Kamehameha High School - Ka Nai Aupuni Yearbook (Honolulu, HI)

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1 Roy Bass is a law and economics instructor in the High School Division. lt is virtually impossible to be complacent in any of his ' classes. An ability to look into the future. To see yourself in a competitive college class in UH or on the mainland. To arm yourself with hard brained stuff now instead of wishing later that you had. You must imagine yourself competing for a job and you should realize that you will spend decades of your life in the labor market. You must realize that the level of your success and self-sufficiency may be determined by what you take away from my classes and others at Kamehameha. You do not have to like me Qbut you will, once you're out there where the ribbon hits the roadl. But to succeed in my class you must help me to motivate you. You must want to learn. Together, we'll find a way to turn you on to the high of learning. Let me teach to your intel- lect, not to your memory. Ac- cept an issue-oriented atmos- phere. Accept problem- solving, not memorization as the coin of our realm. Realm -- a grandiose term L - . for a mere classroom in Konia Hall? Not so. Kamehameha must be a Camelot for learning which prepares you to be confident and competitive in today's society. Once upon a time, a princess left you her love and a legacy of the greatest of all gifts: education. If you want to succeed in my econo- mics and law classes you will help me find a true passion for pumping iron with your brain. You will go that last mile in problem-solving. You will try to recognize and understand issues . . . knowing that to do so is often frustrating. To do less would be unworthy of the realm of Camelot-learning that Kamehameha should be. Success in my classes requires joining me in hammering out for you a shield of knowledge of current issues and a double edged sword of problem-solving and keen intellect. If it were possible to requisition students made to order, the first item among my specifications would be intellectual curiosity. Students with that quality, whatever their level of intelligence, are always learning in school and out. For one thing, they are interested in reading as one way of acquiring knowledge. This interest is not limited to a few fields, but is wide- spread. When they read, they make connections with what they have already learned else- I Beth Powers is an English instructor in the High School Division. ln her many years at Kamehameha, she has acquired a reputation for high standards and no-nonsense teach- ing. where. If they find refer- ences in a literary work to something with which they are unfamiliar, perhaps from the Bible or from mythology, they look up the original ac- count and thus expand their knowledge in that area. Ano- ther thing they look up is un- familiar words, so that their vocabulary is constantly expanding. Good students have the convic tion of their ideas and are able to defend them with logic. At the same time, they are open to new ideas and wil- ling to reconsider their opinions. Whatever a student's mental skills, however, success in a class requires one other funda- mental quality, reliability. The work must be consistent and thorough. Assignments must be thoroughly read and papers carefully written and handed in on time if achieve- ment is to .be commensurate with ability.

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Malcolm Reynolds, 7-8 grade speech teacher, is best remembered by all his students for his eccentric behavior and his cheezie-wheezie assignment. A roll of drums or thunder might be an appropriate lead to a mini-essay entitled How to Succeed in Reynolds' Class for without drama or back- ground excitement in the learning atmosphere, the class- room appears stale, flat, and unprofitable. Without a true desire, the acquisition of knowledge and intellectual maturity becomes a dreadfully tiresome act which leaves students exhausted for the rest of their lives. Why read when television is easy to absorb? Why know more when I can get by with what I have? Why indeed? What does this have to do with achieving success in my class? Let me answer this first of all from a personal viewpoint. I'm fifty and an inveterate reader, each time I read a new piece of material, I've expanded myself as a person although that may not be obvious in any measureable way. It opens to me numerous levels of understanding which not would have evolved if I'd decided I'd had enough of this learning business in my student days. I might have stayed at the see Dick run phase and missed in this lifetime the glorious prose of a Chekhov or Thoreau, a Nabokov or Updike. May that true desire to know more never desert me, if it does, then my life will be somehow incomplete at its close. So, one succeeds in my class by bringing that willingness to learn into Room 71 and leaving outside the door the so-often- encountered attitude of, This will be a bore, it is a bore, it was a bore. Nearly any class- room can be Yawn City, but for those keen observers of life, even Monday morning with the Ogre Qmej contains a harlequin or two. If students wish to learn in my class, they will. If success means high grades, then they must work hard and do extra credit. However, if a student has been turned off by life and education process so that there is no true desire left, then I feel bad. But I can't help. In some mystic way, I feel that the Universe wasn't designed for the lazy or cynical, but those with that deep inclination to know It better. Wimgsefiiis.. Rita Littlejohn, 9-10 grade math teacher, is strict, funny, and known for her heart-to- heart talks with her students. I am constantly evaluating my level of effectiveness. And the best means of measuring this effectiveness is to notice the response of the students. I always give words of encour- agement when I find a student really trying hard , but who is having a difficult time comprehending. To some stu- dents, I suggest they learn to reduce their stress level by taking things a little less serious. I am sensitive to a students' needs. And it is this need that I address when we have our heart to heart talk. This talk can be at any point in the course. It is usually when I feel a student has the potential, but is not utilizing it to his maximum. Then the maternal Ms. Little- john comes forth to lecture to himfher as I would appreciate someone doing it to my daughter if she were faltering in her efforts.

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