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Part 3 of 3: Pedagogy in the Hawai'ian Islands feat. Hanahau‘oli School
21 Plays1 year ago
In this incredible final installment of his exploration of the pedagogy of the Hawaiian Islands, Noah Ranz-Lind talks to educators and students at Hanahau‘oli School, a progressive K-6 school in Honolulu. Hanahau‘oli School promises its students an "intimate and nurturing learning community supports connections between home and school and the world, respecting and celebrating the uniqueness of the Hanahau‘oli child while appreciating the interconnectedness that defines our learning ‘ohana. Grounded in tradition yet embracing of innovation, we perpetuate joyous work, committed to being a resource and symbol of learning’s potential." And you will hear ample evidence of the joyous work at hand in this episode!
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Transcript
Introduction and Sponsors
00:00:10
Speaker
Aloha and welcome to episode three in a three-part series on pedagogy in the Hawaiian Islands.
00:00:16
Speaker
My name is Noah Ranslund and I am a student from the University of Massachusetts Amherst working as a content strategist here at the Human Restoration Project.
00:00:24
Speaker
Before we get started, I wanted to let you know that this is brought to you by our supporters, three of whom are Brian Orem, Julia Rosemary Valenti, and Matthew Thomas Fahey.
00:00:33
Speaker
Mahalo Nui for your ongoing support.
00:00:35
Speaker
You can learn more about the Human Restoration Project on our website, or find us on x slash Twitter, Instagram, or YouTube.
Summer Research and Progressive Education
00:00:54
Speaker
Over the summer, Chris had put me in contact with Dr. Amber Strong Makayao, a specialist at the University of Hawaii at Manoa College of Education Institute for Teacher Education Secondary Program, and the head of professional development at the Hana Haoli School in Honolulu.
00:01:09
Speaker
She invited me to come visit the school, and that experience guided my research and focus during the summer project.
00:01:14
Speaker
I visited the school multiple times over the course of the summer, spending time digging through their archives and exploring various different aspects of life at Hana Haolis.
00:01:23
Speaker
After having been given the opportunity to see what progressive education in Hawaii really looks like, I wanted to share with you all my experience and the plethora of other experiences of the students and faculty at the school.
00:01:34
Speaker
The series has been building up to this episode, where we will look into the work being done at Hana Haoli and what progressive pedagogy in Hawaii looks like in practice.
00:01:42
Speaker
First, here's Amber to tell you a little bit about the history of the school.
00:01:47
Speaker
So there was a couple living in Hawaii, Sophie Judd Cook and George Cook.
00:01:53
Speaker
And this is around the turn of the century, around the early 1900s.
00:02:01
Speaker
And they were living on the island of Molokai and they had a number of children.
00:02:06
Speaker
And Sophie was not a formal educator, but had learned a lot about raciomelia approaches to teaching and learning and was homeschooling her own children using those approaches.
00:02:19
Speaker
Her husband, George, became very interested in government and he got elected to the Hawaii state legislature to be a representative from Maui County and the family had to move to the island of Oahu.
00:02:30
Speaker
And when they got to Oahu, they decided, well, we should send our kids to a formal school.
00:02:37
Speaker
And we're looking around and a lot of the schooling options at the time were very traditional.
00:02:43
Speaker
They were reflective of the industrialization that was happening at that era.
00:02:46
Speaker
And
00:02:50
Speaker
Serendipitously, there was a woman who was traveling across the country.
00:02:54
Speaker
She was a fourth grade teacher at the Francis Parker School in Chicago.
00:02:59
Speaker
And she was giving public lectures about how children could learn how to read from being in storytelling rich environments, rather than memorizing words and letters from basal readers.
00:03:12
Speaker
And Sophie went and attended her public lecture in Honolulu at Washington Place.
00:03:18
Speaker
She was enthralled with it.
00:03:19
Speaker
There's probably lots of parallels between what she was listening to this woman.
00:03:23
Speaker
Her name was Goodwin Thorne Thompson, what she was talking about and what Sophie believed in terms of the Reggio Emilia approach and went up to the woman after the lecture and said, I just adore this.
00:03:34
Speaker
I'd love for my children to learn in this way.
00:03:37
Speaker
And she said, well, why don't you start a school of your own?
00:03:39
Speaker
And that launched the beginning of Hana Haoli
Hana Haoli School's Cultural Approach
00:03:43
Speaker
School.
00:03:43
Speaker
Hana Haoli in Hawaiian means joyous work.
00:03:46
Speaker
It was named by
00:03:48
Speaker
Sophie's brother.
00:03:50
Speaker
And from the very beginning, the creation of Honolulu in Honolulu in 1918 was a collaboration between the cooks, as well as many folks from the Francis Parker School and John Dewey and George Meade and the superintendent of the state of Hawaii of public schools, the fledgling University of Hawaii.
00:04:16
Speaker
And so from the very start, Hana Haoli was really modeled after John Dewey's experimental school at the University of Chicago, but most primarily after the Francis Parker School in Chicago.
00:04:29
Speaker
And so it has lots of elements of the early East Coast progressive schools overlapping and integrating with Hawaii's unique cultural context.
00:04:39
Speaker
And so that includes just the
00:04:42
Speaker
the physical layout of the school, of having lots of outdoor learning spaces and open courtyards, the integration of multicultural education and multiple language learning, Hawaiian language, Japanese language, French from the very beginning.
00:04:57
Speaker
And so its birth was a really unique venture in the progressive education movement because it stayed true to all of those, the progressive philosophies of Dewey and
00:05:10
Speaker
Hillpatrick and Lucy Sprague Mitchell and all those folks, yet it was adapted to be more reflective of Hawaii's multicultural society.
00:05:20
Speaker
Over the course of this episode, I will include a variety of voices from various students and faculty.
00:05:25
Speaker
To provide some context for what's to come, I'd like to introduce you to the people you're about to hear speak.
00:05:30
Speaker
First is Jennifer Steerly, one of the directors of faculty and curriculum and a current educator.
00:05:35
Speaker
For a parent's perspective, you'll hear from Veronica Kimme, who's also a faculty member.
00:05:40
Speaker
Finally, for the adults, you will hear from Allison Backlig, Director of Admissions at Hana Haoli.
00:05:45
Speaker
And last but not least, you will hear from Raleigh, Hannah, Kaoli, Taylor, and Etta, students across different age groups.
00:05:53
Speaker
In the conception of this project, Amber and I identified a few core values of Hana Haoli.
00:05:57
Speaker
While spending time talking, covered by the canopy, and taking in the warm island air, Amber pointed out to me that not every progressive school is as lush and green as Hana Haoli.
00:06:06
Speaker
In most of the schools she had seen, where they were situated was not a key component of how they operated.
00:06:12
Speaker
Hana Haoli, on the other hand, situated itself squarely within the Hawaiian cultural and physical context.
00:06:18
Speaker
This speaks to one of the values we discussed, that of place-based pedagogy, something I discussed at length with Stacey in episode 2.
00:06:26
Speaker
I guess the first thing that comes to mind is place-based learning, which of course is kind of a buzzword lately, but what an amazing place to have place-based learning.
00:06:38
Speaker
There's such a rich cultural, historical background.
00:06:43
Speaker
And unfortunately, because of the history of colonization,
00:06:49
Speaker
A lot of Hawaiian culture has to be rediscovered and reinvigorated.
00:06:55
Speaker
And, you know, as a person who is not Native Hawaiian, there's so much that I need to learn and am learning.
00:07:02
Speaker
And it's an exciting opportunity for
00:07:06
Speaker
as a teacher to say along with the kids, hey, I don't know this, but I want to know it and I know who I can ask and modeling that for them, that curiosity and valuing where we come from in a certain way.
00:07:22
Speaker
Like I was born here, but I'm not Hawaiian, but I feel like I come from this place to a certain level.
00:07:29
Speaker
So I need to honor that and respect that.
00:07:33
Speaker
And then also,
00:07:34
Speaker
Yeah, I guess really with the wonderings, like what else can we learn about where we are?
00:07:41
Speaker
How else can we connect?
00:07:43
Speaker
How else can we honor this place where we are?
00:07:47
Speaker
The students are acutely aware of this as well, highlighting Hawaiian traditions as some of their favorite experiences at Hanaoli.
