The United Nations has celebrated World Teachers’ Day on Oct. 5 for the past 40 years. This year it fell on a Saturday, so throughout the week, The Conversation tipped its hat to teachers.
HPR producers reconnected with educators who made a lasting impact on their lives. In case you missed them, here are all the segments from the week celebrating some influential teachers.
Arnold Laanui
We started the week with a nod to Sister James at Damien Memorial School. As an elementary school teacher, she helped former FBI agent and educator Arnold Laanui with his career at the federal agency.
He told HPR's Catherine Cruz that it was something Sister James told his elementary school class that stuck with him: “Keep your noses clean because you never know when the FBI is going to come calling.”
Laanui, a 1986 Damien graduate, returned to his alma mater as the new president in July 2022. But he left after he was asked to step down earlier this year following a scandal that shook the school community to its core.
Stephen Stearns
HPR producer Maddie Bender took the opportunity to reach out to a college professor she credits most with shaping her interest in evolutionary biology.
Stephen Stearns is the Edward P. Bass Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Emeritus at Yale University. He also happens to be born and raised on Hawai’i Island.
He told HPR that when he began teaching in 1975, he wasn’t very good at it. However, he said, “I really got emotionally hooked by teaching during my time in Switzerland.”
Fely Serra
Another teacher The Conversation credited was Fely Serra, a McKinley High School English teacher for over 30 years. She also coached the school's Speech Club and, to this day, is regarded as a pioneer of the Hawaiʻi Speech League.
The Conversation's Lillian Tsang was one of her students in the late 1980s. She got the chance to talk to Serra's son, who has been committed to carrying on his mom’s legacy since she died in 2019.
He told HPR "You know, you're talking about the impact of teachers, and in a way, my mom still teaches me how to be a teacher because I'm always thinking of her. So that's what drives me. And I ask myself almost daily, 'Would my mom approve?'"
Wendy Nickl
Wendy Nickl, a registrar and teacher at Kohala Middle School, is in her 39th year at Hawaiʻi Island public schools.
She started in 1986 as a sixth-grade teacher at Waimea Elementary. The Conversation’s Russell Subiono was just 10 years old when he first walked into her class. The two got the chance to reunite in Kona last month.
"I never thought I wanted to become a teacher. I thought I would go into a literary career, or maybe even a law career because I was an English major. And then when I worked with students, I was like, 'Oh, I kind of like this,'" Nickl told HPR.
These interviews aired on The Conversation in the week leading up to World Teachers' Day on Oct. 5. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on HPR-1. This story was produced by Tori DeJournett.
