Inside the Archives
The Miracle Schools at 25 Years Celebrating the survival of Kamehameha Schools during the worst period in Native Hawaiian history by Janet Zisk Kamehameha Schools Archivist
T
his year – from Dec. 19, 2011 to Dec. 19, 2012 – Kamehameha Schools will celebrate its 125th anniversary. On Nov. 4, 1887, King Kaläkaua spoke at Opening Ceremonies to a class of 40 boys and audience at the Kamehameha School for Boys in the only classroom at that time, a section of the dining hall. Looking backward to 1887 and the opening for business of the School for Boys on October 3, it was a miracle that the schools survived at all. This was the year that King Kaläkaua was forced, under threat of violence, by a group of haole businessmen, to sign a revised constitution limiting the power of the monarchy and the right of Hawaiians to vote. The School for Girls opened the fall of 1894 between the overthrow of Queen Lili’uokalani and therefore the Hawaiian monarchy in 1893, and her arrest and imprisonment in 1895. The survival of the schools depended on maintaining a totally neutral stance politically.
The Kamehameha Schools class of 1913, which celebrated the schools’ 25th year in existance.
In fact, the schools’ administration felt it necessary to confirm this on the back page of the April 1894 issue of “The Handicraft” (the first KS newspaper) as follows: “Politics are not encouraged in the school and should have no direct bearing upon the school, for Hawaiian boys must be taught to work and think in any political event.” These disastrous events for the Native Hawaiian community were continued by the annexing of Hawai‘i to the United States in 1898, and Hawai‘i becoming a United States territory in 1900 led by an appointed governor. Forward to the Dec. 14, 1912, issue of “The Handicraft,” editorial page: “Kamehameha will celebrate its twenty-fifth anniversary this month. During these years hundreds of students have attended its different departments. These men and women have gone to all parts of the Islands carrying with them the ideas and ideals of the Schools. “The splendid instruction of the Girls’ School finds its fruitage in well-kept homes and well trained children. The results of the work done in the Preparatory and Manual Schools are seen in the fine body of good principled men, earning good livings, and using their influence for the betterment of the communities in which they live. “How far Kamehameha’s influence goes, no one can tell, but there are many evidences that it is leaving a deep and abiding impression upon the character and life of the native race, and upon the life of all races in the Territory.”
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Ho‘oilo (Winter) 2012
n Alumni Relations Moves to KAPF n Explorations Series Keeps Students Engaged n Royal Hawaiian Center Gets Its Groove On n Special Section – KS Annual Report FY 2010