00:07:54
Speaker
I really love Makahiki, which is basically Christmas, but Hawaiian, we give authoring, we do dance it, Hawaiian dances, chants.
00:08:03
Speaker
It's really fun.
00:08:05
Speaker
I think it's really cool that we get to do Hawaiian things and it makes me feel connected to Hawaiians.
Project-Based Learning and Traditions
00:08:16
Speaker
And this year they said fifth grade and fourth grade is going to be like the spotlight of Makahiki, so I'm excited to do that.
00:08:29
Speaker
In line with this understanding of place, Hana Haoli takes a different approach to how it forms its curriculum.
00:08:34
Speaker
One of the key elements of Hawaiian pedagogy that showed up time and time again in my research was learning by doing.
00:08:40
Speaker
Just as Dr. Tsai addressed in episode one, project-based learning has been essential to the success of the Hawaiian education system, and Hana Haoli has carried this model into the era of worksheets and standardized testing.
00:08:51
Speaker
Rather than conforming to this new epoch, Hana Haoli has continued to pioneer a project-based model with lots of room for reflection and creativity.
00:09:00
Speaker
When I joined Hana Haoli and was teaching in second and third grade, they had the curriculum was built so that there were already a lot of projects that were incorporated into the learning, into the curriculum, in order to really give kids experiences and to understand
00:09:21
Speaker
you get at their understanding.
00:09:23
Speaker
So one of them that I think is pretty unique and fun and valuable is a kid city project where as part of their unit learning on families, schools and communities, the children design and create a city in the classroom.
00:09:44
Speaker
So
00:09:45
Speaker
Since they have the unique setup of three different classrooms or home groups in one large space, the kids take over that entire space for maybe the course of a week.
00:09:58
Speaker
But before that even happens, the kids are planning, what does a community need?
00:10:04
Speaker
What is a community?
00:10:06
Speaker
How can we show that?
00:10:07
Speaker
How can we make a functional community?
00:10:09
Speaker
What do we want in this community to make it the best it possibly can be?
00:10:15
Speaker
So after they've done the research by going on learning trips, having guest speakers, doing interviews, reading, watching videos,
00:10:25
Speaker
they decide upon the elements of their city and gather materials that they need, map out where different parts are going to be.
00:10:35
Speaker
Oh, we need a bank here because it's a safe place to have a bank.
00:10:39
Speaker
Or we definitely need a grocery store because our community members need to eat.
00:10:45
Speaker
So that's one of the amazing projects that has been done in second and third year.
00:10:52
Speaker
In fourth and fifth, it looks a little different.
00:10:54
Speaker
I'm coming more recently from the fourth and fifth grade classroom.
00:10:59
Speaker
A project that we've done a few times now is a nonviolent direct action project.
00:11:07
Speaker
And with that, the children are learning, I mean, with all the projects that we do at Hanaholi, they're
00:11:14
Speaker
really learning about a larger concept.
00:11:16
Speaker
So in this one, they're learning about social justice, they're learning about being a change maker in their communities.
00:11:27
Speaker
So kids have some freedom to decide
00:11:31
Speaker
what the focus of their nonviolent direct action is going to be.
00:11:34
Speaker
And they've also, before this, learned some basics about the civil rights movement.
00:11:41
Speaker
They're fourth and fifth graders, so they don't understand or get into all the complexities and the history of it, but they have a grounding in that and where this idea comes from.
00:11:51
Speaker
And they learn about Martin Luther King Jr.'s letter from a Birmingham jail and
00:11:59
Speaker
they decide what action they would like to take.
00:12:02
Speaker
They collaborate with each other on how they might take this action, whom it will affect and how their intended outcomes, what they might do if their action is not successful.
00:12:17
Speaker
So through the different age levels and developmental stages, kids are doing different types of projects to really show what they understand and
00:12:30
Speaker
develop their understanding.
00:12:32
Speaker
And I also like all the work and like how it feels so accomplished and good when you get everything done.
00:12:40
Speaker
So yeah.
00:12:42
Speaker
I'm same with Hannah.
00:12:44
Speaker
I like all the traditions and how we do them.
00:12:49
Speaker
And then I also like how we do like learning by doing.
00:12:56
Speaker
So that just seems nice to me.
00:12:59
Speaker
Same.
00:13:00
Speaker
Can you guys explain that?
00:13:02
Speaker
What that means?
00:13:04
Speaker
So like, for me, it's more of like, I do this, and then sometimes we'll do like a reflection about it.
00:13:14
Speaker
So it's like, we reflect, I guess.
00:13:19
Speaker
Yeah, I like the reflecting, except sometimes I think it's hard for me to remember, like sometimes.
00:13:25
Speaker
So I like to take notes sometimes of like what's happened and stuff like, yeah, just so I know and I have something to reflect on.
00:13:35
Speaker
My favorite unit is the food unit because we would get to like go to Mattson or like a food product place, like center.
00:13:49
Speaker
or like factory, and they would give us like a pack.
00:13:53
Speaker
And my favorite like project is when we had our ocean creatures and we got to research our creatures and then write about them and drop pictures.
00:14:11
Speaker
My favorite unit was personally Mandarin because
00:14:17
Speaker
I'm half Chinese and I get to explore more of who I am.
00:14:22
Speaker
And my favorite project in it was, we kind of had this idea of this artist named Ai Weiwei, and we made a project based off of something like him.
00:14:37
Speaker
I created like a zodiac animal in his style, or yeah, and I did it with
00:14:45
Speaker
Right, classmates.
00:14:49
Speaker
I don't remember any of the big projects, but there is this one, I wouldn't call it a project, but I would call it an activity.
00:15:00
Speaker
So one day we had this thing called Black and White School, which was school from like when you were in school, like the rose kind.
00:15:08
Speaker
And that was in actually the pavilion where we have our assemblies and stuff.
00:15:15
Speaker
And then we did Orange and White School in the back of our classroom where we did like a lot of stuff and we made stuff up the bell and it was really cool.
00:15:26
Speaker
One of the breaks
00:15:28
Speaker
big projects that we did in the ocean unit that I really enjoyed was like we would put all of our like all of our facts and stuff that we learned into like a book that we would write.
00:15:46
Speaker
And for me, that was really fun because I like to author and write.
00:15:53
Speaker
So, yeah.
00:15:54
Speaker
I'm going to add on to that.
00:15:56
Speaker
I really like to author and write, too.
00:15:58
Speaker
But then we got to choose, like, our top animals that we liked, like our top five animals that we liked.
00:16:06
Speaker
And then the teachers gave us one of those options.
00:16:09
Speaker
And then we had to study that animal and, like Raleigh said, make it into a book.
00:16:14
Speaker
Can I interject?
00:16:15
Speaker
Do you mind telling him about what it means to be an author and the authoring process?
00:16:21
Speaker
I think it's a good example of... Well, what we do here, which is similar out in what authors would do, we would write our draft and then we would self-edit with a friend or a partner and then we would like
00:16:44
Speaker
After that, we would take it to our teacher and she would be like our editor and then she would edit for us.
00:16:51
Speaker
And then after we got everything edited, we would put it into a big, not a big book, but we would bind it and stuff after we did it.
00:17:00
Speaker
Well, we have to, then we have to write it on pages after we edit.
00:17:06
Speaker
We have to write it on these certain pages.
00:17:07
Speaker
You can choose if you want a big book or a small book, but you can't keep switching back and forth.
00:17:13
Speaker
And so we had to like write our story again with all the edits onto the paper.
00:17:20
Speaker
So we basically wrote our story like two times.
00:17:23
Speaker
And then the teacher would laminate our covers, bind it.
00:17:27
Speaker
We would do the about the author and dedication.
00:17:29
Speaker
We would choose the order and stuff.
00:17:32
Speaker
It was really fun and cool.
00:17:34
Speaker
Yeah.
00:17:35
Speaker
Hana Haoli, at more than a century old, is a school steeped in tradition.
00:17:40
Speaker
Another value we identified, the traditions provide a sense of continuity, progress, and vision to the students as they spend each year building on the last.
00:17:48
Speaker
To start, one of the most well-known traditions is the stepping stone, where each student carves a stone with their passions, memories, or anything in between to be immortalized on a stone path in the courtyard of the school.
00:17:58
Speaker
There's a ceremony where each student steps over the stones signifying the end of their journeys at Hana Haoli.
