Guampedia Newsletter, May 2021
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Celebrating Our Teachers and Museums As we begin to wrap up this school year we would like to highlight just how much our teachers have done in the effort to educate our people throughout the years amidst war, natural disasters, and even a global pandemic. This month, we celebrate not only our island’s educators, but movements towards education and preservation of our island’s history and culture as well, with National Teachers day on May 4 and International Museums Day on May 18.. Education in the Marianas began centuries before the first Western explorers even set foot on the island. Young men and women were taught all the necessary skills for survival, such as agriculture and fishing, by the elders in their village.
Young men especially were noted to receive education in the Guma’ Uritao. It was here that they were given instructions in traditional seafaring and canoe building. By the time the Marianas was established as a formal Spanish colony, Catholic missions brought priests to the islands, teaching CHamorus/Chamorros the basics in subjects like reading, writing, arithmetic, penmanship, geography, and history. Formal education would continue into the 20th century when America assumed administration over Guam. For the next 100 years, many CHamorus/Chamorros would find themselves drawn to the
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(1) Teacher Gus Duenas and students in 1945 from MARC/NARA. (2) Teacher Ana F. Duenas and students in 1945 from MARC/NARA. (3) First Guam Museum from Bert Unpingco. (4) Dr. Raulerson and graduates from UOG. (5) Current Guam Museum
In 1926 the Guam Teachers Association, under the direction of Ramon Sablan, reached out to island residents to collect artifacts and antiques for the first Guam museum. Thanks to this initiative by our local educators, in 1932, the first Guam museum officially opened its doors to the public in a small building in the Plaza de Espana in Hagåtña. Eighty-nine years later, the presence of a Guam museum
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continues through the Senator Antonio M. Palomo Museum and Education Facility, also in Hagåtña. The current Guam museum houses 250,000 teaching profession. Among unique artifacts, documents, these forerunners in local and collections in addition to education were individuals like a permanent exhibition and Agueda Iglesias Johnston, changing gallery. Amidst the the first CHamoru principal of Guam’s first Junior High School restrictions of the COVID19 pandemic, Guampedia wants and High School, or Clotilde to help bring the museum Castro Gould, who advocated experience into your home for the creation of a CHamoru/ through our special selection Chamorro studies department on the Guam Museum. In in the Guam Department of Education. Click here to explore this section you can find this history through our 27 entries an overview of the history on education and 24 biographies of the museum, Guam museum publications, and a of local educators. comprehensive teacher’s guide. Within the island’s history is a legacy of education dedicated You can also find a number of fun printable activities for to the recording, teaching, and children of all ages.Click here showcasing of the CHamoru/ to view our page on the Guam Chamorro people’s journey. Museum!
