07-04-2005, 10:32 AM
Aloha All.
I am April. I have lived in Northern California my entire adult life. But for about 15 years I spent half the year living and working on Maui. I have substituted in the public schools, counseled in the Women's Center at Maui Community College and taken graduate courses at UH and teacher credential courses at Chaminade University. I am in the midst of finishing my credential at present and have the dream of teaching/counseling on the Big Island. I am seriously considering teaching in a private school only because the laws and regulations introduced with No Child Left Behind has made both being educated as a teacher and the actual job of teaching a very cold, artless and heartless endeavor. Pretty much the art inherit in teaching has been rung from the profession and replaced with such incredible demands that I have had 1st grade teachers apologize to me for not being able to provide me with a science lesson to observe; they only have time for the proscribed and scripted reading and math courses in their school day. So sad. I long to work with the little ones and would like, if possible, to give them a bit more broad and rich educational experience. I'm a bit daunted by the fact that HI will make me pass their teacher exam (after taking the danged California CSET just to get into a program! I don't think that most people appreciate exactly how much preparation, exams, certification processes and continuing classes every teacher has to fulfill. All this plus the demands of the classroom, meetings, committees, etc. for a very modest salary. Every teacher I know spends his/her own money for classroom supplies, too.) I also am considering Special Education. I am rambling... sorry. I chose Hilo side because I grew to love and cherish the rainy side on Maui and for the more local, less touristy ambience and the proximity to UH.
The first visit I made to Big Island, both volcanoes began erupting. I've always thought this was a significant event--of what, I'm not quite certain. My visits to Hawaii have been with friends living there, so I've been blessed to know and experience in intimate and adventurous fashion an amazing reality that perhaps many visitors may miss. Working in HI and, particularly, in the schools has given me the chance to meet many local and diverse individuals that just hanging out with my haole friends would not.
I have spent a great deal of my younger life on Makena beach back when Big Beach was the place to be--we would stay overnight. (A BI aside: I camped at Hapuna when the wind was blowing so hard I couldn't believe it! I also spent a night in a tent near Huelo on Maui where the wind blew so hard the tent was horizontal.) But I digress.
I have been caring for my mother so my friend and employer went to HI to look for an acre or two for me. I want to be able to grow a lot of food and flowers. But sometimes his ideas for me are a bit different than mine and I have ended up with a lot in Hawaiian Shores. I'm not certain how subdivision living will be for me since I've been blessed to live on and caretake 90 acres on a ridgetop in the redwoods for many years now. Probably in my perfect world I would spend six months in Hawaii and six months here forever. The best of both worlds.
I am fully aware of the trials the loving energy of the islands of Hawaii can test us with--but the spiritual energy of the islands no ka oi.
Many blessings.
april
I am April. I have lived in Northern California my entire adult life. But for about 15 years I spent half the year living and working on Maui. I have substituted in the public schools, counseled in the Women's Center at Maui Community College and taken graduate courses at UH and teacher credential courses at Chaminade University. I am in the midst of finishing my credential at present and have the dream of teaching/counseling on the Big Island. I am seriously considering teaching in a private school only because the laws and regulations introduced with No Child Left Behind has made both being educated as a teacher and the actual job of teaching a very cold, artless and heartless endeavor. Pretty much the art inherit in teaching has been rung from the profession and replaced with such incredible demands that I have had 1st grade teachers apologize to me for not being able to provide me with a science lesson to observe; they only have time for the proscribed and scripted reading and math courses in their school day. So sad. I long to work with the little ones and would like, if possible, to give them a bit more broad and rich educational experience. I'm a bit daunted by the fact that HI will make me pass their teacher exam (after taking the danged California CSET just to get into a program! I don't think that most people appreciate exactly how much preparation, exams, certification processes and continuing classes every teacher has to fulfill. All this plus the demands of the classroom, meetings, committees, etc. for a very modest salary. Every teacher I know spends his/her own money for classroom supplies, too.) I also am considering Special Education. I am rambling... sorry. I chose Hilo side because I grew to love and cherish the rainy side on Maui and for the more local, less touristy ambience and the proximity to UH.
The first visit I made to Big Island, both volcanoes began erupting. I've always thought this was a significant event--of what, I'm not quite certain. My visits to Hawaii have been with friends living there, so I've been blessed to know and experience in intimate and adventurous fashion an amazing reality that perhaps many visitors may miss. Working in HI and, particularly, in the schools has given me the chance to meet many local and diverse individuals that just hanging out with my haole friends would not.
I have spent a great deal of my younger life on Makena beach back when Big Beach was the place to be--we would stay overnight. (A BI aside: I camped at Hapuna when the wind was blowing so hard I couldn't believe it! I also spent a night in a tent near Huelo on Maui where the wind blew so hard the tent was horizontal.) But I digress.
I have been caring for my mother so my friend and employer went to HI to look for an acre or two for me. I want to be able to grow a lot of food and flowers. But sometimes his ideas for me are a bit different than mine and I have ended up with a lot in Hawaiian Shores. I'm not certain how subdivision living will be for me since I've been blessed to live on and caretake 90 acres on a ridgetop in the redwoods for many years now. Probably in my perfect world I would spend six months in Hawaii and six months here forever. The best of both worlds.
I am fully aware of the trials the loving energy of the islands of Hawaii can test us with--but the spiritual energy of the islands no ka oi.
Many blessings.
april
april