Head of School Than Healy Reflects on his Hawaiian High School Experience

by LUCAS KAWAMOTO

“It was probably the institution that changed my life more than anything else. I went to a good college. I went to a good graduate school. But it was Punahou that really gave me the tools that I use in the world,” Head of School Than Healy said.

Healy’s father served as the school principal at the Punahou School in Honolulu, Hawaii. Therefore, Healy attended the college preparatory institution from second to 12th grade. According to Healy, his experience at Punahou shaped his future as both a person and educator.

Healy has undergone a full-circle journey from student to head of school. While grateful for those who have helped him along his path, Healy attributes much of his success to his high school education, especially the ethical side of his experience.

Dating back to 1841, Punahou originally served as a school for the children of missionaries who served throughout the Pacific region; as a result of this, the school upholds many traditions, including religious practices, to honor its culturally rich past.

Healy argues that Punahou balances religion with ethical education.

“[Punahou] wasn’t dogmatically religious,” Healy said. “It was more secular, and so there was good there and it was reflected in the culture. That helped me find my own values.”

Referring to his own academic and athletic aptitude while at Punahou as “middle of the pack,” Healy believes that the more integral part of his time there was his acclimation to the school’s values. “It’s the values that exist there: the grace, the humility.”

During the pandemic, Healy thought about the concept of kuleana, the Hawaiian word for responsibility. He attributes his understanding of this to Punahou’s devotion to value-based learning. “[It means] you are responsible [for] the community because the community will take care of you, so the care needs to go both directions,” he said.

Healy compared the mainland culture of responsibility to Hawaiian culture. “In my observation, American culture often defines “responsibility” in relation to the self,” Healy said. “In Hawaii, probably because the culture was developed on a set of islands where interdependence not only with each other but with the land was vital for survival, the definition of responsibility is much less about the self and much more about mutuality.”

The pandemic and its effects further highlighted his observations. “When the pandemic hit I observed the culture in America responding in ways that defined responsibility to the self: ‘I have a responsibility to keep myself and my family safe’ or ‘I have a responsibility to preserve freedom and choice for myself and my family,’” Healy said. “While I certainly see and empathize with this orientation, the concept of kuleana leads us to a slightly different definition with powerful implications in a crisis: my responsibility is to a larger community not because it is the ‘morally correct’ thing to do but because if individuals work to keep a community healthy, the community will then contribute to the individual’s health.” they’re always looking to what will be. That’s a pretty significant cultural nuance.”

Despite that difference, Healy is determined to build on Punahou’s approach. He wants to ensure that Menlo students emerge from the Upper School with a strong sense of self-identity rather than solely focusing on their life or career goals. “How the heck are you going to know what you’re going to be when the world is changing as quickly as ours?” Healy said. “We can’t put it on kids and say, ‘Hey, you’re 18, tell me where you’re going to be when you grow up.’

It’s an impossible and frustrating question to ask, and is frankly, unfair.” gone on to become the president of the United States.”

In 2010, Obama invited Healy’s father — who served as principal during Obama’s time at Punahou — along with

Healy also contrasts the cultures of both schools, highlighting the differences in tendencies of the larger areas surrounding the schools. “[Punahou] looks to the past to

Healy supports his argument — that students as young adults don’t need to know what their future holds but rather should be focused on their values

— by discussing former president, Barack Obama, who graduated from Punahou in 1979. Healy was a fourth grader when Obama was a senior and remembers watching him play on one of his favorite State Championship basketball teams. “Obama was a student, that at Menlo, we would have looked at and said, ‘This student is struggling,’” Healy said. “[He was] unmotivated, unfocused and ran with the wrong crowd. Underachiever. A benchwarmer on a really good basketball team. He was a very talented player, but he wasn’t very coachable.”

Healy and his daughter to the White House where they spent time together in the Oval Office. “Obama’s telling my daughter, ‘You know, your grandpa did his best to keep me on the straight and narrow, and I made it really hard on him, but it made all the difference in my life,’” Healy said. “It was a pinnacle moment for my dad and a pinnacle moment for me.” The foundational skills and values Obama learned in high school set him up for success in what Healy refers to as “the ultimate leadership position that requires character.”

In the future, Healy believes Menlo could focus more on ethical and moral values, similarly to Punahou. “I want to focus on who you are, your skills and how fluid those skills are. How broadly can you apply them?”

Healy said. “I think we do it well, but we do it more passively. There is an argument to be made that we could do this more explicitly.”

Healy is constantly reflecting on his journey as an educator. “As teachers and as leaders, one of the ways we learn how to teach and lead is through our role models,” he said. “I [have] had some tremendous role models for how to teach and lead in my life — that’s part of my DNA, that’s core to who I am and how I do my job.” inform them about what direction they should go in the future,” Healy said. “In Silicon Valley, that’s not the orientation. People [here] don’t look to what’s been,

“But the truth is that we’re not really defined by who we are at 18, or 17 or 16,” Healy said. “No one on the planet would have guessed that that student would have

He also wants Menlo to continue to teach students from an ethical and moral standpoint. “How do you lead from a place that values differences of every kind, that sees beauty in cultures that are not your own?” Healy said. “That’s what I got from Punahou.”