OUR SCHOOLS • HANAHAU'OLI SCHOOL
Multi-age classrooms work wonders for learning

By Jennifer Hiller
Advertiser Education Writer

At Hanahau'oli School, the second- and third-grade classroom looks more like a large, comfortable library than a traditional classroom.

Students at Hanahau'oli School, displaying recent projects, file past their classmates during an assembly before the start of class. The Makiki school will celebrate its 85th anniversary next year. Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser

Outside on the large classroom's lanai, students are doing experiments to see whether objects will sink or float. In the far corner of the room, another group of students works on a different classroom lesson with a teacher.

It's a unique multi-age classroom, a hallmark of the Hanahau'oli education.

Most classes at the school are multi-age, which school officials says gives students a chance to develop a solid two-year relationship with teachers. Children in kindergarten and first, second and third grades, and fourth and fifth grades are grouped together in classrooms of about 50 students and three teachers. Only junior kindergarten and sixth grade are kept as separate classes.

"We wanted children to have opportunities to be leaders and followers, to care for and support each other and to meet a variety of people," Headmaster Robert Peters said. "School is the only time in life that people are segregated by age. We don't want to separate school from life."

The structure also lets advanced students work ahead and allows others to spend more time grasping concepts.

"Different ages have different developmental needs," Peters said. "We don't look at them as second- or third-graders. We look at growth over time."

The school doesn't give report cards, but charts a child's academic progress over a continuum.

The small campus will celebrate its 85th anniversary next year.

The school's philosophy has always been that children learn best by doing and through firsthand experience. The name Hanahau'oli means "joyous work."

"Play is the basis of all learning," Peters said.

At a hands-on shop class called "physical world lab," the students learn everything from woodworking to sculpting ceramic chess sets. The school's cozy and comfortable library is anything but quiet. A fireman's pole can take students from the second floor to the first if they don't want to use the stairs.

"The library is definitely the hub of the campus," admissions director Carol Komo said. "Kids choose to go to the library for recess. How many schools can say that?"

The school day starts at Hanahau'oli with the ringing of the bronze school bell, while the days close with a handshake by the headmaster to each of the students.

• What are you most proud of? "Our children who graduate from this school love learning," Peters said. In a class called RPM (rhythms, patterns and movement), students combine lessons from French, music and physical education. Music teacher Chris Mullen said they might create a song in French and learn dance steps, with children rotating through playing instruments, singing and dancing. "It helps the children identify their talents and strengths and the weaknesses they need to work on," she said.

• Best-kept secret? Tucked behind a row of hedges in Makiki, the school can be hard to spot.

"I think sometimes this school is the best-kept secret," Peters said. "But we give a substantial amount of financial aid. People think this is a difficult school to get into and they worry about tuition. We keep a mix of socioeconomic levels in the school."

• Everyone at school knows: Jan Kusakabe and Joanne Guy in the school's administration office see a constant parade of students, parents, teachers and board members come to their desks. But with just 200 students on campus, it's hard to not know everyone at Hanahau'oli. "Children find it very manageable," Peters said. "All adults are responsible for all children."

• What we need: The school hopes to break ground on a new junior kindergarten building around Christmas. It has been active in the campaign to pass a constitutional amendment on the Nov. 5 ballot that would allow private schools to use the state's special purpose revenue bonds to finance construction projects. Private schools say the measure would cost the state nothing and bring more construction jobs to Hawai'i through renovation of aging schools. "We've been fortunate to raise enough money to do our project, but it's very difficult for small schools," Komo said.

• Special events: Makahiki, the day-before Thanksgiving ceremony that commemorates the ancient Hawaiian celebration of Lono, God of Harvest. Students wear handmade kapas, stage a play, re-enact the procession of the ali'i and kahunas, and have Hawaiian games, hula and chanting. At Olympics and Oratory, the sixth-graders retell Greek myths and compete in a variety of track and field events. Parents organize an auction that serves as a school fund-raiser. In spring there's a children's fair. On May 1, sixth-grade students unveil the stepping stones they've designed for the campus. It's a longtime tradition for the school, and many alumni from the 1920s and 1930s return to campus to look for their stones.