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Name: Island Pacific Academy
Location:
Kapolei, HI, USA
Type of Institution: K-12, Study Tour
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| A Different Kind of School |
 "Good teaching is like theater," said Island Pacific Academy's headmaster Dan White. "It is the teacher's function to move and engage the audience."
This is what White and his new faculty set out to do as they developed the curriculum for this new non-sectarian private college prep
school – the first of its kind in Kapolei.
White noted that his colleagues are experienced teachers -- half of them with independent school experience. Most live in the Leeward area,
and are excited by the opportunity to help shape this new school.
"It was a tremendous opportunity to design something different in tone and feel, and to integrate what is developmentally appropriate for
kids, especially in the middle school," said White, explaining that brain research shows that children in the 6th to 8th grades are second
only to infancy in terms of the pace of change in brain development.
"Middle schoolers are all about identity and wanting to know where they stand in relation to the rest of the world," he said.
 The term "developmentally appropriate" is used regularly by educators who work with young children. Only recently has this concept
infused thinking about middle schools, and rarely does it enter the discussion about high school.
"Even those of us in adulthood are at some stage of development not precisely like our previous stage or the one we will enter next,"
White explained.
In addition to its rigorous academic curriculum, IPA places great value on disciplines like art and music. While they add to the
richness of life, they also help students to develop critical eyes and ears. "Artists are particularly acute at seeing and musicians
at hearing," White said.
Foreign language skills are introduced as early as kindergarten, where students are exposed to Spanish and some Hawaiian. Japanese
will be added later for middle and high school. Technology is also integrated into the learning environment, with each classroom
outfitted with 4 desktop computers, middle school rooms with Smart Boards, and the foreign language room with twenty desktops.
Twenty laptops on a moveable cart are also available to be shared among the classes.
Besides constructing a curriculum that is developmentally appropriate and academically challenging, IPA created a school culture
based on specific core values.
"For us, graduating young people who have a generosity of spirit and understand the power of human kindness is foundational to
our aims for our students," said White. "It was Albert Schweitzer who said that nothing is more powerful than simple human kindness."
 For parents like Scott and Yasui Schumaker, whose son Ian is a second grader at IPA, the school has been a blessing. "We live
in the Villages of Kapolei, so we were excited about having a private school of IPA's caliber in the neighborhood for Ian,"
said Scott Schumaker, who is the publisher for the Honolulu Magazine. "We dreaded the idea of getting up at 5 a.m. for the drive into town."
But even more compelling than geography was the school's vision and its value-based curriculum. "That was the final deciding
factor," said Schumaker. "This is a school that inspires kids to learn, and gives them a solid grounding to develop into
well-rounded, good human beings. We would have driven across the island for this."
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