 Welcome to Education Matters on ThinkTech, and I'm your host today, Carol Monly. Our show is called Becoming an Educated Person in the 21st Century and the Mind of the Navigator. We're going to talk about what is the new educational destination for students in the 21st Century. Malama Honua Public Charter School is leading the way. If you want to ask a question or make a comment, you can tweet us at ThinkTechAge. I or call us at 374-2014. My guest today is Robert Witt, longtime Hawaii educator and co-founder of Malama Honua Public Charter School. The educational destination for students of this new charter school in Waimanawa is to achieve the mind of the navigator. Students learn to possess the values, dispositions and capacities of becoming caring, kind empathetic citizens of the world with responsibility for healing the environment, increasing caring for one another. How will this powerful concept transform educational outcomes for all of Hawaii schools? Welcome Robert. Nice to be here, Carol. You have such a long, wonderful reputation as an educator in the private school non-public school system as the head of the Hawaii Association of Independent Schools, excuse me for many years, but I know many of your interests include public education. So tell us a little bit about the origin of the Malama Honua Public Charter School. Thank you, Carol. That's a great question, and I want to back up a little bit to set the stage. I'll mention a couple of people who influenced our school's founding. Coming back to 2007-2008, we had been fortunate to have in Hawaii a top-notch educational thinker from Harvard, his name was Tony Wagner, and he still comes out here. And one of the things he taught all of us public and private schools was that we needed to change what we were doing so that we could update what it was that children needed to know and also be able to do. A little later, he fine-tuned that by saying that he felt that education needed to be more rigorous, more relevant, and more based on human relationships. So that set the stage, and I think public, private, Catholic, we were all hearing that. The next thing that happened was the Polynesian Voyaging Society made a decision at about the same time to take Hokulea and sail it around the world, and the planning officially started in 2008, and that voyage finished just recently, so it was a 10-year voyage, and many of the people watching will remember the Hokulea homecoming June of this past year. So at the very beginning, we had nothing planned, we had to start from scratch. We're talking about the beginning being 2008 or so? Yeah, so at the beginning, Ninoa Thompson, our master navigator, needed to form some committees, and one of the committees was education. If we're going to sail around the world, which we did, 50,000 miles and probably 50 different ports, we wanted to be able to share a message from Hawaii, and that message became the name of the voyage, which is Malama, Honua. So he asked me to chair— Which means? I'm going to tell you in just a second. So I was chairing the education committee, and we were meeting frequently. All the best educators in the state were there. The public school superintendent was there, the president of the University of Hawaii, Diana Oshiro, one of the top notch charter school educators in Hawaii, and so on. There were about 20 of us, and we loved the notion of Malama, Honua, and that was what inspired us. To explain to all of you listening in, Malama, Honua means two things. It means take care of island earth and take better care of one another. So it's a dual concept. If you want to translate that into more contemporary terms, what this voyage was about was environmental justice and social justice. So Malama, Honua embedded those two concepts in everything that we did. So that committee planned what we would do when we met school people in particular in all these ports around the world. About the same time in 2009, Ninoa, who was at these meetings, said one day, you know, I don't feel good about what we're doing. We're planning all these things for children all around the world, but what are we doing for the children in Hawaii? And he was profoundly concerned about it. So I met with him privately, and I said, maybe what we'll do is we'll do the voyage, and at the same time, we'll start a school that would embody the values of the voyage. And he said, do you promise to do that? And I said, yeah, I think I will. So that was the origin of Malama, Honua Public Charter School. Half a dozen of us worked on the planning for, gosh, five, six, seven years. It took a long time. Ninoa's mother, Laura Thompson, was involved. James Coshibo was involved. Jenna Eshii was involved and so forth. And it involved getting a program designed that would present an educational model that was totally different. And we came up with a notion using Ninoa as our model of endowing children with the mind of the navigator. And so at Malama Honua Charter School today, the students are embracing that notion of how to live their lives. They are learning to take responsibility for the environment and they're learning to take responsibility for one another. So whatever your definition of 20th century education might have been, whatever your definition of what an educated person would be able to do 20th century