Lake View Elementary School will host a Hmong American Day Celebration that will highlight the school’s innovative Hmong bilingual program while commemorating 50 years of Hmong people in the United States on Friday, May 16, 5-7 p.m.
Nkaujnou Vang-Vue, the principal at Lake View Elementary School, tells Madison365 that when teaching and serving a diverse multicultural group of students like they have at Lake View, it’s important that their identity and culture are reflected in the daily learning that takes place.
“Lifting up a culture, its people, and their identity goes beyond just one designated day, week, or month. At Lake View, it’s woven into the daily fabric of who we are, how we show up for our students, and what we teach,” Vang-Vue says. “Lake View became home to the only Hmong Heritage Bilingual Program in MMSD and in the state of Wisconsin back in 2017. This is an incredible honor and responsibility to take on as a school community. Creating curriculum and teaching materials is grassroots work for the bilingual staff because existing materials and resources are limited.
“Celebrating Hmong American Day this year is an opportunity for our students to showcase their skills and talent in the language, culture, and art of being Hmong,” she adds.
Lake View, located on Madison’s North Side, is one of two schools in the state (the other being MMSD’s Black Hawk Middle School) to offer a fully immersive Hmong heritage language bilingual program, serving approximately 70 students across kindergarten through fifth grade, according to MMSD.
In the MMSD Hmong bilingual program, native Hmong speakers and native English speakers who have Hmong spoken in their home maintain and develop their first language while acquiring native-like communication and literacy skills in a second language.
(Photo courtesy of MMSD)
“It’s a developmental bilingual education program, meaning that it’s for heritage speakers, so students who grew up speaking Hmong in their household or hearing Hmong spoken. So it’s not open to anyone at Lakeview….like a native English speaker can’t just opt into the program,” Rachel Deterding, the resource coordinator at Lake View Community School, tells Madison365. “It’s for people who have a connection to the culture and history and language. It’s designed specifically to offer a quality bilingual and bicultural education for students who are part of essentially a dying language and culture because of the immigration experience of the Hmong people to the United States.
“It’s a really unique program designed to revitalize Hmong language and history and culture,” she adds.
The Hmong bilingual program supports the district’s efforts to close the academic achievement gap between English learners (ELs) and their peers.
“We are committed to our district’s vision, ensuring that all students are college and career-ready and that the students in the Hmong Heritage Bilingual program experience a truly authentic and culturally relevant learning experience,” Vang-Vue says. “One way to do this is to ensure that our students see themselves authentically in their everyday experience at school. The Hmong language and culture are immersed in the daily lessons that are taught and also woven throughout the walls and culture of Lake View.
“When students see themselves reflected in their everyday experience, they see themselves less as an ‘other’ and more as the norm,” she continues. “This is powerful. The whole school, on a larger scale, engages in learning about the Hmong people and their culture as well as learning simple phrases in Hmong throughout the school year.”
Prior to Friday’s big celebration, Lake View Elementary has been doing special things this week at school to honor Hmong traditions like Hmong Bricks where students created Lego paj ntaub (story cloth) scenes out of Legos during school on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week.
Neng Now will be doing a traditional Hmong instrument performance during school on Thursday and Friday, and will be headlining the celebration on Friday. MMSD’s Advanced Learning Department purchased instruments from him for use in Lake View music classes, and Lake View will house those instruments, which will be available for checkout by other MMSD schools.
“Neng Now will be visiting classes on Thursday and Friday and then we will have this culminating event on Friday evening where we will showcase some of the special learning we’ve been doing and some of the learning they’re doing every day in their Hmong bilingual program,” Deterding says.
The Hmong American Day Celebration will also feature food from The Mekong, a newer Hmong restaurant in McFarland. “We have a really wonderful menu planned. We will have a variety of food, including Hmong egg rolls, noodles, Hmong sausage, chicken laab, and much more,” Deterding says, adding that she is so thankful for all of the community support they have received for this event.
Friday’s Hmong American Day Celebration will not only highlight the Hmong bilingual program at Lake View Elementary and spotlight learning happening across the whole school this week, but will also commemorate 50 years of Hmong people in the United States following the Vietnam War.
“Our students today are third- or fourth-generation children born in the U.S. However, their parents are second- or third-generation children who experienced the Hmong diaspora,” Vang-Vue says. “The staff members who identify as Hmong at Lake View fall into this category. We often talk about and share stories of the tragedies of war, the displacement of people, the search for a new home, and the hope that we have to rebuild. Calling the U.S. home means that the Hmong people are moving through their pain and loss and finding a new normal in a country that continues to struggle with accepting diversity, equity, and inclusion. Despite all of this, the Hmong people continue to be resilient and persevere through life’s adversities.”
Vang-Vue notes that the largest population of Hmong people are located in California, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.
“You’ll notice families moving out of poverty and buying homes, children learning and graduating from high school and college, servant leaders giving back to the community, entrepreneurs opening up shop, educators teaching across K-college, judges making decisions, athletes winning Olympic gold medals, and so much more,” she says. “The Hmong people have rebuilt and we are thriving.”
Hmong American Day Celebration will be held Friday, May 16, 5-7 p.m. at Lake View Elementary School, 1802 Tennyson Lane in Madison.
