Makaha Elementary School

To start, I’d like to say I honestly wouldn’t have wanted to grow up at any other school. This school was very much run like a family and the teachers were honestly amazing educators.
Back when I attended, we had what was called IRA, which was a rotational class every week or every other week where we did art, science, farming, music and hawaiian culture.
After Makaha, I went to Kamehameha Schools starting 7^th grade and let me tell you… of all the people I’ve met over the years at Kamehameha, none has ever told me of an elementary school experience like the one I had. Makaha Elementary to me, is honestly one of the most «Hawaiian» cultured schools on the island.
In Hawaiian culture class, and throughout our normal homeroom curriculum, we learned about hawaiian values. There was a different value every module and in each module, there was a story that taught the value and had a moral to it. Also in culture class, we made crafts, learned and sang hawaiian songs, chanted, and I believe we even danced hula. I can’t tell you how important it is to learn culture at such a young age and to have it taught as a normal part of curriculum and not as a «novelty» like hula might be taught in other schools. We were brought up with a hawaiian mindset and I really think it helped me to be a better person.
In addition to culture, sustainability is SO important. To my knowledge, not many other schools teach about farming and sustainability, let alone have their kids actually INVOLVED in it. They didn’t just teach us about it from a textbook, we grew up participating in it on Mr. Gigi’s farm. Each grade was in charge of a different project on the farm. We planted seeds in the nursery, planted and harvested beans (and fried them into string bean fries mmm), grew and harvested bananas, created and maintained a model of the polynesian triangle, and we even built structures on the farm. We helped to build the woodworking house and we also helped with the gazebo though I think by now it’s been completely re-​done.
If the curriculum was the same in the future, I would send my kids here. There was so much I gained from going to this school that I wouldn’t have if i had gone to a more privileged school with affluent students and families. I do not at all regret not getting into Kamehameha in kindergarten. I don’t think I was meant to go there, because I was meant to understand the importance of what I learned here so I can encourage it and teach it when I got older.
The only reason I did not give Makaha 5 stars is because of the state of some of the facilities at the current moment. It would be amazing if they could get funding for a complete renovation because this school does so much for these west coast kids, more even than other schools. I hope one day that more students and others also see how valuable the education is at Makaha, and that it will afford them better facilities and more programs for the kids.

5 stars for Mr. Gigi and the farm that’s a part of the school. I grew up here and attended this school and really loved it. The teachers are awesome and most of them are still there from way back.
Love that they integrate teaching about sustainability and Healthy lifestyles through the teachings at the farm. I think students need a balanced and wholesome education and staying in classrooms all day is not the way to do it.
I’m not sure about how the kids are being taught nowadays except for the aspect of cultural learning and the farm but I soon will find out and update this review as I will have to search for schools for my own daughter now. But, again 5 stars for mr. gigi and the farm. I learned how to plant seeds and take care of the land since kindergarten.