We were honored to have 3 speakers for this event.
Questions and answers followed the addresses.
Patrick Walsh, former HPP Owners Assoc. president and Board of Education candidate 2008 whose platform emphasized decentralization, safety within the schools and accountability.
Harvey Tajiri, former County Council Chair, State Representative, Univ. of Hawaii Regent, and upper division lecturer in the Political Science Department at UH Hilo
Brian DeLima, former County Council Chair and newly appointed member State Board of Education
Patrick Walsh spoke first, raising the question of was the issue of education one of individuals or structure or society that really made the difference? He related how he had been educated in a demanding and rigid system in Ireland, but he would not bring that back to Hawaii. His 6 children were educated in his home. “Not home schooled, but more ‘self-schooled’ ”. He provided each child with a laptop, and fostered a safe environment where they each could focus but without a rigid curriculum. They all had the capability to focus for extended periods of time, because they were motivated to do so. One son said, “play is the best education”, and “fear lowers intelligence”. 3 sons were now all excelling in their in university studies. He commented how if we could institutionalize that same safe and focused learning environment, the system would be improved.
Harvey Tajirii spoke next, sharing his gut feelings about things he had felt for a long long time, based in part on events predating his experience in the legislature. He had a degree in education, and made the point that ‘education is about education, not self-esteem”. He had prepared a syllabus for his upper division political science class, but had to tear it up when he realized that the university students, juniors and seniors, did not know the difference between a governor and a mayor, nor the three branches of government. “They told me: congress, the legislature, and the senate.” He told them: “please don’t vote!” and was only half joking, but half serious too. They were unprepared for college from their high school education. “It’s not the students fault that they are not adequately educated”.
He was educated in Kaumana School, where one teacher taught 2 grades, each with 25 students. Today, student: teacher ratios are much less, but results are worse. In his day, after 6th grade, every student could read the local paper. Today, many cannot do so after 12th grade. He knows this also from his business experience, where frequently applicants with high school diplomas could not complete the job application without assistance. “The system is broken, and the solution is simple: we must allow the teachers to teach.” “Do we as a society, a community, parents politicians, bureaucrats allow this to happen, or not?” He was very glad the Forum had given him the opportunity to bring this up for discussion, because “only you folks (the people) can do something about it.”
Brian DeLima spoke next, accompanied by a slide presentation about the current Department of Education. The school system dated back to the days of King Kamehameha V, a time when many people could speak several languages. The school boards were appointed, and the quality of schooling was generally high. With statehood in 1960, elected school boards were part of the state constitution and continued until last year 2010 when the people voted a new constitutional amendment to return to an appointed school board. Why did they do so? Because most parents, teachers, politicians and taxpayers were very unhappy with the school system.
The appointed board started only 6 weeks ago, and immediately sought to change the prevailing culture. They decreased their assigned staff from 11 to 3 (they were turned over to the superintendent of schools, their budget from $1.5 million to $300,000, they would meet 2 x monthly, and during business days to decrease overhead from travel and per diem expenses. In short, they were strictly focused on the business at hand.
Their immediate goals were to focus on where the money was being spent, and an audit of policies. They wanted to transfer responsibilities to the schools. Now Act 51 was supposed to have done this already, so principals should be deciding who to hire and what to teach. However it was a general attitude by those who sought school changes that the culture of the Department of Education was not rigorous enough.
He subscribed to that opinion.
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