Schools | Page 29 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

February 22, 2016 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Linekona School

In 1865, the board of education adopted a policy of separating school children by sex, and the Town Free School became the Mililani Girls School. (Town Free School was successor of Oʻahu Charity School – the first English-language-focused school, primarily for half-Hawaiian/half-foreign children.)

Most all the boys were sent to the Royal School; however, some of the students instead went to the Fort Street School, a newly formed private school.

In 1873, the Fort Street School went public, and in 1895 was split to create Kaʻiulani Elementary and the islands’ first public high school – Honolulu High School.

“The Honolulu High School is especially adapted to the needs of those who speak the English language as a mother tongue and to no others. It accommodates but passably a few of the exceptionally bright pupils of the much larger class who have the language to learn after entering school.”

“Taking into account the number of English speaking persons in Honolulu, it will be observed that the high school is of very creditable size.” (Report of the Minister of Public Instruction, 1899)

The high school met at the former palace of Princess Ruth on Emma Street (Keoua Hale) until 1908. At that time a new structure was built across from Thomas Square (at the corner of Beretania and Victoria streets – in William Maertens’ former home, where the University of Hawaiʻi started.)

The high school moved in and it was renamed President William McKinley High School, after President William McKinley, whose influence brought about the annexation of the Hawaiian Islands to the US.

The building served that function until the larger, present McKinley High was erected in 1923. At this time, the school was renamed Linekona (Lincoln) Elementary; it was the main elementary school in Honolulu. (NPS)

“A very marked improvement has been attained in the architecture of buildings recently erected in Hawaiʻi and the school-houses, constructed within the last few years, have kept pace with the movement. This is notably true of the imposing … building which compares most favorably with any of its kind in the world.”

“This structure, built of hollow concrete blocks, is two stories high and contains eight properly ventilated well-equipped class-rooms, a physical and a chemical laboratory, an up-to-date commercial department, a library and a comfortable and spacious assembly hall.”

“In addition there is a principal’s office, ladies’ retiring room, each provided with all conveniences, two hat rooms for the use of students, a specimen and apparatus room for the physics laboratory, a private chemistry laboratory and a dark room connected with the chemical laboratory.”

“The stage in the assembly hall is fourteen by twenty-four feet provided with a sliding curtain. The hat rooms are furnished with shelves and hooks for hanging garments and also umbrella racks.”

“The toilets have enameled closets without wooden tops, and rooms with shower baths are in one corner. The building is lighted throughout with electricity.”

“The ceilings and walls are plastered and tinted with colors pleasing to the eye. A wainscot extends from the floor to the blackboard and all the woodwork throughout the building is natural finish.”

“Large windows admit an abundance of light and these, together with the open transoms on the inside walls of the rooms assure good ventilation.” (King; Thrum, 1908)

The building housed Linekona School until 1956 when a new elementary school (renamed President Abraham Lincoln Elementary School) was built on Auwaiolimu Drive.

In 1957, the former Ala Moana School, which taught children with learning difficulties, occupied the building. Starting in the early 1970s, the building was used to teach English as a second language. (NPS)

In 1990, the building was renovated as the “Academy Art Center at Linekona,” the largest art private school in Hawaiʻi, under the administration of the Honolulu Academy of Arts.

The building is now used as the Honolulu Museum of Art School, reaching out to children and adults through studio art classes, workshops with visiting artists, school programs, outreach programs and exhibitions.

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Lincoln School-(vintagehawaii)-1940

Linekona-HHF

McKinley High School-Linekona-Academy_Art_Center-(ksbe)

Honolulu Museum of Art School

McKinley_HS-Then_Linekona_School-Now_the_Academy_Art_Center

February 10, 2016 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

CTAHR

“A Kingdom without a university looks like an anomaly. Education in this Kingdom is unquestionably on a respectable footing. The foundation of a Hawaiian national university is consequently not a chimerical idea.”

“The King and country should feel proud at the thought of a Hawaiian University lifting its head beside all the other universities of the world. The Curriculum, of course, would embrace the faculties of law, medicine and divinity.”