00:18:06
Speaker
I want to put some like waves on my stepping stone because one of my main passions is swimming.
00:18:11
Speaker
So I want to like do some ocean themed stuff.
00:18:16
Speaker
So yeah.
00:18:18
Speaker
I thought maybe since I like volleyball, maybe I could do like a big volleyball and then like in the lines, I could do like other things that I like.
00:18:32
Speaker
Something I want to put on my stepping stone.
00:18:35
Speaker
is my passions and what I love to do and what I love to eat.
00:18:42
Speaker
What would you want to put on it if you were going to show your passions?
00:18:45
Speaker
Like a musubi skateboarding and football.
00:18:49
Speaker
It made me like my favorite show.
00:18:52
Speaker
I would go with the original of what most kids do.
00:18:58
Speaker
I think I don't want to put one big
00:19:02
Speaker
that represents me in the middle, for example, like one of my passions, I'm not sure about that yet.
00:19:12
Speaker
And on the sides, maybe I'll put like hopeful words for me.
00:19:20
Speaker
So one day if I come back, I'll look at my stepping stone and remember what I did.
00:19:27
Speaker
I think I do a tennis ball, yeah, or like symbols that show what I like to do.
00:19:33
Speaker
Here are some other traditions that made the students and teachers particularly excited.
00:19:36
Speaker
One of my favorite traditions that I haven't done yet, but it's like always so exciting is, so we do this thing where we would grow like a mini Christmas tree and then the sixth graders would cut it down.
00:19:54
Speaker
And I always feel like joy watching them cut it because I know one day that will be me.
00:20:00
Speaker
And like everyone's working together and I love teamwork.
00:20:05
Speaker
And then it's just also really joyful because while the sixth graders are cutting it, everyone else is watching and like singing Christmas songs.
00:20:15
Speaker
So yeah.
00:20:17
Speaker
And then I also love holiday program.
00:20:21
Speaker
It's really fun for me to dance, perform, and then get all like clapping.
00:20:26
Speaker
And it just feels so good once you've accomplished it.
00:20:29
Speaker
So every year after the performances, I always get kind of sad that it's over.
00:20:35
Speaker
And then I also love holiday program.
00:20:38
Speaker
It's really fun for me to dance, perform, and then get all like clapping and it just feels so good once you've accomplished it.
00:20:46
Speaker
So every year after the performances, I always get kind of sad that it's over.
00:20:52
Speaker
Also, on the last day of school, I love the slipper toss.
00:20:55
Speaker
We wear slippers to school, and then we take off our slippers, and then we count down the last 10 seconds of the school year, and we go 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, and then when we say go, we throw our slippers up in the air towards the flagpole, and then at the end, we all run and go find our slippers.
00:21:16
Speaker
That's how we end the year.
00:21:19
Speaker
Can you think of some other traditions to tell them about?
00:21:22
Speaker
Um, yeah, so one we do is another, like, big program.
00:21:32
Speaker
We do May Day, and so we'll do, like, the sixth graders will do the maple dance, everyone will do songs, and sometimes we'll do dances.
00:21:42
Speaker
Like, last time, last year, we did a Filipino dance to Nicolink.
00:21:52
Speaker
So like the bamboo poles would go in and out and we would have to dance in between them.
00:21:56
Speaker
So that's really fun.
00:21:58
Speaker
So it would go out, out, out, wait, out, out, in, out, out, and your foot has to be up in the air when it goes in.
00:22:08
Speaker
And then you tap your foot in the middle for the duh, duh, or out, out.
00:22:12
Speaker
And we would have to like pay attention to the sticks and try not to get our feet smashed.
00:22:17
Speaker
And then we would have to dance with our partner according to the pattern.
00:22:23
Speaker
Tell them the name of it again.
00:22:25
Speaker
To Nicolay.
00:22:26
Speaker
In Tagalog.
00:22:28
Speaker
So, and then, it's just really fun holiday program.
00:22:33
Speaker
And then another, like, tradition?
00:22:39
Speaker
Tradition, yeah, we do is...
00:22:48
Speaker
Sorry, I forget of some of my art traditions.
00:22:51
Speaker
There's like birthday books and the Olympics and flag and assembly.
00:22:55
Speaker
Do you want to say about any of those?
00:22:56
Speaker
Olympics, that's what I was saying.
00:22:58
Speaker
Okay, tell them about the Olympics.
00:22:59
Speaker
Olympics is like, well, first, the sixth graders do like Greek oratories and they have groups and stuff.
00:23:10
Speaker
And then after that, they do the Olympics, like the Greek Olympics, but we do...
00:23:17
Speaker
it like upon holy olympics um so it's like running hurdles javelins um sometimes they will do um what's it called they would do um 40 year dash there's a long jump it's really fun yeah
00:23:40
Speaker
And then there's also birthday books.
00:23:44
Speaker
Birthday books is when it's your birthday, you have the option to choose a book.
00:23:49
Speaker
And you make a plate that says, this birthday book is the gift of blanks.
00:23:54
Speaker
So-and-so's.
00:23:57
Speaker
Birthday.
00:24:00
Speaker
Like blank birthday on the date of their birthday and then the year.
00:24:08
Speaker
And then now... You get to, like, decorate the... You get to glue it into the book, and then that lives in the library.
00:24:17
Speaker
So then, like, if you come back or something, like, and you open up a book, then... You can find your birthday book.
00:24:23
Speaker
Yeah.
00:24:24
Speaker
So it's, like, a good memory to have.
00:24:26
Speaker
It's, like... Where's...
00:24:32
Speaker
There's also flag and assembly.
00:24:34
Speaker
Assemblies, you sit, there's plays, productions.
00:24:40
Speaker
It's really fun.
00:24:41
Speaker
And then flag, we do the Pledge of Allegiance, and we have announcements and thought of the day.
00:24:49
Speaker
Can you say what the thought of the day is really quick?
00:24:52
Speaker
Well, sometimes there's like, the canoes and the island, and the island is the canoe.
00:25:00
Speaker
But other days, maybe it will be like the old short prayer and the new short prayer.
00:25:09
Speaker
Today, may beautiful things happen to you.
00:25:12
Speaker
Or let us honor this day.
00:25:13
Speaker
Yeah.
00:25:14
Speaker
And then sometimes we'll do like poe or fourth and fifth this year.
00:25:22
Speaker
Like what we're in.
00:25:23
Speaker
We're going to be doing Mandarin that other day or Manao Opala.
00:25:28
Speaker
Yes.
00:25:30
Speaker
These traditions, as you might have noticed, are often sourced from across the spectrum of different identities and cultures that make up the Hawaiian melting pot spanning the Pacific and beyond.
00:25:39
Speaker
At Hana Haoli, students learn olelo Hawaii, as well as Mandarin, somewhat recently taking the place of Japanese.
00:25:45
Speaker
Students are exposed to a variety of cultures and develop a rich understanding of the peoples present in the Hawaiian Islands.
00:25:51
Speaker
This reflects a cultural responsiveness that Hana Haoli strives for.
00:25:54
Speaker
The school seeks to give students the opportunity to reflect their own culture in their education.
00:26:01
Speaker
Yeah, so my husband and I are both of mixed ethnicities.
00:26:06
Speaker
And I would say that we both feel like we don't know enough about, you know, the cultures of our ancestors.
00:26:15
Speaker
And I do feel like my daughter learns more about our families, you know, the cultures that make
00:26:27
Speaker
up our family more than we know, than we know how to share, you know, with our kids.
00:26:31
Speaker
For example, my husband's a quarter native Hawaiian, but doesn't know very much about Hawaiian history or even Hawaiian culture.
00:26:39
Speaker
And I feel like she learns that here in school and she brings that home to us.
00:26:43
Speaker
You know, I'm a quarter Japanese and I don't know anything about being Japanese.
00:26:49
Speaker
And she's involved in so many like Japanese traditions at school.
00:26:54
Speaker
And this place, I think, does a really great job of like embracing many different cultures.
00:27:00
Speaker
And really, they just ask families to like share what is special to them, you know, and what share about yourselves.
00:27:08
Speaker
And so, you know, like we get to learn about so many different cultures just through other families sharing.
00:27:17
Speaker
And I love that.
00:27:18
Speaker
And I love that like kids really feel a lot of pride for who they are and for how they're different from one another.
