Peter T Young

October 17, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kawānanakoa Experimental School

This flag that now waves o’er our school
Protecting weak and strong
Is the flag that vindicates the right
And punishes the wrong

The John Dewey Society grew out of a series of discussions held in 1934 and early 1935 among 60 or so educators who wanted to found a society to “encourage in every way possible and itself conduct scholarly and scientific investigations of the relations of school and society, with particular reference to the place and function of education in the process of social change.”

Originally called “The Association for the Study of Education in its Social Aspects,” the name was changed to the John Dewey Society in early 1936. The new society was named for John Dewey because the founders felt that in his life and work he represented the soundest and most hopeful approach to the study of the problems of education.

“For more than a generation he has proclaimed the social nature of the educative process and emphasized the close interdependence of school and society.”

“Presumably, without being bound by his philosophy, the John Dewey Society will work out of the tradition which John Dewey has done more than any other person to create. Such an organization is badly needed in America today.” (The Social Frontier, 1936; John Dewey Society)

Hawai‘i’s Department of Public Instruction launched its most ambitious venture in progressive education in the fall of 1927, when its Division of Research decided to create a ‘laboratory school’ to serve as an experimental model for the Territory. (Forbes)

The former Fort Street School was selected for the site for the laboratory school within the Territorial Department of Public Instruction, and renamed the Kawānanakoa Experimental School. (Legislature)

George E Axtelle was a philosopher of education who is best known as the first editor of the Collected Works of John Dewey and president of the executive committee of the John Dewey Society.

What is less known is that Axtelle served from 1927 as the principal of Kawānanakoa Experimental School in Hawai‘i, tasked with the job of implementing and promoting progressive teaching methods and curriculum.

The experiment had mixed results; yet, in spite of the challenges in encouraging teachers to embrace the demands placed on them by Dewey’s pedagogy the Kawānanakoa experiment did achieve results in moving teachers away from methods based on routine instruction and memorization drills. (UH)

The Kawānanakoa Experimental School was explicitly conceived as a proving-ground of Deweyite principles. According to the official DPI publication on the school, Kawānanakoa was dedicated to the only form of “education worthy of the name… character education.”

While asserting that “Kawānanakoa does not belittle the importance of subject matter,” school officials viewed traditional subjects merely as a “means to an end,” the end being the development of the three aspects of the students’ “social or character objectives, namely intelligence, democracy, and art.”

Moving away from methods based on routine instruction and memorization drills, teachers were expected to constantly evaluate the effectiveness of their work in promoting Health, Initiative, Responsibility, Whole Heartedness, Cooperation, and Open Mindedness. (Forbes)

“In the middle forties the anthropologist, John Embree, and (Bernard Hormann) expressed themselves on the subject of pidgin, advocating a more permissive approach to the local dialect in the teaching of standard English.”

“In reviewing acquaintances this summer with George Axtelle, who was principal of Kawananakoa Experimental School in the late 20’s I was reminded by him how the school had succeeded in overcoming the classroom diffidence of Hawai‘i’s youth which today still worries educators.”

“’When people asked me how I got pupils to talk freely, I explained that my teachers encouraged the children to talk when they had something interesting to say, and did not inhibit them by constantly calling attention to their errors.’” (Hormann)

“In 1928, a teacher from Oklahoma was deeply moved at his first assembly recitation as little Nisei boys seriously recalled our Pilgrim forefathers. Each morning’s flag-raising was conducted as an elaborate pageant involving a color guard, drummer, and four students who recited patriotic verses at various points in the ceremony.

The final speaker concluded with the following lines: “This flag that now waves o’er our school, Protecting weak and strong, Is the flag that vindicates the right, And punishes the wrong.”

Among the students who participated in such school ceremonies was Hiram Fong, later Hawaii’s first Senator. According to Fong s biographer, Michael Chou, “Patriotism as taught in the public school system made a profound and lasting effect upon Fong and his contemporaries.”

