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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Thursday, April 11, 2002

ON CAMPUS
Kalihi kids enjoying presents of mind

By Jennifer Hiller
Advertiser Education Writer

A fourth-grade class at Kalihi-Waena Elementary School got a shipment of brains last month.

The brains came from the National Institutes of Health, the federal focal point for biomedical research in the United States.

Now they sit in a jar in the classroom.

OK, so they're not real brains.

They're brain-shaped squeeze balls.

But they represent a special relationship between teacher Joyce Tsuda's fourth-graders and Dr. Yvonne Maddox, acting deputy director of the NIH.

Maddox and other NIH experts visited Hawai'i last November to address local researchers, university students and medical professionals at workshops designed to bring more federal research money to Hawai'i. Maddox met people such as Edwin Cadman, dean of the University of Hawai'i medical school, and UH President Evan Dobelle.

State Rep. Dennis Arakaki, D-28th (Kalihi Valley, Kamehameha Heights), then drove Maddox to Kalihi-Waena.

Maddox didn't stay long, but she left an impression on the kids. "Before she left she said, 'We must do something for you,'" Tsuda said. "I had no idea what she was talking about."

The class has since received goodies each month from Maddox: booklets, water bottles, heart keychains, dental kits. The brains came as part of the NIH's "Brain Awareness Week."

"The kids are so excited," Tsuda said. "They have these little mini-lessons and handouts for the kids. The children are very serious about this, too. I tell them to bring it home and read it and then come back so we can discuss it. It's very well organized."

Now they're planning to send a box back to Maddox. It will include booklets the children made that include health information and photos of the students.

Tsuda's class is looking forward to what they receive this month. It's going to have to be pretty good to outdo the squeeze brains.

• • •

Hawai'i teachers will be dismayed about a report released this week by the National Education Association, the nation's largest teachers union and the one affiliated with the Hawai'i State Teachers Association.

Teachers' salaries nationally increased just 3 percent from 1991-2001 when adjusted for inflation, the study said.

Also, the average public schoolteacher's salary last year was $43,335. Hawai'i's was $40,052.

Hawai'i ranked 24th out of the 50 states and Washington, D.C., in teachers' pay. But the survey did not adjust for Hawai'i's higher cost of living.