PERSPECTIVES ON ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION IN HAWAI'I

Our C I I U I I L ' I I ~ C tod(n. in lluwai'i is to !how that conservation conc~~rtls (1w w/e~.atll to the body polrlic.

Lorin T. Gill

Why arc we where we are in environmental education in ilawai'i? Or, hettcr yet, whv aren't we furlher? I think environmcntnl education needs to he undcrwx~d in several contexts to answer thst queiti~m.

Since the mid-1S00s the princi dl segments o f ~ ~ u r popul:ltion have come to ilawai'i to hrtter themselves. &inland ~rncric:tnt ;liter thc Civil War were pretty ml~cli exercising the frontier e th~c of uilng what thev nccded and moving on when things became difficult. Arian and t u r ~ p e : ~ n immigrant\, most ofwhom came to work on plantations, camr for :I hettcr iitc ti1.m tllev had at home--at least those who-came to stav. Manv had the set of mind char-

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acteristic of immigrants. These settlers were not p

in more areas than thev wished. Thev then ran out to out eucalwtus trees . . on bare laces, hoping-to reduce the problem.

Pubfk educat~on m Hawai'i in the last hundred years has reflected the society it serves. It has been most concerned with fitting populations into the American western mode. In the late 1800s English was adopted in the Hawaiian common schools. Would you believe t h ~ s was by petition of Hdwaiianc? As early as the 1860s Hawaiian parents were beseeching the Minister ot Fducation to teach their children English. Hawaiian could be taught at home, but English was needed to cope with the bigger world. And it was during the Republic that English was made the language of education in all areas. From the early 1900s until World War 11, schools were focused on Americanizing immigrant populations and helping them "mainstream." Great success was achieved, for example, in McIGnley School in Honolulu under Miles Carey. A good number of nisei (children born in US. of Japa- nese immigrants) learned that, indeed, the Bill of Rights applies to everyone; the American Constitution guarantees rights for everyone despite what was avoarent in Hawaiian societv in the 1930s. Facilitating the success of new pebp~es coming to the 1slmds is still a great concern. 30 in this contcut, one should not he sur riced at the query "Environmental Education? What's ha t ? ' 0 refer r%e ierm '"environmenrnl education' to conservation edura- tion. ~t'einbraces conservation education, the reservation concerns of the 1970s. and the human risk concerns of the I%&,)

The Hawaii Department of Education (DOE) is criticized todav because of three decadcs of frustration bv the secure, the "arrived." the comfortable. i f you will, and by th~-scientif~call~ astute. Tl~ose who know what IS happen- ine to the natural environment arid those who know how touse the ~ u b k fo'ium and political processes to address concerns are attempting tdhring nhout change. Yet the criticismsof the last three decades were made to a DOE. that did not redly understand environmental issues. We hrought out- door education experts in from the Mainland, and we talked to schonl superin- tcndents hnd c~rriculum pi'nple. Cverytliin was dgreeoble. but there wac nothing out there for DOE to use--no mode%. no;,verridlng reasons for concern. Environmental education was simolv not a maior>mohasis.

l'he resolution of the environmental e d k t i o n prol;lem cdntinues to he ynliti;;tl. l'he Department of Education has staff in the area uhich addresses invironmental concerns. However. the State Environmental Education Spec1:dist positlm is still a tempor& position, and if budgets suffer, tcm- purary position\ are lost. The Depanment must have lcglsla!ive and,adminis- tratiw support, i t mu