“A school of medicine is highly desirable here, as well as law school, and a regular school of divinity How is the Kingdom to be supplied with lawyers , doctors and divines?” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, July 7, 1877)

On January 4, 1893, the Hawaii Bureau (later Board) of Agriculture and Forestry was established in the Kingdom of Hawaii. From the remnants of the Royal Hawaiian Agricultural Society (1850–1869), the Hawaiian Sugar Planters’ Association was established in 1895, and during this period, the seeds of the US Agricultural Experiment Station were planted.

On May 25, 1900, Congress allocated money for reconnaissance and eventually to establish an agricultural experiment station in Hawai‘i. The investigation confirmed that establishing a federal research station in the Territory of Hawaii was appropriate, and on April 5, 1901, Jared Smith stepped off a ship in Honolulu to become its special agent in charge. (CTAHR)

The Farmers’ Institute, along with the Hawaiian Poultry Association, organized the Territorial Agricultural Exhibits in 1906 and 1908. Institute members also voted to petition the US Secretary of Agriculture to assign a tobacco expert to Hawai‘i and to assist in a soil survey.

Meanwhile, it wasn’t until thirty years after the editorial noted at the beginning that, “An act to establish the College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts of the Territory of Hawai‘i” was passed by the Hawai‘i’s Territorial Legislature and was signed into law by Governor George Carter on March 25th, 1907.

The University of Hawaiʻi began as a land-grant college, initiated out of the 1862 US Federal Morrill Act funding for “land grant” colleges. Since the federal government could not “grant” land in Hawaiʻi as it did for most states, it provided a guarantee of $30,000 a year for several years, which increased to $50,000 for a time.

Cornell graduate John Gilmore, who had agriculture school experience in the Philippines and China took over as president. Gilmore was allowed to recruit faculty members, several of whom were Cornell graduates, thus establishing a “Cornell connection” that still exists today in the college. (CTAHR)

The regents chose the present campus location in lower Mānoa on June 19, 1907. In 1911, the name of the school was changed to the “College of Hawaiʻi.”

The campus was a relatively dry and scruffy place, “The early Mānoa campus was covered with a tangle of kiawe trees, wild lantana and panini cactus”.

The new College of Hawaii campus was also a working farm from the first day. A majority of the property, once cleared of rocks and brush, went to the college’s teaching farm. It appears the first structures built were a poultry shed and a dairy barn.

In 1912, the college moved to the present Mānoa location (the first permanent building is known today as Hawaiʻi Hall.) The first Commencement was June 3, 1912. On July 1, 1920, the College of Hawaiʻi became the University of Hawaiʻi.

On July 1, 1929, the US Agricultural Experiment Station came under joint management of USDA and the university, and all the federal employees who had been operating as federal extensions agents were transferred to the university. David Crawford, the university president, was also the first permanent director of extension under the newly formed relationship.

One of the most unique aspects of agricultural research and education in Hawai‘i, since the early 1900s, has been the cooperative relationship that prevailed among various entities concerned with creating successful agriculture in the Islands.

This included the US Agricultural Experiment Station, the Hawaiian Sugar Planters’ Association (now the Hawaii Agriculture Research Center), the Pineapple Research Institute, the Bureau of Agriculture and Forestry (now the Hawai‘i Department of Agriculture), and the college and university (all within a few miles of each other.)

The founding of the Graduate School of Tropical Agriculture at UH in 1931 brought together educators from these organizations, as well as the Bishop Museum, to teach graduate students. The Agricultural Engineering Institute was a direct result of a successful collaboration among three research institutions in 1947. (CTAHR)

The College of Agriculture was established in 1947 when faculty from the Cooperative Extension Service and the Experiment Station merged with the agriculture and home economics teaching faculty in the College of Applied Science.

Twenty-three years later, it was renamed the College of Tropical Agriculture (emphasizing the tropical nature of Hawai‘i’s environment and agricultural commodities.)

