A Visit to Maui's Kihei Charter School

April 28, 2019 • Daniel Tremblay • Festivals and Conventions, Education and Training

Ed. Note: This is the first in a series of periodic Hot Steel features describing Daniel Tremblay's steel guitar training activities. Residents of the East Coast, Daniel and his wife Linda spend a part of their time in Hawai‘i. During his Hawai‘i stays, Daniel spends some of his time being a Hawaiian steel guitar evangalist. You may see him on Waikīkī beach, at steel guitar festivals, and at private functions sharing his knowledge about the Hawaiian steel guitar and providing those who interact with him a personalized hands-on and intimate experience with the lap steel.

For the second year, Linda and I travelled to the Kihei Charter School to demonstrate, educate and inform the students about the history and culture of the Hawaiian Lap Steel Guitar. This year we entertained the students in grades K-6.

There were 185 students which were divided into two sessions. While last year's visit was held in a temporary facility while the school's campus was being constructed, this year's visit was at the brand new school. High school Director Michael Stubbs told me they moved in last October and that the school was built to their specifications.

We found it to be very spacious and well laid out. We met on the 3rd floor that was open air with great views in all directions. Everyone was very gracious and students were very attentive and had many very intelligent and inquisitive questions about the instrument and its history.

They asked me to play certain songs which I did to their clapping and cheers. Some of the questions were what you expect from this age group such as, "How old are you?" to "Are you smart?" being the most humorous.

We were approached by some older students that said that they remember us from last year and that it was very gratifying to us that they remembered. Michael said he looked forward to us returning next year.