Over the years, I have had the ultimate pleasure of getting to know Dr. Alfred L. Castle. Al is a historian, author, and the Executive Director of the Samuel N. and Mary Castle Foundation. The mission of the Foundation is to provide resources that improve the lives of Hawaii’s children and families, especially the quality and quantity of early education. The Samuel N. and Mary Castle Foundation concentrates its efforts on creating greater social equality and opportunity through increasing access to high quality pre-K education, and since its inception has been deeply invested in growing the American progressive education movement in Hawai‘i and beyond.

In a previous blog, I shared about the Hanahau‘oli School Entering Teacher Cooperative. Unlike traditional new teacher orientation programs–which rely on stand-and-deliver presentations of overwhelming amounts of information and rapid fire introductions to key people on campus–the Hanahau’oli ETC is a year-long, structured induction and mentoring program designed to onboard new faculty and staff into the school's progressive education philosophy, multiage teaming approach, and, more broadly, its culture. And just as the cooperative and collaborative Hanahau‘oli School classroom is made up of “entering” and “continuing” students, the ten month ETC experience creates opportunities for entering and continuing faculty and staff to learn from one another.

At the heart of every child is a natural scientist – a curious explorer ready to ask "why" and "how" about the world around them. But as educators, how do we shift from being the source of all answers to being the facilitators of their discovery? Supported by the continued generosity of the Samuel N. and Mary Castle Foundation, the Hanahau‘oli School Professional Development Center (PDC) offers an annual place-based STEM workshop titled Natural Scientists: Children in Charge to help early childhood educators address this very question. At its core, the program champions a progressive pedagogical shift, moving away from rote instruction toward a model where children lead through their own questions and environmental observations. By centering the curriculum on a framework for scientific observation developed by former Hanahau‘oli teachers specifically for young learners in our diverse community, the workshop provides participants with detailed examples of early childhood unit and lesson plans, culturally responsive strategies, and hands-on practice implementing this approach to teaching.