In 1978, the Cooperative Extension Service and the Hawaii Agricultural Experiment Station were brought closer together to create the Hawaii Institute of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources (HITAHR). Research and extension faculty were administratively included in the newly renamed College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources (CTAHR.)

One of the oldest artifacts of Hawai‘i’s Extension Service is ‘Minnie Lee’, the Extension hibiscus (a cross between the ‘Agnes Galt’ hibiscus and a “common yellow” variety.) This large yellow flower with a pinkish-red throat became a symbol of the program’s statewide outreach organization.

‘Minnie Lee’ was bred by Mr. AM Bush and first planted on Maui on May 25, 1929, about a year after the Extension Service officially started in Hawai‘i. It was named for the wife and daughter of William Lloyd, who came from Washington, DC for a year to formally establish the Extension Service. (Lots of information here is from CTAHR.)

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CTAHR-UH Campus-Hawaii_Hall-Farm on Right-1910s

UH_Manoa-PP-59-6-009-00001-portion

CTAHR-UH Campus-Farm on Left

College of Hawaii’s farm (1920)

UH Manoa-College Farm

CTAHR-UH-Campus Map-1949

CTAHR-Related Facilities-Map

USDA Fruit Fly Laboratory (1931)

U.S Agricultural Experiment Station (circa 1901)

Territorial Normal School-1907

Pineapple Research Institute (1931)

Hawaii Sugar Planter’s Experiment Station (1904)

Hawaii Department of Agriculture-1930

College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts (well prior to 1907)

Bishop Museum (1889)

Minnie Lee Hibiscus

January 21, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Junior … Intermediate … Middle

The arrival of the first company of American Protestant missionaries in Hawaiʻi in 1820 marked the beginning of Hawaiʻi’s phenomenal rise to literacy.

The missionaries were scattered across the Islands, each home was usually in a thickly inhabited village, so that the missionary and his wife could be close to their work among the people. The missionaries established schools associated with their missions .

On July 14, 1826, the American missionaries finalized a 12-letter alphabet for the written Hawaiian language, using five vowels (a, e, i, o and u) and seven consonants (h, k, l, m, n, p and w.) That alphabet continues today.

Planning for the written Hawaiian language and development by the missionaries was modeled after the spoken language, attempting to represent the spoken Hawaiian sounds with English letters.

Interestingly, these same early missionaries taught their lessons in Hawaiian to the Hawaiians, rather than English. The missionaries learned the Hawaiian language, and then taught the Hawaiians in their language. In part, the mission did not want to create a separate caste and portion of the community as English-speaking Hawaiians.

Common schools (where the 3 Rs were taught) sprang up in villages all over the Islands. In these common schools, classes and attendance were quite irregular, but nevertheless basic reading and writing skills (in Hawaiian) and fundamental Christian doctrine were taught to large numbers of people. (Canevali)

The chiefs became proponents for education and edicts were enacted by the King and the council of chiefs to stimulate the people to reading and writing.

“Statute for the Regulation of Schools” passed by the King and chiefs on October 15, 1840. Its preamble stated, “The basis on which the Kingdom rests is wisdom and knowledge.”

“Peace and prosperity cannot prevail in the land, unless the people are taught in letters and in that which constitutes prosperity. If the children are not taught, ignorance must be perpetual, and children of the chiefs cannot prosper, nor any other children”.

The 1840 educational law mandated compulsory attendance for children ages four to fourteen. Any village that had fifteen or more school-age children was required to provide a school for their students.

William Richards, a missionary, was appointed Minister of Public Instruction and helped develop a highly-organized educational system. He was later replaced by missionary Richard Armstrong. Richard Armstrong is known as the “the father of American education in Hawaiʻi.”

In 1855 the office of Minister was replaced by the Board of Education, whose members were appointed by the King, and the department was named the Department of Public Instruction.

The educational system and means of instruction evolved over time, in the Islands and across the continent. Younger learners were first in ‘preparatory’ or ‘grammar’ schools in the Islands (we now generally refer to these as elementary schools.)

Older learners were in ‘colleges’ (i.e. Oahu College (Punahou,) St Louis College;) these are now typically called high schools.

