Feb 182013
950 Washington Street
Chinatown
This mural sits on the wall of the Commodore Stockton School. The School has a very rich history. Formed in 1859 it was originally called the Chinese School. It was created for chinese only students as they were not allowed in the public schools. In 1885 the school was renamed the Oriental School to allow Koreans and Japanese to attend. In 1924 the school was renamed Commodore Stockton. Alice Fong Yu was its first Chinese teacher and children were banned from speaking Chinese.
The mural depicts the Chinese of San Francisco. It was painted in 1987 by K.S. Chan
*
The mural was funded, in part, by the Mayors Office of Community Development.
It’s hard to believe the things that took place years ago. I guess there has been some progress in the world.
What a history — I wonder if it is a bilingual school now. That’s one scary dragon!
An important if not embarrassing part of our history. This must be one of the earliest murals around. Glad you presented it.
I attended Elementary School at Commodore Stockton from Kindergarden ending with the 6th grade. There were 36 students in our class and our teachers were young Caucasion women who had probably never met a Chinese person before teaching at our school. Half of us students attended Chinese school from 3:30 to 6:30 every day and many others had to work in the “chicken factories” sewing clothing. In my class there were 4 students newly arrived from Hong Kong and did not speak a word of English. There was no ESL programs and our tachers enlisted our help to help these new students. It was considered a priviledge.
We learned to read from the “Ginn” readers with Dick and Jane and their world reflected nothing of our own everyday realities.
My 4th grade teacher even asked poor little Mei Ling Fong” if she could indeed see with her eyes so slanted. True account!!!!
The point of all my rambling is that dispite all our disadvantages there was so discipline problem at our school like there is today, we learned to speak, write and read proper English. Our parents, both working and many recent immegriates respected and stood behind our teachers 100%. The friends that I am still in contact with are all successful in our won way. Mostly we are now Middle Class Americans and some have risen to prominence.
We did not fall victim to lack of programs, lack of identify with our reading books, lack of cultural understanding from our teachers. These were not disadvantages then as they are precieved as today. Our problems today is parents do not take personal responsibllity for their children. Education has become a free baby sitting service and along the way the teachers are supposed to educate. Everything is blamed on lack of funds, poor teacher performance, cultural difficulties and crowded classrooms with poor facilities.
Enough said….please think about what I’ve written and if you agree….pass it on.
Thank you.