Author

By In Social Media

We Should Collaborate On A Plan For Public Education In Hawaii

Parents want to be more involved with the education system. That should be good news – in my experience, it’s difficult to get parents involved with their own kids’ homework, let alone participate in the macro-level planning of the Department of Education machine. But something about Civil Beat’s recent story gave me an uneasy feeling.

It’s a good overview that covers several angles of legitimate frustration. Schools feel overburdened and understaffed, under increasing pressure from all sides to do more work with less time. Parents are upset that communication from the DOE and Board of Education is inconsistent, needlessly difficult and unintelligibly hole-punched with acronyms. They feel left out of important decisions that directly impact their children, during one of the most precarious moments in modern American life. It’s easy to sympathize with them…

Read more at Civil Beat

Read more

By In Social Media

Hawaii’s Public Schools Are More Innovative Than You Think

It’s hard to say whether the origin story of Josh Reppun is counterintuitive or obvious.

It might seem strange that one of Hawaii’s boldest voices for education reform didn’t get his bachelor’s degree until he was in his mid-30s, or that he started his professional career as a chef. On the other hand, his journey reflects an interaction with the education system that informs how he thinks about it today — what it is, and what it could be…

Read more at Civil Beat

Read more

By In Social Media

An Adult Tricycle May Seem A Little Goofy Until You Consider The Benefits

When I bought my adult tricycle, I was met with two very different responses from the guys at the bike store.

One of them said, sincerely, “It’s great you’re finding a way to keep riding.”

The other guy, puzzled, asked bluntly, “How come you don’t get a regular bike?”

Though I’ve had the trike for two years now, pretty much every response I’ve encountered has been a variation of one of those two reactions.

The latter, less empathetic response is not entirely unwarranted. The term “adult tricycle” lends itself to disparagement; anything clarified by the word “adult” before it, whether it’s a diaper or a film or a tricycle, is usually accompanied by some degree of shame and embarrassment…

Read more at Civil Beat

Read more

By In Social Media

Bad Tourists Are Not Going To Behave Better Just Because We Ask Them To

On a recent episode of “United Shades Of America” entitled “Hawaii For Hawaiians,” host W. Kamau Bell came to Hawaii to ask a blunt yet legitimate question: can you visit or move to Hawaii and not be an asshole?

It’s a challenging and provocative question, one that’s not easy to receive for those of us who flew here – either directly or via family who settled here in the past – instead of grew here. But it is nonetheless a necessary question to wrestle with…

Read more at Civil Beat

Read more

By In Social Media

How A High School In California Could Be A Model For Hawaii

If you follow the discourse about student loan forgiveness, one point comes up routinely: young people have been told since childhood that a college degree is the definitive road to higher pay and a better life. This is true in many ways, but that road has become increasingly potholed with near certain and significant debt, all while wages across various sectors have stagnated.

Though there are many culprits responsible for the trillion-dollar student debt crisis — outrageous spikes in tuition, interest that forces students to pay back multiple times the amount they borrowed — it is undeniable that society funnels most kids toward university enrollment.

We claim to know that everyone learns differently and that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to education, but we haven’t done a good job of putting that into action.

A potential answer, then, is to offer alternative models of school before university…

Read more at Civil Beat

Read more