“Much of the change, from the plantation mentality and the overthrow of the rule of the Republican oligarchy can be traced back to the teaching of American civics and government in the schools of the Territory. Such patriotic ceremonies helped to instill a sense of self-worth in children, like Fong, often so poor that their clothes consisted of “hand-me-downs made from rice bags.” (Forbes)

Kawānanakoa School was built in 1927, in the ahupua’a of Honolulu. The ahupua‘a runs from the Nuʻuanu Pali to Honolulu Harbor and is flanked on the west by Alewa Heights with Pauoa to the east. KMS sits at the foot of the Pali Highway, just mauka of downtown Honolulu. (kilohanahonua)

In 1940, the school was officially changed to Kawānanakoa Intermediate School and served 1,050 students in grades 7 through 9. In 1998, the name changed to Kawānanakoa Middle School.

Currently, the school serves students from grades 6 through 8 with an enrollment of approximately 800 students. (It was named for Prince David Laʻamea Kahalepouli Kinoiki Kawānanakoa, brother of Prince Kūhiō.)

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Kawananakoa, David, 1868-1908-PP-97-17-004

Brothers David Kawananakoa (1868-1908) and Jonah Kuhio Kalanianaole (1871-1922)-PP-97-2-023

Kawananakoa_logo

October 16, 2016 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Akua

A distant place lying in quietness
For Kū, for Lono, for Kāne, together with Kanaloa

“The Hawaiian Kumulipo is a genealogical prayer chant linking the royal family to which it belonged not only to primary gods belonging to the whole people and worshiped in common with allied Polynesian groups, not only to deified chiefs born into the living world within the family line …”

“… but to the stars in the heavens and the plants and animals useful to life on earth, who must also be named within the chain of birth and their representatives in the spirit world thus be brought into the service of their children who live to carry on the line in the world of mankind.” (Beckwith)

Hawaiian mythology recognizes a pre-human period before mankind was born when spirits alone peopled first the sea and then the land, which was born of the gods and thrust up out of the sea.

Gods are represented in Hawaiian story as chiefs dwelling in far lands or in the heavens and coming as visitors or immigrants to some special locality in the group sacred to their worship. The four great gods worshiped throughout Polynesia were Kāne, Kanaloa, Kū and Lono. (Beckwith)

It seems likely that the four chief gods of Hawaii, with each of whom particular plants and animals that were introduced were identified, represent distinct eras of colonization in the Islands.

It is believed that the first colonizers in the Islands were worshipers of Kāne. With Kāne are identified the taro, sugar cane, and bamboo.

Therefore, that these were introduced by the first settlers, and that it was these colonizers who established systematic agriculture in those areas that were capable of systematic development by means of irrigation.

This was primarily the windward coasts and the valley areas on leeward sides of the islands, where stream systems coming down out of rain-drenched highlands made irrigation feasible.

This would have been an era of relative quiet, one of fairly isolated tribalism, before dynastic patterns and aristocratic traditions of ambitious warrior chieftains had become established. (Handy, Handy & Pukui)

Kanaloa perhaps came next after Kāne. The banana is identified with Kanaloa. In the Islands there is an interesting traditional association of Kāne and Kanaloa, in connection with the opening up of springs.

Also in the mythological account of the creation of man, Kanaloa is associated with Kāne, although he does not appear at the dawn of creation as does Kāne. It is because of the close association of Kanaloa with Kāne that we infer that Kanaloa and the banana came into the islands next after Kāne.

With the god Kū are identified the coconut tree and the breadfruit. Neither of these was planted or utilized, within historic times in Hawai‘i, nearly as extensively as would probably have been the case had they been in the islands for a long time.

It is for this reason that the Kū people were late comers. Kū, although not regarded as lord of the ocean or particularly identified with it in any other way, was the patron of fishing.

Fishing as an organized enterprise was a prerogative of the aliʻi, and everywhere in the Pacific the aliʻi pre-empted the best fishing localities.

War rituals, in Hawaii seem to have been derived from fishing rituals, and Kū was god of war, as well as of fishing. What probably happened was that as the worshipers of Kū became numerous, and rivalry over the best fishing localities brought about predatory wars. (Handy, Handy & Pukui)

The chiefs came to realize that power depended upon population, and that population was a matter of food supply. The description for Kū as a war god was Kū-the-land-snatcher, and this became the symbol of conquest and the means of reduction of the farmers.

The only one of the four major deities in Hawaii who was traditionally a human being is Lono. His apparent historical existence lends credence to the idea that he was the last of the four to come to Hawai‘i.

