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Aloha Guys,
Well, I need some advice..My son is currently going to a charter elementary school in Puna that he is thriving in.
In the next 2 years he will be going to High School. I feel the charter high schools in our area are just not academically strong enough to prepare him for higher education. The only thing that keeps coming up is St. Joseph High school. I'm torn because we are not christians. Does anyone have any other suggestions? Or has anyone sent their kids to this school that are not christians?
Mahalo in advance for your thoughts and suggestions.
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As a longtime Big Island resident and former educator, I do not agree with all those who push St. Joseph School. My niece and nephew went there and it only confirmed what I've learned over the years about that school's lack of academic rigor. It also requires students to take religion courses every year, even if the student is Buddhist. I'd recommend Waiakea High School or Connections Charter School, both in Hilo. There are also online home schooling options. Good luck!
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I attended a Catholic school from 6th through 8th grade, it was a valuable education in the ways of the world for me. As a white-anglo-protestant-male, I had never been discriminated against before. This particular school slighted me in ways subtle, direct and grossly blown out of proportion (the latter were actually funny, after I realized that the Nun wasn't really going to do anything other than yell at me in front of everyone while holding me off the ground by my shirt collar).
In the end, it was a big lesson in not sweating the petty little stuff that people thought was so important. I was cheated out of participating at the track meet, I had to pay disproportionate fines for damage to textbooks, and I was made fun of. In the end, they didn't actually hurt me any more than they hurt each other in the normal course of events - it was a much less damaging place than the public schools, which even back then were much more into the sex and drugs than the Catholics were in 6th to 8th grade.
For 9th grade on, my parents and I decided to go with the drug culture school instead of the Catholics, the catholic high school was just too wierd, and I handled the druggies o.k.
Johnny,
Go check St Joe's out ... Talk to some of the staff and kids ... All pretty normal .. Last years graduating class had 100%
college enrollment.
aloha,
pog
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Connections is interesting. They require that the kids take a college course at HCC to graduate as well as do a senior "project" (I know one boy who is building his own truck out of scavenged parts). The crem de la crem is HPA in Waimea but it's a long haul from puna. We have had foster children and we found Waiakea To be an excellent High school. My hubby teaches in the middle school there. I would avoid Kea'au at all costs. For all the pretty buildings, they have NO general leadership nor quality in most of their divisions. It is a school filled with fights, drugs and more fights. Sorry to sound so negative but it is true. Good luck wherever you decide to send your youth.
I want to be the kind of woman that, when my feet
hit the floor each morning, the devil says
"Oh Crap, She's up!"
I want to be the kind of woman that, when my feet
hit the floor each morning, the devil says
"Oh Crap, She's up!"
Posts: 2,189
Threads: 295
Joined: Sep 2004
quote:
Originally posted by pslamont
Connections is interesting. They require that the kids take a college course at HCC to graduate as well as do a senior "project" (I know one boy who is building his own truck out of scavenged parts). The crem de la crem is HPA in Waimea but it's a long haul from puna. We have had foster children and we found Waiakea To be an excellent High school. My hubby teaches in the middle school there. I would avoid Kea'au at all costs. For all the pretty buildings, they have NO general leadership nor quality in most of their divisions. It is a school filled with fights, drugs and more fights. Sorry to sound so negative but it is true.
Good luck wherever you decide to send your youth. The truth is that no matter how good or how bad a school is, the student makes or breaks the experience by their own personality, work ethic and desire to do well.
Pam
I want to be the kind of woman that, when my feet
hit the floor each morning, the devil says
"Oh Crap, She's up!"
I want to be the kind of woman that, when my feet
hit the floor each morning, the devil says
"Oh Crap, She's up!"
I want to be the kind of woman that, when my feet
hit the floor each morning, the devil says
"Oh Crap, She's up!"
Posts: 57
Threads: 16
Joined: Apr 2007
MAHALO!
I will take all of your good suggestions to heart and will check out Connections as well as Waiakea High. HPA was the first place I contacted Pam, but unfortunately at 20K a year, their doors are closed for us.
