Thinking About Hā... Stay Tuned
"This is pretty important, play around with it a little bit and let me know what you think", she said as she walked back out leaving me with the poster. I looked at it- it made some sense. I guessed it was a new directive from on-high that I may or may not need to pay attention to and I filed it between the file cabinet and the wall behind my desk- next to the huge pads of sticky note chart paper that I use everyday- at least it would not be completely forgotten.
A few weeks later, the same curriculum coordinator (let's call her Mrs. T) mentioned that someone from DOE who is working with early adopters of Ha was thinking about coming to our school to have a conversation with some of the faculty who had had a chance to review the introductory materials and would I like to be included? Sure, why not-always up for another afternoon meeting that I am not getting paid for (I am a PTT so I work about 12 non-paid hours a week just because I love my students and my school)
The meeting was informative and a little unusual. I was struck by the fact that the presenter was really just listening- listening to us about what we already do at my school in terms of arts integration and cultural education. She filled in questions about Hā but mostly she just wanted to know how we felt about the ideas in the Framework- did it feel right, like something we were doing, like something we agreed was valuable. Did we want to learn more and help define what this might look like for our school? We were united in our interest in moving forward...and then, we got a new principal.
Funny how administrative change has a way of making most folks very nervous and very much resistant to trying anything risky or innovative. Most of the teachers, and Mrs T, were worried that taking on anything when there was going to be a new sheriff in town might not work. I was (and still am) in the camp of "we are doing a lot of this. lets just try to document and quantify it and see where we want to do more or do better." Basically, the message is- let's wait and see when the new principal comes, she likes to run the show. About now I should mention that my school has been opened for 10 years. We are the only Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts arts integrated school in the state of Hawaii. The faculty is really united and driven by common purpose. They enjoy teaching and learning together an really live the school mission "Learning is A Journey" http://pomaikai.k12.hi.us/
Therefore, it is particularly sad for me to see that the top-down, bureaucratic, individual achievement driven model of the DOE should reach its ugly hand into this great place of learning. It is not perfect- we are bound by the data teams just like everyone else. We take too many standardized tests. Yet, lots of teachers find creative ways to use arts integration strategies to meet the standards and provide for each learner and their unique story. It seemed, after that meeting, that Hā was something we wanted to explore further and maybe begin "preparing the soil" to plant this space for our kids but, for the time begin, it was not up to us as a faculty to move in that direction. I know that it takes time to change the course of a big ship like the DOE. There is power in unity of all those minds and all those educators and students working on an idea together. Real change and impact can happen but a time of observation, planning and preparation is necessary if we are going to see the kind or results that will, in the words of a man on the Hā informational Vimeo video, make Hawaii the place we would still choose to live 50 years from now.
Not much has happened on the HĀ front so far this school year. We have read more and talked a bit in STEMS2 and I would like to find out if any of my fellow Cohort 3 members are early adopters at their school and see how they re making meaning of the framework in their school. In preparation for further discussion over Blackboard Collaborative I reviewed some of the documents and found a link on the DOE site to the Year 1 Review. http://www.hawaiipublicschools.org/DOE%20Forms/HAYear1.pdf
This document is really worth your time if you want to know what seems different and more authentic about this . There is a quote on the sidebar in the body of the article that not only summarizes a lot of what I personally got from reading the Review but also what this whole effort seems to be about.
In part, it reads: "Nā Hōpena A'o framework is actually old, another iteration of Hawaiian cultural wisdom, a form of continuity.... This is not the latest model- this is Hawaiian culture at its finest (Manulni Meyer, UH West O'ahu)
Another idea from the Review that powerfully connected with me as well as echoed the ideas of our reading this week from Gruenewald is the statement that "community ready" is just as, if not more, important as college and career ready. How radical an idea in our western education system that values individual achievement and marginalizes any other measure of success.
There is even a link within the document to a TED talk by the writer Chimamanda Acichie on finding your own cultural voice and avoiding the "default position" of what you think you know about another person based on your own bias. https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story?utm_source=tedcomshare&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=tedspread-b
I have been thinking and learning more about Nā Hōpena A'o for a little less than a year. Along with the leaders of this Framework, I am also experiencing a system shift in my understanding of what this effort might mean for me, my students, my professional community and the wider community of my school family. I am cautiously optimistic that Hā might signal a real willingness to pull together around a way of teaching and learning that honors the unique places of Hawaii and our keiki- where they will see school learning within the context of their lives and vice versa. Stay tuned....
Comments
Post a Comment