1830 saw the first landings of the London Missionary Society, commonly
referred to as the “LMS”, on the Islands of Western Samoa
(Sapapalii, Savaii) and later in American Samoa (Leone, Tutuila)
two years later. The symbolic arrival of these missionaries played
a vital role in the structuring and the development of the Samoan
Islands religiously, culturally, and significantly - the establishment of the foundation for education.
Steadily, the
LMS missionaries instituted "missionschools"
throughout the islands of Samoa launching training schools
for "faifeaus", or pastors, some time around 1835. Educators
within these mission schools or training schools were the "palagi"
missionaries themselves along with island-trainees previously trained from
the islands of Tahiti.
Remarkably to say, education within these training schools had no organization, no formal teaching staff, no administrative structure, and no set curriculum. The initial teachings of the palagi missionaries focused mainly on Christianity and the Samoan way of life. But to be able to understand Christianity required individuals to first be able to “read” (the Bible). Learning the Samoan language, its grammar and structure, the missionaries were then able to define the "Samoan Alphabet" and thus; the creation of a written Samoan Language something of which was non-existent. With the development of the Samoan Language, reading then lead to writing and with the inclusion of simple arithemetic, the basic “3-Rs” was in place. <click here to continue>
Note: Contents of this site is currently being copied and pasted by the asdoe-erate team to the "doe.as" website due to their inability to upload the original contents of this site on their server the past several years. Efforts have been made throughout the years with no success to have it publish on the net. This site is therefore created and paid for by this writer...
