Philanthropist and filmmaker visits, praises Hawaii schools

Ted Dintersmith, executive producer of the documentary “Most Likely to Succeed,” says American schools tend to crush the creativity out of kids.

Bold, innovative problem-solvers are what America needs most these days, but students are stuck in an obsolete system obsessed with test scores, drills and memorization, he contends.

“When you look at what’s going on in most schools, it’s about being extremely good at things that a smartphone will always be better at than you,” he said in an interview earlier this month. “Kids need to be good at things that really matter.”

The venture capitalist-turned-educational philanthropist has spent the last two weeks in Hawaii, the last stop on a 50-state odyssey aimed at sparking a new approach to education. He maintains teachers need the freedom to create new ways to inspire kids and engage them in real-world learning — not cram them with facts they’ll soon forget.

Darrel Galera, executive director of the nonprofit Education Institute of Hawaii, is counting on the movie to help make that happen here.

“This film is so powerful that we want everyone in the state of Hawaii to see it,” said Galera, a former public school principal recently tapped by Gov. David Ige to lead his education team. “The film asks about how we can re-imagine public education. It doesn’t say do this, do that.”

The documentary focuses on students at one California school, High Tech High, who work in teams to tackle tough questions — such as why civilizations rise and fall — and publicly present projects illuminating their answers. The school eschews the “siloed subjects” of traditional education, where students spend an hour a day on math, English, history, science, etc. Instead, students incorporate different disciplines with guidance from teachers.

After visiting several innovative campuses in Hawaii this month, Dintersmith came away impressed, saying he could have made the movie here.

“This state doesn’t need to wait for some outside expert to tell us what to do in our schools. It’s right here, it’s being done,” he said. What’s needed, he said, is to spread the approach beyond a few campuses so everyone can benefit.

The film, which debuted last year at the Sundance Film Festival, has an unusual distribution system. Dintersmith, who organized and funded the film, turned down a chance to have it released on Netflix, and it isn’t making the rounds of regular movie theaters.

Instead, schools are encouraged to show it to their local communities in hopes of inspiring a bottom-up push to shift gears in education.

So far, roughly 2,000 schools across the country have screened it. There have been about 40 screenings so far in Hawaii, Galera said, and his institute has the rights to set up more showings at Hawaii schools at no cost.

Dintersmith, who lives in Earlysville, Va., started his national tour in September in Lexington, Ky. After a career in technology and startups, he began focusing on innovation in education, and served as a U.S. delegate to the United Nations focusing on global education in 2012-13.

An ambitious itinerary charted by former teacher Josh Reppun had the education reformer visiting public and private schools including West Hawaii Explorations Academy, Hawaii Preparatory Academy, Waipahu High School, Mid-Pacific Institute and SEEQS, the School for Examining Essential Questions of Sustainability.

“I see these passionate educators fighting for the future of these kids,” Dintersmith said. “I’ve seen some of the very best examples of great learning experiences anywhere — and I’m authoritative at this point, having been to 50 states and more than 200 schools.”

Buffy Cushman-Patz, director of SEEQS, said High Tech High was one of her models in setting up her public middle school in Kaimuki. She described her charter school’s approach as “student-driven, project-based learning with an intentional focus on connecting with the community and world around us.”

A group of students, for example, has been heading across the island to Waialua on weekends to try to help a farming couple rid their kalo patch of invasive species.

“One student project is creating a rustproof crayfish trap, because they are an invasive species and they cause erosion and it makes it difficult for the kalo to grow,” she said. “The students are really interested in it because they are connected to the people, the auntie and uncle, and this is their sustenance.”