By Amber Strong Makaiau
Students, faculty, parents, and trustees gather for a weekly Assembly in the Hanahau‘oli pavilion.
In the previous blog we reflected on changes experienced by faculty and staff over the course of the pandemic, regarding how and why they gather together. In this entry we continue to explore the art of gathering in the context of progressive philosophy and pedagogy by celebrating an enduring hallmark of the progressive education movement--the school-wide assembly. Progressive education pioneer Colonel Francis Wayland Parker was the first to experiment with whole school gatherings as a regular part of the weekly school schedule. He called them “Morning Exercises,” and they were primarily student-led. Schmitt (2010) explains:
One of Parker's most progressive ideas was the twenty-minute or so daily Morning Exercise, the first school assemblies that students themselves might conduct (Dewey, 1930, p. 204). In them, students presented curricular material to the whole school through whatever various means best served to communicate it: informal talks, maps, drawings, constructs of various kinds, music, drama, dance, science experiments, often some combination of these. On occasion, there were other kinds of Morning Exercises, including accounts of travels, talks by visitors, games, musical performances, and celebrations of "special days." But student presentation of curricular material, including from field trips, the school garden, and science laboratories, all of which Parker was the first to add to the school day (Parker, 1961, p. 312), was the core Morning Exercise activity (p. 109).
The Laboratory School of the University of Chicago 1896-1903 Weekly Schedule (Mayhew & Edwards, 2007)
Parker and other progressive educators who followed him believed that student-led whole school gatherings are essential for cultivating and nurturing a cooperative school community, giving students a forum for advancing their ideas and initiatives, and for modeling and practicing ideal democratic life. As a result, the school-wide assembly became a part of most progressive school schedules (see image of the Laboratory School of the University of Chicago from 1897 included at right).
Student-led whole school gatherings have been a part of Hanahau‘oli School since its founding in 1918. Monday through Thursday, the school community gathers in a centrally located outdoor courtyard for a short Morning Exercise referred to as “Flag.” On Fridays, a longer Assembly is held in the school’s open air Pavilion. Prior to COVID-19 restrictions, students in grades JK through sixth, faculty and staff, family members, friends, board members, and guest speakers joined in-person Flag and Assembly. Today, Flag continues to be held in person (with some modifications) and Assembly is now conducted online.
Hanahau‘oli students gather for daily Flag in the courtyard.
Traditionally, the Friday morning Assembly at Hanahau ‘oli School is organized around many beloved rituals. Assembly begins with the school’s music teacher playing piano as students, faculty, staff, and guests walk into the Pavilion singing. The song is intentionally selected, and serves as a clue to the teaching and learning that will occur in the day’s program. Students are seated in rows on the Pavilion floor, with special seating reserved for family members, guests, teachers, and the sixth grade students who serve as Assembly leaders and facilitators. The sixth grade students start off the Assembly program by leading the Pledge of Allegiance and the singing of Hawaiʻi Ponoʻi (the anthem of the state of Hawaii, and former national anthem of the independent Hawaiian Kingdom). The sixth grade leads then invite the school community to share announcements in a welcoming town-hall format. Anyone may stand up and share by calling out “I have an announcement!” Announcements include but are not limited to news about upcoming campus and community events, birthdays which are celebrated uniquely with the tradition of Birthday Books, acknowledgements of students or community members who are doing special service for the school, and jingles prepared by students to promote their initiatives. Sixth graders then invite one of the homegroup classes to share a Thought of the Day. The Thought of the Day is typically an inspirational message, poem, song or ‘Ōlelo No‘eau (a Hawaiian proverb or saying). The homegroup selected shares the Thought of the Day and then the entire school community says the Thought of the Day together. Afterwards, the sixth grade leaders turn the Assembly over to the class, teacher, or guest who will lead the school through the day’s program. To close the Assembly, all participants stand and sing the Hanahau‘oli school song, and they continue to hum the song as each class departs and returns to their classrooms.