00:27:25
Speaker
And kids are genuinely interested in learning about, you know, each other's differences.
00:27:31
Speaker
Yeah, I think it's in our mission statement, in our beliefs and values, we do state explicitly that we value diversity, that it is not just something that exists, but that we value and celebrate it.
00:27:47
Speaker
I think within the classroom, within all our little daily routines, we have built in ways to honor and celebrate our differences.
00:28:00
Speaker
We honor children's voice and perspective.
00:28:03
Speaker
We welcome families into the classroom and onto campus.
00:28:09
Speaker
We have a lot of celebration of different cultural traditions.
00:28:14
Speaker
When a family brings a cultural tradition or celebration to the classroom, we make a big deal.
00:28:20
Speaker
It's awesome.
00:28:21
Speaker
We love to learn about each other.
00:28:23
Speaker
As far as
00:28:27
Speaker
Differences, I think, is something that's addressed in all ages, like from JK to, oh, that's same, same, and that's different, to sixth grade when they're really exploring their personal identity and figuring out who they are in a larger society.
00:28:45
Speaker
That's a question that always comes up, and that's always something that we explore with the kids, and we celebrate, and we honor who they are as people, not just as students.
00:28:57
Speaker
This exposure to a variety of cultures serves a multitude of purposes, one of which is reflecting the quote-unquote real world back at the students.
00:29:05
Speaker
Contrary to the belief that progressive education creates a bubble, Hanaoli strives to expose students to the complexities of real life and the often complicated ways in which people interact.
Community and Family Involvement
00:29:14
Speaker
I asked how the educators and parent I spoke to prepare their kids for the quote-unquote real world, as is often considered the goal of education.
00:29:22
Speaker
To them, the distinction between school and the real world was not quite so rigid.
00:29:27
Speaker
I think as a teacher, something I always strive to remember is that when I was a child, what I was feeling and what I was thinking was real to me at that time.
00:29:45
Speaker
You know, as a child, you don't understand all the complexities of life.
00:29:51
Speaker
You don't understand so much.
00:29:54
Speaker
But what you do know, that's authentic to you.
00:29:57
Speaker
So I guess it's my way of saying I want to respect the experiences of kids.
00:30:04
Speaker
Like whatever they are feeling and whatever they are thinking, that is true to them at that moment.
00:30:10
Speaker
So that is their real world.
00:30:14
Speaker
That is their real life.
00:30:16
Speaker
And so school, again, it's not a mirror of their life.
00:30:20
Speaker
It is their life.
00:30:21
Speaker
This is the place where they spend so much of their time.
00:30:24
Speaker
This is where their friends are.
00:30:26
Speaker
This is their experience.
00:30:29
Speaker
So helping them understand that this is a safe place where they are valued, but also they're expanding their understanding of the world in school.
00:30:43
Speaker
And we don't wanna have like a barrier between this is school and this is life or this is school and this is the world.
00:30:50
Speaker
So as much as we can help them find connections to the bigger world, I don't wanna say the outside world, but like just the bigger world that their worlds, their lives are expanding, I guess is our job and to keep them
00:31:10
Speaker
curious and to keep them safe while they do that is my goal as a teacher.
00:31:18
Speaker
Um, so, you know, the kind of schools that I went to were, you know, pretty traditional.
00:31:24
Speaker
And, um, I would say that I was a good student.
00:31:28
Speaker
I was good at school.
00:31:31
Speaker
Um, but I don't feel like it prepared me for, you know, being like a flexible problem solver.
00:31:41
Speaker
And I think that this school environment really does support that in my daughter.
00:31:49
Speaker
I love that she's already really good at collaborating with others.
00:31:58
Speaker
And that when she's given an open-ended assignment, that it's not like,
00:32:09
Speaker
overwhelming or that she's not unmotivated, you know, but rather she's like excited to, you know, to jump in and explore what she's genuinely interested in.
00:32:22
Speaker
And I think that those are like,
00:32:25
Speaker
perspectives or outlooks that you need to be successful in this world today.
00:32:31
Speaker
So I really feel like it, the way that the school approaches learning is very reflective of how we live our lives as adults.
00:32:43
Speaker
And so it really supports her in that way.
00:32:47
Speaker
Um, it also like a lot of the structures here in the school, you know, involve like a lot of student choice and, um, you know, a lot of like freedom for kids to do, to, to, you know, pursue what they're interested in.
00:33:05
Speaker
Um, and I love that.
00:33:08
Speaker
I think that that's going to help her a lot in her future.
00:33:11
Speaker
Instead of having stratified age groups, Hana Haoli promotes relationships between students across age groups, allowing for students to mentor and care for each other no matter their age.
00:33:19
Speaker
When I spoke to the students, this was one of the aspects of their experience at Hana Haoli that excited them the most.
00:33:25
Speaker
Well, you know, just by nature of the age, there's a ton of growth that's happened since she was four until now she's eight.
00:33:33
Speaker
But it's been really fun to see her evolve from...
00:33:41
Speaker
you know, because of the multi-age structure of the classes here, it's been fun to watch her enter a class as a newcomer.
00:33:48
Speaker
We call them enterings in their first year and then continuings in their second year.
00:33:54
Speaker
It's been fun to watch her, you know, personality and perspective change from the way she approaches school as an entering to how she approaches it in her continuing year.
00:34:06
Speaker
the first multi-age grouping here is in kindergarten and first grade.
00:34:11
Speaker
And she loved being and entering in that grouping.
00:34:14
Speaker
The class is called Kakuna Okala.
00:34:17
Speaker
And she's used to being the baby in the family.
00:34:21
Speaker
She's got two older sisters I mentioned, who are actually significantly older than her.
00:34:26
Speaker
And it comes naturally for her to, you know, ask for help and
00:34:31
Speaker
She enjoys the attention that comes with being the baby, but it doesn't come as naturally for her to be, you know, to
00:34:40
Speaker
be empathetic to others, to, you know, choose her, to choose things based on the examples that it sets, you know, and so it was really fun to see her take on the role of the continuing and, you know, to be a supporter to younger students.
00:35:00
Speaker
And this coming year, she'll be a continuing in her
00:35:04
Speaker
in the second multi-age grouping, it's called Kula Evie, second and third grade.
00:35:09
Speaker
And I'm excited to see how she approaches, you know, approaches it this year, too.
00:35:13
Speaker
I think it'll be totally different.
00:35:15
Speaker
So it's for me, I think it's fun, like interesting and fun.
00:35:23
Speaker
And then it's like this year, our teachers are like really pushing us to be diverse.
00:35:29
Speaker
So that also helps us not just be like boys and girls or, you know, like stuff like that, but like different grades or we call them enterings where like the young grade and continuance for the older grade.
00:35:43
Speaker
So I feel like that just gives one more step into being diverse, which is really important.
00:35:50
Speaker
Yeah, I really like it because I feel like I can go to one of the continuings if I'm entering and if I need any help or a question or if the teachers aren't available and I can ask them my question and I feel comfortable doing that.
00:36:06
Speaker
And then if I am a continuing, I like getting the questions from the enterings because I know that they're following my footsteps and learning like I did.
00:36:16
Speaker
And I think that that's really cool.
00:36:19
Speaker
And then the only two grades that are not mixed grade is sixth grade and junior kindergarten.
00:36:27
Speaker
Or JK.
00:36:28
Speaker
But I would say that they kind of mix together because we have like sixth grade buddies and JK buddies.
00:36:37
Speaker
So like the sixth grade would have a JK buddy.
00:36:43
Speaker
And so they're like together kind of.
00:36:47
Speaker
Yes.
00:36:47
Speaker
And then there's also reading buddies, which or fourth and fifth grade do with Kukuna or kindergarten and first grade.
00:36:57
Speaker
So that's really cool.
00:36:59
Speaker
We get to every Wednesday afternoon after lunch.
00:37:02
Speaker
We read.
00:37:03
Speaker
We read to our reading buddies and that's really nice.
00:37:05
Speaker
For 30 minutes.
00:37:06
Speaker
Yeah.
00:37:08
Speaker
Something that probably I'm excited to do is get
00:37:12
Speaker
a JK buddy, because I really want like a little JK buddy so I can like make stuff for them.
00:37:24
Speaker
JK is like the littlest class of Hana Haoli and when you're in the highest class of Hana Haoli, you get to have
00:37:41
Speaker
a buddy from the lowest class.
