You asked: “What about public vs. private schools in Hawaii?”. Watch this short YouTube for the answer and check out this Q&A playlist for lots of other answers.
Got a question I haven’t already answered? Send me yours in this form and I might answer it on YouTube!
I went to public school through middle school and I am not mentally or emotionally scarred. My husband went to public school through high school. We both went to college, are financially secure, and are able to afford living well in Hawaii. We are not the only ones who went to public school here and are doing well in life. There are good public schools in Hawaii (and bad as well, but that’s true of every state) and not everyone will get beat up because they’re a haole. Children have the most difficulty assimilating in public schools when their families are resistant to adapting to the culture they’ve moved in to. If you want to live in Hawaii successfully, make friends and follow the cultural norms-which include avoiding eye contact as a sign of respect (humility is highly valued in traditional Hawaiian culture) but also includes becoming part of a larger community that considers each other family and values aloha.
Everyone has a different story, and I’m really happy you shared yours.
So why wouldn’t you put them in public schools? We’re trying to determine where to put our daughter when we move there.
It’s better if I share what others have posted on my YouTube channel:
“I was born and raised in Hawaii. I’ve got mixed feelings about it. Growing up being bullied for being Hapa really messed up my mental state, but I guess being picked on, beat up, and treated like garbage from 5 years old until I turned 16 will do that.
I miss a lot about home. But I’m still trying to fix the issues I have as a result of my childhood, and even a lot of my adult life. If you hold eye contact with somebody for more than 2 seconds their egos are hurt and think it is a challenge for a fight.
My advice for people who want to move to Hawaii is this: Be very VERY wealthy, live where the locals are minimal. Or at least where the locals who exist are somewhat well to do. You’ll get less harassment that way. And do not make eye contact with random locals (male or female) that you don’t know.
I can’t really convey through YouTube how it was, people are always shocked when I tell them what it was like.”
Here’s another:
I moved to Wahiwa on Oahu because my dad was in the military. I was 11 years old and so excited to be there at first. We lived there 7 years and they were the worst years of my life! I was bullied constantly, and feared for my life! The only reason being I was a haloe. The principal would keep me in his office at school to keep me safer sometimes! I lived there in the middle sixties to early seventies. I too have had mental issues because of all the abuse I suffered! It would be hard for others to believe how horrible some of the things I went through like kill Haloe Day on the last day of school each year! My parents picked me up from school on that day each year! I was a young girl but the local girls had gangs in school and I had to keep my head down and not look at at these locals or they would start harassing me. It was two years after coming back to the mainland before I could look up at people again.I was psychologically scarred!