Lono is identified with the sweet potato, the gourd and the hog. Lono was the god of rain and storms, and as such the ‘father of waters.’

Fresh water as a life-giver was not to the Hawaiians merely a physical element; it had a spiritual connotation. In prayers of thanks and invocations used in offering fruits of the land, and in prayers chanted when planting, and in prayers for rain, the “Water of Life of Kane” is referred to over and over again.

Kane – the word means ‘male’ and ‘husband’ – was the embodiment of male procreative energy in fresh water, flowing on or under the earth in springs, in streams and rivers, and falling as rain (and also as sunshine), which gives life to plants.

There are many prayers in which “the Water of Life of Kāne” is referred to. Occasionally, you will also see the “Water of Life” of Kanaloa, of Lono and of Kū, and even of Hiʻiaka, sister of Pele, a healer.

The old priests were inclined to include in their prayers for rain and for fertility the names of the four major deities, Kāne, Kanaloa, Kū and Lono, whose roles, while on the whole distinct, overlapped in many areas of ritualistic and mythological conceptions.

The religion of the folk-planters and fishers-was sectarian to some extent; some worshiped Kāne, some Kū, some Lono, and some Kanaloa. Regardless of all such distinctions, life-giving waters were sacred. (Handy, Handy & Pukui)

When Hawaiians prayed, in order to include all aspects of God (not to omit or offend any of the akua,) they added to the prayer the words, “E Hoʻoulu ana I kini o ke akua, ka lehu o ke akua, na mano o ke akua” (Invoke we now the 40,000 gods, the 400,000 gods, the 4,000 gods.) (Beckwith)

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October 15, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Geier

When World War I broke out in August 1914, the German gunboat Geier was enroute from Tanganyika to Tsingtao to join Adm. von Spee’s Far Eastern Squadron. Since British, French and Japanese warships threatened further progress toward her destination, she commenced elusive tactics.

In early September, she captured a British freighter, Southport, at Kusaie in the Eastern Carolines; disabled the merchantman’s engines; and steamed on. However, the freighter’s crew repaired the damage; and Southport sailed to Australia where she reported the German gunboat’s presence in the Carolines.

For another month, Geier eluded her hunters; then, in need of repairs and short on coal, she headed for neutral territory and headed to Hawai‘i. (US had not entered the war, yet.) (Navy)

The Geier entered Honolulu in an unseaworthy condition. She put into the port of Honolulu, and on October 15 the captain requested permission to make repairs to render the vessel seaworthy, and estimated the time for this work to be one week.

The naval constructor of the United States at the port of Honolulu examined the vessel on October 20 and recommended that the time be extended eight days from October 20, in order to place the boilers in a seaworthy condition. (Naval War College, International Law Situations, 1931)

The commanding officer reported the necessity of extensive repairs which would require an indefinite period for completion. The vessel was allowed the generous period of three weeks (to November 7) to make repairs and leave the port, or, failing to do so, to be interned.

A longer period would have been contrary to international practice, which does not permit a vessel to remain for a long time in a neutral port.

Shortly after the Geier entered the port of Honolulu the steamer Locksun arrived. It was found that this vessel had delivered coal to the Geier en route and had accompanied her toward Hawaii. She had thus constituted herself a tender or collier to the Geier she was accorded the same treatment and interned on November 7. (American Journal of International Law, 1922)

Both went beyond the November 7, 1914 deadline and both were interned (and the ships and most of their crews remained in the Islands for almost 3-years.)

Unbeknownst to many, “The Geier, although interned was using her wireless all the time … they caught practically all transpacific messages. Here is one entry showing successful wireless communication: December 22, 1914: ‘Telegram received from consulate: Geier will transmit messages to Connoran.’” (Star-Bulletin, December 13, 1917)

“(Individual pledges from the Captain and other officers of) “the Geier (were) handed over to the navy department immediately after internment. It is a promise to the American government to observe all its laws and respect its neutrality.” (Star-Bulletin, December 13, 1917)

The Geier crew was making friends in the Islands. “’Geier Night’ was a gala night at the YMCA last evening and for three solid hours more than 400 members of the German colony of Honolulu with the officers and crew of the Geier enjoyed themselves at every feature on the program.”

