they won't understand.

But then, I don't know the meaning, so... How do you feel about her speaking both Hmong and English together?

I think if she can try her best to learn both languages, it will help very much for her future, too.

Because if she only speak English only, and she cannot speak Hmong, so that's good for another thing, but it's not good for the Hmong, you know.

So she cannot help in the Hmong, that meaning, you know, if she speak English only.

Uh-huh.

How do you feel about that?

Well, like, when we go to live on the farm, I'll learn English, too.

But when I get home, I'll be mostly talking Hmong.

And then I lose my English.

You think you'll only speak Hmong in school?

No, I'll be speaking English.

Because it's sort of embarrassing when you're talking in Hmong and kids are listening to you.

Why is it embarrassing?

Well, because you're different from them, you know.

I don't know.

Well, my mom and dad, they don't really like the idea of me playing, you know, soccer.

And, well, I do that every single day when I get home.

Uh-huh.

Why don't they like it?

I think that she mean she don't, we don't like the idea that she go play a lot, and she shouldn't be at home and helping with at home, something like that.

Yes, at times.

Mostly, she complain about it.

I asking her a couple times, say, don't go play a lot and stay home, helping your mom to do something, dishes, something like that.

She say, why I just be in jail all the time?

She say she stay home so that doesn't let her stay outside.

That means she stay in jail all the time.

They learn very fast, and they adjust just like American kids.

And many times, if the parent can't learn American culture, they may have a lot of conflict with the kids because the parent want to keep the tradition, and the kids kind of jumping off, you know, the line.

They want to be Americanized.

And so they don't know how to respect the parent as parent.

They don't know how to respect the older one as the older one, you know.

They don't have that kind of concept.

I think that the refugees themselves, the adult refugees, are troubled to the degree that parental authority may be shaken.

But I think the reason that they came to the United States was their children.

And therefore, I can see certain delight also in at the same time they have their fears.

So we are delighted to hear from schools that their children, that the children that they have who are Southeast Asian or other refugee children are model children.

My favorite person is my cousin because -- I love them.

I do.

They're very lovely children.

Children are lovely.

They want to learn.

They're willing to learn.

And they'll do anything.

Their main goal is to learn as much as they can.

And they make it very easy for you, really, because they're so willing.

It's not hard to work with them.

There are challenges, but they're minimal.

They're kids and they want to learn.

And that's what we want to do is to teach them.

We have two ed assistants that come in different times during the week.

And they take small groups of children and work on skills that need to be worked on and language.

And during the language part, they may just discuss feelings.

And we have one that's Hmong, and he will take the children and he will work with them then in English and in Hmong.

And it kind of helps them feel a lot more comfortable in being able to express themselves.

We feel that it is important for the child to keep contact with his language and continue to use his native language, but at the same time developing proficiency in English as well.

How much of the day are they in the classroom?

It varies depending upon the student.

Some of them come in, well, they usually start coming in on a subject like social studies, spelling, certainly oftentimes math, art.

Reading is usually the last because often they're below grade level in reading regardless of the grade.

It has to be cooperative between the classroom teacher and the TESOL teacher.

It has to be with the kid's best interest, and it's not always easy.

Sometimes you have too many students and you have to sit down and say, "How much can I deal with?"

And the TESOL teacher and the regular classroom teacher have to be flexible.

It absolutely must be.

If you're pushing against each other, it's not going to work.

The attitudes of teachers and parents are critical for setting a climate of acceptance within the school and community.

Four years ago when the center was opened, the building was in danger of being closed because of the small population.

At that point, everything was real positive about having a TESOL center.

Two years later, parents were being concerned about were their children getting enough time, were we bringing the averages down, the reading averages, the scores that the neighborhood is concerned with.

We had a teacher come into the building for a probably four to six month period who organized volunteers in the area, neighborhood people who started working with these students as well as other students who were having difficulties in reading and language skills.

It has really done a marvelous turnaround.

Have there been changes in the attitudes of the teachers in the home schools, in the neighborhood schools?

It was quite rough in the beginning for the first students.

The teachers were not always receptive and they were just threatened because they didn't know what to do with them.

They thought they should speak perfect English by the time they left here.

And of course, that would be segregating them way too long, especially considering some of them who might be 10 or 12 years old who had never been to school before.

There's no way you can bring them up to grade level in a program in a short time.

And you want them mainstreamed as soon as possible.

Well, as an ESL teacher, I think that they have to learn a language, learn English, so they can be proficient enough so that they can successfully function in their home schools.

So I have to teach academic skills as well.

And the second area is I want to promote their cultural awareness.

There are a lot of differences in terms of cultural values and behaviors that go with.

And third item I see, I want to promote their self-esteem because they are learning a language.

So they sometimes feel frustrated and sometimes feel very inferior just because they are not fluent in English yet.

How do you promote their self-esteem?

Well, as a specific activity, each day, each child is assigned as a special person.

So everybody has an equal chance to feel special.

I am special.

I'm special.

Good.

You can go in.

I'm finished.

Hello.

Hello.

Where's special person?

I don't know.

Where's special person?

Here I am.

Shake hands everybody.

Hello, special person.

Hello, special person.

In the afternoon after recess, I have small groups or individualized lessons for math skills.

And after that, I have a language development area for an hour.

Developing a curriculum suitable for Hmong students as they progress into their home schools requires central office planning.

There was a period in the first period of this project that we really just were going day to day.

However, it became very apparent to us that we needed to do some careful curriculum development.

And so we finally were able to put together a team that developed what we felt was a very good curriculum in the area of reading as well as in the area of mathematics.

And following that, we then launched upon a training program and we made certain that all of our ESL staff was involved in this training.

And I think that that did several things.

First of all, it helped us put together a program that was instructionally sound, had continuity, but I think that it also built a lot of understanding, a lot of appreciation on the part of our staff who were trained.

And since there were probably conservatively 25, 30 buildings involved, as each of those persons went back to their building, they carried with them not only some information about math and reading, but also learned a great deal about the program because all of the in-service training was done during the day right in actual classrooms so that we could -- so those who were being trained could apply what they'd seen happening in classrooms.

That's very, very good.

If you had to do it all over again, given the fact that you've done it and you know some of the difficulties, some of the challenges, some of the problems that you've solved, what might you do different?

I probably wouldn't do anything too much that was different.

I think that we simply tried to look at the influx of the refugee students as an opportunity and a challenge and that, in essence, these students needed an education that ultimately our desire was that they would remain in St. Paul, would become a part of our community, and be contributing citizens in the city.

So I think there was a positive attitude and a desire to turn a problem into an opportunity.

[Speaking in Chinese] Who will be the beneficiary of all this?

First, as far as the United States is concerned, it is clear that today the Hmong children cannot make any contribution to American society.

But if they can be helped immediately, they can in the future participate effectively in the development of the countries and avoid becoming a burden on the states.

This will also be beneficial to the family.

The well-educated Hmong child will be forever grateful to his or her parents, and he or she can help them to better understand life in the United States and to face the future with confidence.

[Speaking in Chinese] [Children playing] [Speaking in Chinese] [End of Audio]