June and I were so honored to be invited to ‘Imiloa for an ‘Ohana Night get-together held Wednesday night for the families of teachers and staff of Keaukaha Elementary School. The folks from the Gemini Observatory put on a program for the small kids.

The whole night came about because of the Adopt-a-Class project and the energy generated by this worthy project. First Peter Giles, director of ‘Imiloa, gave a brief introduction. He talked about the Hawaiian culture’s connection with the heavens.

Back in May or so, I told Peter about our new Adopt-a-Class project and that we wanted to tie it into ‘Imiloa’s Hawaiian culture-oriented approach to science. I asked Peter if he would talk story with Kumu Lehua Veincent, principal of Keaukaha Elementary.

Peter did not expect Lehua to come see him, as some people in his position might have. Instead, he went to see Lehua. It was an acknowledgement that there is nothing more important than teaching the keiki. And at their meeting, Peter seemed to instantly understand that this is a special place—a special school.

I could tell that the experience affected him profoundly. Now he is learning Hawaiian language from Kumu Lehua. Peter is one of those people who “get it.” I have a lot of respect for him.

At ‘Ohana Night, we went into the planetarium so the children could get a sense of how many different cultures looked at the sky and gave names to the star combinations. They got a feel for the moon’s relationship to Earth.

When we returned to the “classroom” we were asked to demonstrate how far away the moon is from the earth, and other puzzling questions.

June and I were pleased to see the “ripple effect” of our Adopt-a-Class program, as these young kids from Keaukaha have experiences and exposure that will only help to open up their universe.

More than anything, we came away feeling how privileged we are to help teachers accomplish their goals by bringing together people who believe, like us, that there is no more noble profession than to teach our children.

Some photos from the ‘Imiloa ‘Ohana Night:

“Okay, your job is to make 50 balls of equal size from this 1 lb. ball of Play-Doh. If you make one ball represent the moon, and then roll up the 49 other balls into one big one, you will see the relative size of the moon to the Earth.”

That’s Kumu Lehua. He says, “Why can’t learning be fun?”

“Okay, we have to do this right! They said the ratio is 49 to 1, not 49 to 1.2!”

“Okay, so what you think?”

Aunty Luana says: “Take the string and make it 30 times the diameter of the Earth, and when you stretch it out, that will be the distance from the Earth to the moon.”

“Again, students: Thirty times the thickness of the Earth is the distance from the moon to the earth. Got that?” They might have gotten that for the rest of their lives.