has all changed. We're really focusing much more on qualities like empathy, compassion, kindness, caring. And the Dalai Lama's visit here a few years ago reinforced the importance of doing just that. And one of the sponsors for The Voyage, who hosted us in Cape Town actually, was Archbishop Desmond Tutu. And his vision for the future was nicely integrated into this idea as well. So we had lots of inspiration and Tony Wagner was part of it. Another man named Bob Lenz, who came out here from San Francisco, helped us address the question of a rigorous 21st century education. And he introduced us to something called project-based learning, where students were not given textbooks and asked to memorize anything. What they were given was a problem, a series of problems, and they became problem solvers. The problem could be environmentally based, it could be socially based, and the children had to work together in teams to solve the problem. And that's hard work, Carol. Well, let me thank you for that wonderful introduction, but let me get a sense of the school itself. So what grades are we talking about? And it's a public charter school environment, and there's just one location right now. Yeah. We looked at all the possibilities. Let's start a high school, let's start a middle school, let's start an elementary school. And I know I was strongly of the opinion that we would start with the youngest children. And I'm sure the influence there was his father, Pinky Thompson, who was a lifelong early education advocate. So we said we'll start with one or two grades and we'll add a grade each year. We felt that Waimanalo would be our community because we felt that the population of Hawaiians and part Hawaiians there would relate to what we were doing. So we established a campus on rented facilities in Waimanalo. We're looking forward to finding a permanent campus, and we're at a church right on the main road, and then we are also on another location, so we have two campuses now. Is that grade? So first through fifth grade, I believe, and children are 65 or 70 percent coming from Waimanalo. And it's free because it's a public school? It's free. It's a public school. How many students do you have? Probably 130. And it's been difficult every step of the way. We have a wonderful principal who we found early on. Her name is Denise Espana. And Denise was able to recruit teachers right from Waimanalo, and so they came from the community. And then we imbued the program with a significant amount of Hawaiian cultural protocol. And so it was rigorous because of project-based learning, but it was relevant because it spoke to the interests of these children. So how does the curriculum differ from, let's say, a regular public school? Yeah. I remember when I went to public school, and I was in the third grade, and I remember spending that whole year looking out the window. I had no idea what the teacher was saying, and I didn't care. So our children don't do that. They spend way more time outdoors. In fact, I would say more than 50% of their instructional time is spent solving problems out of doors in the Waimanalo community. Like? Yeah. Give us some examples. Let me back up and say that because of the influence of Ninoa, who was the co-founder of the school, and because his teacher, when he learned navigation, was a man named Mao from Micronesia. We asked Ninoa, where did Mao take you to learn navigation? And he showed us 14 places where they had gone regularly to learn. So we adopted those 14 places, and we called them our learning sites, our sacred sites. So the children go to these places over and over again. Specifically, what do they do? Well, they're learning to grow food for one thing. You know, when I was still working, Jenna and I started a program called Grow Hawaii, which was the first time anybody suggested using local food in school cafeterias. Our children take this one step further. They grow food. Wonderful. And they eat it. So you serve it in the school cafeteria? We don't have an official food program. I think mostly the children are able to give the vegetables away to their family members. And they're working very closely with SITAR, which is the College of Tropical Agriculture, and they have a site in Waimanalo where our children and teachers go once a week. So they're learning from the professionals. And they're very good at growing things. And they're good at caring for sites that I mentioned before. Okay. Briefly, how does a charter school differ from a public school? Oh, yes. The charter school started in Hawaii about 1998, I believe, under Governor Cayetano's administration. And it required a law being passed which would permit a group of public people like ourselves to propose the outline and design for a school, which we did. As opposed to... As opposed to going to the neighborhood public school, a parent could choose to send their child to a charter school. It was a very difficult process. It took us a couple years to get through it. And we're completely public. We follow all the public rules. We follow public policies. And the state pays per pupil. Aha. Okay. Well, on that interesting note, we're going to take a short break. This is my guest, Robert Witt, who is one of the co-founders of Malama Honua Public Charter School. And we'll be right back with Education