Students to Celebrate Island Culture with Astronomical Field Trip during School Choice Week

Elementary students to perform Hawaiian chant at 'Imiloa Astronomy Center

HILO, Hawaii, Jan. 17, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- How did ancient Hawaiians navigate the night sky? Several dozen elementary students from St. Joseph School will discover the answer when they field trip to 'Imiloa Astronomy Center on Tuesday, Jan. 24 to celebrate School Choice Week.

The 9:30 a.m.-noon outing aims to engage students in Hawaii's deep history of exploration and draw attention to the school's cultural studies program. Students will greet the staff at the astronomy center with a special Hawaiian chant. Written by the principal of St. Joseph School, the chant is one of many ways that students participate in the rich traditions of their home.

The field trip is planned to coincide with the celebration of National School Choice Week (Jan. 22-28, 2023), which will feature tens of thousands of school choice celebrations across all 50 states. In addition to the field trip, St. Joseph School will celebrate school choice with an open house for prospective families on the following weekend.

"'A'ole pau ka 'ike i ka hālau hoʻokahi,' or 'Not all knowledge is acquired at one place,'" quoted Maile Kipapa, principal at St. Joseph School. "The students of St. Joseph School will be taking a field trip to ʻImiloa Astronomy Center to explore the role our island plays in the discipline of astronomy. Our students are constantly learning and to limit their learning to a classroom defies logic."

"As a school of choice, we encourage our students to be hungry," said Kipapa. "Not a physical hunger, rather an intellectual hunger for wisdom and knowledge from all available resources on and off campus to provide a practical, real-life learning environment, ranging from a broad expanse of traditional and non-traditional learning. And as such, our students deepen their sense of identity to place and gain a sense of belonging and appreciation for their home that, in essence, is a classroom. By integrating a robust multifaceted palette of learning and methodologies, our students are given the opportunity to make more informed future decisions on their educational paths."

St. Joseph School serves students in grades pre-K through 12 in Hilo and seeks to build lives of service in the spirit of the Hawaiian tradition of Aloha.

'Imiloa Astronomy Center is located at 600 Imiloa Place.

National School Choice Week (NSCW) informs, inspires, and empowers parents to discover the K-12 education options available for their children, including traditional public, charter, magnet, online, private, and home schooling. Every January, tens of thousands of schools, organizations, and individuals plan unique events and activities to shine a positive spotlight on effective education options in their communities. The Week is a project of the nonpartisan, nonpolitical National School Choice Awareness Foundation.

SOURCE National School Choice Week