Hawaiian Language Classes
In 1944, Conversational Hawaiian was introduced into the elementary and intermediate schools, with Mrs. Mary Kawena Pūkuʻi as the teacher.
"The best and noblest of the traditions and customs of the Hawaiian people are kept alive by a study of the fine things in the arts, customs, and culture of Polynesia. Not only is an appreciation of the culture of the Hawaiian race given but also a better appreciation of English is gained through the study of the customs and culture of Ancient Hawaii." |
In the same year, the Kamehameha Schools chaplain, Reverend Stephen Desha, began teaching a weekly, non-credit Hawaiian culture class for high school juniors and seniors.
"[N]ow Kamehameha boys and girls are encouraged to speak and write in their native tongue… The class has been working on the use of every day words and terms. Such things as names of districts and locations are being studied. As time passes, the class is striving to bring the culture of Hawaiʻi nearer to the youth of the islands."
—Ka Mōʻī, 1944. Kamehameha Schools
New President of the Schools: Harold Kent
"It will be my sole purpose to sincerely develop the schools so that they may be of the greatest service to the Hawaiian people through developing in character and leadership an ever-growing number of their youth, and through perpetuating in every wholesome and thorough way the finest aspects of the glorious Hawaiian culture."
—President Harold Kent, Kamehameha Schools
Despite this statement, Kent was still a Protestant Christian, and he believed that the standing hula embodied Hawaiian things that were not glorious and wholesome.