00:37:44
Speaker
I like how when I was younger, or when I was in the younger age, the older kids treated me really respectfully.
00:37:54
Speaker
So I have kind of, I look that year, or I'm an older kid now, but I used to look forward to helping the little kids and
00:38:10
Speaker
having a big responsibility.
00:38:12
Speaker
So, oh, and in third and second grade, you get like a buddy.
00:38:17
Speaker
It's usually second and third grades.
00:38:21
Speaker
And they're basically like the people you work with the most.
00:38:26
Speaker
So yeah, that's pretty fun.
00:38:33
Speaker
I think the experience with fourth and fifth graders is
00:38:38
Speaker
You can ask anybody and they're always going to be able to help you.
00:38:43
Speaker
You can't just the people that are older than you.
00:38:46
Speaker
Not only do multi-age classrooms prepare students for a world not stratified by age, but it also promotes a sense of community.
00:38:53
Speaker
Across various Hawaiian pedagogies, one of the most important shared elements is that of ohana, or family.
00:38:58
Speaker
These are the communities we fall back on, the people we build our lives with, both blood and chosen.
00:39:04
Speaker
Hana Haoli, rather than individualizing the education of the students, allows parents to be active participants.
00:39:10
Speaker
However, unlike the often dog-whistled notion of parental rights, parents are not expected to restrict their child's knowledge intake, but rather learn, as an ohana, what it means to explore the world as a learner.
00:39:21
Speaker
This is so important, in fact, that it is one of the key elements of the admissions process at Hana Haoli.
00:39:27
Speaker
You know, when a child is three and a half or four and a half years old,
00:39:32
Speaker
They're little, they're gonna, they're all going to be little kids, but they all do have an interest, a unique personality that we can kind of see at that age.
00:39:41
Speaker
So we look for just a variety of personalities of children.
00:39:47
Speaker
We look for if they show us different interests, you know, in terms of the children, if they're able to follow directions and kind of stay with the group.
00:39:55
Speaker
If it looks like they might need more needs, you know, then we're able to provide in terms of
00:40:00
Speaker
maybe needing a smaller group size or attention in a specific way, then that might be an indicator that maybe it wouldn't be a good fit.
00:40:08
Speaker
We also look to the parents and their response and their understanding of this school and their interest and willingness to participate.
00:40:20
Speaker
Parents enjoy a variety of ways to involve themselves in their children's education.
00:40:25
Speaker
So this school is extraordinary in the
00:40:29
Speaker
number of opportunities that they create for families to be really actively involved in their kids' school experiences.
00:40:38
Speaker
You know, there are a gazillion learning trips a year that parents can chaperone.
00:40:43
Speaker
There are tons of fun activities in the classroom that they ask for extra hands with.
00:40:48
Speaker
They invite families to come and, you know, present about things that they're familiar with or things that are related to the topics that the students are exploring in their units.
00:40:58
Speaker
Parents come to campus.
00:41:00
Speaker
I mean, any given day, you'll see many parents on campus just for our morning flag gatherings and our Friday assemblies.
00:41:09
Speaker
It's a really welcoming community.
00:41:13
Speaker
And so and I work part time for the school.
00:41:15
Speaker
And so I actually have the luxury of having a lot of time that I can commit to.
00:41:21
Speaker
to volunteering in the classroom, you know, and doing that stuff as a parent.
00:41:27
Speaker
And then I also, as a employee of the school, I have a really close relationship with all of her teachers and all of her classmates.
00:41:36
Speaker
I supervise recess, you know, a couple times a week and I get to see, I get to be a fly on the wall quite often, you know.
00:41:45
Speaker
So I feel really lucky that I get to be such a big part of her school experience.
00:41:50
Speaker
Yeah, there's so many different ways that family, I mean, family is an essential part of our school culture.
00:41:58
Speaker
If we took that out, it would not be the same school.
00:42:06
Speaker
From the moment, well, most of our families come in as JK families, not all, but the majority.
00:42:12
Speaker
There are elements set up to welcome them and to educate them about our values as a school and also asking them to be involved in their child's education.
00:42:23
Speaker
I'll paraphrase, but there is a statement in our beliefs saying that we believe the parent or the family is the first and foremost educator of the child.
00:42:35
Speaker
And so I think we try to live that with, especially in the lower elementary, parents are often,
00:42:42
Speaker
ask to come in as experts and being an expert can be, you know, I am an expert at growing banana plants and I'm going to teach the kids about how to grow banana plants.
00:42:53
Speaker
And it can be really simple as that.
00:42:56
Speaker
But we're we're showing the kids that we value their families.
00:43:01
Speaker
We value their families, knowledge and traditions and cultural knowledge and experiences.
00:43:10
Speaker
We have our HUI, which is kind of like a big version of a PTA, but it's everyone.
00:43:18
Speaker
It's teachers, staff, families.
00:43:20
Speaker
We are all together.
00:43:22
Speaker
We're all trying to be informed.
00:43:24
Speaker
We're all trying to be involved.
00:43:26
Speaker
So big and small ways, we're always trying to build our school community on that relationship of families are part of our school and school depends on our families.
00:43:41
Speaker
Well, a specific example of a really, you know, really engaging family project that she just had in this last year was the class's theme is, you know, in Kula Ivi, they're exploring their island home.
00:44:00
Speaker
And the learning trips throughout the year involved
00:44:05
Speaker
going to, you know, many different places around the island and exploring the geography and thinking about, you know, just all about this place.
00:44:16
Speaker
But they asked families to identify a place that they had never been to, preferably on this island, but maybe on another island, you know, while you're on vacation, and to approach it like a learning trip, a family learning trip, and then to do a little reflection on it together.
00:44:32
Speaker
And they compiled all of the reflections together and made a book of all of these places on the island that you could visit that other, you know, classmates had gone to with their families.
00:44:43
Speaker
And so we, you know, found a part of the beach on the island that we had never been to that's got, you know,
00:44:54
Speaker
and is pretty well known for having a lot of wildlife.
00:44:58
Speaker
And we had the most amazing day and loved writing about it and sharing photos.
00:45:03
Speaker
And we've got this book now of all these cool places and hikes that we want to check out, that even my older kids look at all the time and are like, hey, we got to go to this beach.
Diversity, Outreach, and Professional Development
00:45:12
Speaker
Remember?
00:45:12
Speaker
Remember so-and-so was talking about that place?
00:45:14
Speaker
Let's go to it.
00:45:16
Speaker
So yeah, that's like one of many opportunities
00:45:21
Speaker
that they present families with, you know, to get really involved.
00:45:26
Speaker
But I also find that the school has kind of taught me to also like respect and honor her space and her initiative to pursue things that she's interested in and to, you know, drive her own learning.
00:45:44
Speaker
And I would say that in a lot of ways, I was more actively,
00:45:50
Speaker
like engaged with my older children's learning than I am with hers in the sense that I want to give her that room, you know, to like to pursue the things that she's interested in, what she's learning about in school without, you know, me
00:46:07
Speaker
you know, being involved in it.
00:46:10
Speaker
And I think she likes that too.
00:46:11
Speaker
And I think that's another cool thing about the school, you know, that they really instill in kids, you know, desire to learn and to explore the things that they're interested in.
00:46:25
Speaker
Well, and I think another piece that I've learned, you know, I experienced last year was my first year as director of admissions.
00:46:33
Speaker
And I saw that
00:46:36
Speaker
The process set up prior to my becoming director of admissions was just fabulous.
00:46:43
Speaker
What we do is we not only have small group play sessions with teachers, but we ask families to, the parents to join in small groups and
00:46:59
Speaker
And to learn about how we teach here, to learn about how we center on children, to learn more about progressivism and learn about John Dewey or learn about how our school was founded.
00:47:13
Speaker
So we have like four sessions running at a time while the students or the children are with teachers in classrooms.
00:47:21
Speaker
Parents are going to their own classrooms.
00:47:23
Speaker
They're maybe doing a movement
00:47:26
Speaker
dance activity and expressing themselves through responding to music and then reflecting and or they might be in a social emotional group in the art room with our school counselor sharing about feelings or sharing about parenting and then relating that to how we how we teach here and how we acknowledge the the whole child or they might be with our librarian
00:47:54
Speaker
in the library learning about the beliefs and the practices here and what it looks like from the early ages, the junior kindergarten and all the way to sixth grade.