“One of the pleasing features of the meeting was the concert by the Geier band. As a musical organization the Geier band has won a leading place in the ranks of the bands in the city.” (Star-Bulletin, August 25, 1916)

Then, a fire, started February 4, 1917, aboard the Geier was evidence of a “concerted action taken by the commanders of the German merchant and naval vessels in port, to disable them completely in case they should fall into the hands of the United States.”

“Although the ship was fired in no other place than the engine room where the boilers were burned out and absolutely ruined the intense heat generated by the redhot metal spread to the steel deck over the engine-room which in turn set fire to a three-inch wooden deck which covered the steel.” (Star Bulletin, February 5, 1917)

“Later military officers in charge went on board and arrested the entire crew after Capt. Grasshof of the Geier had officially surrendered his ship to the United States, and then began the task of removing all the German officers and men and marching them to places of detention at the army posts under guard of regulars.”

“The actual interning of the Geier was performed … by Collector of the Port Malcolm A. Franklin, and the boat and crew were then turned over to the navy department. These paroles or pledges, therefore, were given to the navy’ department, Admiral Charles B. T. Moore, commandant.” (Star-Bulletin, December 13, 1917)

The “Navy took charge of crew and officers of Geier … and turned them over to the army for transfer of place of internment. The crews being divided between Schofield, Shafter and DeRussy.”

“It was stated today that all the Germans taken over by the army yesterday are in guardhouses and under guard. They will be allowed exercise every day, but in general their imprisonment will be close.” (Maui News)

“Virtually they are prisoners, though they were taken yesterday under the status of ‘interned aliens.’” (Star-Bulletin, February 5, 1917)

“The flag and pennant were left up and a small number of crew left on board In accordance with internment regulations. On going on board it was found that Geier machinery and half the boilers had been disabled.” (Star Bulletin, February 5, 1917)

On April 6, 1917, the US entered the war. Geier was seized and refitted for United States Navy service; renamed Schurz on June 9; and commissioned on 15 September 1917, Comdr. Arthur Crenshaw in command.

On October 31, Schurz stood out of Pearl Harbor to escort Submarine Division 3 to San Diego. Arriving on November 12, she continued on with the submarines, K-3, K-4, K-7, and K-8, in early December. At the end of the month, the convoy transited the Panama Canal, whence the gunboat and her charges moved northwest to Honduras.

Assigned to the American Patrol Detachment, Schurz departed Charleston toward the end of April and, for the next two months, conducted patrols and performed escort duty and towing missions along the east coast and in the Caribbean.

On June 19, she departed New York for Key West. At 0444 on the 21st, southwest of Cape Lookout lightship, she was rammed by the merchant ship, Florida. Florida hit Schurz on the starboard side, crumpling that wing of the bridge, penetrating the well and berth deck about 12 feet, and cutting through bunker no. 3 to the forward fire room.

One of Schurz’s crew was killed instantly; twelve others were injured. Schurz was abandoned. Three hours later, she sank. The name Schurz was struck from the Navy list on August 26, 1918. (Navy)

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Geier – Honolulu Harbor-PP-40-3-018

SMS Geier in 1894

USS Schurz – Geier

SMS-Geier-WC-1894

S.M.S. Geier_-Interning_Sailors-Hawaii-1914

Kaiser Wilhelm II visiting the German cruiser SMS Geier

Kaiser Wilhelm II inspecting the officers of the German cruiser SMS Geier

Kaiser Wilhelm II inspecting the crew of the German cruiser SMS Geier

Kaiser Wilhelm (center) aboard SMS Geier

German cruiser SMS Geier of the Imperial German Navy, circa 1894 to 1914

Geier in Havana in 1898

USS Schurz – Geier

Cruiser SMS Geier 1894

October 14, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Charlie Chaplin

“You wish to write my impressions of Hilo. Very good. Here it is. I saw the volcano.” (Charlie Chaplin, Los Angeles; Volcano House Register, NPS)

“There are many charms in Hilo other than the Volcano. A maidenly diffidence forbids me suggesting the possessor of them.” (Edna Purviance, Los Angeles; Volcano House Register, NOS)

“Charlie in his honest-to-goodness self and personality today walked up the main street of Honolulu. So thousands of movie fans who have laughed themselves hoarse the antics and swagger of the jovial Charlie on the screen will have an opportunity for the next few week of occasionally bumping into that worthy the streets.”

