Interview with Jay Kauka, Psychology and Hawaiian History teacher on Wednesday, April 6, 2011.
As I sat speaking with Mr. Kauka, affectionately known as just "Kauka" to many who have taken his class(es), I discovered one thing: as students, we fail to recognize the problems of teachers. We drone through class and enjoy pleasant conversation with our educators, even ranting to them about our problems. But we never ask them about theirs, which is a pity. So as I sit and write this, it is absolutely vital to add that that fact was taken into account.
[After formalities and such have been graced, the girth of the interview is chronicled below]
Jessica Keomalu: So, Mr. Kauka, what problems do you have that Physics could solve?
Kauka: [Brief chuckle] "Oh, I have problems, but I don't know how Physics could solve them."
JK: It's alright, please describe further the problems you do have.
K: "My problem with the school is that I think our students could be a lot more productive, but they're being held back. The environment we have constricts them and it doesn't teach them to be productive. So, for example, how do you be more productive? How do we get you to learn more? How do we restrict you? We stop you from responsible, for both you and your own development. here, we don't allow you off campus. In a long period, let's say you have lunch and this period free. How much time is that, 2 hours? In 2 hours you can get something to eat, run errands, do all the things you need to do and come back up. That's all restricted. That kind of stuff you guys are restricted from. And homeroom, where we as teachers babysit you because [sarcastically] obviously you aren't capable of being responsible for yourself. And even when you have time on your own, you have to do something around here [campus]. I want you to be responsible, teach you to be responsible for yourself."
JK: I completely agree. How can we, as young adults, be prepared for this whole concept of "time-management" if we aren't allowed to do the meaningful things we need to do.
K: "Yes, yes. It's all apart of the constriction and responsibility. Now, I want you to be responsible for yourself. And I want you to be more productive. I want you to want to learn more and to learn a lot. And I think the standards, teachers give you busy work. They expect less of you, a lower caliber of excellence. Oh, and take this. The administration gives all these announcements and such. The other day we got an announcement about laptops. If a student doesn't have a case or a strap or cord, whatever, he'll be charged for whatever is missing. Right? Okay, so what's to stop that student from stealing someone else's stuff. Here's what's going to happen. What's going to happen is that because they don't have it, they're going to steal someone else's. I'm thinking, 'Well your the administration, tell me, you know this kind of stuff goes on. Why aren't we out there teaching them that stealing is wrong?' You know, instead of teaching them to take care of their own property. Instead, we just say, 'Ok, watch out for your stuff because someone's going to try to steal it.' Take care of your responsibility, take care of your own stuff. And if you're negligent, you pay the fine. I'm thinking, 'You're just supporting the stealing thing.' So...[sigh] that's my problem."
JK: I can see where you're going with this. In Physics, we have to make or implement something that can help your problem. And going back to the whole idea of us not being able to leave campus, we could work with something there. What if we could somehow use a check-in system for those leaving campus. Granted, we'll work the physics aspect out later, but having a monitoring system where the school would have tabs on us, but at the same time, we could be more independent.
K: "Exactly. I like your thinking. I like it. Because I'm just seeing a problem, and you're seeing the solution. That's real thinking. That's real thinking. That's what we don't have at this school! [slams table] There is an utter lack of real thinking happening here. And for you to come up with a solution on the spot, it's gratification to know that real thinking, real-life problem solving is happening at this school. There's another thing, why don't we have more thinkers, more kids coming up with solutions to their problems. You know, none of this text-book style problem-solving, but real-life application. Ah, there's another problem. Oh, okay, so as students, where's the independence? You just made me think of independent thinkers. We have kids in flocks to the same college just to stay with the Hawaii people. That's good and all, but where's the independence in that? None, absolutely none. With this way [as in the idea of a monitoring check-in system], I think it will teach students independence."
JK: Wow, okay, thank you for the input. But come on Kauka, I know there's more you can share. Basically, the more you give us, the more we have to work with so that we may find a way to fix or alleviate the problem.
K: "Going towards the teaching thing is, way back when I was a student, we got textbooks. My teachers expected me to know a heck of a lot of stuff. Some was deeper meaning stuff, other stuff was surface level stuff. But regardless, we had to know it. And we did, you know, we learned the stuff. But what about today? And I ask kids about what they know. The looks on their faces say it all. The kids today, they're poor at grammar, at critical reading, at English. They're poor readers. I think the worst department in this school is English because the kids, they don't know how to write, they don't know much literature. My problem is how do we improve that? How do we improve them knowing? I think part of the reason is this is a battle, how to get kids to study. And how do you do that? Well, it's possible to make studying interesting. The kids who struggle with a subject don't have the drive, don't study. They don't study. Okay, in college you go to college because you want to be there. You're gonna love it. You go, and you sit. You're in that lecture hall because you want to be there. You want to learn. Here, in my class, you have to be here. It's a whole different mentality. You sit in class, and you think, 'I wanna be here, I want to learn.' Whereas here, everything is required. My problem, I suppose, is we're not teaching kids what I wanna do, we're teaching them this is what I have to do. And you will be more productive when you want to be there. I think somewhere down the line we lost that. We like the school, we like the atmosphere, but how do we want to learn, how do we want to know more? I think this is one of the reasons, one of the things, I think the school has to have an active part in. The learning and the idea of kids wanting to be here, in class, learning and understanding. Those are the problems I have."
JK: Thanks, Kauka. This was very helpful.
K: "I think this project that you guys are doing is great. It's helpful, and I think in the end, you'll see the fruits of your labor. This is great, trying to solve problems we have at this school -- student-run change. Wow. Keomalu, when you're done with this, you gotta teach me how to do this project in Psychology too."
--Jessica Keomalu
So after that extensive and informative interview, I have now come up with possible physics-related solutions.
-The problem of being independent, to be able to leave campus during free periods. I understand that administration has the big problem of liability. To allow students to go off campus, still representing Kamehameha, is a huge liability and risk. The school, in the event of a serious event, has the big possibility of being sued. I understand that, but how else do we teach students independence? Sure, we can allow them to waste time on campus, droning away, doing nothing but wasting time. Or we can teach them responsibility: if you go off campus, be back before your next scheduled class or homeroom, or received a substantial number of detention hours. In this way, independence is taught. The solution: a security type gate similar to the one at Main Gate. Students will be able to leave by scanning their ID cards at these security gates.
http://www.oksolar.com/abc/gate_operators.htm for more information.