00:48:06
Speaker
So the cool thing about that is
00:48:11
Speaker
The parents are as excited or more excited than the children in their experience.
00:48:17
Speaker
They're like, wow, I really, I'm understanding this a little bit more.
00:48:22
Speaker
I'm loving this, or I want this for my child.
00:48:25
Speaker
Or they might come away, you know, those who don't want it, they're not necessarily telling me.
00:48:30
Speaker
But I think it's been a really great way of sharing about our school so that families coming in, they know from the start, we're not a traditional family.
00:48:40
Speaker
school, they're not going to be sitting at desks all the time, although we absolutely do use desks and we absolutely do teach skills and we absolutely do look at, you know, growth over time with the children.
00:48:54
Speaker
So those pieces of interviewing and have the parents involved and then also having the parent docents, I think that really shows how our community is totally woven into the fabric of
00:49:09
Speaker
what we do here and how we relate to the world.
00:49:15
Speaker
Okay, I've said a lot.
00:49:19
Speaker
It is important to recognize, however, that the school doesn't exist within a vacuum.
00:49:23
Speaker
Hawaii has one of the lowest rated education systems in the United States.
00:49:28
Speaker
Public schools are often underfunded, understaffed, and don't provide the potential for upward mobility to their students.
00:49:34
Speaker
Hana Haoli, like many of the notable Hawaiian private schools, tends to serve a privileged group.
00:49:39
Speaker
However, they continue to make efforts to expand their student body and push back against the cutthroat competition that defines Hawaiian education today.
00:49:47
Speaker
Here's Allison with more on the admissions process.
00:49:50
Speaker
You know, one of the things we want to do is to reach out to different preschools, really, and that have not typically had children come to us.
00:50:04
Speaker
So one of the things I want to do this year is
00:50:08
Speaker
sort of expand our network or our reach to schools and other areas of the island that have not traditionally, we haven't had applicants from those schools.
00:50:24
Speaker
So that's one idea right now that we have.
00:50:28
Speaker
We have a couple of, you know, half our applicants come from a handful of schools and the other half come from
00:50:37
Speaker
a variety of schools.
00:50:38
Speaker
So I want to plug into those variety of schools to find our applicants.
00:50:43
Speaker
We also are going to have a committee from our board and be looking at financial aid and looking more completely at how do, you know, how our financial aid might support diversity in our school and whether that's
00:51:02
Speaker
adequate or whether we need to make any changes in that.
00:51:05
Speaker
So I think those two ways, reaching out to different schools and then having our board on the other side look at, you know, that aspect.
00:51:15
Speaker
The University of Hawaii has a progressive pedagogy program.
00:51:23
Speaker
And that might be, that's a way we've gotten several teachers, really excellent teachers have joined us.
00:51:31
Speaker
And I'm not sure if that's also a way to expand our, I mean, they know more about Hanaholi in that way, you know, they might apply their children, but perhaps there's another way that that could support spreading our knowledge about our school in another direction.
00:51:48
Speaker
Part of the, what works about Hanaholi and what makes it unique is that we are a small school and you really can know everybody when you're a small school.
00:51:57
Speaker
And that's one of the things that makes
00:52:00
Speaker
it's special in our, in our progressive mission, but also a part of our mission is that we reach out to the broader community and, um,
00:52:13
Speaker
We've had a summer school program called the skills we need for the last couple of years, and that may possibly expand or at least be continuous that, you know, we have children from the public schools come here.
00:52:30
Speaker
funding that's provided that summer experience for them, but really to have a greater impact, you know, in the state school system, our professional development center, which Amber Strong-Macayau has been involved with, along with Veronica Kimme, that has been a way that we've been able to expand our reach and expand our knowledge and our
00:52:56
Speaker
You know, care for the schools in Hawaii, and we've had many participants from the Department of Education in that way.
00:53:04
Speaker
Hana Haoli, as well as being an example of progressive pedagogy, also has a field pioneering professional development network.
00:53:11
Speaker
Run by Amber, Hana Haoli's PD both teaches and practices the ideas and philosophies that sets Hana Haoli apart.
00:53:21
Speaker
what kind of professional development do you do at Hana Haoli?
00:53:25
Speaker
And in particular, how does it differ from sort of the typical model of education professional development, both in terms of the content and the structure?
00:53:32
Speaker
Yeah, so Hana Haoli School has a professional development center, which has a director, which is myself.
00:53:39
Speaker
And uniquely, it's a bridge, bridge program between the University of Hawaii and Hana Haoli School.
00:53:45
Speaker
And I'd say that it's really modeled after what John Dewey was doing with the experimental school at the University of Chicago and which John Goodlad wrote about many years later, but really looking at school university partnerships and looking at how this helps schools become better because you have the influx of new ideas and new teachers and research and scholarship and pushing innovation.
00:54:11
Speaker
And then it supports the work of universities because it's real life living schools that students can learn how to teach in, scholars can come and study and researchers can come and do work in.
00:54:24
Speaker
And so our professional development center,
00:54:27
Speaker
At Hannah Holy has multiple types of programs we run workshops and public talks, we have a two week summer Institute and integrated interdisciplinary thematic curriculum design and.
00:54:41
Speaker
The main goal of all of these is to offer educative experiences that are led by progressive education teachers that align to our progressive education mission.
00:54:50
Speaker
We have programs such as that, but we also really use the school as a living laboratory.
00:54:56
Speaker
So we have school tours designed for educators, long term scholars and residents, shorter term scholars and residents where people can come and see
00:55:06
Speaker
things that they're exploring and thinking about in education in action.
00:55:09
Speaker
So for example, if they're interested in team teaching or what a multi-age classroom looks like, that instead of just reading about it in a book or taking a workshop on it, you can come and experience it for yourself alongside the teachers and students at Hana'oli.
00:55:25
Speaker
In addition, we have teacher candidates.
00:55:27
Speaker
So folks who are learning how to teach are on campus and
00:55:32
Speaker
By having that experience to experience progressive education firsthand as a first year novice teacher, it really fundamentally shapes the type of teachers folks become.
00:55:42
Speaker
And then we're also producing resources and materials and curriculum by working with all of the teachers that collaborate with us in either long term scholars or through workshops and things like that.
00:55:56
Speaker
I just want to emphasize the way in which we leverage being able to have learning happen alongside children and families and teachers as a part of the regular school day and the ways in which that grows the profession of teaching and helps to grow folks that have real hands-on experience with progressive education.
00:56:17
Speaker
And it also helps Hanauoli grow and become a better school itself.
00:56:22
Speaker
Yeah.
00:56:22
Speaker
And so how, I mean, how important, but also what role do you view professional development as part of the sort of larger identity and project of the Hannah Howell-E school?
00:56:34
Speaker
Yeah.
00:56:34
Speaker
I mean, I think it's really aligned nicely with our progressive mission of, um, supporting school communities to create a better future society for today's children.
00:56:45
Speaker
Um, I think that by,
00:56:50
Speaker
we are able to service the 210 plus families whose children attend the school, but by extension, the school is able to do work in the broader community and to have a bigger reach and a bigger impact.
00:57:05
Speaker
And I just think that that's so closely aligned to what it means to be a progressive educator.
00:57:12
Speaker
And that when you're a progressive teacher, you're thinking about
00:57:16
Speaker
the kids in your classroom, but you're also thinking about how can we apply the work that we're doing in our classroom to actually make real change in the world and society at large.
00:57:24
Speaker
And I think by having a professional development arm of the school, this really enables Hanaholi to fulfill its progressive mission in exponential ways.
00:57:38
Speaker
So we identified a couple of core values.
00:57:40
Speaker
Um, just as a reminder, we had learning by doing traditions and responding to a changing world, uh, learning at school mirrors, the real world learning, um, Ohana connection to community building and cultural responsiveness.
00:57:51
Speaker
How do you see those values, um, reflected in the, you know, the, the way you engage in professional development?
00:57:59
Speaker
Well, I would definitely say learning by doing was at the top of your list.
00:58:03
Speaker
And I, I mean, I think I've, I've said this, but I really think that that's,
00:58:08
Speaker
It's great to be able to have scholarship and research that you can read.
