Learning

Learning is the gardening of the mind. It is a spiritual discipline that includes cultivation of the soil, planting of seed, diligent watering and care, and, not least, pulling weeds out of the garden! A learned mind is a beautiful thing as a thoughtfully planted vineyard edifies the soul even to behold. As study is one of the three characteristics of our Order, so it is joined by humility, for like the clerk in the Canterbury Tales learning implies that "glad would we teach and gladly learn." There is no room for lording one's knowledge over one another, for knowledge is our common possession to be joyfully shared in that spirit. Justice (pono) depends upon this: that knowledge belongs to one and all, and, to do right (pono), we must gladly teach one another (kokua).

Our Hermitage is located on the most remote place on earth (i.e, furthest from any major land mass). Moreover, the average per capita salary in our geographical region is approximately $10,000/year. We have ordered our academy around three curricula, therefore:

Computer Science

A primary virtue of this curriculum is that a programmer potentially can report to work any place in the world and never leave Hawai'i Island. This website, for example, was completely coded by our staff. Web programming — HTML, CSS, MySQL, and JavaScript — enables anyone, with any (or no) educational background to develop their own websites. (We hope to publish our students' work under our own website some day.) Other languages will include awk, C, C++, ksh, lex, nmake, sed, yacc, to name a few.) Our faculty includes a retired Lecturer at MIT and Distinguished Member of Technical Staff at Bell Labs.

Kapa Workshop

If one lives in a remote place where employment is scarce, housing becomes a primary challenge — a lesson we learned in Haiti, where our former ministry built thousands of houses. Kapa Workshop is the "equipment and tools center" at the Hermitage. It is fitted out to be a full-service woodworker's shop, and our compound's construction activities are also centered here. We will use Kapa Workshop as a place to train young people in the trades. At present, we are prepared to teach building, woodworking, electrical power, and photovoltaics. And we are able to train women and men to become operating engineers (John Deere/Kubota configuration). We are also in conversation with local licensed tradesmen to volunteer their time to teach here.

Theology & Spiritual Studies

The curricula we offer teaches people skills to make a living. But we are also committed to mentoring young people to make a life. Our Father Francis saw that the world suffers and is poor. These two facts are undeniable though our culture teaches us to abhor and deny these two universal facts of life. Yet, the Little Poor One embraced these, discovered never-before-known freedoms, and invited others to join him. That millions followed tells us that they too discovered hidden treasure, buried in a field. All of these women and men discovered this freedom through theological and spiritual learning, through discussion and discernment, and through the growth of mind and soul. Our faculty includes a retired professor of Catholic Theology (Christology, Ecclesiology, Catholic Spirituality) holding both the Ph.D. (Johns Hopkins) and M.Div. (Yale), which is the terminal degree in divinity. He was also certified and licensed by a Roman Catholic diocese.