“Charlie arrived on the Matsonia. In the Chaplin party also were Miss Eda Purviance, another well known screen star; Tom Harrington and Bob Wagner of the Saturday Evening Post staff.”

“Wagner is accompanying Charlie on his trip just for the sake of being with him and to record the personal side of the vacation.
Charlie is here primarily for rest and to see the sights of the islands.”

“His trip, at least at present, has nothing to do with the possibility of staging comic scenario the islands, though Charlie is not averse to picking up few hints that may serve him well in his business of making humanity laugh away dull care.”

“Charlie and his party were the life of the boat coming over and made things gay for the passengers, aided and abetted by R. J. Buchly of the First National bank, who as terpischore expert taught Charlie and Miss Purviance a few steps. The dancing lessons were the occasion for more merriment aboard the Matsonia.”

“Charlie visited the Young hotel this morning and called on Mr Van Loan, the movie photographer. This gave rise to the rumor that Chaplin was down here in Honolulu to take some films.”

“‘No sire!’ he replied emphatically. ‘You don’t catch me doing any work while I’m down here. I’m on vacation, and I’m going to rest.’”

“Charlie was asked what he thought of Honolulu. ‘Great,’ he exclaimed, enthusiastically: ‘I love every minute of it. I wish I could stay here longer. I’m tickled to death with the place. I was going to New York instead but, say, this has got anything I’ve seen beaten by a mile.’”

“Although the film star is minus his dinky moustache and cane, derby hat and huge shoes, he is still the same old Charlie, and could hardly get by in a crowd without being discovered. He is going to get out on a surfboard and be a regular kamaaina, he says.” (Star Bulletin, October 10, 1917)

“Charley Chaplin managed to see a good deal of Hawaii in the short week he stayed in the Islands, one reason being that while here he outfitted himself with new glasses. Pleased with his new outlook on things Hawaiian, Chaplin had his co-star Miss Purviance, also fitted with new glasses.”

“As a final result, Dr. RA Thompson has added a much prized letter of appreciation from Chaplin to the collection of other testimonials to his optician skill, letters written by former President Roosevelt, Former President Tuft, William Jennings Bryan, Elbert Hubbard, Billy Sunday and other celebrities.”

“The autographed letter from Charley Chaplin is a highly complimentary one and highly prized by its recipient. Doctor Thompson has definitely decided to make his home in Honolulu, opening an office here for the practice of his profession.” (Hawaiian Gazette, October 19, 1917)

“The famous Charlie Chaplin arrived in Honolulu October 10, and while he intended to come for a rest between custard pie throwing contests, he was kept extremely busy sightseeing.”

“Photographers camped on his trail and snapped him riding the surfboards on the beach at Waikiki, eating two-fingered poi, dancing with the hula girls and even flirting with Pele, the Goddess of Fire, on the edge of the volcano at Kilauea.”

“Charlie likes Hawaii’s style and he fain would stay a while, loafing on the sun-kissed sand, eating poi with either hand; listening to the ukulele played by Waikiki Bill Bailey; eating dog in guise of pig; practicing the hula jig.”

“But he’s got to get back home and with us may no more roam – back to make a nation smile in rare Charlie Chaplin’s way.” (Logan Republican, November 15, 1917)

Charlie & Edna Purviance in Hawaii, 1917. Charlie met Edna in a cafe in San Francisco in 1914. He said later that she was ‘more than pretty, she was beautiful’. She went on to appear in 34 films with Chaplin from 1915-1923. She is my favorite of his leading ladies.

They had a certain sweetness onscreen that Charlie didn’t have with any of his other leading ladies-in my opinion anyway. Charlie & Edna cared deeply about each other long after their romantic relationship ended and Charlie kept Edna on his payroll until her death in 1958.