00:58:12
Speaker
It's great to work with an expert teacher in a professional development setting where you're thinking along with other professionals, but it just takes it another step further when you're able to go and see it in a real classroom or as a scholar in residence to have the opportunity to experiment with an idea that you're testing out
00:58:37
Speaker
in a real classroom or school setting.
00:58:40
Speaker
And I'll give an example.
00:58:42
Speaker
Last year, we had a student in our master's program in progressive philosophy and pedagogy.
00:58:49
Speaker
His name is Brendan McCarthy, and he was really interested in exploring how we could use film and students producing films to learn more about what children love and how can we use knowing about what they love to then
00:59:05
Speaker
create future programming at our school.
00:59:08
Speaker
So as a part of his master's program, Brendan facilitated a school-wide, I want to know what love is film festival at Hanaoli school.
00:59:19
Speaker
So each, all 210 students made films about what they love to do.
00:59:26
Speaker
They started out with a nine 19 second film and they got to show it to their peers and they,
00:59:32
Speaker
gave a critique and then they produced another film.
00:59:34
Speaker
And at the end of the year, we had a film festival with the whole school.
00:59:38
Speaker
And then we were able to analyze and look at what the students had made their films about and to help to use that to help us with future programming at the school.
00:59:47
Speaker
And that's just a great example of, you know,
00:59:51
Speaker
Brendan could have been at the university taking a class about progressive education, written a paper about how great would it be to have this film festival with children to explore what they love to do.
01:00:02
Speaker
But he also got to actually go and make it happen.
01:00:05
Speaker
And to be able to spend an extended period of time working on that, I think that's something teachers don't always have the opportunity.
01:00:13
Speaker
Our professional development experiences are typically short.
01:00:17
Speaker
and in chunks and to be able to have projects that you can work on over time within real school settings is just, I mean, that's learning by doing to its core.
01:00:28
Speaker
What sort of audience do you find, you know, engages in your professional development?
01:00:33
Speaker
Is it, you know, usually educators who want to try something new or educators who are already sort of, you know, immersed in the world of progressive pedagogy or have a background in it?
01:00:42
Speaker
Yeah, I'd say both.
01:00:43
Speaker
I, I think, um,
01:00:46
Speaker
We have folks that have an understanding of what it means to be a progressive educator, and they're looking for professional development opportunities that are going to help them further that aspect of who they are as an educator.
01:00:58
Speaker
So for example, we had a DOE, Hawaii State Department of Education elementary teacher last year, who really wanted to see for herself and to think more with teachers and students at Hana Haoli about how play
01:01:14
Speaker
can be integrated into learning in the early years.
01:01:18
Speaker
And so this was something that she had already identified for herself that she valued, and she sought us out to help her work on that.
01:01:27
Speaker
I also think that because so many of our workshops are responding to our changing world, and they focus on topics that teachers who may not identify as progressive
01:01:39
Speaker
recognize, man, I really want to go and learn something more about how to teach about climate justice or how to integrate more social emotional learning opportunities in my classroom.
01:01:50
Speaker
Or what does it mean to be a social justice educator?
01:01:52
Speaker
I've heard a lot about this.
01:01:53
Speaker
So they come to us not really with any background in progressive education.
01:01:58
Speaker
and really fall in love with the community and the community of learners and the support and the thinking and looking at teaching as an art.
01:02:11
Speaker
And so I think in that way, we invite and bring in new folks who maybe had little understanding of what progressive education is and open the doors to what the possibility that might be.
01:02:23
Speaker
And really the whole aim, right, is that they can come and experience things at Hanaoli
01:02:28
Speaker
see the possibilities and then go make this happen in their own classrooms.
01:02:32
Speaker
And some schools are progressive from the top down.
01:02:37
Speaker
They have progressive leadership or they have structures and systems that allow them to be progressive.
01:02:41
Speaker
But a lot of times, progressive movements can happen from the bottom up, one teacher at a time that says, I want to start doing integrated interdisciplinary thematic units of study and
01:02:54
Speaker
I learned about it, now I'm gonna bring in my colleagues and we're gonna grow this from the bottom up.
01:03:00
Speaker
And so in your professional development, how do you prepare educators for work in the progressive sphere?
01:03:06
Speaker
But I think more importantly, outside of the progressive sphere and sort of combining two questions that I have, what sort of skills and, and, uh, recommendations do you provide for educators who want to introduce progressive ideas in contexts that are maybe more resistant to those ideas?
01:03:25
Speaker
Yeah.
01:03:26
Speaker
So, um,
01:03:27
Speaker
To answer the second part of your question about how do you support folks that find themselves in more traditional school settings?
01:03:35
Speaker
I think the first part is that when they attend a workshop or come to Hanaholi School and they see something that they believe philosophically about how school should be organized or how teaching should be, but they don't see it at their own school or they're not surrounded by people that have similar philosophies or beliefs,
01:03:56
Speaker
That in itself is validating to know that this is now proven by science and effective way of teaching and people are doing it and it's successful.
01:04:06
Speaker
So I think that's validating.
01:04:09
Speaker
And then we do the best that we can to really all of our professional learning experiences are grounded in community.
01:04:17
Speaker
and they're collaborative and we're socially constructing knowledge.
01:04:21
Speaker
So that involves talking and thinking with other people.
01:04:24
Speaker
And so they begin to build a network of peers and like-minded peers that even though they're not at the same school, they can connect with one another beyond the workshop and do the work together.
Challenges and Collaborations
01:04:36
Speaker
And then we also try to set up structurally as a part of many of our learning experiences that folks have support over time.
01:04:46
Speaker
So for example, with the thematic institute that we do in the summer, they design curriculum for a two week period in the summer and then they start implementing in their classroom and schools in the fall.
01:04:58
Speaker
And we meet with them periodically in our community of learners and check in and say, how are things going?
01:05:03
Speaker
What sort of support that do you need?
01:05:06
Speaker
So I think being able to give ongoing support and then knowing just that we are a resource in the community that they can always come back to.
01:05:15
Speaker
I think is one way in which we ensure the longevity of the practice and that people can regularly have contact to help them keep growing and the support they need to make the movement grow in their own schools.
01:05:35
Speaker
In the end, what makes all of this worthwhile is the students being able to explore their interests in a safe and supportive environment.
01:05:41
Speaker
What struck me was just how joyous and lively the students were when discussing their time at Hana Haoli.
01:05:47
Speaker
They were often talking over each other in our interviews, each trying to get a word in about their favorite projects, traditions, you name it.
01:05:54
Speaker
They clearly love what they do.
01:05:55
Speaker
The faculty I spoke to as well had nothing but love for their jobs and responsibilities.
01:06:01
Speaker
My favorite parts are...
01:06:04
Speaker
Like I said, I think the validation that people get that they have this little voice inside of them about what they know is good for children and good for kids and good for themselves as a teacher and good for society.
01:06:25
Speaker
And yet they're not seeing that or they're not able to express that in the schools that they're at or in the professional communities that they're working in.
01:06:34
Speaker
And to have them come to our workshops or spend time on campus, it's almost like you can see a relief wash over them that this is truly a possibility and that this is a reality.
01:06:45
Speaker
It's not just something that philosophers are writing about in books, but it can really happen.
01:06:51
Speaker
It's almost like Christmas morning that just to see that in somebody's face
01:06:59
Speaker
when they realize that this reality is possible and then it fuels them to wanna go and make that reality where they are, I think that's so rewarding.
01:07:07
Speaker
And it's part of why I do what I do, what I'm driven by, that more and more children and communities have access to a more humane education like this.
01:07:19
Speaker
And so in any way possible that I can to fan the flame and make that happen in other schools, I think it's really rewarding.
01:07:28
Speaker
What is the hardest part?
01:07:30
Speaker
What was the most challenging, I think, was the second part of your question?
01:07:35
Speaker
Well, honestly, right now, what I'm really working on is setting up institutional structures to ensure that this partnership between the University of Hawaii and Hana Haoli School endures over time.
01:07:50
Speaker
And that just like Hana Haoli can serve as an inspiration for teachers to see how progressive teaching and learning looks like,
01:07:58
Speaker
that the Hanna-Hou'oli University Partnership can be an inspiration for other schools and universities to see what a successful school-university partnership can look like.
01:08:08
Speaker
I mean, this was John Dewey's dream from day one.
01:08:12
Speaker
I mean, this is what he was aiming to do at the experimental school at the University of Chicago.
