Teaching Gardens

In higher education, so much time, money, and energy is invested in the discussion of problems.  While it is necessary to study the reasoning behind why such complex issues continue to exist in every region of the world in every field of study, I feel that not enough attention is given to the individuals and organizations that truly are making concerted efforts to take action and change things for the better.  By not being exposed to optimism and physically seeing the work of people who dedicate their entire lives to truly honest and humble career paths, today’s students become so overwhelmed and disoriented that they become unmotivated by the disheartening reality that seems to consume their entire curriculum.  So far this semester, there have been two occasions that have deeply inspired me to stay on the path that I am on in terms of my field of study.  These occasions were not lectures by esteemed professors or discussions about complex theories about how to solve multifaceted political and environmental problems.  These occasions were rather times when I got to see average Americans living a truly happy life because they chose lifestyles and careers that are genuinely simple and honest.  These people chose not to succumb to the modern American dream of material wealth which, unfortunately, is slyly permeating through the rest of the world.  These people simply walked their talk of living simply.  After these experiences, I felt a sense of physical and spiritual motivation come over my body. 

The first occasion was when our anthropology class visited Kevin Vacarello’s home and restaurant in Waimanalo.   I have written about this in a previous blog for this class.  The next occasion was this past weekend at Hickam Elementary School at Hickam Air Force Base here on Oahu.  I had the honor of being invited by one of my environmental science professors to volunteer and represent the Sierra Club in this two day event.  The event was hosted by the American Heart Association’s Teaching Gardens.  This newly formed organization travels around the country planting substantially sized organic raised bed gardens at elementary schools located in concrete jungles and military bases.  The main mission of the teaching garden projects is to promote healthy lifestyles amongst impoverished youth from minority neighborhoods and military children who are constantly moving from base to base.  These children are comparatively more disconnected from the natural environment than most of today’s youth.  One of the members of the organization told me that some young children of inner city LA have admitted to never seeing a tree.  I found this almost hard to believe.

In having the kids build these gardens, not only are they given the opportunity to learn what a healthy diet consists of, they can, in a sense, develop some sort of connection with the earth as they touch the soil and watch how their little seeds turn into strawberries, oregano, and carrots.  Growing up in a rural community deep in the mountains of Colorado, my friends and I lived in the dirt.  Until this weekend, I had never before seen children afraid of touching dirt and getting their shirts dirty.  Thankfully, once they started, they couldn’t stop!  A lasting impression can be made in a child by simply having the day-to-day exposure to food growing during their elementary education. 

Often, the attention span of young people is short, but modern curriculums continue to combat this fact by forcing students to sacrifice a recess for more times-tables.  The curriculum is counterintuitive.  However with active learning of the teaching gardens, students can physically take part in learning how to grow their own, healthy food.  As an adult college student, I felt I even learn more and naturally retain the information about sustainable agriculture during my involvement in the HPU garden and this project better than I do while attending semester-long lectures.  During interactive learning, students feel like they are able to make a tangible difference in the community.  They know what they are doing is right because they are still so sensitive to what is truly pono.  This sensitivity enlivens them and gives not just one, but every single student the most apparent passion to continue and expand their project.  It is so simple and so feasible, especially in a tropical region like Hawaii.  I am so thankful I got these opportunities.

La`au Lapa`au

Da tot of da day, braddah ~ “Go into nature and there you will find all the brains there have ever been”. 

I could just see the earth in Krista Steinfeld.  I could feel Hawaii in her passion for life.  True life.  Not the hustle and bustle of the chaotic life of today’s society, but life.  Her pono recapitulated the life of the wild.  It has been a long time since I met a new person like this, and I am ever so grateful for the sincere message she shared with me and the rest of my peers.  Her message was an important reminder for me to remember my roots, the roots I have been blessed with.  I need to return back to the earth.  Recently, I have become so disconnected with the spirit of the soil.  It is the first time I have ever lived in a concrete jungle.  Up until my senior year in college, I was blessed to call the Rocky Mountains of Colorado my home and the Ko`olau’s of Kaneohe my home away from home.  I am certainly blessed to live where I do now in downtown, Honolulu.  I guess it is just part of the necessary duality of my life that God has brought to me to teach me where I truly belong and to allow me to appreciate and respect how essential nature is when I do return back to her. 

It was refreshing to again hear someone sincerely ask the plant permission to take their life and then thank the plant and God for their gift.  It privilege to learn about the medicinal values of the plants that surround my school.  Ohia Lehua can be used for lethargy.  Ti can be used for fevers, spiritual cleansing, to reduce fevers, and to aid in the development of healthy eyesight in infants.  Ti root even makes a wonderfully sweet candy with a high nutritional value.  We learned about the dualities of the guava tree’s leaves and fruit; the fruit aids in relief of constipation while its leaves relieve diarrhea.  I have always enjoyed eating ulu with honey, but I never knew it could act as a strong bandage to protect severe wounds.  I am also looking forward to someday trying ulu poi and ulu chips.  Hala can be used as an aphrodisiac, to enhance male vigor, to increase energy, or to simply bring a masculine balance of energy to those who are out of balance.  The lace fern mends headaches.  The bumpy fern lessens scoliosis.  And of course, coconut water is high in potassium while it naturally lowers blood pressure while coconut oil is a wonderful oil to cook with because it doesn’t burn and release free radicals at high temperatures. 

