Temples and Teachers
Meet my Khmer teachers, Djekun Thach Soeur and Djekun Sovann, 
both Theraveda Buddhist monks running a Cambodian Buddhist temple in the Asian district of Denver, Colorado. The temple is a converted row house on an inner city block behind a housing project, serving the spiritual and community needs of Denver’s small Cambodian refugee/immigrant community. As such, the monks host an array of festivals to draw together the community on significant days of the Buddhist calendar, conveniently shifted to the nearest Sunday to accommodate American work schedules. In keeping with Cambodian tradition, the monks serve the dual role of educators and fundraisers. I feel a remarkable kinship with these saffron cloaked gentlemen.
The monks offer Khmer language classes for the community. My husband and I are the only ones who show up regularly. For months I’ve been trying to master the outrageous phonic combinations of 36 consonants and 23 vowels. Progress is slow but steady.
On a recent Sunday afternoon, class was delayed by the Monk Robe festival, 200 community members turned out to honor the monks with gifts of new robes, incense, candles, and the other necessities of running a temple. The chanting of prayers and parade of goods around the temple grounds where followed by a typical Cambodian feast of spiced coconut milk dishes, exotic veges and rice noodles - a spread to put any of the Asian Buffets on Federal Avenue to shame.
Most impressive was the amount of money raised, $11,000 dollars toward capital improvements. Wow. When you consider the limited resources of an immigrant community, there is clearly a strong cultural current from the old country at work here. It got me thinking. Perhaps we can apply this model to the sustainability program at the Grady Grossman School?
For instance, we have sent a food stipend to our teachers every month for 5 years in an effort to stop teacher absenteeism. We also built them a 4 room house, so they wouldn’t have to sleep on the cement floor of the school. This support has worked tremendously well in keeping our teachers accountable to our student’s academic progress. But, admittedly, it is an inefficient use of funds. The logistics of getting the food to them, without it being pilfered, is costly. One the of key points of our sustainability plan is to support teachers.
In the old days, before the French Protectorate birthed a government school system, temples served as the main educational institutions. Even the poorest Cambodian communities are accustomed to supporting their monks through charitable giving. And school directors are often judged by how “active” they are at raising funds from the community for capital improvements. Could we encourage this idea to support teachers? Local control is the foundation of a sustainable system. We have over 485 families in Chrauk Tiek, if each one donated a condensed milk can worth of rice per month, would that keep the teachers fed?
Stay tuned to hear how this idea is received. I’ll be there in two weeks.