Historically, grades K-8 were considered ‘elementary.’ In 1888 on the continent, Charles Eliot launched an effort to reorganize schooling, arguing that the last years of elementary school was a waste and students should be working on college preparatory courses instead. Rather than grades 7 and 8 as part of elementary, the push was to put them in the high school.

Then, on July 6, 1909, the Columbus, Ohio, Board of Education authorized the creation of the first junior high school in the US. (Ohio History Central)

In the Islands, between 1909 and 1920 the education system underwent a series of changes. In 1909, school agents were replaced by supervising principals; in 1913 the building and maintenance responsibilities of the school agents were transferred out of the department to the Counties. (State Archives)

In 1920, a report was published on the survey of schools conducted by the Bureau of Education of the Federal Department of the Interior.

The report noted that on the continent typical middle-class families in America were sending their children to public secondary schools, but in Hawai‘i, public schools were so few and geographically isolated, that many had to go to private schools or were forced to drop out.

Therefore, the commission recommended the establishment of secondary or Junior high schools which should offer more academic and vocational choices to feed various high schools. (NPS) There was a rapid increase in the establishment of Junior high schools.

By 1922, there were six in the rural parts of the state. In 1928, Central Grammar School became Central Junior High School with an enrollment of approximately 1,200 students and 47 teachers. It was one of 5 Junior high schools in Honolulu (with Lincoln, Washington, Kalākaua and Lili‘uokalani.) (NPS)

Then, in 1932, the board of education changed all formerly-named Junior High Schools to Intermediate Schools. (NPS) The education department continued to maintain a policy of naming Intermediate schools after American Presidents or members of the Hawaiian Royal family.

Then, a new reform movement took place with the Junior/Intermediate-aged students (~11-13;) rather than have a focus on college preparatory, school reformers were looking for an educational program to meet the intellectual, emotional, and the interpersonal needs of young adolescents. (Jadallah)

In 1963, William Alexander first used the expression middle school to describe the schools between elementary and high school. Alexander, regarded as the ‘father of the middle-school,’ led the movement to create middle-schools and a middle-level curriculum that would meet the unique needs of young adolescents. (McFarland)

The Carnegie Corporation (1989) issued a report that profoundly affected the education of young adolescents. ‘Turning Points’ advocated reforms intended to make their education more personalized, supportive, and active: interdisciplinary teams, cooperative learning, involvement with families and community, mentoring, and active teaching. (Daniels)

With a new program, school names started to change again. While no wholesale change took place (as happened with the Junior High to Intermediate,) Intermediate schools in the Islands started adopting the ‘Middle School’ philosophy and label.

Today, while the Junior High School reference is long gone, there are many Intermediate and Middle Schools across the Islands.

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JA Cummins Junior High School

January 10, 2016 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Oʻahu Charity School

Andrew Johnstone, born in Dundee, Scotland in 1794, came to the US in 1813; he and his wife (Rebecca Worth Johnstone) were members of the Fourth Company of missionaries to the Islands, arriving on June 7, 1831. (Mission Houses)

The missionaries stationed at Honolulu were overwhelmed with working with the native Hawaiian population, preaching, translating the Bible, preparing text books and superintending the Hawaiians in schools. (Alexander)

The missionaries taught their lessons in Hawaiian to the Hawaiians, rather than English. In part, the mission did not want to create a separate caste and portion of the community as English-speaking Hawaiians.

Johnstone, by a previous understanding, devoted part of his time to visiting seamen and distributing Bibles and other books among them. During one of these visits, he met the 12 or 14-year-old son of Captain Carter, commanding the English Cutter ‘William Little’ then in port.

Johnstone offered young Carter some books and invited him to his house; in a day or two he brought with him another lad, the son of a foreign resident, who asked Johnstone to teach him to read.