Of course a person really needs to make sure that their spirit is in the right place before they make any of this medicine, because their mana (energy) will go into the medicine.  A person should make sure their spirit is in the right place before they do anything.  In today’s society, this is an easy thing to forget.  Even when one performs pule (prayer), they must be sincere because pule is real medicine.  Pule is not just protocol, a chanting performance, or merely wishful thinking.  There is power in prayer. 

Because disease has always had both a physical and spiritual element, traditional Hawaiian La’au Lapa’au focuses on curing the mind, spirit, and body holistically.  The history of La`au Lapa`au has two sides.  While it helped the Hawaiian thrive and live in health, it was made illegal when Christian missionaries started colonizing the islands.  After nearly 100 years of being illegal, it was finally decriminalized in 1965 by the state of Hawaii.  Yet to this day, there is a continued skepticism along with a scientific and spiritual devaluation of the traditional medicine.  In essence, there has been a “deification” of science as people truly believe that Western medicine is the highest form of medicine.  I really hope and pray that the Hawaiian people and the rest of the world can find pono on multiple levels of society from the individual level to the family unit to an entire society.  The rebirth of La`au Lapa`au I know is already and will continue to help move this process forward.

The Great American Brain Drain

“The freedom to think is encroached upon by the encumbrances of money”~Vijay Prashad

I am so proud that my generation is taking its first steps in standing up for humanity by peacefully protesting against our world’s most prominent problem: corporate greed.  The Occupy Wall Street movement is a multifaceted protest with no true agenda other than purely confronting corporate crimes against humanity.  It is intriguing how not having an actual agenda for a specific change essentially strengthens the protest.  By thinking outside of the box and having no plan and no head creates a situation where the opponents (the corporations that are in bed with the politicians) have no idea of what is going on, and therefore cannot come up with a cunning scheme to counteract the mission of the people. 

Thousands of young, hardworking citizens of nearly every state and many countries throughout the world are taking it upon themselves to make a visible statement to society.  Yet for some reason, the sidewalks in front of Hawaii’s banks and big corporations seem to remain the same with no sign of opposition.  How can this be when the state of Hawaii’s public education system is one of the worst in the nation?  How can this be when so many people are forced out of their homes during foreclosure?  The middle class in Hawaii is certainly not becoming more empowered in the job force while their already high cost of living is only increasing at an especially high rate.  Perhaps the reason for Hawaii’s inactivity when it comes to this particular movement is that the state is so small.  Honolulu is a city that feels like a small town.  Everyone knows everyone.  If you protest, there is a chance that you could be standing outside of your auntie’s office (a place that provides her with the most reasonable job in town) and that your uncle is the cop that monitors the protest.  Perhaps this is only a small part of the reason why Hawaii hasn’t joined the protest against greed. 

The “Occupy” movements across the world are multifaceted, taking on an array of issues from the unfair foreclosures of thousands of people’s homes, banks being rewarded billions of dollars in tax breaks, and the various forms of corporate greed.  In Boston, the movement took on America’s education system and the tremendous debt it creates for young people struggling to find jobs.  Student debt in America is now over $1 trillion.  The cost of college is a huge deterrent that keeps great minds and people with determination from even entering the classroom in the first place.  Because of this, a growing number of high school graduates are turning to vocational and trade education.  In Vijay Prashad’s article, The Closing of the American Mind, he quotes John Dewey who states that when vocational education begins to dominate the curriculum, “…“education would becomes an instrument of perpetuating unchanged the existing industrial order of society, instead of operating as a means of transformation.”  Dewey goes onto argue that education founded primarily on the simple act of learning a monotonous trades and skill is “illiberal and immoral [because the graduates] do what they do, not freely and intelligently, but for the sake of the wage earned.”

What is even worse than the deterrence created by the high price of tuition, is the amount of brilliant, driven students that have no choice but to quit college because they can no longer afford to finish their degree.  Even though, these students work full time jobs and have parents with full time jobs, they cannot find someone to take out a second mortgage on their home or cosign on a high interest loan so they can at least finish the job they already started.  More and more students are left without a degree and tens of thousands of dollars in debt from a few successful semesters in college. 

Prashad states noteworthy facts that put the US’s approach to funding higher education into perspective when her states how many equally developed and even less developed countries fund between 70 and 90 percent of students’ college costs.  These countries range from Hungary to Mexico to Turkey to Ireland.  Prashad goes onto emphasize the straightforward comparative analysis that shows what the American government gives priority:

         " The tuition and fees to all public institutions of higher education in the United States is somewhere in the ballpark of $25 billion (according to the Labor   Institute). That is a small proportion of the cost of the wars ($7.6 trillion since 9/11) and of corporate tax breaks (of which, deferral on foreign income is by itself $1 trillion). The cost of higher education is a fraction of the $1.35 trillion to $3 trillion, which is range of the cost of the Bush and Obama tax cuts. "

“The world holds enough for everyone’s NEED, but not enough for everyone’s GREED.” ~Gandhi