Matters. Thank you. Rock by and nice and what's happening, guys? They told me they were making music. Hi. I'm Ethan Allen, host on Think Tech Hawaii of Pacific Partnerships in Education. Every other Tuesday afternoon at 3 p.m., I hope you'll join us as we explore the value, the accomplishments, and the challenges of education here in the Pacific Islands. Welcome back. This is Carol Monly on Education Matters. And today with my guest, Robert Witt. And we're talking about Malama Honua Charter Public Schools. So we were just talking about how the origins of the school and the much bigger picture, broader picture of charter schools in general. We have some pictures we'd like to show. And maybe, Robert, you can tell us what we're seeing. So, of course, this is, we're looking at a picture. It looks like students. I think that's a tarot patch. Uh-huh. And they're cultivating tarot in their gardening program. And this is part of the curriculum? Absolutely. Learning to care for gardens, to grow one's own food, learning to prepare food, and learning to give fresh vegetables to the community. And where exactly is that tarot patch? Well, that I don't know. Would it be near the school? Near Juan Malo? Yes. Okay. And what age group? They look like maybe junior high? I would say those would be fourth and fifth graders. Fourth and fifth graders. Okay. Right, because of school. We only go up to fifth grade. Okay. Next, we have another slide. Oh, this is an interesting slide. This is a picture of groups of students seated. And what are they doing? So the Hawaiian cultural protocol, that's a big part of what we do. And we said earlier that Malama Honua Charter School is leading the way. I would also say that other Hawaiian cultural charter schools are also leading the way. When you embed a cultural protocol and cultural history in the program, the children learn chants. Oli, they learn hula. They have their gourds, I think, from what I can see. And they start each day. And they end each day with a formal Hawaiian culture protocol. Do they learn Hawaiian language, too? They're learning Hawaiian language. And when Ninoa and I were there the other day, they also spoke to us and sang to us in Maori. Wow. So they are possibly developing two additional languages. And again, other Hawaiian cultural charter schools do the same thing. So I see this group of Hawaiian cultural charter schools, including Malama Honua, as being the leading edge for educational innovation in Hawaii. And next, we have Aha. Well, that was a recent visit. And the important part would be the person in the middle. And she is our principal, our po'o. And Denise Espana was born and raised here in Hawaii. We found her in Seattle about six or seven years ago. And she expressed an interest in coming home. She's a Punahou graduate. And she was working in public education in Seattle. And so every time I went up to Seattle, we would talk and long story short, she moved here and started the school from scratch. Wow. And then on her left is Ninoa Thompson. Ninoa Thompson. And you on the right? Yes. Okay. Well, that's wonderful. Okay. Do we have any other... Oh, one more. Yeah. Well, again, they're in the garden. Looks like they're... Students are gardening. Gardening and farming. Yeah. And it just proves the point that they're learning a lot outdoors. When you do project-based learning, you might say, well, that just sounds like fun. But in the process of doing whatever they're doing, they're learning so much. And then one more last picture of a student learning to tie knots. Tie knots. These students, when they get to the fifth grade, they have to provide evidence of what they have learned. It's called an exhibition. And the fifth graders are preparing exhibitions and presenting their exhibitions right now. And those that succeed will get to go on a sale on Hokulea next fall. But they're familiar with Hokulea, and they're familiar with the other Hawaiian voyaging canoes. Okay. So we talked a lot about their project-based learning, but how about the standard skills that are measurable by test scores? Yeah. So we placed a big bet. And it was kind of scary. But we believed that if children were engaged in learning, whatever the setting might be, outdoors, in the garden, on the farm, up the mountain at cultural sites, doing a Hawaiian cultural protocol, problem-solving, they would learn all the skills they would otherwise have to learn as separate subjects. We don't teach separate subjects. We teach problem-solving. Long story short, our students scored very highly on the Hawaiian state assessment. We scored above 95%. So that bet, which was scary for me, paid off. Yes. The kids don't even know that they're learning so much, but they were able to perform on the test. Right. So have you had any students, it's only been in existence for how many years now? I'll say five years. So students have gone on to, have you had any students gone on to high school already? Not yet. Not yet. Not yet. Our school will go up to six and hopefully up to eight. And then they would start- Each year you'll keep batting in class. Yeah, so far so good. And we need a bigger location. We need a site. So yeah, they will be able to go on to the school of their choice. The kids in Waimanalo would probably go to Kailua High School, or they could choose a private