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Charlie Chaplin en route to Hawaii 1917

Charlie Chaplin, Edna Purviance and Robert Wagner-1917

Edna Purviance, Charlie Chaplin and Robert Wagner-1917

Charlie & Edna in Hawaii, 1917

Charlie & Edna

Charlie Chaplin, Robert Wagner and Edna Purviance-Volcano-1917

TheImmigrant-1917

October 13, 2016 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Red Vest

At daybreak, on November 24, 1816, the ship Rurick faced the coast of Hawai‘i. Captain von Kotzebue had previously been advised of a strong anti-Russian feeling ‘in the air’, as a result of the awkwardly aggressive maneuvers of the Russian (Georg Anton Schäffer) against Kamehameha’s political primacy. (Charlot)

In 1815, Schäffer had been sent to Hawai‘i to retrieve cargo and the sailors’ possessions of the Russian ship ‘Bering’ that were confiscated by Kaua‘i’s ruler, Kaumuali‘i. Schäffer arrived in Honolulu and Kamehameha granted him permission to build a storehouse near Honolulu Harbor; instead, they built a fort.

“(Q)uarrels ensued between the Russians and the natives, in which the latter (by the account of the narrator,) appeared in a very advantageous position …”

“… the ships, on leaving the Sandwich Islands, threatened to return soon with a strong reinforcement, mentioning particularly a man-of-war, that would likewise oppose the inhabitants.” (Voyage of Discovery, Otto von Kotzebue)

So, now, the Russians were back in Hawai‘i – “the king (Kamehameha) had actually expected a hostile man-of-war, and had already given orders to line the whole coast with soldiers; who, to the number of 400, armed with muskets, stood already prepared.” (Otto von Kotzebue)

“On the shore, countess people were under arms. The old king, in front of whose house we landed, was sitting upon a raised terrace, surrounded by his wives, and dressed in his native costume, the red malo and the black tapa, the wide beautiful folded cape .… Tammeamea (Kamehameha) received us frigidly.” (De Chamisso; Charlot)

However, peace prevailed, “The king sent me word that he regretted that he could not come to me onboard, since the jealousy of his people would not permit it; that he, himself had a better opinion of us, after his naja had acquainted him with the object of our voyage …”

“… and, as a token of his friendly sentiments, he, invited me to his camp, where he promised to treat me with a pig, baked on the ground.” (Otto von Kotzebue)

Louis Choris, the official artist on the Rurick, “asked Tammeamea permission to do his portrait; this project seemed to please him very much, but he asked me to leave him alone an instant, so he could dress.”

“Imagine my surprise on seeing this monarch display himself in the costume of a sailor; he wore blue trousers, a red waistcoat, a clean white shirt and a necktie of yellow silk. I begged him to change his dress; he refused absolutely and insisted on being painted as he was.” (Charlot)

“Mr. Choris succeeded admirably well in taking his likeness, although Tammeamea, to make it more difficult, would not set still for a moment, but was making grimaces all the time. At five o’clock in the afternoon we took leave of the king.”

“An attendant not having yet arrived, I promised to wait for him near the land. A well-made quiet horse, which he had obtained from an American ship, he kept as a curiosity, and suffered it to run about free. A number of little boys near the shore had hardened the sand by stamping on it, and drew on it, with ability, the Rurick under sail.” (Otto von Kotzebue)

Initially, Choris “had side by side with the king’s picture the drawing of a woman of the middle class.” Added Adelbert de Chamisso, the botanist of the expedition, “Mr Young, to whom this page was shown, expressed his doubts of the propriety of such a combination.”

“He advised our friend (Choris) either to separate the two pictures or not to show them at all. Therefore the page was cut in two before the King was shown to other Hawaiians.” (Charlot)

From Hawaii, the Rurick went to Oahu for provisioning and repairs, anchoring at Honolulu. An event of its stay was the visit aboard of Kamehameha’s vice-regent for the island, Kalanimoku, and his retinue. (Charlot)

“They immediately recognized Tammeamea’s portrait, and when it became known that we had Tammeamea on paper, we daily received a crowd of visitors who wished to see him.” (Otto von Kotzebue)

Kamehameha obviously preferred western dress, whereas Choris wished to present him in the traditional kapa attire; however, knowing that the western world would be the audience for the artist’s depiction, Kamehameha presented himself as a civilized ruler in western wear. (Mission Houses)

His drawings of the king were so admired in Hawaii that some soon found their way abroad. One had apparently reached Manila long before the artist himself did two years later; and when Choris finally arrived there aboard the Rurick in December of 1818, he found his portrait being copied en masse.

von Chamisso wrote in Manila that “American merchants had already gained possession of (Choris’s) picture and had had many copies made for commerce in the Chinese painting factories.” (Boston Athenaeum)

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