A more positive view of our youth.

[punafish]

For yet another very positive view of our youth, check out Center Stage dance studio (next to Bear's Coffee) while you're enjoying Black and White Night in Hilo this evening. :-)

[Chuysmom]

Our son Kyle was involved with Young Life when he was in high school. It was a positive experience for him and and although we are not highly "religious" this was something we enjoyed watching him participate in.

Carrie Rojo

http://ppl.blastoffnetwork.com/carrierojo
http://www.carrierojo.etsy.com

"The world is changed. I feel it in the water. I feel it in the earth. I smell it in the air. Much that once was is lost, for none now live who remember it." Galadriel - LOTR

[rusty h]

there are "bad" people everywhere and it a shame for them to take advantage of our youth. maybe a good argument for capital punishment. i personally have zero tolorence for molestation!

working as a youth counselor at a youth facility, the stories i hear and deal with are deep. very painful and i only hope and pray healing will come someday for these young men.

the more ideals we come with the better. kids in puna as well in alaska need more options. heck kids everywhere do. we had a band teacher in high school that was a "bad" guy he was caught and sent away and told not to come back, no charges were filed and ive often wondered if he continued to harm youth. a football coach in the local area was convicted and did time, might even got something he deserved while doing time....my kids still took band and played sports.

i cant defend the alter boy thing all i know is thats is a sad thing and young people in the alaskan bush have suffered from these people acting as priests. finally they are being found and punished even tho those things happened many years ago. finally people came forward and the law was enforced.

i only want to help our youth in a positive way, my ways might not jive with others but its positive and gives hope for some if not many. by the way i haved coached many Mormans and they are great kids with pretty wonderful parents...peace

[csgray]

Jerry,
Thanks for asking, I didn't put the name of my school in the post because I didn't want people to think I was "trawling" for students, but I am proud to be the social studies teacher at Connections Public Charter High School in Hilo at the Nani Mau Gardens site, enrollment of about 128+/-. We have many students from Puna as far up the mountain as Volcano, and as far down as Kalapana, and even from Hamakua as well as Hilo students.

Carol

ed. to clarify grade level I teach within the K-12 school.

[JerryCarr]

Thanks for the info, Carol. I had sort of guessed it was one of the Charter Schools and had already heard good things about Connections. I would encourage everyone to support our Charters as they are currently the shining stars of the public system in Hawaii. The DOE has placed many obstacles and disadvantages in their path, but they still generally succeed where the regular schools do not.

Cheers,
Jerry

[rusty h]

i think we all agree that the smaller the numbers the better quality in education. ive seen classes grow too big as well as schools. in the kenai school district (alaska) every time the numbers reach 700 a new school is built.

im not so sure hawaii can afford to build new schools so it only seems smart to have and support the charter schools.

do the charter schools offer extra curricular activities?

peace

[Devany]

Charter Schools are a great idea and Carol's is an example of a fine one. I think she will also tell you that it takes a lot of community support because they are not "given" a lot of the infrastructure that our regular public schools get. Things like Libraries, Labs and such all have to be created by the school.

I enjoy seeing the young Connections kids at the Farmer's Market every Wednesday, what a great way to teach these kids about living sustainably and what grows here. I have a friend whose son went to school there till he reached high school and it was ideal for him as they moved here when he was 10 years old. He is in the top of his graduating class at Hilo High and still has many close friends from his time at Connections.

Rusty, I guess we need a pipeline here so we could keep building schools! That is a great concept though. Here private schools are also very much the option. We have friends who both work in Hilo who moved to Waimea so that there kids could attend HPA. Their commutes are ridiculous, but they wanted to give their kids that kind of education.

Another friend who moved here from the mainland ended up living in Honoka'a vs. Maui because they wanted their kids to go to the Parker School in Waimea.

Lots of decisions are based on the schools. It is such a key thing in a child's life and kids are all different, others bloom in a homeschool environment.

Aloha au i Hawai`i,
devany

www.myhawaiianhome.blogspot.com
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