Topics and programs experienced during Hanahau‘oli School Friday Assemblies are varied. Some are facilitated by a particular class who wants to share recent learning with the school community. Other programs might include a guest speaker who is interviewed by a student or teacher. Other Assemblies are interactive experiences that involve attendees in singing, dancing, and putting on a dramatic performance together. Some Assemblies are held annually, and feature a school tradition. For example, each year the sixth grade class engages in a Greek Oratory and students tell their myths at Assembly. Another is the annual Halloween Play written, directed, designed and performed by the Po‘e Ka‘ahele (4th and 5th grade multiage class). Below are some links that provide examples of Hanahau‘oli School Assembly topics and programs.
Kulāiwi (2nd and 3rd grade multiage class) Authoring Assembly
Kukunaokalā (Kindergarten and 1st grade multiage class) Bee Assembly
In addition to singing together, creating a cooperative community, exercising public speaking skills, and trying out new ideas, Assembly is a time for the entire Hanahau‘oli School community to practice being an attentive, appreciative, and respectful audience. Colonel Francis Wayland Parker tells us that “a school should be a model home, a complete community, an embryonic democracy.” In an ideal democracy, citizens know how to speak, listen, and solve problems together with empathy and good thinking. Ideal democracies also balance “individual freedom and collective well-being” (Dewey, 1935, p. xiii). The Hanahau‘oli School Assembly aims to do all of this and more. Children and adults come together to share their ideas, questions, and celebrations in a way that builds community, yet also honors each and every individual in the group. Assemblies also provide space for curriculum continuity--students, teachers, and parents learn what others are exploring in their respective classes, and students are able to see some of the experiences that lay ahead for them in years to come. Additionally, Assembly provides opportunities for authentic presentation of learning. It is a space where students can share their culminating projects or works-in-progress to an audience, reflect together as a community, and support one another’s ongoing growth overtime.
Students sign the Hanahau‘oli school song to conclude a weekly virtual Assembly during the Covid-19 pandemic.
So how has the Hanahau‘oli School Assembly weathered the pandemic? While it is true that students, teachers, staff, and families long to be together in our beloved Pavilion, the transition to an online version of this whole-school gathering has kept the tradition alive and helped to sustain the underlying philosophy and pedagogy of this particular progressive education practice. Evidence of this is seen in the recording links below.
The Hanahau‘oli School Professional Development Center has these and other Assembly recordings as part of a larger set of online resources for educators interested in learning more about progressive education in action.
In a bulletin to parents during World War II, a former Head of Hanahau‘oli School wrote, “we can plan but a step in advance these days but the courage and loyalty of all...has kept us from failure thus far. We feel Hanahau‘oli has filled a real need...and we are bending every energy toward continuance” (Palmer, 1968, p. 42). The decision to move the Hanahau‘oli School Assembly online during the COVID-19 pandemic is another testament to the progressive impulse to bend every energy toward continuance. The creation of a cooperative community for the purpose of modeling and practicing ideal democracy is a critical component of a 21st Century progressive education, and is much needed in this particular time of polarization, mistrust, and misunderstanding of fellow citizens. Just as it was true in the progressive era, “active connections, social networks, shared values, norms of reciprocity, trustworthiness, and friendship that bind people together...is what facilitates cooperative action, allows communities to advance smoothly, and widens awareness of the many ways in which human fates are interconnected” (Schmitt, 2010, p. 109). The student-led school-wide assembly is an important progressive education practice for carrying this work forward in the next generation.
Works Cited:
Mayhew, K. C. & Edwards, A. C. (2007). The Dewey school: The laboratory school of the university of chicago 1896 - 1903. AldineTransaction.
Palmer, L. F. (1968). Memories of Hanahauoli: The first fifty years. Honolulu: Unknown.
Schmitt, N. C. (2010). Francis Wayland Parker's morning exercise and the progressive movement. American Educational History Journal, volume 37(1) p109-127.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Dr. Amber Strong Makaiau is a Specialist at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Director of Curriculum and Research at the Uehiro Academy for Philosophy and Ethics in Education, Director of the Hanahau‘oli School Professional Development Center, and Co-Director of the Progressive Philosophy and Pedagogy MEd Interdisciplinary Education, Curriculum Studies program. A former Hawai‘i State Department of Education high school social studies teacher, her work in education is focused around promoting a more just and equitable democracy for today’s children. Dr. Makaiau lives in Honolulu where she enjoys spending time in the ocean with her husband and two children.
