The Reason I Came to Maui

I'm sorry I didn't get any pictures of this. Normally, I would have, but I wasn't supposed to be going out into the field today. I was supposed to be in the classroom, but due to a last minute...uh...situation, I ended up going on our Service Learning outing today.

We went to a National Wetland Park. They're clearing it out of all "invasive species", which means any vegetation that is not indigenous to Maui - which is most everything here. White folks brought most of what's here...trees, fruit, etc. It's a freakin rock, what do you expect?

Anyway, this wetland is right on the coast in the western part of the island. We ended up doing some beach clean up. Now when I say beach, it's not the beach you're thinking of. Oh sure, the ocean meets the island there, but instead of sand it's a 30 foot high and wide rock wall. And not mortared, these rocks are just stacked. So it was rough walking around it. But trash from all over the Pacific comes - other islands, China, Japan, cruise ships, etc. When the tide is high, Deborah Harry starts singing and the water (and junk) gets up to the top of that wall.

[Now comes a comment that shows why I had to make this blog private]

Generally, our kids are a bunch of whiners. They're pretty spoiled and don't have a clue how good they have it and how lucky they are to be in this school. They're not necessarily rich kids, but most have no idea what it's like to be educated anywhere but Hawaii. They don't understand that almost no other students get to do things like this - and they whined all the way there and back. It took everything I had not to turn this van around and go home, goddamnit.

But while I was there, walking to the cleanup site and looking around the wetland, it was one of those moments. Not too many teachers get to do stuff like this. It still hasn't sunk in yet, as you'll see by part 2 of this story.

It was our typical Friday - a half-day so we can plan the next week - because we're with the kids from start to finish the other days. We eat lunch with them, no plan periods, etc. So I'm on a computer setting up a research activity for next week (you can check it out here). I'm looking for websites about sea turtles and I come to a site for an organization that arranges trips for students to go to Costa Rica and protect sea turtles.

I literally had the thought: Wouldn't it be cool if we could take our kids to Costa Rica to do this...

I was just about to show this site to my fellow teachers when it hit me...hey, dumbass...you're in Hawaii. You already do this stuff. Your kids were checking out sea turtles last week. You already ARE a part of an organization like this. If I would have showed them this site they would have thought I was hitting my inhaler too hard.

I think part of the reason is that I don't get out of the classroom as much as the other teachers. They're trying to get me out more, but the truth is - and everyone agrees - that our kids are so deficient in reading and writing that I have to stay back more. I know it would be cool to go into the field more, but I'm here for the gig and that's what the kids need. I'm really not that disappointed, because I can go check out these things on my own without having to hear, "Mr. Atias, he's hitting me!"

These kids are driving me to a vasectomy.

So I guess my point is, today was pretty cool...except for the kids.