01:08:17
Speaker
And it's just extremely difficult to have large institutions partner with each other and work in tandem with one another over time.
01:08:28
Speaker
And John Goodlad has wrote about this extensively as well.
01:08:32
Speaker
I mean, I was a part of a partnership school in the Department of Education where I got my master's and unfortunately that no longer exists.
01:08:41
Speaker
So I'm just determined to crack the nut of why is this so challenging to have school university partnerships when it makes so much sense for not only the profession of teaching, but
01:08:56
Speaker
for a better future society.
01:08:57
Speaker
And so I think that's one of my biggest challenges right now that I'm working on setting up institutional structures so that this becomes a model for other universities and schools.
01:09:08
Speaker
There's a few things that I like the most about my job.
01:09:11
Speaker
So I might not have a singular answer.
01:09:15
Speaker
One is that I get to see the whole school.
01:09:18
Speaker
I'm not siloed, so to speak, in one classroom and needing to make sure that my
01:09:26
Speaker
Our group of children is cared for all day long.
01:09:29
Speaker
I can sort of have a wider view of the day and visit classrooms, see what's going on so that I'll know what to share with families, but also so that I can help with enrollment and any questions families may have along the way.
01:09:46
Speaker
So I love having the wider range and the freedom to see every aspect of
01:09:53
Speaker
of the school.
01:09:53
Speaker
And I also love talking with parents about our school.
01:09:59
Speaker
I love relating to different families.
01:10:01
Speaker
I just really enjoy that a lot.
01:10:05
Speaker
And what do I like least?
01:10:08
Speaker
Maybe that I'm impatient and want to have, make a lot of changes all at once that I need to be more patient to wait for those changes to come.
01:10:19
Speaker
That's the hardest part for me.
01:10:21
Speaker
Like I want to make changes
01:10:23
Speaker
And I know it's going to be several years.
01:10:25
Speaker
So I need to like hold off and go more slowly, slow down and be okay with that.
01:10:33
Speaker
But it's a really exciting place to work.
01:10:36
Speaker
When you start a new job, you have that imposter syndrome and that lasted for a little while.
01:10:42
Speaker
And then I realized, no, no, I love this school.
01:10:45
Speaker
I know about the school I can share with families and learn along the way, just like our students are.
01:10:52
Speaker
You know, so I actually moved around quite a bit, too, when I was young.
01:10:56
Speaker
And I did have I did attend very traditional schools.
01:11:01
Speaker
And I would say, I mean, the way that I know that she will build she's a part of a community that she will be a part of for a very long time, if not forever.
01:11:14
Speaker
you know, for the rest of her life, really, I can feel already that this community is going to be a part of her life forever.
01:11:21
Speaker
I think that that's really different from what I grew up with, you know, because I moved around a bunch and because I transitioned from, you know, my elementary school to my middle school to my high school here at Hanaha'oli, it feels like it's a, even though it's only eight years that they spend here, it feels like a really significant part of a kid's life, you know.
01:11:45
Speaker
So, yeah, I think so.
01:11:47
Speaker
I would say the major difference is that, you know, she's going to be a part of this community for a really long time and she really feels a sense of belonging to this community.
01:11:58
Speaker
You know, when I talk to her about like she's attending summer school at another school, just a bigger school to, you know, so that hopefully she'll.
01:12:06
Speaker
have an easy time adapting to new situations because this place is so nurturing and it's so consistent in her life.
01:12:13
Speaker
When I talk to her about, you know, eventually when you're in middle school, you'll go to another school like this one.
01:12:18
Speaker
Maybe you'll go to the school that your sisters go to.
01:12:19
Speaker
And she says, no, I never want to go to another school.
01:12:23
Speaker
I love Hana Haoli so much, you know, and I can see how safe she feels here and how much she feels like herself, you know, and she can't imagine being anywhere else.
01:12:34
Speaker
Like, a lot of kids say, like, oh, school's so boring.
01:12:37
Speaker
I don't like homework.
01:12:39
Speaker
Yeah.
01:12:39
Speaker
But Hana Haoli makes me feel, I don't know how exactly to say it, but, like, it makes me feel like, oh, yes, I get to go to school.
01:12:48
Speaker
I want to go to school.
01:12:50
Speaker
And for me, I actually love homework.
01:12:53
Speaker
So, yeah.
01:12:54
Speaker
I'm kind of the opposite.
01:12:55
Speaker
And then, like, Hana Haoli has taught me to love homework.
01:13:00
Speaker
I like homework, but not if I have a lot after school.
01:13:04
Speaker
Like today, I have a lot after school.
01:13:07
Speaker
So luckily it's a Friday and there's no homework.
01:13:10
Speaker
But I just, I like homework otherwise.
01:13:15
Speaker
So what's your one word that you would use to describe?
01:13:19
Speaker
And then we got to go.
01:13:20
Speaker
Joyous and fun.
01:13:21
Speaker
I'll say, yeah, joyous and fun.
01:13:24
Speaker
My favorite part is probably recess because we let
01:13:29
Speaker
we get to let all our energy out before we start again and learn.
01:13:38
Speaker
My favorite is the specialists.
01:13:40
Speaker
We have music, Mandarin, PE because unlike the other classes, they're a little different.
01:13:48
Speaker
And it's like going into another world where you could each
01:13:57
Speaker
do something fun.
01:14:00
Speaker
It's like escaping from all the hard work.
01:14:04
Speaker
Yeah.
01:14:07
Speaker
I think they're like recess because sometimes there are friends that you want to play with but you can't because they're in like different cohorts.
01:14:15
Speaker
So like during recess you're able to like talk to them or spend time with them.
01:14:22
Speaker
Learning by doing.
01:14:23
Speaker
What our school means is joyous work.
01:14:28
Speaker
Oli means joyous and Hana means work.
01:14:33
Speaker
No other way.
01:14:35
Speaker
No.
01:14:36
Speaker
And because in Hawaiian it's backwards, so our school means joyous work, Hanaoli.
01:14:41
Speaker
And a couple, like five, six years ago, I think it was, we celebrated the 100th year of school, and that was Ho'omao Hanaoli, or the 100th year of, one century of Hanaoli.
01:14:56
Speaker
And then, yeah, like,
01:14:58
Speaker
I also don't like to be pushed, so I think it's like the teachers, I guess, would need to challenge the kids a bit, but not like, come on, do this, this, this, this.
01:15:12
Speaker
But letting them go at their pace, but still pushing them a bit to challenge them, get their minds growing.
01:15:24
Speaker
I also like the creativity of the school, where like all of our traditions and the creativity.
01:15:31
Speaker
And one of my favorite classes, I want to say it's art, because I love art.
01:15:35
Speaker
I like to draw like faces or self-portraits.
01:15:39
Speaker
And right now we're making our kapha for Makiki.
01:15:43
Speaker
And I think that's really cool.
01:15:47
Speaker
I think progressive education is like moving on, like you keep going forward.
01:15:54
Speaker
and never stop and like keep being outstanding.
01:16:03
Speaker
To me, it means to go forward but also, my parents tell me this, but it's okay to look back on mistakes that you made so you can keep going forward in the future.
Conclusion and Call to Action
01:16:20
Speaker
Yeah.
01:16:23
Speaker
I think progressive education to me is kind of like, yeah, like at Hanukoli, learning by doing and knowing what you're supposed to do and why.
01:16:34
Speaker
Do you guys remember that in your school unit when you learned about like traditional schools and then progressive education is the type of school at Hanukoli?
01:16:44
Speaker
So knowing that that's what that word means, do you two want to elaborate on what you believe this type of education is about?
01:16:52
Speaker
Yeah.
01:16:53
Speaker
having a choice and like being independent.
01:16:59
Speaker
I can be who I want in the future.
01:17:01
Speaker
It's like building and molding yourself with all the education you did so you can be who you are.
01:17:14
Speaker
Thank you again for listening to our podcast at Human Restoration Project.
01:17:18
Speaker
I hope this conversation leaves you inspired and ready to start making change.
01:17:21
Speaker
If you enjoyed listening, please consider leaving us a review on your favorite podcast player.
01:17:25
Speaker
Plus, find a whole host of free resources, writings, and other podcasts all for free on our website, humanrestorationproject.org.
01:17:32
Speaker
Thank you.