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View Point
Some people feel sorry for animals in zoos and aquariums. They think the animals miss their freedom, and worry that the creatures are depressed and deprived. Or would you
rather be a fish?Personally, I suspect those animals are happy to be out of the eat-or-be-eaten world and feel pretty good about where they are.
Take, for example, a reef fish living in a state-of-the-art aquarium, like the one at Monterey Bay, Baltimore Harbor or, if Governor Cayetano gets his wish, in Kakaako.
Designers and researchers take great pains to build a living space that looks, feels, smells and tastes just like the habitat that the fish left.
Furthermore, trained staffers come every day -- maybe more than once a day -- to make sure the temperature is just right, the water quality is good and that food is delivered on time.
This fish doesn't have to worry where the next meal is coming from, or if it's going to be someone else's next meal.
It has places to hide, free swimming space, and any predators hanging around are so well fed they're not interested in a measly little reef fish.
All of its basic needs are met. If it decides to follow that other basic drive -- the need to breed -- its keepers couldn't be happier.
Not a bad life. Better than, say, the life of a student in Hawaii's public schools.
The quality of these living spaces -- habitats of Hawaii's next generation of voters and leaders -- is wildly variable, depending on where they're located.
Some students swelter in rooms so hot that visiting movie crews donate air conditioners to make classes bearable.
Some students meet with counselors in renovated storage closets or attend reading classes in old shower rooms.
Some of them have cafeterias to eat their lunches in; some don't.
A teacher I know keeps a bucket of water and sponges near the classroom door so that the first thing her students can do each morning is wash off the red dirt that blows in the windows.
If you close the windows, you stifle. If you leave them open, all the papers must be weighted down to keep them from blowing away. If the wind is right, you don't smell the farm up the road or the exhaust fumes from the highway outside.
If your classroom is a so-called "portable" (when was the last time it was moved?), you may meet with your special reading group on the sidewalk outside.
Maybe your books are dated after 1990. Maybe everyone in your class has a copy of the textbook. Maybe everyone has a desk that fits. Maybe not.
Some students spend up to 10 hours a day in school, from breakfast through the A+ afterschool program.
Never mind low test scores, run-down schools, or overworked and underpaid teachers.
Whatever happened to "education first?" What about our children?
Lucky you live Hawaii -- if you're a fish.
Aiea resident Marion Coste is a consultant for a major educational publisher and is the developer/coordinator of the Read Aloud Program for family literacy. She is a former teacher, trainer and University of Hawaii instructor, and is the author of three children's books published by UH Press.