Beat the Heat

On a typical summer day at Kalani High School, you can expect the students and teachers to be feeling the heat. Almost daily, you can expect to hear the same things: “It’s so hot,” “I’m sweating,” “I wish we had AC.” The heat is also visible- students and teachers alike can be seen sweating and fanning themselves all over campus. Many teachers place fans outside of their doors in an attempt to blow cooler air into their classrooms.

It seems at this point, the heat is all anyone ever really talks about. In classrooms, students fight over who gets the fans. One student, Daniel Huang, changed his shirt three times in one day because of the heat. He said, “I had to change my shirt because the heat was making me smell like [expletive].”

But it isn’t only students that are struggling.The teachers too are finding it more difficult to teach when their students are so distracted and rowdy because of the hotness. Mr. Hill, a math teacher, said, “It [the heat] makes it more difficult for me to teach, because I like to move around the classroom and the heat makes it harder for me to do that.” He also said that it affects his thinking ability. Of Kalani’s lack of air conditioner, he said, “Our students are our future. If we don’t invest properly, we’ll have a low return rate. We could learn how to conserve energy here and save electricity if we had AC.”

However, not all teachers feel the same way. Mr. Robello, an Eenglish teacher said that his teaching is not affected by the heat. “Even if it’s hot, I don’t let my students know how it’s affecting me. I want to remain professional.” Mr. Robello stated. He also doesn’t find not having ACs at Kalani much of a big deal. “Having fans is enough. We live in Hawaii, and people should learn how to accommodate to the heat.”

Regardless of how hot it is, there’s no denying that the students and teachers at Kalani High School are doing whatever it takes to beat the heat. From placing fans outside their classrooms, changing their shirts or simply teaching differently, desperate times call for desperate measures. Combating the heat isn’t easy, but it’s worth the try.