school. How do they get into your school? Is it a separate application? Yeah. All charter schools have an application process, which is fair. There's an application, there's an interview. And if there's space, they'll be accepted, assuming the parents are able to embrace the values of the school. If they don't, it doesn't work too well, because this involves the whole family. If the school has a grade that's filled and we have more applicants, those names go into a lottery. All charter schools, pretty much nationwide, use a lottery system. So their name would have to be pulled out of a hat to get a space that opens up. And that's very equitable. Fortunately, we have a high percentage of Hawaiians because of our location. And we wanted that. Let's step back and talk about charter schools and maybe the bigger picture of the landscape of education in general, both in Hawaii and nationwide. So how do you assess where the state of Hawaii is in terms of meeting the goals and the needs of educating our students? From a philosophical point of view, Carol, the thing I've worked on for 40 years is providing families with a choice. If you just automatically go to your neighborhood public school, which most people do, that's not a choice. But if there's a neighborhood public school and a charter school nearby... And a private school. Parents have three choices. And so that's a big conceptual shift for Hawaii. We have 35 charter schools, and we have probably several thousand students in the charter schools. So that's huge. The programs that charter schools provide are different. And I've mentioned the Hawaiian cultural charter schools. I would say close to 17 or 18 of the 35 schools are based on the philosophy, values, and cultural underpinnings of Hawaiian culture. At the same time embracing 21st century skills that the children will need to have. So it's kind of a back to the future model. We're going back and reclaiming the Hawaiian history and we're using it. And language. And the language, and we're using that to teach children. That's why it's relevant. Right. As many of us know, the national dialogue with charter schools and our new secretary of education, Betsy DeVos, how do you factor in her particular interest in charter schools and how it affects? The national landscape for charter education is complicated. Our secretary of education was involved in charter education in Michigan, which is her home state. Some charter schools are using sort of a for-profit model. You can provide the education for less than what the state might give you. I'm not saying that's what she does, but across the country there are schools like that. Our charter schools here tend to be spending more on the children than we receive from the state. There's no question of any kind of fraud or negligence on our part. We're giving them everything we can. The Hawaiian cultural schools are actually getting their state money, plus they're getting additional funding from Kamehameha schools. And so I think our charter school landscape here is a better model than you might find in other places. But charter schools are where innovation takes place. So it's an important choice component we have here in Oregon. We have a choice. And our schools are actively innovating and trying new things. Well, we just have a few more minutes left. If you can briefly just tell me what you think the long-term future of is from Malama Honua Charter School, and then I'll give you a chance to talk in the camera floor. Well, thank you. We hope that Malama Honua Charter School will go all the way through high school at some point. We are also experiencing currently interest on the part of other educators who are coming out and visiting the school and asking, what are you doing and why are you doing it? And we're saying we have a different destination. We're using a voyaging analogy. And we're saying we're sailing towards a different destination than most schools in Hawaii. And that destination is Malama Honua. Right. Well, do you have a parting message to our community? You look here in the camera floor. Well, just as a resource for those of you who might have been interested in some of the things I said, you can look up Tony Wagner, www.tonywagner.com. Well worth a few minutes. Bob Lenz, who brought project-based learning through Hawaii is at bie.org. Bob Lenz. That's the Buck Institute for Education. And of course, the Polynesian Voyaging Society is a huge part of what we're doing. That's www.hokulea.com. And then our school, Malama Honua P.C.S., dot-for-f, Public Charter School. Thank you. Well, on that note, we can see your passion in education and in Malama Honua Public Charter School. Thank you. Thank you so much for all you do for our community. And on that note, this brings us to the end of our show. We've enjoyed bringing it to you. I'm your host, Caroline Lee. We've been talking with Robert Witt on becoming an educated person in the 21st century in the mind of the navigator. Students can be endowed with a new mindset aligned with the needs of the 21st century. Malama Honua Public Charter School is leading the way. If you want to see this show again, go to thinktechhawaii.com or youtube.com slash thinktechhawaii, where there will be a link to this show and many more just like this one. We'll see you next time. Aloha.