Process Paper
I have been interested in connecting to my Hawaiian culture at Kamehameha High School. I have been learning how to speak Hawaiian at my school, and I am currently enrolled in my fourth year of Hawaiian language classes. When my teacher gave my class this project, I wanted to connect the project back to the Hawaiian language. I decided to research the history of the Hawaiian language in the Kamehameha Schools.
Since I was researching about my school, most of my researching took place in the Kamehameha Schools Archives. My first visit to the Archives rewarded me with my first secondary source, “Suppression of Hawaiian Culture at Kamehameha Schools.” This speech by David Kawika Eyre greatly helped me to organize and direct my research, as it summarized many of the events that occurred throughout Kamehameha from the founding of the school until today. Using this source, I began to find many primary sources in the Archives from these events. I looked through the school’s newspapers, yearbooks, and annual reports to find sources from each major occurrence, which helped me to find new information that I had not previously encountered. After the district and state competitions, I knew that I should connect my project to the current status of the Hawaiian language today, so I began to look for current events that concerned the Hawaiian language in the school. I used the Kamehameha School Strategic Plan 2015-2020, which mentioned the school's current goals concerning Hawaiian identity and culture.
When I was selecting a project category, I knew that I wanted to make a website. I chose the website because I wanted to gain a new experience that may benefit me in the future. Also, creating a website would allow me to easily add changes to my project as I edited it, and I could easily add images and other graphics on my website.
“Kamehameha Schools: Forming a Hawaiian Language School” is connected to this year’s theme, Conflict and Compromise, because the school’s history with the Hawaiian language was often conflicted by the opinions of the students, teachers, administration, and parents. These conflicting opinions often led to compromises, which led to new changes in the curriculum of the school. Kamehameha Schools has significant influence over other Hawaiian movements; without a committed Hawaiian movement within the school, some of the Hawaiian language schools and organizations today would not exist.
Since I was researching about my school, most of my researching took place in the Kamehameha Schools Archives. My first visit to the Archives rewarded me with my first secondary source, “Suppression of Hawaiian Culture at Kamehameha Schools.” This speech by David Kawika Eyre greatly helped me to organize and direct my research, as it summarized many of the events that occurred throughout Kamehameha from the founding of the school until today. Using this source, I began to find many primary sources in the Archives from these events. I looked through the school’s newspapers, yearbooks, and annual reports to find sources from each major occurrence, which helped me to find new information that I had not previously encountered. After the district and state competitions, I knew that I should connect my project to the current status of the Hawaiian language today, so I began to look for current events that concerned the Hawaiian language in the school. I used the Kamehameha School Strategic Plan 2015-2020, which mentioned the school's current goals concerning Hawaiian identity and culture.
When I was selecting a project category, I knew that I wanted to make a website. I chose the website because I wanted to gain a new experience that may benefit me in the future. Also, creating a website would allow me to easily add changes to my project as I edited it, and I could easily add images and other graphics on my website.
“Kamehameha Schools: Forming a Hawaiian Language School” is connected to this year’s theme, Conflict and Compromise, because the school’s history with the Hawaiian language was often conflicted by the opinions of the students, teachers, administration, and parents. These conflicting opinions often led to compromises, which led to new changes in the curriculum of the school. Kamehameha Schools has significant influence over other Hawaiian movements; without a committed Hawaiian movement within the school, some of the Hawaiian language schools and organizations today would not exist.