Celebrating diversity

Several private schools embrace a variety
of holiday traditions in assemblies

Music celebrating the ancient Jewish holiday and the 40-year-old African-American cultural festival were in the mix with Christmas music in the Wednesday night "Songs of the Season" program at La Pietra Hawaii School for Girls and at Le Jardin Academy's "Winter Concert" in Kailua.

At Mid-Pacific Institute, there was a Bethlehem Nativity story yesterday in the elementary school. Earlier, the school band and orchestra played music from around the world in their "Holiday Concert."

The traditional school Christmas pageant might be forbidden to public schools and perpetuated in Christian schools, but some private schools choose to reflect the diversity of their students in this season's festivities.

"Our students are from 15 different countries, and they're not all Christian. We don't want to make them uncomfortable," said Mid-Pacific President Joe Rice.

"Like any school, we are diverse," said Nancy White, head of Hawaii School for Girls. "Our students represent every religion. If you want to teach girls to respect diversity, you try to model that in your programs."

Adrian Allan, Le Jardin headmaster, said: "We promote religious tolerance and peace. We want students to feel comfortable with their own religious beliefs."

CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM More schools are recognizing student diversity by promoting holiday celebrations that encompass different beliefs. Getting together after the "Festival of Lights" at the Punahou School chapel yesterday were Emma Whiteley, left, as Santa Lucia; Blake Wade as a Starboy from Poland; Shannon Hennessey, celebrating Kwanzaa; and Andrea Yonamine, rear, celebrating Los Posadas in Mexico.

The Punahou mission statement calls for "affirming the worth and dignity of each individual," said the Rev. Lauren Buck Medeiros. She is one of two Christian chaplains at the Makiki school, where a campus chapel reflects the founders, 19th-century Protestant missionaries to Hawaii.

Mid-Pacific also was founded by the Congregational missionaries. It was established in 1908 combining Kawaiahao Church school for girls and Mills Institute for boys.

"We honor our Christian heritage with chapel services with a religious bent," Rice said. The school has a Christian chaplain, the Rev. Robert Brown.

"During the year we recognize the world religions," Rice said, such as discussion of Muslim beliefs at Ramadan. "At this time of year, we recognize there are other beliefs being celebrated," he said.

Mid-Pacific classrooms are decorated with the Hanukkah menorah as well as Christmas images.

"The student government puts on a holiday assembly where the skits and music are more likely to be about Santa than Bethlehem," Rice said.

At Le Jardin, "We talked about festivals of light," said Allan. That included the candle-lighting traditions of Kwanzaa and Hanukkah.

"We don't do prayers in the name of Jesus, but we might do a prayer for peace," said the headmaster, who has taught at international schools in Jamaica, Norway and Finland. He said the academy, which does not have religious roots, tries to offer "a program you would see in international schools. We are respectful of people who are not necessarily Christian."

CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM Candace Chan, left, Jake Dohrn, Julis Sitch and Shannon Hennessey celebrated the African-American cultural festival of Kwanzaa yesterday at Punahou School's "Festival of Lights."

The Le Jardin mission for its 800 students is to "develop good character, kindness, peacefulness. This is a season for harmony in the world, for people to be nice to each other," said Allan. "Religion is a good vehicle for that."

The "Festival of Lights" at Punahou chapel yesterday celebrated the Christmas story, too. There was a four-candle Advent wreath, one for each week in the countdown to Christmas. The story of Jesus' birth and the arrival of the Wise Men was enacted by costumed kids. And different ways the story is told and celebrated around the world were woven into the program.

At a Wednesday chapel for kindergartners, Medeiros told the story of the littlest angel who gave the Christ Child a special gift.

In her chapel prayer, Medeiros acknowledged that Wednesday was also Bodhi Day, which Buddhists mark as the occasion when Buddha achieved the state of enlightenment, in effect the birth date of the religious tradition.

"One student is the child of a devout Buddhist," Medeiros said. "When he was choosing a school, the father came in to talk to the chaplains, wanting to know if his child would be part of the school community. We heard his suggestions, and he found the Punahou ethos something not threatening to his child."

Not all parents are happy with the "world religions" approach at the school, Medeiros said.

"We are proud of the richness of our diversity. We have lots of people who really do get it."