Johnstone agreed, and very soon one and another boy came asking the same favor, to the point where a regular class was formed. (Alexander)

Meanwhile, “(m)arriages between foreigners and Hawaiians appear of late to be rapidly increasing, and it has been the custom of many parents to send their offspring to the United States to receive an education.” (Polynesian, April 10, 1841)

Some of the parents of half-Hawaiian/half-foreign children wanted their children to learn the English language. There was an evident and growing need for an English language school. (Polynesian, April 10, 1841)

Soon, a subscription was opened to raise funds for the creation of a school house for the instruction of English-speaking children. Generous donations were made by some of the residents, and an orphan-school fund was created. This led to the establishment of the ‘Oʻahu Charity School.’

The missionaries supported Johnstone’s efforts at their June 1832 ‘General Meeting,’ resolving “That the Mission approve of Mr and Mrs Johnstone’s continuing their attention to the instruction of the children of foreigners, making annually such a report to the Mission of the school and their labors, as is required of the rest of our number in our respective spheres of action.”

The King granted a lot for the school in an area of Honolulu known as Mililani. On September 3, 1832, the subscribers met and approved the construction of a schoolhouse. (Polynesian, April 10, 1841)

“It is a neat substantial building of stone, 56 feet long and 26 feet wide, fitted up with benches, and other conveniences, for a school-room”. (Sailor’s Magazine, August 1838) (It stood in a lane running from King to Queen Street near the Waikiki end of the Judiciary building. (Goodale))

“On looking around the room, it appeared well furnished with cards, maps, books, slates, &c, of an excellent character and in sufficient variety.” (Polynesian, November 14, 1840)

“Thirty five children of both sexes having been admitted, the school was opened on the 10th Jan. 1833. … The children were all beginners, and nearly all entirely ignorant of the language of their teachers.” (Polynesian, April 10, 1841)

“Until the establishment of this institution, the education of (the children of Hawaiian mothers and foreign fathers) was almost entirely neglected, but now they appear to be in a fair way to become fitted for stations of usefulness and respectability in life.) (Polynesian, November 14, 1840)

Oʻahu Charity School was the first school in the Islands and the first school on the Pacific where the English language was used (it was one of six English language schools west of the Rockies.) In fact, it received pupils from the US, Alaska and Mexico. (NEA, February 1922)

In 1842, nine boys from the best families of California were sent here to be educated at the Oʻahu Charity School. One of these boys was José Antonio Romualdo Pacheco, Jr. He came to the Islands when he was 7-years old, and was in the Islands for five years. He later became the 12th-Governor of American California.

The School continued to increase in numbers and usefulness; however, there was a falling out and the Johnstones left (January 22, 1844) and formed their own school.

During the years Pacheco attended the School, its good reputation and numbers steadily increased. Students were arriving from the Russian settlement of Kamchatka, while others were coming from California and the other Hawaiian Islands.

The school had dormitories for the students who were either orphans or who had been sent from distant places. The curriculum was comprehensive and substantial, including classes to teach the Hawaiian language, writing, reading, mathematics, sciences, the arts and geography. (Hartmann & Wright)

Later, other schools offered English language education. Oʻahu Charity School experienced financial difficulties, with the rise of various competing private schools, and in 1851 was provided with public assistance.

A special tax was imposed on all foreigners of legal age residing in Honolulu: $3 for every individual without children, and $5 for every individual having children within the school age. This plan met with general approval. (Alexander)

The school’s name then changed to the Town Free School, but its board maintained control over the school until 1859, when it passed into the Superintendent of School’s domain. (NPS)

In 1865, the Board of Education split the school into separate boys and girls (the Town Free School became Mililani Girls School.) In 1874, that school closed and the girls went to a new school called Pohukaina. (Alexander)

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Oahu Charity School-MissionHouses

Oahu Charity School-Sailor’s Journal-Aug_1838

Oahu Charity School-Emmert-1854

December 30, 2015 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Paʻaʻaina

“Dearest Mary thou hast left us,
Here thy loss we deeply feel,
But ‘tis God who hath bereft us,
He can all our sorrow heal.”
(The Friend, June 1853)

Isaac Davis and John Young arrived in Hawai‘i at the same time (1790 – on different boats.) Isaac Davis (Welch) was the sole survivor of the massacre of the crew of The Fair American; John Young, British boatswain on the Eleanora, was stranded on the Island of Hawai‘i.

