Mililani And Maui High Schools Recognized For Civic Excellence
The Hawaii School of Democracy initiative aims to encourage efforts to raise civic awareness and student involvement in their communities.
Legislators and school leaders gathered Friday morning to recognize Mililani High School as one of the first-ever Hawaii Schools of Democracy.
The honor celebrates schools’ dedication to cultivating civic awareness and student involvement in their communities through coursework and extracurricular activities, said Rosanna Fukuda, a social studies specialist in the Hawaii Department of Education.
Maui High will be recognized as a Hawaii School of Democracy in its own ceremony on Monday.
While civic education has been in decline in recent decades, the supports efforts to teach students about current events and produce engaged, informed citizens, Fukuda added.
“All teachers are civics teachers,” Fukuda said, praising Mililani High’s interdisciplinary approach to teaching civic engagement across multiple subject areas.
Douglas Muraoka, chair of Mililani High’s social studies department, said the school constantly encourages students to engage in decision-making and critical thinking at both the school and state level.
For example, he said, students annually participate in National History Day and produce their own research projects, and the school also offers clubs such as Model United Nations that challenge students to address problems outside of their immediate communities.
Janet Leilani Ward, the school’s student activities coordinator, said that, by participating in student government at Mililani High, students have also learned how to respond to community feedback on issues like school lunches and uniforms and turn peers’ frustrations into real-life change.
Since the Covid-19 pandemic, Ward added, she believes students have been more eager to create change after feeling “stuck” for so long.
Student body president and senior Jaden Kiese said some of his greatest civics lessons happened outside of the classroom. For example, in his sophomore year, Kiese said he advocated for a bill that aimed to expand access to menstrual products in schools and saw firsthand the process of creating laws.
Civil Beat鈥檚 education reporting is supported by a grant from Chamberlin Family Philanthropy.
