Program offers life lessons to students

By Jennifer Hiller
Advertiser Staff Writer

It started more than a decade ago with a $125 pair of basketball shoes.

Mark Miyamoto, a teacher at Washington Middle School, helps Shari Matsudo and Jayson Tasaka find work as part of the LifeNet program. Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser

Easy, they replied. Their parents paid.

"That was the genesis of the conversation," Miyamoto said. "A couple of my students got the shoes. They understood that their parents worked and provided, but they didn't really have a greater appreciation of what that meant."

Now they do.

Through a curriculum Miyamoto and former colleague Art Nakano developed, students learn what life after school is like. They hunt for a job, purchase a car, plan a menu and pay taxes. Some of them get married and have to navigate life's obstacles with a classmate; others are single and go it on their own.

It's called LifeNet, but was originally called "Life in Hawai'i Sure is Hard," a title that most students would agree with when they've finished the final PowerPoint presentation of the class.

"I think I understand now why most adults are very cranky," said Kuulei Misech, a 12-year-old seventh-grader and LifeNet survivor at Washington Middle School, where Miyamoto teaches.

Now Miyamoto has received a $100,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Education to spread word on the program. The grant helps him disseminate the curriculum for free through a Web site and teacher training classes.

•	To download the LifeNet curriculum, or get details on teacher training for the program, visit lifenet.k12.hi.us

Every sixth-grader at Washington goes through LifeNet, and it is incorporated in all of their classes. In English they may read articles about the economy or in math class they may have to calculate their income taxes.

LifeNet students draw their fate from a bucket, often called the "Can of Doom." Some of them receive lives as high school dropouts, others have a high school diploma and a lucky few become doctors or engineers. About half are married and half are single.

Misech, through the luck of the draw, was an attorney during the LifeNet simulation. She and her "husband" (who, for the record, she thought was "kind of dorky"), were able to rent a house in Portlock and eat lots of seafood for dinner, which eased some of the pain over all of the taxes she had to pay.

"The taxes were the worst," she said. "Anything but the taxes. It's losing money and it's not fun."

She did, however, learn the value of organizing. With all of the budgeting and planning students do, Misech said she had to learn how to keep track of all of their research.

Jayson Tasaka, 13, an eighth-grader at Washington, was a hotel manager married to a lawyer during his LifeNet class two years ago. His favorite part of the exercise was determining — after taxes, living expenses and savings — how much money he could spend on clothes and stereo speakers.

"My friend was a high school dropout and wasn't married," Tasaka said. "He didn't get to have any fun."

Miyamoto said that's the point of LifeNet. He said he hopes students come away with an appreciation for education and a new willingness to stay in school through college.

"I know that the impact of this has longevity," Miyamoto said. "It's not like doing Page 53 out of the math book."

He said students are always outraged that they have to pay for cable television. They can't believe the prices at the grocery store. And, like their parents, they end up hating taxes.

Noelle Taylor, a special education teacher at Noelani Elementary School, has helped two sixth-grade teachers with LifeNet.

"It's a great program," she said. "Just having the kids thinking of things like what it's like to buy a car is interesting. They look at the ads and they say, 'We want a Jaguar or we want a Mercedes.' Then they find out how much it costs."

Her own students, who have learning disabilities and are some of those most frustrated with school, see the value of education when they learn what the high-school dropouts earn compared with the other students, she said.

Miyamoto said his dream is to have as many teachers as possible using LifeNet and sharing their class experiences and materials through the Web.

"Its a revelation for a lot of students," he said. "I like to tell them, 'Hey. You go home and open the refrigerator and have a soda and sit in front of your cable. Take a minute and think about where it came from and go thank your parents.' "

Reach Jennifer Hiller at jhiller@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8084.