“Young and Davis would have been killed had not Kaoanaeha, a high lady, fallen in love with Young and by her intercession with the King saved the lives of both sailors. Kaoanaeha was the most beautiful woman on the Island of Owhyhee and was the admiration of all the sailors who visited Karakakooa Bay.”

“She was the only daughter of Keliimaiki, the favorite brother of the great King, Kamehameha I. John Young and Kaoauaeba were soon married. King Kamehameha appreciated the superior talents of the white men and made them high chiefs.”

“When the navigator Vancouver visited the island, in 1793, he was entertained by King Kamehameha and John Young, who was then the King’s chief counselor. Young built the first house on the island of Hawaii, and its ruins are still to be seen. It is of stone.”

“Here Young and Kaoanaeha lived and died, and here their daughter, Fannie Young Kekelaokalani was born.” (NY Times, February 14, 1886)

Fanny married twice, first to Henry Coleman Lewis (they had a daughter Mary Polly Paʻaʻaina;) then Fannie married High Chief George Naʻea (Emma, their daughter, was Paʻaʻaina’s step sister – Emma later married Alexander Liholiho and became Queen Emma.)

Paʻaʻaina was hanai (adopted) by John Papa ʻIʻi and his wife Sarai; ʻIʻi served as kahu (caretaker) to Princess Victoria Kamamalu.

Paʻaʻaina, Emma and twelve others eventually (at varying times) entered the Chief’s Childrens’ School. The main goal of the school was to groom the next generation of the highest ranking chief’s children of the realm and secure their positions for Hawaii’s Kingdom.

Seven families were eligible under succession laws stated in the 1840 Constitution of the Kingdom of Hawai‘i; Kamehameha III called on seven boys and seven girls of his family to board in the Chief’s Children’s School.

In May 1843, Paʻaʻaina was the last girl to enter the boarding school; she was 10 years old which was relatively old (the last boy “William Pitt” Kinaʻu entered in 1844.)

The children were taught reading, spelling, penmanship, arithmetic, geometry, algebra, physics, geography, history, bookkeeping, singing and English composition.

King Kamehameha III founded the Chief’s Children’s School (Royal School) in 1839. The school’s main goal was to groom the next generation of the highest ranking chief’s children of the realm and secure their positions for Hawaii’s Kingdom. King Kamehameha III “ask(ed) (missionary) Mr Cooke to be teacher for our royal children.”

In this school, the Hawai‘i sovereigns who reigned over the Hawaiian people from 1855 were educated, including: Alexander Liholiho (King Kamehameha IV;) Emma Naʻea Rooke (Queen Emma;) Lot Kapuāiwa (King Kamehameha V;) William Lunalilo (King Lunalilo;) Bernice Pauahi (Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop founder of Kamehameha Schools;) David Kalākaua (King Kalakaua) and Lydia Liliʻu Kamakaʻeha (Queen Liliʻuokalani.)

The Chiefs’ Children’s School was unique because for the first time Aliʻi children would be brought together in a group to be taught, ostensibly, about the ways of governance.

(After his experience running the school teaching and training Hawai‘i’s future monarchs, Amos Cooke then co-founded the firm Castle & Cooke which became one of the “Big Five” corporations that dominated the early Hawaiian economy.)

Paʻaʻaina was a pupil in the Royal School for seven years where she endeared herself to her teachers and fellow pupils.

Then, she married Mr James Augustus Griswold on December 30, 1851, in Honolulu. Unfortunately, the marriage was short-lived; she became ill.

“Her sufferings during her last sickness were extreme. She felt conscious of danger, and, as far as human eye could see, prepared herself for her departure.”

“She took a calm and effecting leave of her friends that were present, and sent her last message to absent ones. She expressed the wish that others whom she loved would prepare while in health for the trying hour of death.” (The Friend, June 1853)

She died at Honolulu, May 28, 1853. Her only child was a daughter named Mary Paʻaʻaina Griswold. (Kravitz)

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