CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM Halau Lokahi Public Charter School's first day of instruction yesterday entailed going to a Waimanalo beach to learn back-to-school basics and protocol. Teacher Marge Hayes, above, watched students as they played in the ocean.

Halau Lokahi students improve
themselves in a group context

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By Keiko Kiele Akana-Gooch
kakana-gooch@starbulletin.com

The students of Halau Lokahi Public Charter School spent their first day of school a little differently than most: in the sand and sun of Kaiona Beach Park in Waimanalo.

More than 100 students in blue-shirt uniforms learned school protocol, Hawaiian culture and arts and crafts.

But then, Halau Lokahi is not like most schools.

The charter school integrates Hawaiian values into all aspects of its curriculum, which is largely project-based. Halau Lokahi teacher Hinaleimoana Wong said about the students, "Everything they do, they do as an ohana."

A goal of the school is to create individualistic persons who can work with others. "By Western social standards, it's the individual that's the focus," Wong said. "In an indigenous context, it's OK to be the best you can be, but not at the expense of someone else."

CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM Hinaleimoana Wong, right, talked to her pupils about the goals of the school.

While regular instruction of core classes like math, science and social studies occurs four days a week, Fridays are reserved for personal growth and exploration. Children can hone in on their individual talent and interest in arts and crafts, poetry, reading and performing arts. Halau Lokahi teacher Leimaile Quitevis said this special day "gives them a voice and a way to express themselves. What they enjoy could very well be their careers."

The Palama Settlement-based school will spend much of the school year off campus in learning laboratories like taro patches and beaches, which are conducive to this year's curriculum theme: ahupuaa, a Hawaiian division of land stretching from mountain to sea.

The students will learn the history of various places around Oahu and how each place fits into the ahupuaa concept.

School founder and director Laara Allbrett said Halau Lokahi teaches "the true Hawaiian history from the Hawaiian perspective" through books by Queen Liliuokalani and other Hawaiian dignitaries.

Despite a new federal law requiring high-poverty schools not progressing adequately toward state academic standards to allow students transfer to better-performing schools, Allbrett is not concerned, although her school is located in a low-income district. She said, "Hawaiians are brilliant. It's time for us to show the brilliance."

June Nagasawa feels the warm ohana spirit of the students and her co-workers. "It's a positive atmosphere," she said.

After 31 years in the regular public school system, Nagasawa is a curriculum coordinator for Halau Lokahi, where she is enjoying a school system free of bureaucratic red tape that may often interfere with teaching.

The school's establishment stemmed from a similar frustration. "I got tired of fighting the system, both public and private," Allbrett said.

Halau Lokahi, in only its second year of instruction, is helping to fulfill those demands by providing alternative hands-on learning in a loving environment. And the equation works, Allbrett said, with assessments done at the start and end of the previous school year showing a marked improvement in reading and math scores among previously failing or poor- performance students.